Readers might want to watch a new comedy, which begins on television on December 23rd. It will be on Channel 4 and is written by Caitlin Moran. The plot will be about a group of home educated children living on a housing estate in Wolverhampton and will be a bit like Shameless. Here is a link to it:
http://www.comedy.co.uk/guide/tv/raised_by_wolves/
I'm not at all sure that this is going to be a brilliant representation of home education and could make people who watch it feel that such children would do better if they were in school.
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There's a previously home-educated character in Fresh Meat (comedy centering around a group of university students) on C4 - can't say it's the most flattering representation, but it is currently on.
ReplyDeleteTrouble with most comedies nowadays is that the funny bits are few and far between.
ReplyDeletedoes any one really take any notice of the rubbish channel 4 put out?
ReplyDeleteActually, there's been quite a lot of home education on film and TV if you know where to look for it. Think about the Railway Children. Or maybe not, because I'm sure LA's would be seriously worried about them playing near railway lines...
ReplyDeleteAnne
'Actually, there's been quite a lot of home education on film and TV if you know where to look for it. Think about the Railway Children.'
DeleteActually, this is quite an interesting point. You have the same thing with children in Enid Blyton stories, of course. It often makes me laugh when people talk as though home education was some revolutionary new idea!
I first read about home-education in Mallory Towers, but at the time I just thought it was something that used to happen 'a long time ago' - because to me, the time in Mallory Towers was quite a while ago. It's only as an adult having begun to be involved with home-ed that it occurred to me that that was what it was.
DeleteI do, however, remember that the main character (can't remember her name off the top of my head) was described as rather spoilt, etc, and the book was a little negative about her having been 'taught at home'. There are quite a few other children's books with home-ed in - I've just re-read Little Women and both Beth and Amy are home-educated - Amy being pulled out of school due to being caned.
'I first read about home-education in Mallory Towers'
DeleteAh yes, Gwendoline; who had never been to school. I am currently re-reading the entire Mallory Towers cycle.
"It often makes me laugh when people talk as though home education was some revolutionary new idea!"
ReplyDeleteYes, I laugh too. It seems strange that collectively people have such short memories. Most of the children's books we read which were written in the early to middle 20thC had examples of home education in them, and it wasn't just Blyton either. But in order to support the idea that home educators are persecuted and that a current group of home educators are somehow pioneers paving the way for those in the future, they have to create a narrative to go with that, and that means removing from history some of the examples of everyday ordinary home education.