I simply had to draw attention to this. As I remarked yesterday, Kelly Green has banned my comments from her blog. Well fair enough, it is after all her blog and she has a perfect right not to want a smart alec like me hanging round there! However children, have a look at this and see if you can see what's wrong with this picture. Both quotes are from Kelly Green in the last twenty four hours. The second reference is to me.
'It’s my blog, and expresses my own personal point of view, and the truth, as close as I can get to it.'
'He was an advisor to Graham Badman and the Department of Children, Schools and Families over the course of the Badman Review,'
What a breathtaking piece of cheek! If that's as close as she can get to the truth then she really needs to try a little harder! And of course the best of it is that she will not even let me correct this. I don't think that I need to say anything more about this dreadful woman.
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'What a breathtaking piece of cheek! If that's as close as she can get to the truth then she really needs to try a little harder! And of course the best of it is that she will not even let me correct this.'
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure why you're getting so worked up. It's no more inaccurate than your statement that autonomous home educators don't teach their children anything at all, and that was in the national press. Never mind, I'm sure one of your many supporters will correct it for you, Simon.
I'm not worked up about it at all Claire! What gave you that impression? I found it amusingly ironic, in view of the persona which this woman projects. Actually, I am pleased in a way, because it confirms a long held theory of mine that the more an individual trumpets forth his or her honesty and truthfulness, the more likely that person is to be sly and deceitful.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure who these many supporters are. The only person who comments here who could fit that description is Julie Barker from Hampshire and even she called me a pain the other day! Don't be shy, identify these people so that I may weep upon their shoulders at this latest insult.
I dare say that you can tell really the difference between criticising a pedagogical technique and making a deliberately false statement about an individual. Or perhaps it was not deliberately false and she simply repeated some idiotic rumour she has heard on the Internet. In that case, she hardly seems the sort of 'international observer' to whose views and opinions our select committees should give credence. We must hope that her book does not contain too many foolish errors of this sort.
He was an advisor to Graham Badman and the Department of Children, Schools and Families over the course of the Badman Review,'
ReplyDeleteyou where an advisor to weird Badman! you and your daughter met with him and from that meeting later comes Badman weird ideas on home education!
'I dare say that you can tell really the difference between criticising a pedagogical technique and making a deliberately false statement about an individual.'
ReplyDeleteOf course, but I can't see much difference between making a deliberately false statement about an individual and making a deliberately false statement about a 'pedagogical technique' which is under threat and subject to many such statements.
'Or perhaps it was not deliberately false and she simply repeated some idiotic rumour she has heard on the Internet.'
I hope you were making the same mistake, although as you still repeat it regularly it's hard to believe.
'In that case, she hardly seems the sort of 'international observer' to whose views and opinions our select committees should give credence.'
The same could be said about you. In fact it is much more applicable to you, because your mistake was about the nature of a particular style of home education, and home education was the subject under discussion by the select committee. Kelly's mistake is merely about a detail of your career.
'We must hope that her book does not contain too many foolish errors of this sort.'
We must hope the same about yours.
'dreadful woman.'
I think I'll leave it there, and spare your sensitive feelings.
Once again, you are being a little ingenuous. You may well have been irritated by my views on autonomous education. I suspect that you would be a sight more irritated if I started telling everybody that you were secretly in the employ by a local authority or the Department for Children. This was not, as you describe it, a mistake. It was a deliberate attempt to smear me and try to get people to believe that I am not simply a home educator but employed by a government agency.
ReplyDelete'This was not, as you describe it, a mistake. It was a deliberate attempt to smear me and try to get people to believe that I am not simply a home educator but employed by a government agency.'
ReplyDeleteDo you have any evidence for this belief?
'I suspect that you would be a sight more irritated if I started telling everybody that you were secretly in the employ by a local authority or the Department for Children.'
I can't deny that I'd be irritated, but not half as irritated as I was by your erroneous statements about autonomous home education, which were presented as fact in the national press.
'Do you have any evidence for this belief?'
ReplyDeleteI think so, yes. Firstly, the context was that somebody had commented about censorship and Kelly Green was stung into replying and justifying her action. Calling me an employee of central government in this way sounded a better reason for barring me than if she had told the truth and said that I was a home educator. Secondly, judging by what she said about my 'tricks', she is evidently quite familiar with me and my reputation. It is true tha somebody tried to start a rumour last year that I was a colleague of Badman's, but this soon died down. If she is that familiar with me, then she will know perfectly well that I am no more than an eccentric home educator and not in the pay of the Department for Children. She also mentioned that I gave evidence to the select committee and so does know that I am just a parent. Finally, although there was a rumour, as I said, that I was a colleague of Badman's from Kent, I have never heard anything at all about the idea that I worked as an advisor for Graham Badman and the Department for Children, Schools and Families. If this were floating around cyberspoace, I am sure that I would have picked up on it. No, this is something which Kelly Green has dreamed up herself. Of course, if it were some story that she had heard, then she would perhaps have said, 'I believe...' or I have heard....'. She states this untruthful thing very definitely as though it were a fact. This too suggests to me that it is an invention of her own.
'She states this untruthful thing very definitely as though it were a fact. This too suggests to me that it is an invention of her own.'
ReplyDeleteAs you stated very definitely and very publicly that AE means that no-one teaches children anything at all?
We have probably taken this one about as far as it is possible to go, Claire. If you are not being deliberately obtuse and can genuinely see no difference between discussing a philosophical idea and inventing untrue stories about an individual, then there is little more to be said.
ReplyDeleteDiscussion is great. Inventing untrue stories about a group of people? No.
ReplyDeleteWhat is meant by expressions such as 'teaching', 'learning', 'unschooling' and so on are certainly open to debate. The question of whether or not I was a government advisor last year is however a matter of fact. Either I was or I was not.
ReplyDeleteAccording to dictionary.com 'to teach' means to impart knowledge or skill, or to instruct. Not much debate about that, I would have thought. Your statement that no-one imparts any knowledge or skill at all to autonomously educated children is patently untrue. I wouldn't have thought there was much debate about what 'learning' means either.
ReplyDelete