Essex has quite a few distinct types of home educating parents. It is true that there are a few home educating groups of the sort that one finds in other parts of the country. The people at these groups often are concerned about things like the Badman Review and the idea of compulsory registration. This is not the whole picture though. There is a pretty large number of religiously motivated home educators in the county. Near Harwich are quite a few Jehovah's Witnesses who educate their own children. Closer to me is a Christian community a bit like the Amish or a Hutterite Colony in the USA. They are an agricultural community, pretty separate from the rest of society and they teach their own children. There is also a large number of Gypsy/Roma/Travellers and a lot of showmen and their families. Basildon has a number of disaffected fourteen and fifteen years olds who have been de-registered fairly recently. These different sections of the home education scene in Essex have very different aims and objectives to those who meet to arrange activities for their children and gossip about the experience of being a home educating parent. You won't often see Travellers, Witnesses and so on at home education group meetings like this at the local library.
The Hutterite community are happy to allow Essex to visit once a year. they put on plays and musical performances for the advisor. The idea that anybody would expect them to prevent access to Rumer Lacey, the EHE advisor, would strike them as absurd. Similarly, the Witnesses at Harwich. As long as Essex County Council are not going to require them to swear an oath, take part in a war or stop worshipping Jehovah, they are quite happy to talk. The Travellers do not care overmuch about the precise legal situation anyway. If they want to allow somebody from the council to visit, they will. if they don't , then they won't. The parents of the disaffected youths in Basildon will cooperate because they are afraid of getting into trouble otherwise.
What seems to have happened over the years is that those who are connected with large organisations like Education Otherwise, along with the parents who run regular groups for home educating parents, seem to have fallen into the error of supposing that they are home education in this country. I have had at least one home educating activist from Essex commenting here and suggesting that I cannot be a normal or typical home educator because she has not heard of my attending any home education groups in the county. The problem is though, that that type of home educator, the sort who joins groups of other home educators and attends meetings of other home educators, represents only one strand of home education and not even the largest or most important strand at that. Certainly the strand with the greatest readiness to ring the papers or contact MPs, but this does not make then any more typical of home education than the Witnesses at Harwich.
Tomorrow, I shall be looking at the relations which some of these home educating parents have with the local authority. For now, I want to point out that home education in this country is a composed of a huge number of individuals, some of whom belong to distinct categories. The category from whom we hear most are those who meet in local libraries, organise trips to the zoo for their children and lobby MPs about the iniquities of Schedule 1 of the Children, Schools and Families Bill. This is without doubt the most vociferous category of home educators, but of course having the loudest voice or being most ready to write to the newspapers does not necessarily make you the most important person around. How many Travellers or Witnesses belong to such groups? Do they have many parents of off-rolled teenagers? When protests are organised and the press take photographs, it is very noticeable that the people present are often all white. In other words, one wonders to what extent such groups are really representative themselves of most home educating parents.
A small minority of home educating parents are members of national organisations or even belong to local home education groups. It is easy though, if you are involved with such things, to start thinking that you are part of the mainstream and important bit of home education and that everybody else is somehow on the fringes. I have noticed this attitude very clearly with some of the people who comment here. It is a mistaken view and one which can, unless checked, lead one to behave in an arrogant and overbearing fashion. It might be time to step back a little and look at the broader picture of home education, in which Education Otherwise and those running various Internet lists might not be the most important players at all.
It's a choice thing, Simon. If the rules state that you have to do all these things then everyone is stuck with them. If it's voluntary then those who want to do them can, the rest can opt out. The rules as they were proposed were considered by many as a danger to choice, which is why there was all the fuss and bother.
ReplyDeleteMmmm, interesting. JW's have always belonged to the groups I've been in. One group even had a Traveller family. They aren't quite as unknown to the HE community in other areas as they might be in Essex. Although, I imagine most might be quite content with their own ommunity groups.
ReplyDeleteMrs Anon
;-) Such a fan...
'community groups'
ReplyDeleteMrs Anon
"I cannot be a normal or typical home educator because she has not heard of my attending any home education groups in the county. "
ReplyDeleteThat's not how I remember the conversation. I recall her asking how many home educators you had met such that you had enough knowledge to write a book about why people HE in the UK and the problems they encounter in their relationships with the LA. The poor level of research to date prevented this being your source of information so they wanted to know how you knew this if you had not either met or corresponded with a wide cross section of home educators. Your lack of appearance at local groups was one indication that you have not met many HE parents but they didn't suggest this did made you abnormal or atypical. They wanted to know, if you haven't attended those groups, how you knew why they chose to HE and what problems they have with their LA, either those that attended groups or otherwise. They wanted to know what other home educators you had met. You mentioned 6 or 7 families who follow a similar approach to you and are largely not members of groups or EO. Not enough contact to provide the information your publisher claims is in your book.
"The problem is though, that that type of home educator, the sort who joins groups of other home educators and attends meetings of other home educators, represents only one strand of home education and not even the largest or most important strand at that."
Evidence for numbers?
Hopefully the government made every attempt to reach these parents so that they could take part in the consultation and their views heard. From what you say, the majority are known to their LA as you seem to believe they expect LA contact (except, possibly, travellers). Can you think of any reason why they might not have been given the opportunity to give their views, even if some home educators are unaware of them?
'You mentioned 6 or 7 families who follow a similar approach to you and are largely not members of groups or EO. Not enough contact to provide the information your publisher claims is in your book.'
ReplyDeleteThis is not really true. I certainly mentioned that I knew six or seven home edcuating families who lived near to me in Loughton and Epping, but did not claim that they followed a similar approach to me. They do not. Nor did I say that these were the only home educators whom I know. Again, because this would not have been true.
'Evidence for numbers?'
Good question. Both York Consulting and other recent research suggests that around twenty thousand home educated children are known to local authorities. This would give a bare minimum of perhaps thirty five thousand parents of home educated children. Most people, including the national organisations and many local authorities, assume that there are at least as many home educated children unknown to the local authority as are known. If true, this would give us a figure for around seventy or eighty thousand parents of home educated children in this country. The Badman Review Action Group is a typical and well known national Internet group. It has around seven hundred members, although not all are home educating parents. Many lists have fewer members than this. Adding together the membership of groups like Education Otherwise, HEAS and other large organisations tells us that fewer than 5% of home educating parents are involved. One can make similar rough calculations for the number of parents attending groups, once one looks at the LAs figure for home educated children and double it.
Tell me, do you have any reason to suppose that more than five or ten per cent of home educating parents are members of organisations like Education Otherwise or attend local groups?
'Mrs Anon
ReplyDelete;-) Such a fan...'
I think that the correct expression is my 'big fan'!
'I think that the correct expression is my 'big fan'!'
ReplyDeleteI resemble that remark.
Actually, I think I was referred to as your 'biggest fan'. Which is surely unfair to Peter Williams.
Mrs Anon
"Tell me, do you have any reason to suppose that more than five or ten per cent of home educating parents are members of organisations like Education Otherwise or attend local groups? "
ReplyDeleteHow can you possibly estimate the number of home educators attending local groups? Do you know how many local groups there are? What is the average attendance rate, and what proportion of those that attend that group attend any one event/meeting? You would need to know this in order to have any idea of the numbers involved.
"This is not really true. I certainly mentioned that I knew six or seven home edcuating families who lived near to me in Loughton and Epping, but did not claim that they followed a similar approach to me. They do not. Nor did I say that these were the only home educators whom I know. Again, because this would not have been true."
ReplyDeleteSo it was just a case that you not bothering to defend your qualifications for writing a book about HE? How many HE families have you known well enough to understand why they chose to HE and the types of problems they have with their LA? It must be quite a large number (not that many have problems in my experience) and you must know them reasonably well in order to gain a clear enough insight into their LA problems to enable you to offer solutions to those problems in your book. If you want people to buy your book, surely you can see that they need to know the quality of evidence involved? Not many will be interested in an 'academic' work based on the opinions of a home educators who knows a few other home educators slightly.
Of course the figures obtained in this way are very rough. For example in Essex, we have around seven hundred home educated pupils known to the local authority. We can, as a rule of thumb, double this, giving us about fourteen hundred. Excluding groups which meet in the Unitary authority of Southend/Thurrock, we can look at the home education groups running in the rest of the county. These do not make any secret of the locations where they meet and so we can judge the upper limit for the numbers attending. It is not an exact way of doing things, but it would be very hard to see how more than 10% of the home educating parents in the county could be attending groups. It is also easy enough from looking at the directories which HEAS and EO send to members, how many in Essex belong to these organisations.
ReplyDelete'If you want people to buy your book, surely you can see that they need to know the quality of evidence involved? Not many will be interested in an 'academic' work based on the opinions of a home educators who knows a few other home educators slightly.'
ReplyDeleteThe book is not based even slightly upon my own experiences or personal knowledge. As for those buying it, this more likely to be local authorities and education professionals. Every contention and point is referenced and so that would rather preclude my putting in the views of friends and relatives!
"These do not make any secret of the locations where they meet and so we can judge the upper limit for the numbers attending. It is not an exact way of doing things, but it would be very hard to see how more than 10% of the home educating parents in the county could be attending groups. It is also easy enough from looking at the directories which HEAS and EO send to members, how many in Essex belong to these organisations."
ReplyDeleteSo you are basing your estimates on anecdotal evidence from one small area of the country (do you actually have the figures even)? The maximum numbers at any particular meeting are not the whole story, you would still need to know how many members ever attend meetings. We only attend about 1 out of 5 of our local meetings and I know others do the same (some attending more, some less than us) so you could potentially times your initial figures by 5.
The directories of EO are not a good guide of membership levels because listing is optional. Many members choose not to be listed. No idea about HEAS but I suspect it would be the same. What group wants to lose members by making a public listing mandatory?
"The book is not based even slightly upon my own experiences or personal knowledge. As for those buying it, this more likely to be local authorities and education professionals."
ReplyDeleteSo it's based on research that you have said in the past is inadequate and poorly done?
'The directories of EO are not a good guide of membership levels because listing is optional. Many members choose not to be listed.'
ReplyDeleteTrue, but the total number of members is known as are the number of local authoriies in England and Wales. As I say, these are exceedingly rough estimates.
'So you are basing your estimates on anecdotal evidence from one small area of the country (do you actually have the figures even)?'
No, the post was about Essex and I have no reason to suppose that it is not fairly typical of a County Council. The situation is of course different for Urban areas. 694 children in 2009.
'So you are basing your estimates on anecdotal evidence from one small area of the country (do you actually have the figures even)? '
ReplyDeleteIt is perhaps worth remembering what I said above in the original post:
' the sort who joins groups of other home educators and attends meetings of other home educators, represents only one strand of home education and not even the largest or most important strand at that.'
Judging by what you are saying, you believe that I am mistaken about this and that in fact this strand is either the largest or most important in home education. Why not tell us why you feel that this is so?
"True, but the total number of members is known as are the number of local authoriies in England and Wales. As I say, these are exceedingly rough estimates."
ReplyDeleteDo you know the total membership numbers of EO and HEAS?
"Judging by what you are saying, you believe that I am mistaken about this and that in fact this strand is either the largest or most important in home education. Why not tell us why you feel that this is so? "
I've no idea what the ratio is. My point is that you do not have enough information to say either.