Saturday 9 April 2011

My personal position on home education

I educated my own daughter from the summer of 1998, when she turned five, until June 2009. My experience of home education before then stretches back to 1972 and I am still involved with helping parents deregister their children from school. The idea that I am opposed in any way to home education is too absurd for words. I thought it worth reminding any new readers of this; I have been associated one way and another with home education for many years and am devoted to the idea. I have also written one of the few academic books on the subject to have been published in this country; Elective Home Education in the UK, Trentham Books 2010.


My concern with home education has nothing at all to do with any supposed 'right' to home educate, still less with the 'rights' of parents. This is all such nonsense, both legally and morally, that I cannot spare time even to consider the ideas. Children in this country have both a legal and moral right to receive a good education. The legal right is to receive an efficient, full-time education suitable to their age and ability; parents have a duty in law to ensure that this right is respected. They also have a moral right to see that their children receive the best possible education that can be provided. If they the parents are willing and able to furnish their child with this education themselves, then they should do so. If they cannot do so or do not wish to, then they should send the child to school or engage a governess or tutor.


My only concern in anything to do with home education is the right of a child to a good education. If a parent keeps her child from school and cannot educate him, then the child's right is being denied him. He should be sent to school and if the mother is reluctant to take this step, then legal pressure should be brought to bear. If the child is attending a school which is not providing a good education and the mother or father can do better; then again, the child is being denied something to which he has a legal and moral right. His parents should remove him from the school and educate him at home.


The idea that I am somehow against home education is so foolish and ill-informed that I sometimes get a little irritated. I am now and have been for many years a supporter of the rights of children, both in my professional and personal life. Education is one of those rights, in whatever form it is provided.

24 comments:

  1. Webb is like many left-wing politicians who believe that constantly repeating untruthful statements makes people them. He continues to allege that his tawdry book is an ‘academic work’ when it fails upon every count to be any such thing. It is however a book.

    There is no suggestion or evidence of any degree of structured, valid research

    There is no methodology for analysis of research.

    There are no sources upon which research validation could be made.

    There are no references to independently verified research

    There is no independent third party collaboration with an academic body

    There is no evidence for a research driven methodology from research to analysis to considerations to conclusions

    There is ample evidence that the book was written to support the Badman proposition and presupposed that it was the future, then hurriedly altered to try and retro-fit the discredited Badman proposals.

    Much like Badman his book was written to fit a predetermined conclusion and is never worthy of being considered to be ‘academic’

    Never mind Webb, Keep kidding yourself.

    Thoughts on Profundity:-

    The most profound words ever written on this blog were

    “Last week I had the rare opportunity of meeting a person that claimed to be friend of the Author of this blog (of course he might not have been telling the truth).

    He told me about author’s irritation that people posting comments would never tell anything about themselves but hid their past lives in ‘veil of secrecy’.

    I understood the message so I am taking the trouble to expose my background which may explain why I occasionally read this blog for a sense of amusement and fun.

    In an early career move, I pursued studies to become a Gynaecological Anthropologist with specialist expertise in mitochondrial DNA extraction and more generally, the reproductive systems of dinosaurs. This was largely directed at exploring the Nomis/Bbew/Reknaw theory of evolutionary dinosaur chains prior to extinction.

    This led to the publication of the much acclaimed and revered academic work of my PHD thesis. A ground-breaking works; it indentified the DNA characteristic proving the first scientific breakthrough evidence of homo-sapiens genetic link to dinosaurs rather than just apes.

    For those that have interest, the works (ISBN 1472 9891) is entitled:

    “The True Genetic Origins of Simon Webb”

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  2. "engage a governess"

    and you criticise other people for writing in an archaic style!

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  3. Quite like the idea of being 'engaged with a governess'.
    I blame it on Julie Andrews.

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  4. Allie said:
    "and you criticise other people for writing in an archaic style!"

    That's not archaic writing, that is what really happens! We 'engaged a governess' for three years, and it was a lifesaver for us all. As a single parent I was really struggling to care for and educate my son on my own, so we went to a nanny agency (we didn't qualify for respite care from the LA) but didn't feel comfortable with the attitudes that most nannies had. So they suggested that we look for a governess and we ended up with a wonderful young lady training to be a primary school teacher.

    Of course calling her a governess was ironic as she educated my son in the same unstructured autonomous way I did. The word governess may be associated with a certain type of strict spinster, but it doesn't have to be like that.

    In the early part of the 20th century there were plenty of governess around as there was a lot of home education going on. We still have nannies and nursery nurses in both our culture and language, but as most children go to school now the use of governesses has has dropped. Most nannies are only trained to deal with children below school age or older ones after school, and refuse to work with older children that are at home all day, so if you want to hire someone to help with a child, sometimes only a governess will do.

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  5. Erm, ok... Maybe I just move in different circles as I can't say I've ever encountered a governess in real life!

    I thought the term 'engage' had largely dropped from common usage and that most people now would say 'hire'. I also thought that governess was an archaic term because it implied that the person had to be female, which I thought would be illegal under the Sex Discrination Act of 1976. Perhaps this isn't so for some reason?

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  6. Simon wrote,
    "I am now and have been for many years a supporter of the rights of children, both in my professional and personal life."

    Yet you argue against my children having the right to direct and control their own education. They would like to ask you to stop.

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  7. " I also thought that governess was an archaic term because it implied that the person had to be female, which I thought would be illegal under the Sex Discrination Act of 1976. Perhaps this isn't so for some reason?"

    We still use the term nanny, though which implies a female carer. I think governess isn't so common because most children go to school and nannies or nursery nurses only deal with pre-school or after school. A governess unlike a tutor would also care for the child, not just teach them. My understanding is that a governess would be like a sole charge nanny, whereas a tutor regardless of sex would be there for a few hours to teach particular subjects, but wouldn't be responsible for feeding and other caring responsibilities.

    As for moving in different circles, I used my son's DLA payments, and my carers allowance to pay for the governess. Money was tight!

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  8. Webb says- I am now and have been for many years a supporter of the rights of children, both in my professional and personal life."

    your not a supporter of children's rights that is a joke Webb!
    you would force children back to state school and ignore if their said i wish to be home educated.What about all the children who say their not happy with their school? you going to do anything about that? answer no you wont because you do care about these children!
    you have nothing to offer but the same old worn out ideas on education that failed so many of our children only today some one was saying in paers that school leavers are leaving school with out the right skills for work yet their been at school since 5!
    what we need are new ideas to be able to think outside of the box not your way more of the same you choice is this state school or nothing why dont you stand up for all the children who have been failed by the system? dont forget you fully supported crazy old Badman as well who also wanted to send childre nback to the same state school that had failed them!
    you can never be a supporter of children's rights because you have nothing new to offer only?

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  9. OMG the spelling and grammer are not good LOL an extra dention i think LOL

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  10. "We still use the term nanny, though which implies a female carer."

    Yeah, I hadn't thought about nanny implying a woman. I suppose midwife is the same but I had a lovely male midwife when I was in labour.

    Perhaps I have met a governess without knowing? I know several home edders who pay other people to look after their children from time to time and I'd always assumed they were childminders - but maybe not!

    Peter, I don't agree with Simon on lots of things but I don't think it's true that he has only 'worn out ideas' to offer. I don't think it's entirely mainstream to teach your baby to read! I think Simon probably has a lot of useful ideas about education that he could share with all sorts of people in all sorts of educational settings. I just think it's a shame he's got a bee in his bonnet about other people's autonomous approaches. I suspect that if he got to know some autonomous home educating families a little better then he'd find he had less to worry about.

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  11. OMG...you're right your spelling and grammar are appalling.
    Perhaps you might consider taking a course in Adult Literacy. Quite how you manage to home ed without such a core skill is pretty alarming and goes part way to proving that Webbie is right.

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  12. but we do home educate and no one can stop us? you wanna try? or are you like Webb anon or talk and no action? phone up HCC tell them a family who cant spell home edcuate a child go for it lol

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  13. 'I thought the term 'engage' had largely dropped from common usage and that most people now would say 'hire'. '

    My dear Allie, you astonish me! I can readily imagine hiring a gardener or cook, but a governess would always be engaged.

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  14. Come along Mr. Webb - stop hiding the post that exposed you book as being falsely represented as 'Academic'.

    The analysis has been widely circulated months ago anyway and is now common knowledge to all but you!.

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  15. 'Come along Mr. Webb - stop hiding the post that exposed you book as being falsely represented as 'Academic'.'

    It was in the spam folder. I'm afraid that this is more Blogspot's doing than my own!

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  16. Mind you, it was hardly worth sorting out this comment and getting it from the spam folder. The writer has clearly not read the book of which he talks and simply lists a list of criteria from an Internet site, hoping that my book does not comply with them. I am not going through this point by point; one should be enough. He says;

    'There are no references to independently verified research'

    I used the Harvard referencing system, as anybody who has actually read the thing would know.

    As for the feeble, schoolboy joke of spelling out backwards, 'Simon Webb wanker', well this was done once before on here. It might perhaps amuse a fourteen year-old.

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  17. peter and carol said..
    'but we do home educate and no one can stop us?'

    That's a very erroneous and arrogant attitude, you're not home educating, more like transferring your illiteracy to your child. That illiteracy and negative attitude will compound and cannot improve. You're doing more damage the longer you continue to pass on your bad habits..
    you as parents are a barrier to learning.

    Vocabulary and grammar, the application and understanding of language are all important in learning, the keys to all other subjects.
    ..it's painfully obvious that you are happier to use textspeak in place of English and replace ignorance over development.

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  18. "The legal right is to receive an efficient, full-time education suitable to their age and ability; parents have a duty in law to ensure that this right is respected."

    The law states that a parent can fulfil this duty 'either by regular attendance at school or otherwise'. Doesn't this therefore give parent's the right to choose school or home education (or any other suitable option) for their child?

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  19. Anon says-you continue to pass on your bad habits..
    you as parents are a barrier to learning.

    then why dont you report us Anon to Hampshire County Council? you have a duty to report a parent who you belive can not home educate? yuo want the address of who to write to? Webb was unwilling to report us maybe you got the guts to it or are you like Webb all talk and no action?

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  20. other anon says-The law states that a parent can fulfil this duty 'either by regular attendance at school or otherwise'. Doesn't this therefore give parent's the right to choose school or home education (or any other suitable option) for their child?

    you quite right other anon but for many this hurts and thier want you to do home education the right way the Webb way! but of course many of say no thanks to that! and that is what hurts these nosy parkers types!

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  21. I'm quite happy to report you, you're illiterate.

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  22. A normal person10 April 2011 at 14:09

    Should home educating parents be forced to take a literacy test before home educating their children ?
    Should home educating parents be forced to take a literacy test in English ?
    Now wouldn't that be interesting.

    ReplyDelete
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