Many years ago, I used to spend a lot of time in the company of homosexuals. Hardly surprising, since I was hanging round the Gay Liberation Front, who at that time had a commune in Penge. Something which I noticed was that a certain type of 'gay' person, usually the camp, theatrical ones who sprinkled their conversation with Polari, constantly claimed that many famous people were or had been homosexual. They would say, 'That Henry Cooper; he's gay. Well known fact' or 'Everybody in theatre knows about Sean Connery'. Something which I soon noticed was that nearly all the people to whom they referred were actually not homosexuals at all. If it wasn't that, it would be the Ancient Greeks. They would rave on about how enlightened that society was, where men could commit sodomy at the drop of a hat and nobody would think twice about it.
I have been reminded of all this while glancing through the newly revamped Home Education UK website. There is a section on it called 'Famous People'. Now I am assuming that these are supposed to be not just famous people, but famous people who were actually home educated. Just as with my 'gay' friends, I cannot help but notice that half the people here were no more home educated than I was. Charles Dickens, for example. Unless you count a spell working in a warehouse when he was a small child, there is no possible way that Dickens could be described as home educated. Is working in a warehouse an acceptable form of home education? No wonder the local authorities in places like Suffolk are getting a bit edgy these days! Franklin Roosevelt? Went to boarding school. The Wright brothers? Attended both elementary and high school, although truanted a bit and were once suspended.
I am not going to go through the entire list of names, except to say that the great majority are dubious. Joan of Arc? How many village girls in France five hundred years ago did go to school? As I say, this all reminds me very much of a tiny minority group claiming that loads of famous people shared their own peculiarity. I would be curious to see a list of people who were genuinely home educated by choice. Oh yes, I almost forgot. Davy Crocket. I wonder how many schools there were around when he was growing up on the wild frontier?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
If there were no schools, or some children couldn't access those schools, then the children would, by default, be home educated, wouldn't they? The education might be different from your view of what it should be like, but it would be an education. Anyone who learned nothing after birth would not be able to function independently.
ReplyDelete'If there were no schools, or some children couldn't access those schools, then the children would, by default, be home educated, wouldn't they? '
ReplyDeleteSo....a six year old girl working down a coal mine in 1800 would be classified as home educated? I see. I am beginning to understand the concerns of Suffok County Council!
It depends how you define 'education'. Children in mines undoubtedly learned things. It doesn't follow that setting children to work in mines is a good thing. The point Mike was making was not that it doesn't matter what kind of education a child gets, it was that the child doesn't have to go to school in order to achieve great things in later life.
ReplyDeleteSince mass education is a relatively recent phenomenon, it's hardly surprising that many Great Figures from History have had an education that would be considered patchy in the light of modern norms.
Since their achievements have by definition stood the test of time, the patchy nature of their education doesn't seem to have been a hindrance.
'If there were no schools, or some children couldn't access those schools, then the children would, by default, be home educated, wouldn't they? '
ReplyDeleteIn such a case, why single out Joan of Arc? One might as well simply list all the humans on earth for 99% of the human race's history and claim that they were all home educated.
'The point Mike was making was not that it doesn't matter what kind of education a child gets, it was that the child doesn't have to go to school in order to achieve great things in later life.'
ReplyDeleteIn which case why list people who attended school? I don't get it. Who really thinks that Charles Dickens was home educated?
Until Charles Dickens was 9 (when he went to school briefly), "he spent time outdoors, but also read voraciously, especially the picaresque novels of Tobias Smollett and Henry Fielding. He spoke, later in life, of his poignant memories of childhood, and of his near photographic memory of the people and events, which he used in his writing."
ReplyDeleteSounds quite 'home education' like to me.
Simon wrote,
ReplyDelete"Franklin Roosevelt? Went to boarding school."
The Roosevelts were a wealthy family and was educated by home tutors until attending Groton School at 14.
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USArooseveltF.htm