A couple of people have pointed out lately that just because one or two people on Internet lists relating to home education are fretting about some topic or other, does not mean to say that this is representative of home educating parents in general. This is of course absolutely true. The main lists might typically have a few hundred people on them and only forty or fifty who regularly take part in debates there. If we assume that there are eighty thousand parents of home educated children in this country, these forty or fifty individuals, many of whom are not technically home educators anyway, are not indicative of the feelings and concerns of ordinary parents. I have myself made this point strongly in the past, including to the Children, Schools and Families select committee.
The problem is that those handful of people on the Internet lists tend to be pretty powerful in shaping opinion among home educators, even the opinions of those who do not hang out on the Internet overmuch. They are a major source of rumour and misinformation. It only takes one person to visit the HE-UK list, for example, and pick up a story about local authorities demanding to weigh and measure home educated children, and before you know it she has told people in the home educating group which she goes to with her child. From there, these fantasies take on a life of their own. So even people who do not even own a computer can get to hear that there is a sinister plan by local authorities to weigh and measure their children in order to check whether they are being starved to death.
To ignore the influence of the home education Internet lists would be a great mistake. It is true, as I have remarked, that they contain a fairly high percentage of cranks and nutcases, far higher than in the home educating community generally, but the nonsense which they come up with there filters through to the wider community. Some of those on these lists make it their life's work to spread the stories dreamed up their fellow conspiracy theorists into the outside world. Every time an article on home education appears, whether in a national or local newspaper, members of those lists will fill the comments section of any online editions with the latest rumour from the lists to which they belong. This means that people outside the home educating community also become affected by the foolishness which is frequently on display in places like the EO and HE-UK lists. The delusions of what somebody here called, 'four or five people on the Internet' thus end up becoming a background to any debate on home education.
'The delusions of what somebody here called, 'four or five people on the Internet' thus end up becoming a background to any debate on home education.'
ReplyDeleteWhich is a great argument for maintaining this blog as being a real alternative to 'the lists' for the exploration of unpopular facts and de-bunking of myths. But it needs to be a blog of the highest standard of integrity to be useful as an alternative, don't you think?
Mrs Anon
I think that people have a right to know who is supposedly representing them and their views to MPs. It is reasonably certain that Alison Sauer is one such. Several people thought that Fiona Nicholson from Education otherwise would be natural candidate for another person to be closely involved with Graham Stuart. I have deduced that she is not and given my reasons elsewhere. If only those who are connected with this project of the new guidelines for local authorities would simply announce their names and identities, then the rumours would stop at once. I do not in general care for hole and corner affairs of this sort and feel that the more light shone upon the matter, the better. I am afraid that this might result in the passing on of rumour, but if the rumnour is incorrect then all that is needed is for somebody to correct it. We are seeing the emergence currently of three or four people who are claiming to be acting as conduits to the Department for Education of the views of home educating parents. I think that we need to know who these people are and how they became able to speak on behalf of others in this way.
ReplyDelete"The problem is that those handful of people on the Internet lists tend to be pretty powerful in shaping opinion among home educators, even the opinions of those who do not hang out on the Internet overmuch. They are a major source of rumour and misinformation."
ReplyDeleteHas been your experience with your local group Simon? It hasn't at mine. They know little about what gets said on internet lists and care less. This has been true of three different groups over the last 10 years. About the only issue that percolated down was Badman, and that was because they felt so strongly about the issue themselves. What have other people experienced with local groups?