The'shyness effect' and home education

Those interested in the paranormal will probably be aware of something called the 'shyness effect'. This is the phenomenon mentioned by some researchers in the field who have noticed that paranormal powers and activity often stop showing themselves if somebody is watching too closely. This is particularly noticeable when the observer is unsympathetic to the idea of the paranormal. In other words, if a sceptic watches spoon bending or demonstrations of ESP very hard, it often stops happening. The very same effect is quite prevalent in home education. Let's look at a couple of examples.

Ann Newstead of Education otherwise has compared autonomous education to a quantum system. She claims that what is going on is so sensitive that the very act of looking at it , measuring it or even asking questions can damage the process. This manifestation of the shyness effect was a key part of the opposition to the Children, Schools and Families Bill. It was felt that if children being educated at home in this way had their education examined or observed very closely, the process would be disrupted and damaged. I suppose that I can just about believe that some children are so sensitive and nervous that an adult asking a few questions would cause massive harm to their education. It is not only children though who can be harmed by asking questions; research data too can be irreparably damaged by somebody asking questions and looking searchingly at it. When I began staring hard at Paula Rothermel's PhD Thesis, upon which so many claims about home education in this country are founded, it soon became apparent that I was causing harm to it. Dr Rothermel responded by pulling the thesis from her website and threatening me with legal action if I ever spoke about it again. An extreme example of the shyness effect; the very act of looking at the research data was having a bad effect upon it!

I have been put in mind of the shyness effect while trying to find out about home educated young people who go on to attend college and university. As long as we don't look too hard at this topic, everything is fine. All home educating parents know that it is possible for their children to get into college by means of an audition or by showing a portfolio of their work. Then it's straight on to university. Why bother about GCSEs? Unfortunately, when you look too closely at this promising situation, it changes into something a good deal less inviting. As soon as we ask questions and examine all the stories critically, they seem to melt away. This is sad, because I for one would like to have avoided all the hassle of IGCSEs if it had been possible for my daughter to study A levels in Mathematics and History at college without them. I cannot help but notice that people get a little tetchy with me when I even ask questions about this, as though I am being a real spoilsport. Alison Sauer reproved me for this yesterday and told us about a university which would be happy to accept a well kept lab book as part of their entrance requirements, because this is actually better evidence of scientific understanding than an A level in Physics or Chemistry. The only thing missing is the name of the university and the name of somebody there who will confirm that they have taken students without any GCSEs or A levels. I hardly like to enquire any more about this, in case the shyness effect begins to operate and the university changes its admission procedures!

I have in the past been told by some home educators that there are doctors and architects, vets and engineers, surveyors and accountants, all of whom have been home educated. We cannot know their names though, because they wish to keep the fact that they were home educated a secret. This really is astonishing, unless it is just another example of the shyness effect. The bottom line is that one must not ask about these matters and simply take it all on trust. It is just one more example of how home education is not accessible to being measured and quantified. It is fine and dandy as long as one takes everything at face value and no questions are asked. Try to track down solid facts though and the least that will happen is that people become irritated. The harder you search, the more the facts seem to recede from your grasp. I first asked on the HE-UK and EO lists two years ago whether anybody is aware of somebody being accepted at a Further Education college to study A level Mathematics or Chemistry without already having GCSEs in the subject. At the same time, I tried to find an example of somebody who had been accepted at a university to study a traditional academic subject without any GCSEs at all. I was told that there are such cases, but that nobody was prepared to give the names of the colleges and universities concerned!

Like all human enterprises, home education is less than perfect. Personally, I would like to improve it by looking at the facts and fallacies and separating them out, so that we may all make informed and sensible decisions about the future of our children. It is pretty plain though that some parents do not wish to do this. They prefer the fantasy to the reality and who am I to discourage them? Any way, nothing seems to dent this amazing optimism about further education and so I shall stop looking to closely at it, lest I spoil the illusion for others!