Writing a book is a thankless task. One spends months researching, writing, revising, preparing the index, listing all the references, proof reading and so on and the whole thing takes ten times longer than you could possibly imagine. Then when it is published, people either don't buy it or those who do, read it and say that it is lousy! It is perhaps inevitable, to say nothing of depressingly predictable, that home educators should seek to turn this natural sequence of events back to front and begin their criticism and condemnation before the book has been published and read. This saves them the trouble of reading the thing I suppose, but when in addition they expect the author to set up and run a correspondence course in academic referencing systems, one somehow feels that the limit has definitely been reached.
Yesterday I had the fascinating experience of observing the convoluted mental processes of some very odd people. A number of them seemed to be aggrieved about a book which they had not yet read and of which they could know absolutely nothing. Nevertheless, the criticism was as serious as that of practically any book of which I have ever heard. The accusation that I am persecuting people by thinking about home education, for instance. One unfortunate person claimed that;
'Anyone that cynically writes a book purely for financial gain which it claims “identifies key areas of conflict between home educators and local authorities and suggests ways that these can be resolved to everyone's satisfaction” and then denies persecution of Home Educators is either demented or delusional.'
This was in response to a post which I made about the mental health of some home educating parents. That anybody could possibly see identifying key areas of conflict between home educators and local authorities as persecution tells us a good deal about this person's own mental state. Another comment said in connection with this, as yet unpublished, book;
' When a Judicial Review of Metropolitan Police Force policy finds against them for discrimination and persecution'
That is two posts in quick succession made by people who feel that either I or the Metropolitan Police are persecuting them. Fairly typical of a certain type of home educating parent, one might say, and pretty ironic in view of the topic of the original post upon which they were commenting!
Others had different concerns. Several people felt that I had written the thing under false pretences, because I was;
'claiming to be part of the HE community (that's your position of authority for writing this book isn't it?)'
This is such mad nonsense that it is hard to know how to respond. The blurb on the cover says it all;
'Simon Webb educated his daughter at home and has a blog on home schooling. He has also worked for many years with children who have special educational needs.'
Hmmm, no mention there of the home educating community. I cannot imagine who is making all this stuff up. If this is the reaction before it even hits the shops, the good Lord alone knows what people will be saying when they actually read the thing!
I think it worth making two points. Firstly, I asked several times on this blog whether anybody would be interested in contributing to a chapter on autonomous education. My original idea was that autonomous educators could have a chapter in which they expressed their views in their own words and that local authorities could have a chapter in which they stated their opinions. This could be followed with a chapter in which the two parties tried to find common ground. Nobody was the slightest bit interested in this and I gained the distinct impression that the parents both here and on the main Internet lists did not want to have their views publicised in this way. That is fine, but I can hardly be blamed when I am then compelled to put the case for autonomous education myself. Since this book is really aimed at education professionals rather than the lay reader, it means that I have had to explain autonomous education to teachers, local authority officers and so on in my own words. I would have preferred autonomous educators to put the case themselves. It is no good complaining at this late stage about the book; I tried to get others involved, but nobody wanted anything to do with it.
The second point is this. There is absolutely nothing to stop anybody from writing a book about home education themselves and finding a publisher for it. I cannot see why so many people are fretting now about how I have referenced the thing and what my views are. If people want to write a book about autonomous education, there is nothing to stop them doing so. It is true, as somebody pointed out yesterday, that Jan Fortune-Wood has written books on this subject, but these are a little outdated and peculiar. I feel sure that there is scope for something about the modern home educating scene written from an autonomous viewpoint and published by a proper publisher; something which major bookshops will stock. I am not really the man to do this. I have written a book from the standpoint of a highly structured home educator. This was only to be expected. I honestly cannot see why this would irritate anybody. There are currently books about autonomous home education and I have never felt persecuted by them! I feel that the field is open for a new book on this and perhaps instead of bitching about the fact that I have actually bothered to write a book, some of those commenting yesterday could write one of their own?
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'Google wrote... 'Defensiveness is a way of avoiding taking responsibility
ReplyDeleteby denying responsibility, making excuses, attributing negative thoughts
to another, countering a another's complaints with one's own complaints,
and repeating oneself.''
Ah, those home educators! I only have to read the title of this post to know it will be another demonstration of how insane, inferior and inept they all are. It's a wonder you'd want to associate with them at all.
ReplyDelete"It is perhaps inevitable, to say nothing of depressingly predictable, that home educators should seek to turn this natural sequence of events back to front and begin their criticism and condemnation before the book has been published and read."
ReplyDeleteUnless you've written the opposite to what you've written here and elsewhere they are likely to be right.
"Hmmm, no mention there of the home educating community. I cannot imagine who is making all this stuff up. If this is the reaction before it even hits the shops, the good Lord alone knows what people will be saying when they actually read the thing!"
But how can you claim to have knowledge of why people choose to HE and the type of conflicts they have with LAs unless you know the HE community, either by being part of it or by studying it? How do you claim to have achieved this knowledge?
"Since this book is really aimed at education professionals rather than the lay reader, it means that I have had to explain autonomous education to teachers, local authority officers and so on in my own words. I would have preferred autonomous educators to put the case themselves."
So as you couldn't do the research because of your antagonistic relationship with part of the HE community, you made it up? Do you make it clear in your book that this is your interpretation and that autonomous educators disagree with it strongly? This disagreement is something you must be aware of so you would be lying by omission if you haven't included information. If LAs read the book in the mistaken belief that your views of AE are an accurate reflection of the views of the HE community (an easy mistake on their part as they will see you as part of that community), your book is likely to cause more conflicts than it resolves.
"It is true, as somebody pointed out yesterday, that Jan Fortune-Wood has written books on this subject, but these are a little outdated and peculiar."
It was also pointed out that there are others. Do you know them? Or did your extensive research of the subject miss them somehow?
Every one dont buy Webb book! check out our website its much better than this one!
ReplyDelete"I cannot see why so many people are fretting now about how I have referenced the thing and what my views are."
ReplyDeleteMaybe because you have aimed it at LA staff and are likely to have misrepresented the facts, mainly because you don't know them as a result of poor or non-existent experience or research?
Simon wrote,
ReplyDelete"I have written a book from the standpoint of a highly structured home educator."
Yet the publisher's blurb claims your book is an overview of HE in the UK and specifically mentions the views of autonomous educators. It claims to provide a comprehensive account yet now you say it's biased towards highly structured home education. It claims to be a factual account yet many of the 'facts' are actually your opinion since you lack the necessary experience and/or research for them to be facts. I know publishers blurb tends towards exaggeration, but this is a bit extreme.
Aren't academic writers supposed to attempt to be unbiased? I hope you have included the information that it's written from the standpoint of a highly structured home educator in your book somewhere so that readers can be aware of possible bias when forming opinions based on the information in the book. The blurb claims the book will help LAs understand HE and reduce conflict but, if your biases and lack of knowledge of some aspects of HE are not made clear, it's likely to mislead and cause conflict rather than resolve it. Or maybe you would like LAs to have more conflict with autonomous educators?
I think that I went in considerable detail into the question of academic rigour and the possibility of bias yesterday. Every book is written from a particular point of view. Writing from one perspective does not mean that one necessarily shows bias, particularly if the reader has been warned beforehand of the opinions of the author.
ReplyDeleteSimon wrote,
ReplyDelete"Writing from one perspective does not mean that one necessarily shows bias, particularly if the reader has been warned beforehand of the opinions of the author."
A warning does not remove bias, it just makes the reader aware of it so that they can take it into account whilst reading.
However, this is why I asked if you have made it clear in your book that you wrote from the perspective of a highly structured home educator who has had little contact with a representative group/community of home educators and especially autonomous and less structured home educators (despite the blurb claiming the book covers these areas).
Do you warn your readers beforehand (in the forward?), especially those who have not read your blog or articles, of your opinions?
Or will they just have the publisher's misleading blurb to go on?
I'm afraid I'm a little bit lost now! The publisher says;
ReplyDelete'From the safeguarding concerns which prompted the Badman Report on elective home education, to the desire of autonomously educating parents to be left completely alone, the book provides a comprehensive account of this increasingly controversial topic.'
What is misleading about this? Are you saying that safeguarding concerns did not prompt the Badman report? Or is your contention that autonomous educators do not wish to be left completely alone?
Simon wrote,
ReplyDelete"What is misleading about this?"
Publisher's blurb in italics:
Thousands of children are educated at home by their parents. This book is an overview of elective home education in the United Kingdom.
How can you write an accurate overview of a community that you have not been part of and have not systematically studied?
It examines the history of the practice and reveals why more and more parents are choosing not to send their children to school.
How do you know why HE parents choose not to sent their children to school with any degree of accuracy when you have not been in contact with a representative or large sample of HE parents? Very little research have covered this, much is out of date with small samples. Anecdotal evidence taken from a few email lists doesn't cut it in an academic work.
From the safeguarding concerns which prompted the Badman Report on elective home education to the desire of autonomously educating parents to be left completely alone,
A desire to be left completely alone is not universal amongst autonomously educating parents and is certainly not restricted to them so why link this desire with a minority section of the larger group?
this book provides a comprehensive and factual account of this increasingly controversial topic.
How can you write a comprehensive and factual account about a community you have not been part of to any significant degree (membership of organisations doesn't count - all you have to do if fill in a application form and send it off with a fee) and have not systematically studied?
continued...
...continued
ReplyDeleteWith the law on home education about to change so that local authorities will for the first time be legally obliged to register and supervise home educating families,
You would think the publisher would at least correct their own web site, if not others.
there is an urgent need for a plain and objective survey of the current state of play.
The implication being that your book answers this need? It is highly unlikely to be objective (given your admitted biases) and reading a few email lists for a few years certainly cannot be called a survey. If it is just a suggestion that this is needed it begs the question - how have you written this book which claims to provide a comprehensive overview when such a survey has not been conducted?
The author identifies key areas of conflict between home educators and local authorities
How can you identify key areas of conflict between home educators and local authorities when you have only had contact with a small, very unrepresentative sample of home educators?
and suggests ways that these can be resolved to everyone's satisfaction.
How can you resolve issues to home educators satisfaction when you know so little about what would satisfy them?
About the Author
Simon Webb educated his daughter at home and has a blog on home schooling. He has also worked for many years with children who have special educational needs.
If this is all you have to offer, how can the forgoing claims for your book be anything other than your opinion based on limited anecdotal evidence - hardly academic material.
Simon wrote,
ReplyDelete"What is misleading about this?"
Publisher's blurb in italics:
Thousands of children are educated at home by their parents. This book is an overview of elective home education in the United Kingdom.
How can you write an accurate overview of a community that you have not been part of and have not systematically studied?
It examines the history of the practice and reveals why more and more parents are choosing not to send their children to school.
How do you know why HE parents choose not to sent their children to school with any degree of accuracy when you have not been in contact with a representative or large sample of HE parents? Very little research have covered this, much is out of date with small samples. Anecdotal evidence taken from a few email lists doesn't cut it in an academic work.
From the safeguarding concerns which prompted the Badman Report on elective home education to the desire of autonomously educating parents to be left completely alone,
A desire to be left completely alone is not universal amongst autonomously educating parents and is certainly not restricted to them so why link this desire with a minority section of the larger group?
this book provides a comprehensive and factual account of this increasingly controversial topic.
How can you write a comprehensive and factual account about a community you have not been part of to any significant degree (membership of organisations doesn't count - all you have to do if fill in a application form and send it off with a fee) and have not systematically studied?
You have agreed that you are biased and that readers should be warned beforehand of such bias. Have you warned your readers in your book? Have you explained that you are unusual within the home educating community in being a highly structured home educator, that you strongly dislike autonomous education and that you have had relatively limited contacts with other home educators from which to draw your conclusions?
Sorry, that last post ended up joined to another:
ReplyDeleteYou have agreed that you are biased and that readers should be warned beforehand of such bias. Have you warned your readers in your book? Have you explained that you are unusual within the home educating community in being a highly structured home educator, that you strongly dislike autonomous education and that you have had relatively limited contacts with other home educators from which to draw your conclusions?
There are so many flaws in the long argument above that i really do not have the time to tackle them all. I can only suggest that this writer familiarises himself with the concept of an 'academic book'. The idea that an atheist would be unable to write a history of Christianity without attacking the church is simply mad. So too is the notion that only an alcoholic could write about alcoholism. We had best wait for the publication of this book in order to judge its merits.
ReplyDelete"The idea that an atheist would be unable to write a history of Christianity without attacking the church is simply mad."
ReplyDeleteI have not suggested that you could never write such a book, just that you haven't done the research that would enable you to do so at the moment. The impression gained from what you've written is the equivalent of the atheist writing a history of Christianity without reading the bible or any original source materials. They've just discussed it in the pub with a group of like minded people and gone off to write the book.
As I said, you should familiarise yourself with how academic books are written. When a statement is made, then the grounds for making it must be referenced. It would be no good my saying, 'The reasons for parents choosing to home educate are X, Y and Z (Conversations with parents at a home educating group, 2007). What is needed is a proper source, a peer reviewed journal for example. The number of parents whom I have met personally has nothing to do with the case. I would look a bit of a chump if I started referencing like this;
ReplyDelete'According to some, parents de-register their children for a variety of reasons (bloke in pub, 2004). There is evidence (woman I spoke to at bus stop, 1997) that a number do so because of dissatisfaction with the provision for special edcautional needs. Others do so because they wish to abuse their children (man in next street, 2003).
This would be the kind of thing which I would be forced to write if I relied upon those to whom I have spoken in person. This might make an interesting book, but it would not be an academic work. So using Paula Rothermel or Alan Thomas as a source is fine. Citing random home educators to whom I might have spoken is not.
As I said elsewhere, not enough research (taking into account unrepresentative samples, small samples and self selection issues) has been carried out to enable you to produce the book described by the publisher. That's why I asked what research you had carried out yourself to fill in the many gaps.
ReplyDeleteSimon wrote,
ReplyDelete"This would be the kind of thing which I would be forced to write if I relied upon those to whom I have spoken in person. This might make an interesting book, but it would not be an academic work. So using Paula Rothermel or Alan Thomas as a source is fine. Citing random home educators to whom I might have spoken is not. "
So you are claiming to have written a book that provides a comprehensive and factual account of home education in the UK and have supported all of your statements by referencing research? How does the square with you previous comments about the lack of research on home education in the UK?
Simon also wrote,
"There are three problems with research in this country on autonomous home education. These are that the research is confusing and contradictory, that it involves ridiculously small numbers and that those conducting the research are usually very biased in favour of home education. "
"Very little research has been conducted on home education in this country. There is a good deal of research relating to home education in the USA, but much of this is largely irrelevant as far as home education in the United Kingdom is concerned."
"It would be nice to see some large scale research by objective or even sceptical workers looking at home education in general and autonomous home education in particular. It could well show, as many parents claim, that this is a brilliant scheme. However, until this happens, the rest of us will have to suspend judgement."
"The problem with gathering the data on even such a simple thing as the number of GCSEs is as follows. To begin with of course, nobody has any real idea how many children are being home educated in this country. The York Consulting study carried out in 2006 concluded that it was impossible to find out, so the first job of the new study is to see if anything has changed, whether it will now be possible to count the number of home educated children accurately."
How comprehensive and factual could a book be if it is based on the research (or lack of it) summarised by yourself?
Yes, I certainly make forcefully the case for new research in the book. I think that we will just have to wait for it to come out now. As I have said already, I did try to involve as many parents in this as possible. Many did not wish to contribute anything, an experience common enough in research in this field!
ReplyDelete"Yes, I certainly make forcefully the case for new research in the book."
ReplyDeleteSo you've managed to write an academic, fully referenced book that is a comprehensive and factual summary of home education in the UK whilst also stating in the same book that there is not enough research and more needs to be done? Can't you see a contradiction there?
"As I have said already, I did try to involve as many parents in this as possible."
What! Anecdotal evidence in an academic work? Thought you said that references like (written evidence from a few home educating parents, 2010) wouldn't be good enough? Make up your mind!
On a more serious note, this was why I asked what research you had done to fill in the gaps left by the dearth of existing research that would enable your publisher to make the claims they have made for the book. I knew you had asked for and not received contributions from home educators and, from what you've said, you have not been involved in HE groups to any extent, which leaves email lists - and email lists are hardly representative of HE in the UK.
So to sum up, from what you've said, your publisher's claims for your book are at best hugely exaggerated and misleading.
"There are so many flaws in the long argument above that i really do not have the time to tackle them all."
ReplyDeleteIt's not difficult. It boils down to one question. How have you created a book that provides a comprehensive and factual overview of home education in the UK (including information about key areas of conflict between HE'ers and LAs) when you do not have this information yourself?
' How have you created a book that provides a comprehensive and factual overview of home education in the UK (including information about key areas of conflict between HE'ers and LAs) when you do not have this information yourself?'
ReplyDeleteFairly good point actually! We know almost nothing at all about the Etruscan language, other than the cardinal numbers and a few Proper Nouns. It would nevertheless be quite possible to write a book on this subject which examined the lack of solid evidence and drew attention to the lack of research. In other words, one could write a 'comprehensive and factual overview' of the subject, despite the fact that little is known. As I say, go and find out a little about academic books, referencing and research, then we can have a more fruitful debate.
I am honestly puzzled as to why, feeling as you do strongly about this, you do not simply write a book yourself?
How do you know I haven't?
ReplyDelete"In other words, one could write a 'comprehensive and factual overview' of the subject, despite the fact that little is known."
ReplyDeleteShame any buyers of your book are unlikely to realise how little useful information you book contains until they have forked out the cash for something that promises to help them resolve their problems with home educators. Mind you, that's not your problem is it? You will have their cash by then.
'Shame any buyers of your book are unlikely to realise how little useful information you book contains until they have forked out the cash for something that promises to help them resolve their problems with home educators.'
ReplyDeleteI was of course using the Etruscan example as an hypothetical case. It is to be hoped that my own book conatins considerably more information!
Simon wrote,
ReplyDelete"It is to be hoped that my own book conatins considerably more information!"
Q. Which you have gained from...?
A. Research (about which you say, "very little research has been conducted on home education in this country", and "the research is confusing and contradictory, that it involves ridiculously small numbers and that those conducting the research are usually very biased in favour of home education")
My experience as a home educator (I know why I chose to HE and what problems I had with my LA, and I have some anecdotal evidence from a few people on email lists, isn't that good enough?).
You're obviously not going to admit that you've based your book on such limited factual inputs because it is supposed to be an 'academic book' (might be bad for sales), so I'll leave you alone now. But I think you've probably worked out that I'm not convinced that your book is evidence based!
'But I think you've probably worked out that I'm not convinced that your book is evidence based!'
ReplyDeleteThen you are probably best advised not to shell out £18.99 for it!