Sunday 24 March 2013
The association of flexi-schooling and child abuse: the parent of a persistent truant writes…
I have written before of the flexi-schooling of my older daughter. She loved school, particularly the social side, but was not receiving there what I regarded as a suitable education and so we began taking her out for a day or two each week and teaching her at home. This was a reasonable compromise, with which the child was quite happy. She did not wish to be entirely home educated. The school though were not happy about this arrangement and we were on more than one occasion threatened with prosecution. The technical situation was that our daughter was truanting once or twice a week and that we were condoning her truancy.
I mention this because yesterday I drew attention to Graham Stuart’s views about this sort of thing. He feels that schooling and education are more or less synonymous and that failing to send a child registered at school to school regularly is ‘tantamount to child abuse’. I do not think now and nor did I at the time, that we were abusing our child by flexi-schooling. This attitude on the part of an MP who is supposed to be home education’s greatest supporter in parliament in worrying. It is especially worrying at the moment, since a man who is allegedly fighting for the right of parents to flexi-school holds such views. I believe that I was flexi-schooling for a couple of years; Graham Stuart regards it as child abuse. Am I really the only one who can see a problem with that?
We have had parents on here who talked about the awful situation of dragging a school refuser to school against her wishes and the trauma that this entailed. Some parents feel that it is less traumatic for the child to let her remain at home and only attend school when she is able to. This too is child abuse, apparently.
I am certainly not the only parent that I know who was in this position; that of taking a child out of school regularly in order to teach her at home. Some of these children were marked down as Code B, that is to say educated off-site. Others, like my own, were marked as being absent without permission; in other words, truanting. This has always been a bit of a theme in flexi-schooling where the school is uncooperative. The same goes for holidays. We often used to take our daughter from school in order to go and stay in Wales. She learned far more on those stays up in the mountains than she did in the classroom. Again, this was technically truanting. The idea that education equates with school and that a child out of school is being neglected is an absurd one. I am merely pointing out that one needs to be very careful relying upon a person with such views to support home education. I have seen my own flexi-schooling condemned by this person as child abuse; I cannot help but wonder what other strange views he holds on this subject.
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Webb's trying to indulge in a particularly silly semantic argument. He can't make any valid claims about Graham Stuart's views of him without knowing that Stuart would agree with the school's definition of Webb's daughter's absence as truancy. Webb says that the school and LA were uncooperative about his flex-schooling; they chose to define this as truancy.
ReplyDeletePerhaps his time would would be better spent in writing something about why the authorities take such positions - particularly in the face of evidence to the contrary. What makes the mind of a social worker or awkward headmaster tick?
I suspect that, right now, Graham Stuart couldn't care less about Simon Webb.
Remember that we're talking about Haringey as the LA here; their idea of truth and reality sometimes deviates from more widely-held views.
ReplyDelete'Webb's trying to indulge in a particularly silly semantic argument'
ReplyDeleteI am taking Graham Stuarts words about parents who fail to send their children to school for one day a month. he says that this is;
'tantamount to child abuse'
Is this a silly semantic argument?
'He can't make any valid claims about Graham Stuart's views of him without knowing that Stuart would agree with the school's definition of Webb's daughter's absence as truancy. '
How much did the Yorkshire MP know about the circumstances surrounding the supposed truancy at a school in Brighton? Graham Stuart regards schooling and education as one and the same thing. He says himself that if you miss out on school, you are missing out on education.
The silly semantic argument is in the definition of truancy; in your case, a bunch of dishonest fools branded your child as a truant, and you suggest that that makes you a target of Graham Stuart's remarks about child abuse.
DeleteYour point is not merely silly, it's thoroughly dishonest.
I think the difference between flexi-schooling and truancy is that one is agreed beforehand and the other is not.
ReplyDeleteI do believe that flexi-schooling has a place. I also believe it was being abused by schools, not parents. I was an involuntary flexi-schooler who became an involuntary HE'er and found that it was the right place for us. I think if you enter into a contract with a school that they will educate your child then it is up to you to ensure that your child is there to be educated.
If, for whatever reason, that child is not there to be educated, then a new contract is needed between school and parent. (I know it's unfair, but legally a child is not given a voice in this. Which is odd, cos they're the one voting with their feet by not going in, and it's not something you do by accident, is it?)
Most of all, what is needed is a viable alternative when a placement breaks down. Somewhere where a child feels safe, and what they learn is relevant to them and pitched at the right level. If there is no alternative then forcing a child or teenager into an environment where they are not learning and not happy and quite possibly stopping other people learning and being happy is simply stupid.
As for Graham Stuart, he is an adult who can defend himself perfectly well, if he sees it necessary. I'm sure he can see the difference between someone who makes an informed choice to home educate and someone whose child either is not wanted by a school or does not want that school.
Atb
Anne
So despite your previously stated view that not providing a suitable education is abusive to children, do you believe that Graham Stuart's suggestion that truancy is abuse can never be true?
ReplyDeleteWhat proportion of truants do you believe are receiving an education, and what proportion do you think are suffering abuse by not receiving an education?
Do you really think that, on average, ignoring anecdotal evidence of single cases such as your own, the majority of regular truants are receiving a suitable education?
'I think the difference between flexi-schooling and truancy is that one is agreed beforehand and the other is not'
ReplyDeleteAlas, just as I suspected. I was after all not educating my daughter but merely condoning her truancy.
I am sure you were educating your daughter, but it wasn't an official way, was it? And bureaucrats like officialdom. Lots of nice forms and boxes to tick and categories to fit people into.
DeleteAnd may the Good Lord help anyone who can't, or doesn't want to fit into those categories...
I'm assuming you've read George Orwell?
Atb
Anne
This brings us back to that Bucket woman. She likes to categorise people too.
Delete'Do you really think that, on average, ignoring anecdotal evidence of single cases such as your own, the majority of regular truants are receiving a suitable education?'
ReplyDeleteImpossible to say. Some regular truants are children whose parents take holidays in term term; my own daughter missed at least five or six days a term in this way. I believe that she was getting a better education that way than being at school. Others only miss a day or two of school each month for things like shopping trips or family celebrations. I doubt this harms their education in the least. I think that this question is really asked from the perspective of somebody who feels that school is the best place for an education to take place and that the less time that children spend there, the worse the education that they will receive. I do not believe this to be true.
Simon wrote,
ReplyDelete“'Do you really think that, on average, ignoring anecdotal evidence of single cases such as your own, the majority of regular truants are receiving a suitable education?'
Impossible to say.”
I think you’re being more than a little disingenuous. You know the educational outcomes for regular truants as well as anyone, if not better.
Simon wrote,
"I think that this question is really asked from the perspective of somebody who feels that school is the best place for an education to take place and that the less time that children spend there, the worse the education that they will receive."
Not at all. I have home educated all of our children from birth so clearly do not believe that school is the best place for an education to take place, at least, not for all children. You also feel the same, that’s not the point of this discussion. The question is, do truants, on the whole, gaining a suitable education at home? You have suggested in the past that failure to provide a suitable education is abusive, and you know that truants like Jack (who you’ve described previously) are not getting an education at home, so ipso facto you must think that allowing a child to truant is often abusive. Statistics suggest that this is true in the vast majority of truancy cases. How does this differ from Graham’s description of truants missing education?
Please don’t avoid the question again by bringing up the minority of truants like your daughter who has received a suitable education at home. The figures make it clear that your daughter, who I believe gained good GCSEs, is part of a tiny minority of ex-truants.
'Please don’t avoid the question again by bringing up the minority of truants like your daughter who has received a suitable education at home. The figures make it clear that your daughter, who I believe gained good GCSEs, is part of a tiny minority of ex-truants.'
ReplyDeleteYou comments, like those of Graham Stuart and indeed the writer of the original newspaper article, are meaningless without defining what we mean by the term 'truant'. If we mean a child whose parents take her shopping once or twice a month during school hours, then the educational outcome for such a child is no worse than for other children. Similarly, the child who goes on holiday a couple of times a year in term time might technically be a regular truant, but I believe that holidays can be more educational than being in the classroom.
Perhaps you are referring to children who miss school once or twice a week? Whether this harms their education is an interesting point. I gather from your comments that you believe that the best measure of whether an education has been received by a child is to look at the number of GCSEs that they subsequently gain. Would this sum up your opinion? I am bound to point out that there is a little more to education than this. The idea which Graham Stuart puts forward, and with which you clearly agree, is that a child who is not at school is automatically missing from education. I am by no means sure that I would go along with this point of view unreservedly.
' Can we at least have an answer to that question?'
ReplyDeleteThe difficulty I am having is in establishing your own views on what constitutes educational failure. Commenting on the previous thread, you say:
'In 2002, for instance, only 13% of school children who were persistent truants gained good GCSEs compared to 60% for those who did not truant.'
This strongly suggests that you are one of those who measure educational attainment primarily in terms of qualifications gained by children. In other words, you think that truants fail educationally because they don't get many GCSEs. Earlier today however, you reveal that only one of your own children has any GCSEs. This suggests that by your own standards, your children have failed educationally and have done no better than a regular truant might be expected to do. Can you explain in a little more detail how you think that educational success and failure are measured? Are GCSEs really the only or best yardstick?
Simon quoted,
Delete' Can we at least have an answer to that question?'
Where did this quote come from?
Anonymous wrote,
ReplyDelete“Where did this quote come from?”
It was a reply to a comment I made earlier that seems have disappeared after Simon replied to it. I’ve copied it again below.
Simon wrote,
“I gather from your comments that you believe that the best measure of whether an education has been received by a child is to look at the number of GCSEs that they subsequently gain. Would this sum up your opinion? I am bound to point out that there is a little more to education than this.”
No, I don’t think that the number of GCSEs a child gains is a measure of whether an education has been received by a child. Only one of my children has any but all have gone into higher and further education and I know other young people without GCSEs who have gone straight into work and are highly educated
Simon wrote,
“The idea which Graham Stuart puts forward, and with which you clearly agree, is that a child who is not at school is automatically missing from education.”
I’ve already said that I do not agree with this. Try reading the comments before replying. My suggestion is that you agree with Graham (at least for certain truants), and nothing you’ve said so far dissuades me from that theory.
Simon wrote,
“You comments, like those of Graham Stuart and indeed the writer of the original newspaper article, are meaningless without defining what we mean by the term 'truant'.”
I asked you if you agreed with Graham’s comments if applied to children like Jack. Can we at least have an answer to that question, then we can discuss if that's the type of children Graham was talking about as a separate point.
Simon wrote,
ReplyDelete“The difficulty I am having is in establishing your own views on what constitutes educational failure.”
Why do you need to know my views in order to state your own?
Simon wrote,
“Can you explain in a little more detail how you think that educational success and failure are measured? Are GCSEs really the only or best yardstick?”
Clearly I don't think that, and if you had read the comment you are replying to where I say, “No, I don’t think that the number of GCSEs a child gains is a measure of whether an education has been received by a child”, you would surely know this.
I am discussing your views and comparing and contrasting them with Graham Stuart’s. I am suggestion that you agree with Graham the the extent that you both believe that not providing an education to a child is abusive and that many truants are not receiving an education. Nothing you’ve said so far dissuades me from that theory.
Again, I am asking you if you (not me) agree with Graham’s comments if applied to children like Jack. Can we at least have an answer to that question, then we can discuss if that's the type of children Graham was talking about.
Simon wrote,
ReplyDelete"Earlier today however, you reveal that only one of your own children has any GCSEs. This suggests that by your own standards, your children have failed educationally and have done no better than a regular truant might be expected to do."
Earlier today? I wrote this in the comment you were replying to. It was followed by the information that they had all gone into higher and further education. Do the majority of truants attend university? Did your truant daughter attend university?
'Simon wrote,
ReplyDelete“The difficulty I am having is in establishing your own views on what constitutes educational failure.”
Why do you need to know my views in order to state your own?'
Obviously because I think that we are talking at cross purposes. Apropos of the supposed educational failure of children who do not attend school regularly, you say that;
'In 2002, for instance, only 13% of school children who were persistent truants gained good GCSEs compared to 60% for those who did not truant.'
This leads me to suppose that you regard the passing of GCSEs as in some way a measure of educational success. I think that there is a little more to it than that and so I am trying to find out how you yourself measure such success. You say that your children went on to higher education. Is this your measure of educational achievement, rather than GCSEs? Until we both agree what would constitute educational success or failure, there is little point in asking whether this or that group of children have succeeded or failed. So far, I have managed to glean from what you have said that if children at school do not pass a certain number of GCSEs at a particular grade, then as far as you are concerned, they have failed academically. There seems to be a different way of measuring your own children's success, one in which failure to pass a single GCSE is somehow not academic failure, but an educational success! You can surely see why I am growing a little puzzled?
Let me state the case plainly. Do you think that education is measured by either the number of GCSEs passed by children or by their progession into further or higher education? If so, do the same standards apply alike to those who have attended school and those who have been home educated? That is to say, if only 13% of a group of home educated children passed five GCSEs or more, including maths and English, at grades A*-C; would you say that those children were academic failures?
Simon wrote,
ReplyDelete“Obviously because I think that we are talking at cross purposes…so I am trying to find out how you yourself measure such success.”
But my views are irrelevant. I am trying to compare your views to Graham’s, not mine. Do you think that the truant, Jack, was receiving a suitable education? It’s a simple question, Simon, why are you struggling to answer it? Why are you working so had to shift the focus from your views, to mine? Is it because you want to avoid answering this very simple question?
BTW, I introduced the GCSE statistics because you have said in the past that you consider them to be important and I am trying to clarify your views on the truancy issue. But when you seemed incapable of stating your views based on truancy research into GCSEs results, I re-introduced Jack in the hope that you would find it easier to use a concrete example of truant you know. Yet even though you knew Jack you still seem incapable of deciding if he did, or did not, receive a suitable education whilst truanting. You didn't seem to have this difficulty the last time you wrote about Jack.
DeleteThe difficulty here is that I have already said clearly that it is unlikely that every child who is registered at school and not attending regularly will be achieving well in any academic sense. This, in any case, went without saying. That does not mean that every child listed by a school as being a persistent truant should be regarded as a victim of child abuse, which is what Graham Stuart was claiming. Some will not be receiving adequate educations at home, while others will be.I am bound to say that your view of parents as educators does not seem to be a good one!
ReplyDelete"I am bound to say that your view of parents as educators does not seem to be a good one!"
DeleteYou don't know my views on parents as educators, so how can you reach this conclusion?
'But my views are irrelevant. I am trying to compare your views to Graham’s, not mine.'
ReplyDeleteMy views on the case are very simple. I do not believe that education only takes place at schools. A pupil at school does not stop learning when he goes home in the afternoon, nor is he necessarily failing to learn anything at weekends. In fact, I believe that home is a better place to receive an education than school. So we can sum up the difference between Graham Stuart's ideas about this from one very easily. He believes that not ensuring that a registered pupil at a school attends regularly, means that the child is unlikely to be receiving an education. I do not think that this is the case. he regards it as child abuse not to send a child to school regularly; I disagree.
You still haven't answered my question. Do you think that the truant, Jack, was receiving a suitable education?
ReplyDeleteI think I can assume from your vague comments above that you think that Jack is not receiving a suitable education (you say this goes without saying for some truants). Since you have in the past suggested that not providing a suitable education is abusive, can we safely conclude that you agree that at least some children are being abused when their parent's fail to send them to school? So do you just disagree just with Graham's generalisation from the particular?
ReplyDelete'"I am bound to say that your view of parents as educators does not seem to be a good one!"
ReplyDeleteYou don't know my views on parents as educators, so how can you reach this conclusion?'
Perhaps it is because of your vigorous defence of a man who apparently believes that children who spend more time with their parents and less at school are victims of child abuse? I tend to assume that parents are the best educators and that schools are very much inferior when it comes to providing an education.
I feel it has been less a defense of Graham and more a query about how your views differ from his because, as far as I can see, there is very little difference. You feel much the same way about the Jacks of this world as it appears Graham does.
Deleteor even, *defence*.
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