Wednesday 23 February 2011

The one-trick ponies of home education

Regular readers will, I am sure, be familiar with Mr Peter Williams of Alton in Hampshire. He frequently comments here and is apparently obsessed by the fact that his son is not receiving a good education at home, but would be better off at an independent school like Eton. Mr Williams belongs to a small subset of home educators, who wish their children to develop one particular skill to the exclusion of all else; in his case, chess.

I say that this is a subset of home educators, but in fact it was once the only type of home educator of which anybody seemed to hear; people like Harry Lawrence and Laszlo Polgar, determined that their children will be the best in the world at something. Whether it is mathematics, chess, piano playing, singing or tennis; these children must be the best in the world. I have remarked several times before that it is always fathers who seem to be at the back of this type of home education, but today I want to focus upon whether this sort of thing is good for the children themselves.

The great problem with being brought up to be better than anybody else at something is that if you spend all the time with your family and don't attend school, then you may come to believe this to be true, even if it is really no more than an ambition or delusion of your father. The shock of discovering the truth, that there are many better musicians, mathematicians or chess players than you, can be profound. Once in awhile, this kind of enterprise pays off. We have seen it with the Williams sisters, who are the best at what their father taught them. We almost saw it with Judit Polgar, but not quite. In most other cases, it does not turn out that the child being raised like this is anything special. This is where the process can be traumatic. For years, a child has been told by her father that she is brilliant and special, that she will be world famous at whatever it is that the father has chosen for her. Every aspect of life is geared towards the realisation of the father's ambitions and the child herself becomes no more than an extension of the father's own thwarted hopes for his life. Sooner or later the realisation dawns for the child. First, she has sacrificed many of the ordinary pleasures of childhood for the sake of somebody else's goal and secondly, she it has all been in vain because she is not the world's best singer, mathematician or chess player at all. This often leads to an estrangement from the pushy father, coupled with a crisis of identity. If the child is not the world champion whom she believed herself to be; then who is she?

We do not hear of most cases of this sort. The ones of which we generally do hear are people like the Williams sisters, who are the best, or those like Ruth Lawrence, who showed great early promise and went to Oxford at a very early age. For every such case, there are many other children who are coached and pushed by their parents to the exclusion of all else in the search for perfection at the field chosen by their parents. There are psychological dangers in this type of home education, but there are ethical considerations too. Ruth Lawrence was not allowed to associate with children, because this would waste her time. All children who are being groomed for stardom in this way, inevitably miss out on many aspects of childhood. These are often things which however successful they might be in later life, are irreplaceable. The chance to become engrossed in other hobbies apart from the important passion of their fathers. Being able to spend a summer not practising tennis or chess, or even taking up something quite different and focusing their energies on that instead.

I have always been fascinated by this particular strand of home education and I have to say that although to most home educators this kind of thing is seen as very unusual; for the man in the street, it is what home education is all about. They have all heard of the Williams sisters or Ruth Lawrence and the popular perception of home education is largely defined by mad fathers pushing their kids on to become champions! Do any readers know of this sort of thing in real life, apart of course from Peter Williams? I would be curious to hear of modern examples of this practice and to know in what field the kids are being trained.

13 comments:

  1. Never sure whther this is merely giving you ammuition - because we met this lad at a home ed conference a few times.... but Bolton Browne, musician?? - He has a My Space page with biograpy. I think he is about the same age as my eldest daughter; I don't think his parents particularly hot housed him though, he just was fanatical about composing music from an early age. He does have "old" parents though - wasn't Ruth Lawrence's father older than average (as is the situation in our family too!) I don't know exactly what that proves though!

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  2. 'He does have "old" parents though - wasn't Ruth Lawrence's father older than average (as is the situation in our family too!) I don't know exactly what that proves though!'

    Perhaps the older the father is, the more chance there is of his realising that he is not going to be a brilliant success in his field and therefore he pins his hopes on his child? This is just a guess.

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  3. Old Webb says-Mr Williams belongs to a small subset of home educators, who wish their children to develop one particular skill to the exclusion of all else; in his case, chess.

    Webb gets it all wrong again its got nothing to do with develping skill to the exclusion of all else it is to give the child the very best chance to the child to develop his talent that the local state school was unable to cater for! despite many request from us the parents for extra help with this talent!

    your trapped in your tick box again Webb like so many state schools your unable to cater for something outside of the box.

    Old Webb then goes on to say-The chance to become engrossed in other hobbies apart from the important passion of their fathers. Being able to spend a summer not practising tennis or chess, or even taking up something quite different and focusing their energies on that instead.

    Peter has many hobbies including Taekwon -DO(twice a week) and trampline club and stamp collecting and model club! not easy to fund all these hobbies. I wish Peter would spend his time full on chess! we do have a match this week at Sandhurst chess club looking forward to it!

    where you go wrong is you think people children are spending every minute of their life on say chess or what ever the child has a talent for their do not .Peter makes his own mind up as to what he spends his time on. State schools just can not always cater for certain skills such as chess Peter beat the maths teacher at his school at chess age 5! the school should help pupils like this not see it as a problem!

    Peter also meets up with his friends to play xbox or just hang out or go some where to eat.

    chidren must be given far more support in what ever talent skill their have this is anther area that new money should be found for?

    i also think teachers get scared of a skill talent a child has that their do not have? schools can often see this child as a problem?

    LA's should be helping children with talents why dont their? in many cases it would not always be money that is needed! it may be help with finding the right teacher you could have a good teacher for this skill in anther school can the LA then not arrange something? help is what is needed why dont these children get this?

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  4. old Webb also says -He frequently comments here and is apparently obsessed by the fact that his son is not receiving a good education at home

    Not as good an education as a private school like Eton college thats what i said.

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  5. Dont try to explain to Simon what you actually said, he is only interested in what he thinks you said. The two are very different of course but that doesnt bother Simon, he hears what he wants to hear.


    Darren

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  6. "Dont try to explain to Simon what you actually said, he is only interested in what he thinks you said."

    I think that's also what happened when the TV program about Peter's family appeared, wasn't it? They didn't show the recordings of other activities, just the chess related bits. Can't be sure because I didn't see it myself, just going by my memories of Peter & Carol's and others comments here at the time. Some people seem to like twisting facts to suit the point they are trying to make and ignore any inconvenient facts that conflict with that view.

    But apart from this aspect of the post, I do agree that limiting children's activities to the degree described is wrong when it happens.

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  7. Dont try to explain to Simon what you actually said, he is only interested in what he thinks you said. The two are very different of course but that doesnt bother Simon, he hears what he wants to hear.

    We agree with you!

    Old Webb has nothing to offer other home educators just the same old worn out ideas! but i do think one should attempt to explain the real facts/truth for people to decide? and I can assure readers here that Peter does not spend every day just playing chess! Peter also goes out a lot to mix and go to clubs tonight it is Taekwon- do.

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  8. other anon says-think that's also what happened when the TV program about Peter's family appeared, wasn't it? They didn't show the recordings of other activities,

    yes you are quite right a number of activities where filmed of Peter including the class at Taekwon- do with all the different age ranges! not shown.

    A trip to London was filmed to a bookshop but not shown!

    Filming was also done of the plants veg Peter likes to grow not show!Peter knows quite a lot about how to grow all sorts of plants veg/food

    An offer of being able to film Peter with his friends where their meet up to eat/mix was agreed as a good idea but then droped with no reason given!

    Comments by us where made and not shown! including our view that it was a very hard decision to make over the home education and we only wanted the very best for our child. and Pete can give up chess any day its his chioce!Also no mention of the private tutor we pay for to! I wonder why?

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  9. Why have the cameras in in the first place?

    Darren

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  10. Why have the cameras in in the first place?

    Because Peter wanted to make and learn about film making it was very intersting as well Peter got to talk to different tv people and we are very good friends with the lady who made the 2nd film about Peter he also got to visit channel 4 headquarters in London. not something many children have done?

    3 films have been made about Peter and in our view the 2nd one was best Lucy made a really good film about all of us the 3rd film cut out way to much!

    its just inportant for readers of old Webb blog to know that a great deal was filmed but not shown!

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  11. "Peter beat the maths teacher at his school at chess age 5!"

    Could he still beat him now?

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  12. anon says -"Peter beat the maths teacher at his school at chess age 5!"

    yes Peter could beat him and with a blindfold on! or the ex maths teacher could have a queen head start if he wants? The maths teacher left the school not long after i hope it not because he lost to Peter!

    Peter has an Internatinal Chess grade and adult English chess grade as well and has won many many adult tournments and of course has a cupboard full of cups and has played for England twice at chess aboard! Peter was 2nd only last weekend at the open adult golder green rapidplay chess event in London this is a very strong event Peter drew with a russian grandmaster!

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  13. I have been watching this debate about home education closely, and the case study of Peter Williams after seeing the genius television programme.

    Firstly, I think that every child and parent should have the right to decide how they wish to be educated, including home schooling.

    Looking at the results Peter Williams has failed to make the grade as far as international chess status is concerned. Unless he gets the coaching of Russian chess coaches I doubt he will make it.

    The sacrifice of his public school education is huge, not to mention the opportunities for socialisation. The obsession over chess to the exclusion of all else without hard results will end in failure across all aspects of the life of Peter Williams - that being the great tragedy of this story.

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