Sunday 19 June 2011

Protecting our children and close friends

I have long thought that the online home educating community has many similarities to those groups who believe that there are alien spaceships at Area 51 or that a secret cabal rules the world. For these people, there are no coincidences. If a document disappears briefly from the Department for Education website; it can only be because a sinister cover-up is in progress. They often like to see themselves as fighting against dark forces which would otherwise destroy them and their families; nobly resisting statist efforts to force their conformity. Home education for these people is not just about educating their children at home, it is part of a whole ideology and world-view. Because they like to play at being secret agents or resistance fighters in this way, many of them hide their true identities and adopt a nom de guerre. Apart from anything else, calling yourself ‘Firebird’ is far more romantic than being just plain Ruth O’Hare!

Now there is no particular harm in this as long as one is just using this anonymity to comment on lists and forums. One can be ruder than one would if using a real name; we see this all the time on this blog. It is when people begin to be engaged in activities which might have a grave effect upon others that this secrecy or anonymity becomes a little bit of a problem. On the blog to which I gave a link the other day, the one about the new EHE guidelines, the author suggested something quite extraordinary. This was that Alison Sauer did not wish to be identified as the author of these guidelines so as to protect her child and friends. Of all the possible excuses for anonymity, this seems to me to be the feeblest. I know something about this, because with the possible exception of Graham Badman, I doubt whether anybody in the British home educating scene has been as insulted and abused as I! (Just try googling my name along with ‘home education’ and you will see what I mean).

Now I might have occasionally pointed out some of the more fruity things which people said about me during the Badman business to my daughter. We would have a laugh about them. My wife did not find it funny and so I would not show her any of it. As for my friends, most of them did not even know about the abuse that was being heaped upon me. How would they, unless I told them? I am really intrigued about this idea that one could put together a document which might have very serious effects for tens of thousands of families and then feel able to conceal one’s name on the grounds that one was protecting children, family and friends. Protecting them from what, for heaven’s sake? I have written newspaper articles, kept a blog and written an entire book on the subject of home education; all without causing any harm to my family and friends. Everything I have written on the subject has my name attached to it. Perhaps somebody could tell me what harm they are actually afraid will befall them if their real name becomes associated with their views on home education?

In Alison Sauer’s case, the idea that she is a private person who shrinks from attracting the attention of others is particularly grotesque. Somebody speculated in a comment that the blog to which I referred earlier is actually Alison Sauer’s work. They are probably right. She and her husband are history buffs and Alison belongs to a 17th century re-enactment society. She regularly dresses up in historical costumes and there are images of her like this all over the Internet. If this has not caused her daughter to die of embarrassment, then I doubt that any harm would be caused by putting her name to the EHE guidelines!

14 comments:

  1. I've noticed that there are a number of HE gurus that have had involvement in historical re-enactment societies.

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  2. It's not only lowly home educators that feel the need to hide information in order to protect people from public attention. Remember the freedom of information requests about the Badman Review that were refused on the grounds that to reply might harm Badman's mental health (or words to that effect)? Something about a spoof blog upsetting him? Maybe you are more thick skinned than ordinary mortals, Simon?

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  3. Im not quite sure I understand your use of the term 'grotesque' in relation to the possibility that Alison Sauer may be trying to protect people around her.
    Also I have yet to see it acknowledged from Alison Sauer that she is in fact trying to do this - so for now I guess its just another one of those speculations being banded about.
    Until she acknowledges that she wishes to protect her family, how can we possibly know this is the reason for her name not being added to the document. Maybe we should wait until she says she actually wrote the document (or we see her name on a final copy) before trying to guess why her name isnt on it.

    From a personal point of view, I think if I were particularly vocal about political/home ed or other cause I might tend to keep my or my family's identity a secret.
    It might seem a strange concept to you but recently I experienced this. I was a secretary of a group, seemingly a perfectly normal activity, but it let me in for hideous amounts of criticism because I wrote an email on behalf of the committee which was not recieved well. In this case my family were also targeted as lies were spread about them, and rumours started.
    If something this simple can get out of hand, something so volatile as home ed guidelines could easily lead to all sorts of situations.

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  4. "Also I have yet to see it acknowledged from Alison Sauer that she is in fact trying to do this - so for now I guess its just another one of those speculations being banded about.
    "Until she acknowledges that she wishes to protect her family, how can we possibly know this is the reason for her name not being added to the document. Maybe we should wait until she says she actually wrote the document (or we see her name on a final copy) before trying to guess why her name isnt on it."

    i am not sure why there is a reluctance to accept that Alison is the author of this document when so many of us have not only seen it, but also discussed it with her -albeit to tell her that I wanted nothing to do with it!

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  5. 'i am not sure why there is a reluctance to accept that Alison is the author of this document when so many of us have not only seen it, but also discussed it with her '

    I think that I can answer this. If and when Graham Stuart produces these guidelines, it will be under his name alone. Alison Sauer will not be named as the author and hopes to maintain the fiction that they were the product of a large group of home educators, rather than something which she knocked up herself.
    Simon.

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  6. Anonymous said "i am not sure why there is a reluctance to accept that Alison is the author of this document when so many of us have not only seen it, but also discussed it with her -albeit to tell her that I wanted nothing to do with it!"
    Not a reluctance exactly - I just dont see any body of proof that convinces me. Plus I prefer to give it the benefit of the doubt.
    I have heard she is involved, but not that she is the sole author- didn't the secret group consist of various contributors? Especially if it is true, as has been said on some of the lists, that certain poeple have been involved to find out whats going on. How then can it be only Alison Sauers work? And this is why I am trying to avoid laying blame at her door, if indeed blame is necessary at all, for trying to help to provide a HE framework that may(or may not) be any good.

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  7. 'didn't the secret group consist of various contributors?'

    The thesis is that Alison Sauer alone wrote the thing and that people like Rainbow-Leaf Lovejoy were only employed as proof-readers. Tania Berlow made suggestions and so did Jacqui Cox, but the text itself was supposedly all Alison's work. If this was not the case, then she only has to say so! Similarly, if anybody like Jacqui, Rainbow-leaf or Tania did
    actually write some sections of the thing; they too can tell us.
    Simon.

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  8. To be fair, I can't see that much wrong with the guidelines considering they're a draft to be put out for consultation and discussion. Much has been made of the length, but the majority is taken up with appendices that detail the relevant laws. There is repetition and waffle that needs thinning out and obviously there are some errors like the SEN one that Simon pointed out. But it doesn't seem beyond redemption to me.

    Much depends on how the next step of the process is carried out in practice and how well home educators are able to work together. Everyone seems certain that this cannot happen because we are all too different; however, it happened very successfully when the original Elective Home Education Legal Guidelines were produced openly and consensually by home educators.

    http://www.home-education.org.uk/docs/ehelg.pdf

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  9. Simon - I see, I hadn't heard this or gotten this impression at all. But as you say this is a thesis rather than fact so we still don't know for sure.
    I am sure any person involved could tell us if they wrote a part of the document but I am guessing that based on the initial trouble Tania Berlow suffered when she announced she was involved, everyone decided they'd really rather not.
    Anonymous - I agree!I didn't think they were that bad for a draft, either. Obviously this isn't the final copy so errors are to be expected. When (if) we see a final copy, we can see what is left and what may or may not need to be changed. Ultimately, it doesnt have to be perfect if its going to be opened up for everyone else to pick apart, the perfecting will come with the consultations.

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  10. You wrote that people were 'employed' Simon. Are you claiming that the people you mention were paid?

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  11. 'munt said...
    You wrote that people were 'employed' Simon. Are you claiming that the people you mention were paid?'

    No, I didn't mean to give that impression. I should perhaps have said 'egaged as' rather than employed. I don't suppose for a moment that any of those helping Alison Sauer with this were paid.
    Simon.

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  12. in regards to the ideology/ world view
    It is true that many home Educators Are libertarian and uphold individual liberty but you can never be everything of one thing- so I personally wouldn't call myself a libertarian or anti statist or individualist or whatever else, I don't want to subscribe to any label or ideology or -isms

    I just want to be left alone to do my best.

    'rebels' going against the norm at any cost are actually conformists themselves without even realizing. My aim is to challenge the status quo and don't act or behave compulsory or compulsively, engage in some critical thinking first

    ReplyDelete
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