Monday 18 November 2013
The growth of confrontation over the last fifteen years between home educators and local authorities
I have long thought that some of the more aggressive home educators bear a good deal of the responsibility for the antagonism which presently exists between local authorities and the home educating community. Apropos of this, I was looking recently at a book which I acquired in 1998, when my daughter became five and I was, at a stroke, officially transformed into a home educator. It is called The Home Education Handbook and was written by Jane Lowe, who has been mentioned here recently.
The astonishing thing about The Home Education Handbook is that although it was published in 1996, it portrays a world that is scarcely recognisable now. Many home educating parents today seem to think that until people like Mike Fortune-Wood and others of his militant ilk took a hand in things, home educators were being bossed about and bullied by local authorities left, right and centre. The picture drawn by Jane Lowe in 1996 is very different. Let me quote a few passages, to show you what I mean:
Most parents do not have any objection to a visit, because it helps to place the education in context.
It would hardly be possible to make such a statement today, where visits are widely regarded as being one of the most contentious issues in home education.
Many advisers are friendly and sympathetic and they may be able to give you helpful ideas and suggestions, but they are not obliged to give advice to home educators. The adviser’s remit is to check that you are providing proper education.
Once again, this sounds very different from the attitudes that one typically sees in places such as the HE-UK internet list!
The adviser has to assess the entire scope of your home education…Before the visit you could get out all the books and materials which you are using and arrange them on a table with the child’s own work. It is helpful if the work is arranged in order in files, exercise books and folders…The adviser will be looking for some evidence of progress in the work that has been covered, and he will be checking to see that the work is at a level which is appropriate to the child’s age and capabilities.
I think that this is enough to give us a flavour of the thing. As I said, a little over fifteen years ago; but just imagine an organisation run by and for home educators producing this today! So different is the atmosphere now, that had I not mentioned beforehand that this was produced by Jane Lowe and the Home Education Advisory Service, readers might have been forgiven for thinking that I was quoting from some local authority website; one which was particularly strict and unfriendly to home educators at that! Yet this was the general feeling among home educating parents at that time and there was not the slightest hint of conflict with local authorities. My question is a simple one. To what do readers attribute the great change in attitude which has taken place since this was written? In the late 1990s, one of the main home education support groups was in perfect accord with local authorities and advising parents to work alongside their LA and cooperate with them as far as possible. What has changed?
Just to anticipate one possible suggestion, that Jane Lowe was some sort of collaborator and her views suspect, I would ask readers to bear in mind that she was close to Alan Thomas and they wrote a book together.
Webb says-To what do readers attribute the great change in attitude which has taken place since this was written? In the late 1990s,
ReplyDeletePeople demand and expect a far better service in everything so when their have contact with an LA and find the service is rubbish people react by telling them to get lost! we are the customers of an LA and their should treat us like that when the gas man come round to read meter he is very polite and treats me with respect because he knows that i pay his wages.
I noticed the same trend because I was around at that time too. My sense is that it was the arrival on the scene of 2 particular double-barrelled fathers.
ReplyDelete'I noticed the same trend because I was around at that time too. My sense is that it was the arrival on the scene of 2 particular double-barrelled fathers.'
DeleteYes, I too believe this to be the case. It is fascinating to note that the arrival on the, until then predominantly female, home educating scene of two men, was the cause of a sudden surge of aggression!
I know of one double-barreled father - Mike Fortune-Wood, please can you tell me who is the other?
DeleteCan I be nosy, Simon? You praise this handbook for its measured tone, but you still chose to remain unknown as long as you could.
ReplyDeleteI'm honestly not being snarky or point scoring, I'm just intrigued as to why you made that decision then yet seem to be against other people being able to make it now. What do you think has changed in those 18 years? (allowing time for the book to be written)
I've seen a lot change in the 8 years I've either full or flexi home edded, but my perception was that the balance between home education as a lifestyle choice and home education as another educational method was altering. You've been around a lot longer so I'd be interested in your perception.
Atb
Anne
'I'm just intrigued as to why you made that decision then yet seem to be against other people being able to make it now.'
DeleteI thought at the time, and still think now, that it was crazy that nobody asked about the child's education. My wife and I were astonished that no enquiries were made and when, after three years of home education and a move to another district, we finally bumped into a truancy patrol, it was felt that it was only right and proper that the local authority should ask what we were up to. I would cheerfully have answered any questions when my daughter turned five and think that questions should be asked routinely at this age, if a child is not registered at a school. My views have not changed on this.
So you had the right to choose, and you made that choice even though you would cheeerfully have answered questions. With the system as it stands, any parent who agrees with your viewpoint can come forward, and anyone who doesn't won't.
DeleteI didn't have a choice to make about being 'known'. I don't know what I would have done if I had had, but I suspect it would have depended on whether I could see any point in doing so, or any reasons why I shouldn't do so.
This is where LA's attitudes make all the difference. If you treat people like so-far undetected criminals and invent legal requirements to give you authority and powers you don't have, you can't be too surprised when no one wants to have you around. It's like a bully complaining that they aren't asked to birthday parties!
Anne
'So you had the right to choose, and you made that choice even though you would cheerfully have answered questions.'
DeleteYes, but what I am saying now is what I said at the time; that that is a bad situation which should not exist. The fact is that when I moved from London to Essex, nobody would have known if I had ditched the child en route. This is not good. There have been several cases, most notably that of Fred West's daughter, Charmaine, when this slackness about keeping track of children has enabled parents to dispose of them, with nobody being any the wiser or even knowing that a child has gone missing.
Ann says This is where LA's attitudes make all the difference. If you treat people like so-far undetected criminals and invent legal requirements to give you authority and powers you don't have, you can't be too surprised when no one wants to have you around. It's like a bully complaining that they aren't asked to birthday parties
ReplyDeletewell said i agree the approach from Hampshire made sure we would never allow them into our house or see the the child
that is where LA go wrong their think their can bully parents but times have changed and people wont put up with it anymore
Will you ever shut up about your LA?
Deleteno i wont you wanna come round and try and stop me? Bertie waiting he goes though bone like butter
Delete'no i wont you wanna come round and try and stop me? Bertie waiting he goes though bone like butter'
DeleteFor readers unfamiliar with Mr Williams' domestic arrangements, I should perhaps explain that Bertie is the second of the Williams' sons and was also home educated. He didn't really take to chess or mathematics though, unlike his elder brother Peter, and so now Mr and Mrs Williams keep him chained by the door with instructions to bite any local authority officers who might attempt to gain admission to the house.
Bertie a British bulldog Webb what are you on about?
DeleteIts called humour and it was a joke. You really are a prime example of why some people would like home education more regulated. You hid your son away and didn't want anyone in an official capacity to see him. Your command of the English language is appalling and you very quickly escalate situations to threats of violence. Can you not see that you are adding fuel to the fire of regulation?
Deleteanon says "You hid your son away"
Deletenow that is funny you have a job to hide my son away he always out and about with his mates or his gf or at college studying he had news today scored A in mock further maths A level test
there be no new regulation on home education for this parliament so no need to panic you really think some jobs wroth going to bring in regulation cos of something i write lol
Webb missed out that Peter very good at physics to wonder why he forgot to mention that?
I do enjoy our chats on here
'you really think some jobs wroth going to bring in regulation cos of something i write lol'
DeleteCome now, there must be some 'jobs wroth' out there who will take up this challenge? Mind, it will be no easy task to frame some piece of legislation which will control somebody like Mr Williams.
Webb says"Come now, there must be some 'jobs wroth' out there who will take up this challenge? Mind, it will be no easy task to frame some piece of legislation which will control somebody like Mr Williams".
DeleteI doubt any jobs worth would take up the challenge to tame me lol I did find out from our D Hinds who is our M.P that home education comes low down the list of things a government is interested in he told me that Badman report would just be anther report that gathers dust on the house of commons shelf.
There be no new regulation..... did you used to be a pirate?
Deleteno was it true you was investigated by Social services over then number of times your kids where taken to hospital?
DeleteAnd you didn't ditch her en route, did you? Like the overwhelming majority of parents, no matter how you educate, you put her welfare ahead of your convenience, no matter how irritating she might very occasionally have been. We cannot judge all society by the worst representatives of it or we wouldn't let anyone drive a car because they might be drunk, reckless or simply decide to use it as a weapon.
ReplyDeleteWhat worries me is that by diverting resources to routinely monitoring home educators, you are stretching a system that already isn't working in some areas to breaking point.
If anyone was misguided enough to put me in charge I would want some serious statistical analysis of ALL Serious Case Reviews in the last five years to see if there were patterns. And then I would target help and support at the groups who were most shown to need it, and if improvements didn't happen, then I would want there to be a care system that was better than what the children would be leaving.
Once that was seen to be happening, you might start to rebuild public confidence in the system, and let us all keep an eye out for children. That's why I never mind people saying 'not in school' when we're out and about. I like the thought that if they were wandering and in trouble those same people would help them.
Anne
'What worries me is that by diverting resources to routinely monitoring home educators'
DeleteI'm thinking less here of monitoring home education and more about making sure that children don't simply vanish, as happens from time to time. I'm sure you're familiar with this case;
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/07_03_06_daniellereid.pdf
But how often do incidents like this occur? You could argue that we don't know, so the only way to make sure is to put all children on a database and force parents to register changes of address, etc., with a regime of frequent inspection, including regular and random checks.
DeleteAs you say, this is not really about HE, so a universal system would be required - but that's not likely to be popular, financially possible, or even worthwhile, given the rarity of these cases.
"My question is a simple one. To what do readers attribute the great change in attitude which has taken place since this was written?" - one word - internet!
ReplyDelete'"My question is a simple one. To what do readers attribute the great change in attitude which has taken place since this was written?" - one word - internet!'
DeleteThat, I fancy, requires an entire post all to itself. Certainly the internet has a good deal to do with the case. For one thing, getting an audience once required a lot of effort and a certain amount of intelligence; back, that is, in the days when most communication was by print on paper. These days, any fool can set up shops and propagate his views and opinions to all and sundry in a matter of minutes. Just look at the present writer!
It may have facilitated the spread of these ideas but I read them before I had a computer. Things along the lines of, 'it's pointless having a legal right (i.e. not to have home visits) if nobody ever uses it', for instance. And this was well before the double barrelled men mentioned earlier wrote anything about HE.
DeleteSimon wrote:
ReplyDelete"I'm thinking less here of monitoring home education and more about making sure that children don't simply vanish, as happens from time to time."
We often hear platitudes like this but without any indication of the true cost - in every respect - of delivering such security. "Making sure" looks harmless enough, but it's a guarantee, and when backed-up by phrases such as "Every Child Matters", few people dare to challenge it. But what does "Making sure" really entail here? How far would you go, Simon, to make sure that children don't simply vanish, as happens from time to time?
While these cases are horrifying, I'm disturbed by the lack of perspective here; why should these rare headline cases command attention and resources without any specified limit, while so many other cases are simply ignored?
THanks for the information about the book Simon. I think one area to look at why things have changed, is to look at why HEAS and Jane Low split off from EO. They had their different views of things, and I suspect that those involved with EO at the time didn't agree with those of Jane. EO being the larger of the two organisations ended up in a position to influence more people.
ReplyDeleteThere has often been talk about how EO used to support home visits, then they didn't then they did, or maybe they didn't. Now it really seems to be down to the EO local contacts. Some support people regardless as to whether they have visits or not, but other local contacts seem to be against home visits to the point of being aggressive about it.
'They had their different views of things, and I suspect that those involved with EO at the time didn't agree with those of Jane. EO being the larger of the two organisations ended up in a position to influence more people. '
DeleteYes, I fancy that Jane Lowe is or was a teacher. That might have some bearing on the split. many of those who are and were involved with running Education Otherwise are actively opposed to schools and formal education. Jane Lowe is not.