Never let it be said that I am a man who refuses to admit when he has been wrong. I have been musing lately about my daughter and coming to the reluctant conclusion that I have been mistaken in an opinion which I have several times expressed warmly on this blog. Let me explain.
I posted a link yesterday to a couple of pieces which my daughter wrote for The Guardian. Somebody then drew attention to her blog. In fact my daughter is well known in some quarters, as two recent examples will show. She had lined up an internship over the summer in a magazine. It fell through and she felt that she had been shabbily treated. I was hardly aware of this; it just seemed to me the sort of thing which happens in the life of any seventeen year-old. Imagine my surprise, when the next thing I knew was that she was up at Westminster and contacted me, telling me to turn on the Parliament channel. I did so and saw a Conservative MP asking the following of the Business Secretary:
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/debate/?id=2011-07-07a.1662.3
I was more than a little staggered to find that the Early Day Motion had been signed by MPs like Glenda Jackson!
Last Wednesday we were having tea, when the BBC World Service rang her on quite another matter. They wished her to take part in a live debate about young people. For some reason, they regard her as being the voice of youth; the BBC have rung her before, asking for her views on this or that aspect of modern society. Readers are now probably asking themselves where all this is leading. Why on earth, they are wondering, is he droning on about his wretched daughter in this way? A fair point indeed. I have several times expressed doubts as to the number of home educated children who go on to become professionals such as doctors, engineers or lawyers. I have suggested that if there were such adults around, surely they would have spoken out during the debates last year regarding Schedule 1 of the Children, Schools and Families Bill. It occurred to me a few days ago though, that despite the fact that my daughter is pretty well known in various ways, the fact that she didn’t attend school for a single day never seems to come up or be mentioned. Last year she was part of Ed Balls leadership campaign; working in his office and meeting him socially as well. Incredibly, she never once thought to mention to him that she had been educated at home.
Actually, I think that my daughter should tell people about her home education sometimes, if only as a riposte to those who claim that home educated children end up shy, lacking in confidence and with a social skills deficit. But there, we cannot dictate what our teenage children do and say. The point is that if there is one home educated young person charging around the world and being noticed in this way without letting on that she was taught at home; there are probably others as well. I think that I was wrong to assume that home educated solicitors and vets would necessarily stand up and be counted when the subject of home education is being debated publicly. There now, I hope that readers will relish this moment; it is seldom enough that I concede that I have been mistaken. Make the most of it, for it is not likely to happen again in a hurry!
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The State controlled BBC asks your daughter for her views becauce they know she is a supporter of Graham Badmam/ Ed Balls and a paid up member of the labour party.
ReplyDeleteyour daughter does not speak for the youth of this country
she stood up for Badman
ReplyDeleteOnce the beeb have your number they are likely to keep calling you. I found that when I emailed them on the subject of HE once. We've had a dozen requests for interviews/statements/sound bites on education subject since then. They are like a terrier with a rabbit.
ReplyDelete'Once the beeb have your number they are likely to keep calling you.'
ReplyDeleteThis is of course true. They are too lazy to find new people and I suspect have lists marked 'Home Educator' or 'Articulate Young Person'.
Simon.
Just found your blog and there's some really interesting stuff here I've enjoyed reading, even the stuff I don't agree with!
ReplyDeleteWe've home educated our two and I felt pressed to say a word for the many home educating parents who are not entirely autonomous or structured, sloppy in their thinking or touchy feely,radical or extremist but are equally valuable in the approach they take and the things they achieve. They are maybe just ordinary parents, hacked off with school, trying to do the very best for their kids and achieving that in their quiet, unassuming yet just as controversial ways, very successfully, even those who cannot be categorised by convenient misconceptions!
'Just found your blog and there's some really interesting stuff here I've enjoyed reading, even the stuff I don't agree with!'
ReplyDeleteI must say much the same about your book Ross, which I thoroughly enjoyed!
Simon.
"I think that I was wrong to assume that home educated solicitors and vets would necessarily stand up and be counted when the subject of home education is being debated publicly. There now, I hope that readers will relish this moment; it is seldom enough that I concede that I have been mistaken."
ReplyDeleteLOL, yes, I think I've mentioned this phenomenon a few times here. Annoyed I never thought to give your daughter as an example though, it's always easier to understand a point when we have personal experience. I've asked my children a few times if HE ever crops up in conversation now they are above compulsory school age. It very rarely has and then only a brief passing mention. Even the college my son attends now has no idea he was home educated throughout his childhood because he moved to a second college after his first qualification and the previous college is listed on his application.
'it's always easier to understand a point when we have personal experience.'
ReplyDeleteTrue. I have said to her several times,' Does such and such know that you were home educated?' Her response is always that the topic did not come up and that if it did, she might say something about it. I found it extraordinary that after being so closely involved in the Ed Balls campaign that she did not even mention it there. Perhaps there are more home educated adults living among us than we suspect. It is like those science fiction films from the fifties, where the aliens take on the form of humans. They are among us now and we can't tell who they are!
Simon.
Webbb says -I found it extraordinary that after being so closely involved in the Ed Balls campaign that she did not even mention it there.
ReplyDeleteshe did not want to upset Balls by telling him she was home educated! or did she tell him and he told her to keep quiet? mind you who in they right mind would work him? Balls sold off the nation gold and a very reduced rate and helped to run up the hugh debt the UK is!
Glad to see that you have returned, Mr Williams. Sorry to see though, that your comments are as ill-judged and slightly demented as usual!
ReplyDeleteSimon.
"it is seldom enough that I concede that I have been mistaken. Make the most of it, for it is not likely to happen again in a hurry! "
ReplyDeleteDoes that mean that you are seldom mistaken or that you seldom admit it? :-)
anon says-Glad to see that you have returned, Mr Williams. Sorry to see though, that your comments are as ill-judged and slightly demented as usual!
ReplyDeleteare you saying that Balls did not sell off UK gold for to cheap a price and did not along woth Brown run up massive debts that UK must pay back?
Webb daughter is a paid up member of the Labour party and fully supports the action of Balls. who still refuses to accepte what he did.
your the one who is demented dont forget Webb daughter also fully supported Badman
Webb daughter as far as we know wanted to see children inteviewed on they own with out the parents in the family home? Webb daughter wanted as far as we know to allow LA officers to be able to force they way into the family house to see if they where signs of abuse?
ReplyDeleteWebb's daughter is a traiter to home educated children by her support to Balls/and Graham Badman the pair of them should say sorry to home educators and to home educated children for what they did!
'"it is seldom enough that I concede that I have been mistaken. Make the most of it, for it is not likely to happen again in a hurry! "
ReplyDeleteDoes that mean that you are seldom mistaken or that you seldom admit it? :-)'
An interesting point. Obviously, the most we can deduce from the words themselves is that I seldom admit to mistakes. I suppose that one construction one could put upon this is that I am some god-like, all but infalliable being whose errors are so rare as to be almost unheard of. Another possibility is that I am the sort of pig-headed fool who rarely confesses that he has made a mistake, even when he has plainly done so. I do not myself feel competent to judge which is the most likely explanation and will leave it to readers to decide for themselves.
Simon.
So glad to hear you got something from the book Simon! One thing I guess that all home educators have in common whether we agree or not; our ideas are certainly thought provoking!
ReplyDeleteSimon, an angle I hadn't considered before reading this post - is there a possibility that the reason Simone hadn't mentioned her home educated background was that she is embarrassed about it? My partner and I are considering Home Ed for our daughter but have pondered on the wider social implications of taking this route. This post has got my alarm bells ringing somewhat. Your thoughts always appreciated...
ReplyDelete'Simon, an angle I hadn't considered before reading this post - is there a possibility that the reason Simone hadn't mentioned her home educated background was that she is embarrassed about it?'
ReplyDeleteYou know, I wondered about this myself! I'm pretty sure that it is not the case, although one can never be certain about these things. She is the sort of person who says whatever she thinks and is not over-concerned if others don't agree with it. At the same time, this was something about which I worried a little when she was small. Everybody else has school as a common reference frame and the home educated child lacks this. Anybody you meet will remember school dinners, PE, teachers they disliked, breaking up for the summer and so on. The home educated child does not have this cultural background and so is set apart from others. I suppose that this must stick out sometimes, say if everybody in the office is discussing what they liked or hated about school.
This is definitely something to consider if you are planning to home educate. In my daughter's case, I think that there is a simpler explanation. For some families, home education is by way of being a lifestyle. They attend groups, are involved in campaigns, have friends who are also home educating; that sort of thing. In our home, it was purely an educational matter. We did not even refer to it as 'home education'. If asked when she was younger, she would say, 'I don't go to school', not 'I am home educated'.
Simon.
"In my daughter's case, I think that there is a simpler explanation. For some families, home education is by way of being a lifestyle. They attend groups, are involved in campaigns, have friends who are also home educating; that sort of thing."
ReplyDeleteWe did this, but our children very rarely mention HE, it's just something that doesn't crop up in conversation even though they are at college now. I can't remember the last time I discussed my education with anyone and could probably count the number of times since I left school on one hand, so I'm not sure why we expect our children to constantly discuss theirs. When it has cropped up, they have mentioned it, and are not embarrassed to say. It just seems normal to them and nobody has been especially surprised or shocked when they say they were HE.
old Webb says-She is the sort of person who says whatever she thinks and is not over-concerned if others don't agree with it.
ReplyDeletedoes she agree with the war started by Tony Blair/ Labour in Afghan and Iraq? and does she follow the party line on the War on libya?
I'll bet that you voted for the Blair government.
ReplyDeleteI hope that young people like Simone are to be a force of positive change within all political parties.