Saturday, 12 September 2009
The Autonomous Mafia - the tail that wags the dog
Whenever anybody is quoted in the newspapers as criticising or even questioning the efficacy of home education, you may be sure that the comments section of online editions and the letters page in the traditional edition will be filled with denunciations of the ignorance/malice/vested interests/ stupidity/cupidity/ sinister motives of whoever has expressed the opinion. Wow, it surely look as though public opinion is solidly in favour of home education. Vox populi, vox Dei! Welcome to the startlingly well organised agitprop section of the autonomous home educators
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Those who, like the present writer, hang out on the message boards of EO and HE-UK will of course be well aware that there are perhaps only two or three dozen regulars, those who contribute day after day. If we assume that there are fifty or sixty thousand home educated children in this country, then there might be somewhere in the region of eighty thousand parents. Those stalwarts of the HE lists thus represent fewer than 0.05 % of home educators. Taking a closer look at those who swamp the comments sections when articles on home education appear in the media reveals a most curious thing; they are largely those same people who are such indefatigable contributors to the message boards. (When these people find time actually to educate their children is a mystery to me! They post at two or three in the morning and then again at five AM. Some of them are online all day long as well.)
The same hard core are also the ones who organise petitions, lobby MPs, and generally behave as though they are a mass movement rather than a small group of dedicated activists. Another of their important roles is to patrol the message boards and put in their place anybody who doubts that the Badman Report is all bad, that local authority officers are agents of the Prince of Darkness or that autonomous education might not be the best way of doing things. I have had many emails offlist from people on these message boards who like to keep in touch with home education by belonging to this online community, but who do not post because of the responses that they have had in the past. Many of them agree with things that I have said on the lists, but do not wish to say so publicly for fear of the reaction. For example, more than one person has told me that they would not dare reveal on the HE-UK message board that they are actually teaching their children to read. This is, to say the least of it, a strange state of affairs to find in a support group for those who are educating their children!
I am not of course an entirely impartial observer of these shenanigans. When I had a couple of articles published on the subject a few weeks ago, the response from the autonomous activists was swift and ruthless. It demonstrates clearly how these characters operate. Here is somebody cross posting on EO and HE-UK , urging others to help skew the comments section of the TES against the Badman report;
" What about lots of comments that support Jeremy but ignore Simon.And don't forget to vote in the poll."
After a few people had expressed qualified support for my views, the same person posted again on the lists;
"Couple of less supportive comments on there now, even a nothing to fearnothing to hide one! Anyone got the energy to slam em."
"Slam em'". Nice, eh? One would, by the way, hardly guess that she was married to a professor. This same process happens every time a newspaper publishes anything on home education. It is often combined with smears and innuendo against those who are less than whole heartedly in favour of home education, particularly the autonomous variety. Graham Badman himself has been the subject of death threats and while nothing as unpleasant has happened to me, I have certainly had many lies told about me in an attempt to discredit my views. For example the same person who posted the above comments also tried to start a rumour that I was actually a home education inspector!;
http://twitter.com/Maire52/status/3123694250
The mad idea that I am a friend or colleague of Graham Badman is still doing the rounds in cyberspace; a ludicrous fabrication which was first cooked up on the HE-UK list and then deliberately peddled as fact to newspaper editors. Of course I am not alone in this. When Professor Alan Smithers, a liberal and humane educationalist from Buckingham University, expressed reservations in the press about autonomous home education, he received emails branding him a fascist!
In fairness to these individuals , I believe that they honestly see themselves as the vanguard of the home educating movement, providing a voice for those too idle or inarticulate to speak out for themselves. That is certainly one way of looking at it. The other possibility is that they are a handful of strident and media savvy fanatics who are determined to impose their view upon others by any means at their disposal. For now at least the jury is still out on the question of precisely whose views and opinions the likes of firebird2110, bornjoyful and Maire52 are actually representing other than their own.
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"Those who, like the present writer, hang out on the message boards of EO and HE-UK will of course be well aware that there are perhaps only two or three dozen regulars, those who contribute day after day. If we assume that there are fifty or sixty thousand home educated children in this country, then there might be somewhere in the region of eighty thousand parents. Those stalwarts of the HE lists thus represent fewer than 0.05 % of home educators.."
ReplyDeleteThis is laughable. You have reached conclusions about the spread of autonomous education (it's the majority approach in your view) based on exactly these forums, now you make the point that those who write on the lists as a tiny minority. You seem to delight in twisting the 'facts' to suit your current argument.
"For now at least the jury is still out on the question of precisely whose views and opinions the likes of firebird2110, bornjoyful and Maire52 are actually representing other than their own."
ReplyDeleteAt least between 2 and 3 thousand judging by the Badman review responses and petition signatures. It's also well known in political circles that any response they see represents a much larger response in the community who don't bother to contact them. When I went to HESFES earlier this year I was shocked at the number of friends who felt strongly about this review. These were people who had allowed previous consultations to flow past with little notice. I found the same reaction at a local meeting about 2 months ago and on local lists. There genuinely are widespread feelings against the review and people are significantly more concerned this time around.
I think that many people overlook the diversity of home educators. I agree with Sharon above that there is a ground swell of opinion against the review...but there are also a considerable number out there who are in favour of more legislation and an even greater number who are not involved in any campiagn for or against. I know I keep waffling on about my local group, it isn't the only group of home educators I know (I have organised a camp for Christian home educators for the past 5 years, so I fairly familiar with that bunch too) but obviously the local group is more diverse.
ReplyDeleteIn my local group there is a considerable number of families who have electively home educated from the early years of their childrens lives, and since many of them do follow an AE approach, they are concerned about the implications and would sign petitions etc. Then there are the "one off " home educators, who have taken 1 child out of school for a reason (special needs, bullying) and who have no particular "political" interests. They have often found their way to us via the LA (the EWO's hand out my name and we now have a leaflet that they ditribute) so they don't have any partiuclar gripe with the LA anyway. Some don't have a computer, so all this tends to pass them by. If they have a special needs child they are often so caught up with day to day issues that they haven't the capacity to do anything else, even if they wanted too. They dont have a long term view - they only home ed the one child and are perhaps using schools happily for others.
Then there are a more challenging group of families who have children who were either expelled- or more commonly they are withdrawn because they were about to be. These children are often challenging for us to cope with as a home ed group...perhaps elsewhere they don't turn up to such activities, but because we try hard not to exclude them, they do. Then "things" happen - unfortunately we have had incidents that meant that they didn't leave their bullying behaviours at the school gate.... so we then end up with a fourth group- who tend to be so anti the 3rd group that they now propagate the view that " certain sorts of people shouldn' t be allowed to home educate" - and these sorts of people will be those campaigning in favour of Badman.....it all gets very complicated.
I could go on, but wrestling with lunch calls/...
Well Sharon, I still think that the autonomous approach might be the commonest in home education. I was making the point that it is a tiny number of individuals who make all the running. I have no idea how many of the two or three thousand names on the petitions are home educators and how many are friends and family of home educators who have signed as a sign of support of a particular parent, rather than because they feel strongly about Graham Badman's review. I have often done this myself when friends are campaiging about some issue and want to build up the numbers. You say that there is a lot of concern about the review. This is true. And a lot of that concern has been provoked not by the review per se, but by people claiming that it will mean the end of home education in this country. In other words, the response has, as I said, been co-ordinated by the same small number of individuals. They have been worrying people by telling them that their children will be taken off for interrogation alone and that their homes will no longer be sacrosanct. It is nonsense. I rather suspect that many ordinary home educators would not have been much bothered by the review, had there not been those who wished to whip up a panic.
ReplyDelete"Well Sharon, I still think that the autonomous approach might be the commonest in home education."
ReplyDeleteBased on what evidence? In my experience the majority fall between parent controlled and autonomous and use elements of both. Mike FW carried out some research in this area and I'm sure you will agree he is more likely to have had responses from the autonomous end of the spectrum. When he asked about who initiated the learning (one of the main definitions of autonomous education) he found that in 17% of families the children initiate nearly all learning, in 72% of families the initiative is shared amongst adults and children and in 11% the parents initiate what is learnt. A typical bell curve with the majority falling in the middle and a good match for the home educators I've met in person. When asked if they were followed a structured/formal, flexible or autonomous/unschooled approach, the percentages were 9%, 47% and 44% respectively, so you can see that parents initiate learning even in families that call themselves autonomous/unschoolers. He also found that 62% used curriculum books sometimes or often and followed a timetable either closely or flexibly.
"I was making the point that it is a tiny number of individuals who make all the running. I have no idea how many of the two or three thousand names on the petitions are home educators and how many are friends and family of home educators who have signed as a sign of support of a particular parent, rather than because they feel strongly about Graham Badman's review."
Over 2000 responses were submitted to the Badman review, the majority of respondents were home educating parents or children and the majority of respondents were against the changes he went on to recommend (on monitoring and registration the support for support was more mixed).
"You say that there is a lot of concern about the review. This is true. And a lot of that concern has been provoked not by the review per se, but by people claiming that it will mean the end of home education in this country."
I've not heard anyone say that it will mean the end of home education in this country. I have heard it said that it will be the end of autonomous education and I believe this to be the case myself. We would not have been able to educate autonomously if the visits we had early on had continued.
"In other words, the response has, as I said, been co-ordinated by the same small number of individuals."
This is often the case in any area of society, but I think the Badman review has caused many more home educators to become involved in learning about the review and responding to it than any previous consultation. They do not appear to be being led by the nose to me. They are asking questions, making freedom of information enquiries and writing to their MPs, I believe over half have been contacted by at least one constituent so far. I have seen many new names on campaign groups that I've not seen on national lists before so I don't think it's as small a number as you suggest.
"They have been worrying people by telling them that their children will be taken off for interrogation alone and that their homes will no longer be sacrosanct. It is nonsense."
The plan is for the LA to have automatic right of access to the home so it will not be sacrosanct, so no lie there. You are suggesting that it never has been sacrosanct, but that's a different issue and doesn't affect most people. If the law goes through as the wording in the consultation suggests the LA will be required to visit twice in the first year and annually thereafter as evidenced by the use of 'should'. The LA will also have the option to interview the child alone, also not a lie. You may think it is a nonsense and will not happen in practice, but the LA will be within the law if they choose to do it if this legislation goes through and they may be in trouble with Ofted if they don't visit and the wording of the law states that they should.
If we assume that the responses to the Badman Review were, as you say froma mixture of parents and children, this is still a tiny minority, co-ordinated I suspect from the EO and HE-UK lists. If we guess that two thirds of the responses were from parents, that gives us about 1200/1300. If we assume a figure of 50000 home educated children, then that would be about 80000 parents in total. This means that fewer than 2% of parents responded to the review. In other words we do not have any idea of the views of over 98% of home educating parents. As I said, a small number co-ordinated by a tiny number of individuals.
ReplyDeleteA 2% response from a population is huge in political terms and I think you are underestimating the size of home educator families too. The US research found the that average home educator family size was 3.5 compared to the national average of 2 and research in this country found that 12.7% of home educating families were single parent. Certainly this fits with the families I am friends with. At our peak, about 4 years ago, there were 10 parents with 18 children. You are also over estimating the significance of the EO and HE-UK lists. I've seen very active campaigning activities on all of the home education lists I've dipped into and 4 of them were not the EO and HE-UK lists.
ReplyDeleteYes, I belong to others as well. A lot of what i have seen on this topic seems to have originated on the big lists; check out the email signitures.
ReplyDeleteTo give you a specific example of the sort of person who is constantly beavering away in this field and whose pseudonym you are doubtless familiar with, let me draw your attention to firebird2110. Actually, she must be a pretty shrewd woman. She managed to diagnose me as a sociopath without even meeting me. Spookily accurate! You will have seen messages from her a lot. Although she lives in the stockbroker belt of Surrey, you will find her contributing to the comments sections of local newspapers as far away as Lancashire and Portsmouth. You might remember my remarking how recently many of these fanatics began home educating? Here is a classic case. She sent her child to nursery and the kid is only five now, so she has been home educating for less than a year. A new convert to the cause indeed, but all the more enthusiastic for that.
By the way Sharon, one of the reasons that US home educating families tend to be larger is that at least a third of them are devoutly religious. Many follow the biblical injunction on procreation and therefore eschew contraception. I doubt that is the case with many HE families in this country, although I am open to correction on this point.
ReplyDelete"To give you a specific example of the sort of person who is constantly beavering away in this field and whose pseudonym you are doubtless familiar with, let me draw your attention to firebird2110."
ReplyDeleteYes, I've seen that name. I've just had a look on one of the major campaigning sites and had to go back three pages past about 16 other individuals on Yahoo to find it.
"She sent her child to nursery and the kid is only five now, so she has been home educating for less than a year. A new convert to the cause indeed, but all the more enthusiastic for that."
True, and with good reason, she has more to lose than you or I as she wants freedom to provide her child with a suitable education for another 11 years, but there are also plenty of long term home educators campaigning too. Just looking at the responses to your blog today and we see you, me and Fiona who are all long term home educators whose children have passed or are towards the end of their compulsory education years. What's your point?
"If we assume that the responses to the Badman Review were, as you say froma mixture of parents and children, this is still a tiny minority, co-ordinated I suspect from the EO and HE-UK lists. If we guess that two thirds of the responses were from parents, that gives us about 1200/1300. If we assume a figure of 50000 home educated children, then that would be about 80000 parents in total."
ReplyDeleteBTW, s research sample size of 1053 is enough to produce results with a 95% confidence level and a confidence interval of 3, so a response to the level you describe is excellent. Admittedly the respondents were self selected but presumably they represent those with strong feelings either way.
Simon, "Many follow the biblical injunction on procreation and therefore eschew contraception. I doubt that is the case with many HE families in this country, although I am open to correction on this point."
ReplyDeleteThere is quite a large proportion of families who would identify themselves as home educating for religious reasons,and they certainly have larger than average families, size wise...my 8 aren't at all unusual. Like the rest of the home ed world they are divided as to views of Badman - many against, some in favour and probably a lot more who don't have the energy to worry about such issues. When I was waffling earlier about the diversity of home educators (and therefore trying to explain that I don't think we do really know what all home educators think, only the opinion of those who appear on home ed email lists) I was going to get round to the groups who don't mix with other home educators at all -such as the Taylor Brethren - who don't use computers - so certainly won't be signing any online petitions. Although I think they now run schools for their children from 11- 17 years, all primary age are still home educated .. and they have large families too. There must be other groups too.
Ah Julie, I was actually hoping to broach this subject when you mentioned how many children you had. I probably wouldn't have done though so. I guessed it might be connected with your religion. There are quite a few home educating Witnesses in Essex, mainly up towards Harwich way. There is also a community of Hutterites who won't have television. I also know of a group of Brethren in the Midlands, near Worcester. I know that this is a motivation for some home educators in this country, but I did not think it nearly as common as in the States.
ReplyDeleteAh...but we adopted 4 of our children...so I am not sure we count!
ReplyDelete