Thursday 5 December 2013

New terminiology in home education

Readers will perhaps recall that at the time of the  Badman enquiry, a variety of unflattering names were coined for those home educators who were suspected of being in favour of increased monitoring, so that they could profit financially. For example, they were called, 'Rent seekers'. I have been watching the emergence of two new terms for such people. So far, these terms have been limited to the likes of Fiona Nicholson, who is felt by some of the more unbalanced home educators to be Quisling in chief and  sidekick to Graham Stuart. I have seen her described as both a 'minion' and a 'fence-sitter'. 

I have to say that I like the expression 'minion'. It makes Fiona sound like a character from Game of Thrones! Incidentally, here is a little puzzle. The most demented and irrational of the home educating crowd all seem to be in the Midlands or the north of England. I wonder why that should be? There are plenty of home educators in London and the south of England, but they seem a little saner and less excitable than those in places like  Stafford and Doncaster. Whenever I am the victim of an especially unpleasant rumour, I can be quite sure that it will have had it's origins somewhere well north of London and the Home Counties. Is it something in the water, or what? 

25 comments:

  1. Fiona is north of Watford. You cannot have it both ways.

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    1. How dare you give her general location away. Do you have no respect for her privacy?

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  2. Clever well thought out comment but use your own nickname.

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  3. 'Fiona is north of Watford. You cannot have it both ways.'

    I don't think that I suggested that every home educator in the north of England is demented; merely that nearly all those who get annoyed with me come from that neck of the woods. Maybe it's a cultural thing.

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  4. I get annoyed with you and I am from South Africa.

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  5. I get annoyed too. Love from My Patagonian sheep farm. :(

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  6. Fiona is in the South so much doing the rounds with LAs and at the APPGs she could claim a second home.

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  7. Troll buster from Turkmenistan reporting for duty

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  8. And I'm from the Arctic Circle :( I guess that's North. I must be a very bad person.

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  9. Well ah am from Surreh and Simon pisses me right orf too.

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  10. Berlow was from deepest South of England actually called you on the phone, a thing so bad, that you cannot use the phone ever again!

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    1. 'Berlow was from deepest South of England actually called you on the phone, a thing so bad, that you cannot use the phone ever again!'

      Yes, I still have flashbacks about this! You may well understand why I was not eager to repeat the experience with Lisa Amphlett! I spoke quite a bit to Tania at one time.

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  11. That was a cunning stunt with the word play though..right?

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  12. Well I am not very happy about Simon pretending to be me

    Billy

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  13. And I am not from the North. Not the north of this planet anyway.

    Billy

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  14. Do people from Essex always talk to themselves then? Maybe it's something in the water...

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  15. why will an LA officer never write in a letter to you that we are paying customers who fund the LA,s ?

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  16. Someone is has been using Cheshire Cat's name and now someone has taken mine. These people have no sound argument with you Simon, so they have to resort to such childish tactics.
    Billy.

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    1. The best bit of all is that these are the very people who are accusing me of being a troll! I simply love the irony of it. The aim is of course to make any coherent discussion impossible.

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  17. I think there are more sane people in Doncaster than you might imagine - we're not all apples in a barrel ;)

    I'm now casting a Home Ed Game of Thrones in my head (something to do whilst I get some baking done).

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    1. 'I think there are more sane people in Doncaster than you might imagine - we're not all apples in a barrel ;)

      I'm now casting a Home Ed Game of Thrones in my head (something to do whilst I get some baking done).'

      Yes, my wife is from Grimsby and we spend a lot of time there. Also have connections in Doncaster. I did not mean to imply that everybody in that part of the country was loopy.

      Graham Badman instead of Charles Dance...

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  18. Hmmm, I would think Lord Tywin would have more brain cells... Balls just wouldn't cut it.

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  19. Balls would be Varys!

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    1. I refer back to my earlier brain cells comment.

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