I am quite sure that readers of this blog will be pleased and excited to learn that they can now pre-order copies of my new book on home education. It can be obtained here;
http://www.trentham-books.co.uk/acatalog/Elective_Home_Education_in_the_UK.html#a9781858564821
It will of course also be available in all good bookshops, but to avoid disappointment, you are strongly urged to reserve your copy now. Demand is expected to be high, especially from local authorities who wish to find out more about this subject. It is of course really aimed at local authority officers who work with home educated children, but I am sure that parents will also find much of interest in it. Trentham Books, as I dare say teachers such as Mrs Anon and Julie are aware, specialise in academic works on education.
When first I began to write this book, I hoped to include an entire chapter in which autonomous educators expressed their views directly to the local authority officers who would be reading it. I tried to get some of the people who come on this blog interested in this idea, but it was pretty plain that all the autonomously educating parents were bitterly opposed to taking such an opportunity to explain their views and opinions to local authorities. I found quite a few people working for local authorities who would have been happy to exchange ideas in this way, but I didn't think it fair to include them and not the parents.
The result is that I have been forced to explain autonomous education myself and try to show teachers and other professionals in the field of education what it is all about. I hope that I have done justice to the practice. Plans are afoot for another book on the same subject, this time a commercial rather than an academic work. If any autonomously educating parents wish to collaborate in this, I would be very glad to hear from them.
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your not buying it are you Julie? are you going to put in your book Simon that parents do not have to meet anywhere with an LA officer or will you leave that bit out? Some LA officers think you have to! but as we know they is no law that says you have to!
ReplyDeleteIm afraid you'll just have to buy the book to find out, Mr Williams; I'm not going to give any plot-spoilers here. I can only assure you that it is a great, rollicking rollercoaster of a book, which lifts the lid on the secretive world of British home education. Local authority officers charged with the monitoring of home education in this country will never view elective home education in the sme way again!
ReplyDeletein your dreams Webb! must have been quite a blow for you when children's bill on home education?Badman went down the drain and will not become law! did you tell trentham books that this happened or did you forget to mention it? on they website they talk about the law changing but thats not going to happen crazy old Badman lost! home educators 1 Badman?Webb/LA's Ed Balls/DCSF 0 thats the same points you get in a chess match for a win!
ReplyDeletewhy do you call home education secretive? was the education you give your daugher secretive?
I think you will find that the website says that the law is likely to change in the future, which is perfectly true. Every detail of the fight against the Children, Schools and Families Bill is detailed, right up until last week! As I say, if you wish to know what the book contains, I am afraid you will have to buy it.
ReplyDelete"When first I began to write this book, I hoped to include an entire chapter in which autonomous educators expressed their views directly to the local authority officers who would be reading it."
ReplyDeleteYou seem surprised at this response but why do you think autonomous educators would trust you? You have asked about and had autonomous education explained to you endlessly but still ask the same questions and make the same points and misrepresentations. You don't seem to take any information or explanations about AE in or choose not to. You ably demonstrated this on email lists, in your articles and repeatedly in your blog. Why would we expect you to behave differently in a book?
164 pages? A bit short for £18.99. Mind you, might be good for those with a short attention span.
ReplyDeleteSo, this is this what they mean by 'pulped' fiction?
ReplyDeleteBwahahahaha
Remaindered...remaindered....remaindered.....
" Why would we expect you to behave differently in a book? "
ReplyDeleteYou misunderstand me. The idea was that autonomous educators could have simply given their views in one chapter and then local authority officers could have responded with their concerns. It would have been a chance for autonomous educators to speak directly to the local authority officers who will be reading the book.
In the end, I was forced to put the autonomous case myself, and you are right, I am probably not best suited for this role. There is of course nothing to stop some autonomously educating parent from writing such a book.
"You misunderstand me. The idea was that autonomous educators could have simply given their views in one chapter and then local authority officers could have responded with their concerns."
ReplyDeleteYou may have said this but why did you expect people to believe you given your history?
I did not care if people believed me. I was offering the chance and it was declined. As it is, it will be my interpretation of autonomous education which is circulated among the local authorities and not that of the parents themselves. This is their loss and not mine.
ReplyDeleteit will be my interpretation of autonomous education which is circulated among the local authorities and not that of the parents themselves. This is their loss and not mine.
ReplyDeleteand your always right are you? if LA authorities just agree with you that shows what poor staff they are?
"I did not care if people believed me. I was offering the chance and it was declined."
ReplyDeleteIf you really wanted people to respond you should care if people believe you or not because the lack of trust is *why* people declined your offer. If you didn't really want people to respond that would explain why you don't care.
"As it is, it will be my interpretation of autonomous education which is circulated among the local authorities and not that of the parents themselves. This is their loss and not mine."
Not really. Hopefully it's clear that the information in the book is just your opinion of autonomous education. If you were able to claim that autonomous educators had contributed it might appear as though your views were endorsed by other home educators. I'd much rather it be clear that your book is your opinion and yours alone.
I doubt anyone reading this book is likely to think it anything other than my own personal account of a topic. The preface begins;
ReplyDelete"It is never easy and quite frequently impossible to write with complete objectivity and detachment about an activity with which one is heavily involved. Because home education in this country is at least as much a philosophical as it is an educational movement, it has been necessary to delve deeply into the beliefs of others and in the process perhaps reveal somewhat of the author's own opinions and perhaps prejudices."
Pompous and long winded certainly, but unlikely in the extreme to mislead any reader into supposing that it is an objective survey of the subject under discussion!
"As it is, it will be my interpretation of autonomous education which is circulated among the local authorities and not that of the parents themselves. This is their loss and not mine."
ReplyDeleteLuckily, one good thing that has come out of the Badman fiasco is that a great many home educating parents are now working with local authorities to improve their understanding of home education, autonomous or otherwise. So the LA's will not have to rely on your interpretation.
In the style of this blog, is every chapter of your book followed by a string of barely comprehensible and usually unrelated 'anonymous' comments?
ReplyDelete@CiaranG: lol! Hope so; it'll make it a much more entertaining read!
ReplyDelete"It will of course also be available in all good bookshops, but to avoid disappointment, you are strongly urged to reserve your copy now. Demand is expected to be high, especially from local authorities who wish to find out more about this subject"
ReplyDeleteAre you taking the piss?