Wednesday 26 May 2010

Home education in the soap operas


Once again, a soap opera is planning to feature a plotline involving home education. Eastenders ran a story a few months ago in which Ian Beale was preparing to teach his daughter at home, but the idea soon ran out of steam. Now Bianca is going to home educate her son Liam.

While it is good to see home education entering the public consciousness in this way and becoming a feature of popular television programmes, I could wish that it was handled in a slightly different way. Some readers will remember when Waterloo Road ran a story which involved a mad home educating father a while back. Coronation Street too did this, when one of the characters who worked in a factory tried to teach her brother out of school. The message in the narrative is always the same; what are these people thinking of that they feel capable of tackling a child's education single handed? The latest plotline in Eastenders is an absolute classic of this mentality. Bianca is a feckless single mother with a bunch of kids from different fathers. She is loud mouthed and not particularly bright. The audience will be able to laugh at her presumption in undertaking the role of teacher for her son. We know that the enterprise will fail and that she will eventually realise that she is not up to the job. Leave it to the professionals dear!

I don't think that this is cunning pro-teacher propaganda, but it is never the less very irritating. Obviously, none of these television programmes is going to feature a successful, long term example of home education by a dedicated and resourceful parent who manages to make a go of the thing. It is all being done as a novelty turn, so that we the audience can gasp in amazement at the idea of an ordinary mother or father trying to undertake the role of the school. It is significant also that none of these stories feature ideological home educators who choose to teach their own children. It is always presented as a mad, impractical scheme which is the last resort when faced with bullying or the failure to gain the desired secondary school.

There is no doubt at all that the man in the street is now more aware of home education than was the case a couple of years ago. The soap operas are simply reflecting this new awareness. It is a pity that they cannot consult a few genuine home educators before they embark upon these projects. I am sure that many viewers will have a few laughs at Bianca's hopeless attempts to furnish her son with a decent education, but the end result will simply be to reinforce the idea that this is not a job for anybody other than trained professionals and that for a parent to undertake the role of educator is a recipe for disaster.

19 comments:

  1. Simon says-I don't think that this is cunning pro-teacher propaganda, but it is never the less very irritating. Obviously, none of these television programmes is going to feature a successful, long term example of home education by a dedicated and resourceful parent who manages to make a go of the thing.

    i suspect it is cunning propaganda by the BBC it is no friend of home educators!

    why cant we have a successful story about home education? i think i know why just in case more parents take it up!

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  2. Let us face it, soap operas are drama, and so seek to be dramatic. So all births for example are either emergencies in the wrong time and place or end in tragedy. Education is depicted as equally accident prone with all sorts of staff-pupil immorality, expulsions and crisis. I think the death rate in places like Coronation Street by violence is many times the figure in real life.

    Script writers are always looking for the sort of situation they can exploit - and so all HE is bound to be carried out by unsuitable mad men or women and fail- just like all religious people in soaps always turn out to be immoral hypocrites who are only in it for money.

    So what do you expect?

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  3. Julie says-Script writers are always looking for the sort of situation they can exploit - and so all HE is bound to be carried out by unsuitable mad men or women and fail-

    yes but the script writers are sometimes told what to write by some one higher up in the BBC it is a well know fact that the BBC and its staff do not like home education!

    The BBC staff are well aware that many home educators where unhappy with the last crazy story line in Waterloo road about home education but still thought they done nothing wrong!

    The BBC are also quick to get crazy old Badman on to the TV to explain why home educators need to be taught a lesson! im amazed old Webb was not on BBC news 24 as well going on about home vists and children under floorboards LOL

    The BBC also fully supported the last government?Balls on its views on home education!

    are you going to write in to complain Julie about theis new story line or maybe you agree with it?

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  4. Were I to watch Eastenders then I might feel motivated to complain, but as I shall never stoop as low as to watch it, I certainly shan't be in a postion to be complaining about it.

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  5. Julie said...

    Were I to watch Eastenders then I might feel motivated to complain, but as I shall never stoop as low as to watch it, I certainly shan't be in a postion to be complaining about it.

    so a programme that shows home education in a bad way is nothing to do with you and you dont care what harm it does to home education? do have a TV if you do you pay for the lience fee which funds Eastenders to attack home education!

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  6. Oh oh I know what comes next:

    Peter says,
    Come on crazy old simon and teacher julie report me to hants LA here's therenumber i make it easy for you

    Mrs Anon

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  7. How true, Mrs A (stuck record, sadly)- how are exams going? - dd is on a calculus break!

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  8. Julie said...

    How true, Mrs A (stuck record, sadly)- how are exams going? - dd is on a calculus break!

    But a true record! and happy!LOL

    you can report us if you like Anon you want number? Simon to scared to report us LOL

    you not answered Julie do you have TV if so you are paying towards cost of eastenders and its attack on home education!

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  9. Yes, Peter - I have answered you. No I am not going to complain about Eastenders because

    a)It hasn't happened yet - one can hardly complain about Simon's prophecies (however likely they are to be true in this case!)

    b)Morally I cannot complain about a programme I do not watch, and don't want to.

    c)All this complaining and moaning about trivial issues makes a laughing stock of home educators. After all, look at your case; when I saw the publicity about your son a few years ago, I was broadly sympathetic about someone who I considerd to be a fellow home educator who wanted the best for his son. Now you turn out to be someone who wants the LA to fund private education, which you consider to be superior, and who doesn't seem to have a grasp of reality, let alone simple economics. If you were really concerned about bad publicity reflecting on all home educators, you might want to be a bit quieter yourself.

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  10. Its not sympthy we want but action over the lies and the way peter was treated by HCC and David Kirk! its also so not trival to complain i bet you would if your daughter was picked on by HCC and threats where made to her you not let that go would you Julie?

    why not have some money off the LA after all it is our money Julie they work for us Julie where does that five grand go does it just vanish into thin air

    bad publicity who cares i dont! gone past that many years ago LOL

    and no books or help from Jan Lewes why?

    County Councllor Dr Tony ludlow was also very unhappy about the way Peter was treated and said so he wrong as well is he Julie?

    home educators who are unhappy by the way they been treated by Mellor cawthra HCC/a school ex head Teacher are just got to be quiet and not say anything? is that what you want if you unhappy just sit in corner and be quiet?

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  11. You are of course quite right Julie, about soap operas being purely entertainment. Of course a successful home education undertaken by a reasonable person over several years would not be as amusing for the audience as seeing somebody hopelessly unfitted to the job trying to do it. It is still a little irritating. Actually, you touch upon something even more annoying when you mention the fact that religious characters in television drama are always portrayed in a negative way. As soon as you see anybody open a Bible in anything on television, you know that he will be either a paedophile, lunatic, serial killer or combination of any two of the above. Again, Eastenders provides a classic example of this in the character of Lucas, an evangelical pastor. He has already killed two people and next week he is scheduled to pick up a prostitute and strangle her. As one's pastor is apt to do from time to time.... In crime dramas there is even a special type of doom laden and menacing music which often plays when somebody is shown reading the Bible or praying. You just know that this is going to end badly! Curiously enough, this does not seem to be the case with those who read the Qu'ran or Hindu scriptures. Perhaps there is something about Bible reading which causes people to go off their heads and murder prostitutes and abuse children.

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  12. you should complain Simon to the BBC all complaints are recorded by the BBC why dont you?

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  13. "County Councllor Dr Tony ludlow was also very unhappy about the way Peter was treated"

    This child was deregistered from school in order that he could be taught at home. When this step was taken, it was made clear that the County Council could provide no help or assistance in the project. Peter is now, at least according to his father, in receipt of a second rate education. He has been treated in this way by his parents and nobody else. Try as I might, I cannot see that Hampshire County Council have had any part in his treatment. They did not force the child to leave school, nor did they advise the parents to teach him themselves. They simply allowed the boy to be deregistered; they had no legal right to prevent it.

    If this child is now receiving a second rate education, then the responsibility for this state of affairs rests firmly with those who chose to provide the education; that is to say the parents. Hampshire County Council are not receiving the AWPU for this boy because he is not a registered pupil at a school. They have accordingly no money to give the parents to pay for the education. All of us who undertake to teach our children understand perfectly well that we are assuming complete responsibility for the task. If we do not wish to do so, there exists a network of specially built facilities staffed by trained professionals who will undertake the job on our behalf. These are called schools and they are very popular with most parents.

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  14. "you should complain Simon to the BBC"

    I can hardly complain about something which is not due to be screened until the week after next!

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  15. Your wrong again Simon about Peter but thats because you always agree with LA'S they never tell lies do they Simon? and of course they never tell a lie about Peter would they Simon? thats at the heart of the matter you never answer that and i know for sure you not allow a lie or half truth to be told about you daughter with out complaning would you?

    you always blame the parents dont you Simon?


    HCC did force Peter to leave school as they refused to allow him to have off site chess education and told the ex-head teacher that she could not allow this dispite it saying on the HCC web site that you can this page has now gone but i have a copy you want to see it? the ex head was quite happy untill the council said no! i had agreed this with her and it was on a friday when much less work was done i helped at school when the class teacher asked me to!


    I said a 2nd rate education compared to a top private school such as Eton!

    They have money and could ask for the AWPU nothing stoping them asking and writing to DCSF for this money!

    they find resourses for Julie group?

    just because you belive NO money should be given to home educators does not make you right a number of home educators do want resourses they views cant be heard and are all wrong cos you say so?

    you have a duty to report us if you belive Peter is geting a 2nd rate education why dont you?

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  16. I see you not answered Simon questions hurt to much do they?

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  17. Is this the sort of question you mean;

    "you have a duty to report us if you belive Peter is geting a 2nd rate education why dont you?"

    The problem here is that I know nothing at all about your son's education beyond what you have said yourself. You claim that he is receiving a second rate education and I am prepared to take your word for it. It is hardly for me to take any action about this, though. You are his parents and if you are worried that he is receiving an inadequate education, "second rate" as you describe it, then the onus is upon you to do something about it. I can't really see how I can help.

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  18. you not answered about Hampshire LA telling lies about family? and you got you facts wrong about the case the ex head was more than happy for Peter to have off site chess education it was HCC who said no yet on they web page now gone it says you can i have a copy of this advice

    I said a 2nd rate education compared to Eton!

    you refuse to answer the questions you dont like? including why you appear to always agree with HCC and always blame Parents for everything why?

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  19. The latest episodes of Waterloo Road teaches us that All men/boys who watch porn do it because they hate women and not because they are biologically hardwired to. It also teaches us that a teacher can stop being racist in the space of several hours and that we should only trust the polish if they post their entire family back story and demonstrate polish nationalism.
    This isnt a drama its a carefully crafted piece of bbc propaganda, using simplistic dealings of complicated issues, to sway the audience's political views. As usual thebebb treats us like blithering idiots.

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