Monday 26 April 2010

A broad and diverse education of a high quality


What sort of idiots would not want their children to enjoy a broad and diverse education of a high quality? It is, after all, what most ordinary parents seek for their children. What could possibly be wrong with it? Step forward an assortment of such idiots who hang out on the HE-UK list. They are currently foaming at the mouth like a bunch of retired colonels from Tunbridge Wells writing to the Daily Mail. Their anger is directed against, of all unlikely targets, the Green Party!

The Green Party have said in their manifesto that they feel that home educated children are entitled to a high quality education. Few would argue with that statement. They also believe that such an education should be 'broad and diverse'. Again, most sane and well balanced individuals would see this as a good thing. This education should also be 'supported by local authorities'. These modest aspirations have been more than enough to drive a number of home educating parents into a frenzy. Mike Fortune-Wood, whose reputation for calm, clear thought has never been extensive, has spotted their true intentions. He says that this 'broad and diverse education' is none other than the 'broad and balanced education' which the DCSF and local authorities have been trying to push home educators into adopting for years.

The concern is apparently that by pushing this notion of a 'broad and balanced' or 'broad and diverse' education, some people are intending to encourage home educating families to provide an education for their children which includes history, music, science, mathematics and so on. Once again, to most ordinary families this would seem quite unexceptionable and eminently reasonable. For most parents, a knowledge of science and mathematics is seen as a good and desirable thing per se. The more extreme types of autonomous home educator are evidently opposed to the idea not on pragmatic grounds; that it would be bad for their children. Rather, their opposition is rooted in ideology. The idea of having various subjects which it is intended that the child will study is anathema to such people because it does not accord with their fixed belief that children should be free to choose for themselves what they learn about and when they learn it. Deciding beforehand that history or science will be studied would remove that choice from the child.

It is an extraordinary notion, that any parent should follow an ideology specifically designed to cause one to curtail a child's education in this way. Perhaps I might offer the following simile. It is as though traditional education consists of a table set out with a variety of dishes which the child is encouraged to sample. Some will be more to her taste than others. Still, it is important that she tries as many as possible, because otherwise she will not find out which she likes. By contrast, the autonomous approach is predicated more upon education as a locked cupboard. The child may have any of the foods in the cupboard, but she must first guess what they are and then ask for them. She will certainly not be encouraged to try an unfamiliar food, this is opposed on ideological grounds. Under such conditions, it is all but inevitable that the child will grow up with a limited and restricted palate. She might in later life sample some of the foods which were not offered to her in childhood, but the chances are that she will remain a cranky and picky eater. The end result of such a strategy, whether in matters culinary or pedagogic, will be to restrict choice and limit future attainment.

18 comments:

  1. Did you encourage your children to eat meat?

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  2. Well, I am certainly all in favour of "broad and balanced".... but I can foresee difficulties in the assessment of such concepts. This is because - leaving aside the obvious issue that at the moment the LA have no legal way of "getting at" most home educators to assess anything- there must be a huge diffierence between what even committed home educators agree is appropriate.

    I was at a Christian home ed camp last summer and there were definately 2 distinct and (opposing) ideas on what should be taught. On one side there were those who were all in favour of a classical education - lots of literature, including many classics, Latin and sometimes Greek and a rich environment which involved lots of art and music. On the other hand there was a group who would reject CS Lewis and Tolkien because of their use of fantasy in literature and rule out much of classical music due to the ( Catholic) beliefs of the composers. Some would ban all fiction - and then ther is the whole science creation v evolution debate.

    Now this is a group of highly structured HErs - and if they can't agree on what is appropriate, there is much hope once you have thrown AEers in to the mix as well!

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  3. Of course my daughter was offered meat. I could hardly have imposed vegetarianism upon a small child. Until she was three or four, she would eat fish and meat if we went out for a meal. By that time, she was able to realise that others in the family didn't eat animals and expressed her own views.

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  4. Simon, this is nonsense and you know it. You say:
    "By contrast, the autonomous approach is predicated more upon education as a locked cupboard. The child may have any of the foods in the cupboard, but she must first guess what they are and then ask for them."

    My children's education is not a locked cupboard! I think we offer them a pretty good table of experiences and information and they eat well. You and your straw men...

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  5. Yes Julie, I too have known home educators who oppose novels on principle! I have also met parents who are uneasy about their children studying science in case they learn the true age of the earth! I suppose that my own feeling is that my children should have been exposed to as wide a range of knowledge as possible. I believe devoutly in the existence of God, but I would not have wanted my daughter to be kept from learning about atheism, Hinduism or any other 'ism' because it did not agree with my own prejudices. I have known parents who did not allow Philip Pullman's books in the house because of this sort of thinking. I always hoped, incidentally, that my daughter's views would differ from mine. In order to decide what she is interested in though, and what she believes, it has been necessary for her to try out an awful lot of different things. Sometimes children can be conservative and stick with the safe and familiar rather than try new things. This is why I feel it good to expose them to various subjects and get them to experiment with the new.

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  6. "By contrast, the autonomous approach is predicated more upon education as a locked cupboard. The child may have any of the foods in the cupboard, but she must first guess what they are and then ask for them."

    If our children were never allowed out of the house and were kept away from all books, people, friends, museums, shops, TV, the internet, etc., I might agree with you, but as the opposite is the case, you are obviously wrong. How can children avoid learning about different facets of life and the various skills people can learn?

    "She will certainly not be encouraged to try an unfamiliar food, this is opposed on ideological grounds."

    What part of the autonomous education theory states that children should not be encouraged to study unfamiliar subjects? I know little about many of the subjects my children have studied so how do you think they found out about them and were able to study them, some at considerable depth, if your understanding of AE is correct?

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  7. "What sort of idiots would not want their children to enjoy a broad and diverse education of a high quality?"

    The problem is, who decides what is necessary for a broad and diverse education? If it is written into law, someone, somewhere must then define what it is so that officials can check that is being provided. It is written in law that schools must provide a broad and balanced education and the National Curriculum is the result. Why would the result be any different if home educators were also required to provide a broad and balanced education in law?

    I like this para. from the blog article, A Scenario for Change?… when discussing the differences between a child's knowledge gained through AE compared to a school child:

    "As far as having gaps in her knowledge is concerned she may well have gaps when it comes to having to demonstrate knowledge of state prescribed learning outcomes, however the learning outcomes that make up the curriculum are a drop in the ocean compared to what is knowable. What is knowable increases hugely on a daily basis; compared to what is knowable everybody has vast cavernous gaps in his or her knowledge."

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  8. "Of course my daughter was offered meat. I could hardly have imposed vegetarianism upon a small child. Until she was three or four, she would eat fish and meat if we went out for a meal."

    So why don't you eat meat? Can I assume it's just that you don't like the taste because, if it were for moral or health reasons I can't understand why you would not have imposed that on your daughter until she was old enough to understand the issues and choose for herself in much the same way as you you have said you imposed bedtimes, brushing teeth and eating vegetables.

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  9. It's very simple. My wife is a vegetarian. I have no strong feelings either way, but we find it easier to keep the house meat free. You could say that I am vegetarian by default! When my daughter was little, I used to offer her meat sometimes, but she didn't really acquire a taste for it. As I am sure you know, if you are used to quorn, then the texture of real meat can be quite unpleasent; fibrous and hard. She used to like fish products though, as long as there were no bones. When she was old enough to express a point of view, she said that she didn't want to eat animals and from then, when she was about three or four, she has been completely vegetarian.

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  10. So didn't your wife have moral or health reasons for not wanting her daughter to eat meat? We are similar as I'm vegetarian but my partner isn't and we always have meat in the house. Even though two of our children started solids after I became vegetarian we didn't raise them as vegetarians. I've always supposed that was because we were not both vegetarian. Maybe that was the case in your family too if you are not a vegetarian by conviction. One out of three chose to be vegetarian when they were older. I am a bit of a woolly vegetarian in that I have a weak mix of reasons - moral, health and not being able to face the idea of eating animals any longer. Although I never eat meat or fish I'm not particularly bothered if others do! Sorry, rambling now...

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  11. "What sort of idiots would not want their children to enjoy a broad and diverse education of a high quality?"

    *Enjoy* being the operative word. It's not fun if the child doesn't want to do it.

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  12. "*Enjoy* being the operative word. It's not fun if the child doesn't want to do it."

    Good point, anonymous, and too easily ignored despite it's effect on ability to learn as ably demonstrated by schools. A friend's son left school with nothing and was considered a hopeless case by his school when he left at 16 but at 17 has gained degree level Open University qualifications with ease.

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  13. Thank goodness that no 'fool from the Council' as you term them, ever tried to tell me what consituted 'broad and balanced'.

    I'm perfectly capable of deciding that for myself. Because I'm an adult, not a child.

    I suspect that Labour's 'B&B' is code for 'You will impose our Sex Ed/Citizenship/Whatever agenda on your children whether you like it or not.'

    Mrs Anon

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  14. Or it might just be that they are anxious that all children get the opportunity to learn about science, history and mathematics.

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  15. >>>>>>>>>>Or it might just be that they are anxious that all children get the opportunity to learn about science, history and mathematics.<<<<<<<<<<

    ROTFLOL!
    Good one, Simon.

    Mrs Anon

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