Tuesday 10 May 2011

The joy of home education


One of the things that must surely strike anybody who spends any length of time at all on one the various home education forums and lists, is the amount of anger and anxiety which one encounters there. In a sense, this is only to be expected. After all, many of these things were set up to support home educators who needed help and support; ergo, those who are managing fine tend not to hang around those places. We are told though that one of the most popular lists now has over fifteen hundred members and in a sense represents the interests of all home educating parents, not just the ones who go on there because they are struggling. This creates a problem.


Educating my own child was the most enjoyable activity by far which I have ever undertaken. I can imagine nothing in the world better than spending days on end in the company of a lively and inquisitive child, learning side by side with her about the world. I have never enjoyed anything in my life as I did home education, nor do I expect ever to have such fun again. My daughter too, by all accounts had a fantastic time. We went all over the place, exploring every possible aspect of life. It was great. I see in the newspaper today that the average parent in this country spends only two hours a day in the company of her child; a statistic which I find utterly incomprehensible. Why have a child in the first place unless you want to spend a lot of time with her?


I said there was a slight problem with the idea of the internet lists working to represent the interests of home educating parents as a whole. It is this. Since, as many people have pointed our frequently here, the sort of people one sees on these lists are often weird and atypical home educators, one might get a distorted view of British home education if one were to limit one's knowledge of home education simply to the types who seen on such lists. Many of them are angry misfits and an air of grievance, dissatisfaction and anger permeates these places. This creates an atmosphere which is very different from that which one meets when talking to ordinary home educating parents in real life.


Unfortunately, much of the public face of home education is drawn from precisely those lists. In other words, the sort of parents that people like Graham Stuart meet, the views of parents who make submissions to select committees and so on are all too often drawn from that type of home educator; the crank, the bitter and discontented, the barrack-room lawyer and the obsessive. These are in general the same people who contact newspapers and make their views known in a number of other ways.


The danger is that this sub-group of home educators are often taken by those unfamiliar with home education as being typical and representative of home educating parents as a group. This is a shame. The public seldom hears from mothers and fathers who are having a great a time, enjoy amicable relations with their local authority and whose children are happy and well balanced. The overall impression one gets from what one might call the public face of home education is of parents constantly fighting with schools and local authorities, whose children have suffered terribly. Those children who are shown as happy are often portrayed as being in the process of recovering from unimaginable traumata suffered in the playground and classroom. For the average person, this suggests that the majority of home educated children are suffering from psychological problems and are very vulnerable, nervous and sensitive.


It might be better for the image of home education if more emphasis were to be placed upon the robust and happy children with contented parents who were not constantly angry and battling with the government and their local authority. This might stop people from viewing home educators as troublesome cranks and encourage the perception that they are just ordinary parents whose healthy and well balanced children were having a great time.

26 comments:

  1. if more emphasis were to be placed upon the robust and happy children with contented parents who were not constantly angry and battling with the government and their local authority.

    so then just pretend that everything is rosy and how wonderful local authority are with home educators?

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  2. I entirely agree about the pleasures and joys of actually home educating....

    I also had interesting insight yesterday into how distorted, sometimes, our views of the home ed world can be if we rely too much on what we see on internet lists. I invigilated a German IGCSE yesterday and therefore met the candidate for the first time. This was a young man who is taking 9 IGCSEs this summer (including 2 MF langauges) and who has been home educated, by his father, long term. Yesterday was the first time any of his family had met another home educator- they appear to have been perfectly happy with their lifestyle and never sought any outside support/friendships from the home ed community. Interestingly there is another local candidiate also sitting exams this week from a similar situation. In both cases they simply rang the LA and asked where they could sit exams, who suggested they contact us. Both families clearly have internet access and use the computer a lot, but never considered contacting other home educators that way. I think we do all think that most home educators are part of either internet links or local groups, and I suspect we are wrong!

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  3. MPs and government ministers are, presumably, well aware that the majority of constituents who contact them are not representative of the population in general because consitituents who are are 'having a great a time' don't tend to write to their MP - about anything.

    The task of government is to make sure that people can go about their lawful business, not to paternalistically ensure that everybody is 100% happy all the time.

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  4. 'The task of government is to make sure that people can go about their lawful business, not to paternalistically ensure that everybody is 100% happy all the time.'

    The problem is though that the government is being manipulated by a small minority of malcontents. The owner of the influential list which now has fifteen hundred members has also claimed that one hundred and fifty thousand children are being educated at home in this country. This means that his list represents the views of a mere 1% of home educators and perhaps not the sanest and most well balanced 1% of home edcuating parents into the bargain. When the views of such people are used to affect government policy, it is a case of the tail wagging the dog. It is the other 99% whose views are more important.

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  5. "It might be better for the image of home education if more emphasis were to be placed upon the robust and happy children with contented parents who were not constantly angry and battling with the government and their local authority."

    Well, indeed. How might that happen then? It's not like the whole image of home education is being manipulated according to some master plan. If you think this then maybe you should write more positive reflective pieces about your experiences of home educating your daughter and fewer argumentative pieces?

    Speaking for myself, I did try to have a positive blog when the children were younger but I felt/feel uncomfortable about detailing their lives on the internet now - for the good of any cause. For the record, we are very happy home educators :-)

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  6. The thrust of the responses of home educators to the Badman Review was that EHE law should remain unchanged. Can't see how that's manipulative.

    Calls for the changes to the law came from local government and from charitable bodies supported by central government funding in the absence of evidence to support their case, so although I think there was some manipulation, I don't think it was coming from home educating parents.

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  7. 'The thrust of the responses of home educators to the Badman Review was that EHE law should remain unchanged. Can't see how that's manipulative.'

    When the Department for Education recently began to amend the Pupil Registration Regulations, opposition was coordinated by that same 1% of home educators who many feel are nor representative of most home educating parents. That is what I meant by manipulation of government policy.

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  8. 'When the Department for Education recently began to amend the Pupil Registration Regulations, opposition was coordinated by that same 1% of home educators who many feel are nor representative of most home educating parents. That is what I meant by manipulation of government policy. '

    But why is the DfE amending the regulations anyway? What got that ball rolling? I don't think it was concerns raised by home educating parents.

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  9. 'I don't think it was concerns raised by home educating parents.'

    I am prepared to concede that you are probably right about this.

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  10. I can see the logic in this. Families who are negative, antagonistic and confrontational tend to be the ones who are often at the forefront of campaigns and protests. Those who may not agree with governments but who do it in a grown up way tend not to be the ones noticed first.
    This also means that officials often only see the more agressive HEers and gain a negative opinion of us.

    Having said that, I am not on a HE list because I need support or am aggrieved by anything. I am there now because I might be able to offer support or know of useful resources. Even when I did first join the forums, I did it because I was scared of doing it alone and didn't know how it worked. I had had difficulties with ds school but I didn't really go there to talk about that.
    I think everyone's reason for being on a forum is different and its far too narrow to state that only nutcases, antagonists and weirdos use them.

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  11. 'I think everyone's reason for being on a forum is different and its far too narrow to state that only nutcases, antagonists and weirdos use them.'

    I din't mean to suggest that only those types were on them C, just that perhaps they are not entirely representative of average home edcuators. After all, I am myself on those lists, and nobody could possibly describe me as a nutcase or weirdo...

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  12. "After all, I am myself on those lists,"

    Oh, which lists are you a member of these days, Simon?

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  13. "One of the things that must surely strike anybody who spends any length of time at all on one the various home education forums and lists, is the amount of anger and anxiety which one encounters there."

    Yet your most public contributions to the image of HE are some of the most negative out there. Most home educators (all apart from you?) who have taken part in interviews with the press or written articles about HE emphasise the joy of home education - you did the opposite. Maybe you should take your own advice and write something positive?

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  14. 'Oh, which lists are you a member of these days, Simon?'

    BRAG, HELM and several others. Why do you ask?

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  15. 'Maybe you should take your own advice and write something positive?'

    May I recommend Elective Home Education in the UK, Trentham Books 2010? I think that you will find this a most positive book about home education in this country.

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  16. "BRAG, HELM and several others"

    Didn't know you lived in the Midlands.

    "Why do you ask?"

    Because you seem to be a member of groups you've been banned from yet claim not to use false names.

    "May I recommend Elective Home Education in the UK, Trentham Books 2010?"

    But this is aimed at Local Authorities, so is unlikely to be of general interest or be very widely read.

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  17. 'Didn't know you lived in the Midlands.'

    Why one would need to live in the West Midlands in order to belong to either BRAG or HELM is something of a mystery to me.

    'But this is aimed at Local Authorities, so is unlikely to be of general interest or be very widely read.'

    It is certainly aimed more at professionals than the laity, but there is also much of interest for the general reader. This recent review might give you some idea of the nature of the book:


    http://www.sussexfamilygrapevine.co.uk/eastbourneandwealden/?p=559

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  18. ' Simon Webb’s work is a valuable, balanced, well-referenced, and elegantly-written summary of the current situation of Home Education in the UK.'

    Why, I could hardly have put the case better myself!

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  19. The majority of publicity in newspapers is positive, the only negative article I've seen recently is yours. So the general population are seeing positive things about HE.

    Of course politicians only seen the argumentative side of the issue, as they is the case with most issues they become involved with. That's why they are there, to listen to the arguments, ignore them and do what they were going to do originally anyway (though to be fair, this new lot may have actually listened this time).

    I'm sure LA staff meet many happy, fulfilled home educated children since so many of them conduct home visits and the majority of HE children are happy (in my experience). They so often tell parents who object to visits that, 'all their other children love their visits', so I'm not sure how you can claim the opposite.

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  20. "Why, I could hardly have put the case better myself!"

    Amazing, someone has actually reviewed your book at last! Of course, it wouldn't have anything to do with you being fairly high profile within HE and the organisation in question is selling something to home educators, would it? Might be a useful page to draw punters in from Google, eh?

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  21. 'the only negative article I've seen recently is yours.'

    Wake up Rip Van Winkle; that was two years ago! Hardly recently. Have you really not seen any of the negative stuff since mine were published, things about Khyra Ishaq and so on? I am surprised and it suggests to me that you are more than a little out of touch.

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  22. I wrote,
    "Of course politicians only seen the argumentative side of the issue, as they is the case with most issues they become involved with."

    but this might make more sense!

    Of course politicians only *see* the argumentative side of the issue, as ** is the case with most issues they become involved with.

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  23. "Have you really not seen any of the negative stuff since mine were published, things about Khyra Ishaq and so on?"

    There have been whole articles about HE that are negative, or home education receives a minor mention within an article about other topics? A mention that will more than likely be missed by the majority of readers. I'm sure if we totted up all articles about HE there would be far more positive than negative mentions and none or very few that are just about HE and negative.

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  24. Webb: You are the ONLY person that casts home educators as 'cranks'. You are now so delusional that you believe your own imaginings.

    The world does not.

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  25. If these other people don't speak up then that's their own fault for not using the democracy they live in. If people don't like the home educators who campaign then it's tough - they can always write a letter themselves.

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