It is I think generally agreed that those who hang out on the home education message boards such as EO and HE-UK are not necessarily representative of home educating parents as a whole. They never the less have a considerable influence because, as I have remarked before, they are often the ones whose letters are read in the newspapers, who are interviewed on television and meet MPs. I cannot help but notice that they seem very typical of campaigning, middle class women. There is of course nothing at all wrong with this. Some of my best friends are middle class women; indeed I am married to one. Never the less, I am intrigued to follow the current agitation against the recommendations of the Graham Badman Report and compare it with other such campaigns that I have observed in the past.
There is, it seems to me, a profile of the typical home educating activist. They are almost invariably women, often well educated and living in nice areas. They are opposed to nuclear energy and in favour of renewable sources. They vote Labour or Liberal, seldom, if ever, Conservative. They tend to be dubious about vaccination and more likely to fool about with homeopathic remedies than the general population. They are often vegetarian, read the Guardian or Independent and believe that America is always to be condemned, except for a few weeks earlier this year when they elected a black man as their president. Their children have been withdrawn from school not on ideological grounds, but because they have been bullied. They are "passionate" about home education rather than having chosen it for purely rational and well thought out reasons.
Those fighting the implementation of the recommendations of the Badman Report strike me as the sort of people one could equally well meet at a rally against the fluoridation of drinking water or the building of a nuclear power station. Fifty years ago they would have been wearing hats and speaking RP, packing a church hall to protest about Suez, the American blockade of Cuba or to help found a Working Man's Public Reading Room. In short, they favour worthy causes.
This is not really leading anywhere, I am just spinning a thread. I suppose at the back of my mind, I am wondering if home education will end up in a few years just like Suez and Cuba, as a quaint cause that certain people got very worked up about. In other words, taking the long view, is home education an exciting development in learning and very much the thing of the furture or is it just another brief crank idea which will in a decade or two be consigned to the dustbin of history?
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One of the reasons I removed my children from school was because of bullying. Do you think this makes me a less worthy home educator than somebody who chooses it after 'purely rational and well thought out reasons"?
ReplyDeleteIt is true, I have no idealogical stand against school per se - although I do think that on reflection, that they are an outdated way of educating children.
Could you clarify please if you think people who previously sent their children to school should not home educate? Because I can't quite work out where you stand on this issue, but you seem to hint at it.
Besides, many people are completely unaware that they are allowed to home educate, until problems arise at school, and then, after a period of research, they find out that it is a legal viable option.
Get back in the knife box, Miss Sharp! I like to think that I have made a conscious and well though out decision, but I am no more able to resist the power of the Zeitgeist than any other memeber of modern society. I was looking at this from a sociological viewpoint, not criticising this group or that of home educators.
ReplyDeleteFor instance about ten years ago, when I moved here, I laid out my garden in a daring new way. An irregular, jigsaw puzzle shaped lawn, a stand of bamboo at the end. Of course, this is just what many other gardeners of my age and class were doing and I have seen many such gardens. I thought I was being daring and original, in fact I was surrendering my will to a passing fad! It is often the case with the names we choose for our children, the wallpaper we put up, books we read and so on. I was just musing on the possibility that home educating children might be another such fashionable trend that we follow unthinkingly, while at the same time kidding ourselves that we are rugged individualists.
You seem obsessed with labelling people; dropping them into neatly labelled boxes. Maybe so you can dismiss them as a minority who's views don't count? I fit some bits of your profile but not others. I don't think I'm middle class; my father was a manual worker, our current income is below the national average and much of our work is manual. I wasn't particularly well educated when we began home educating (left school with 'O' levels). I don't read a paper so I'm not sure which compartment I fit in there. I have mixed feelings about America, vaccination and the various political parties and have never considered using hoeopathic remedies. Certainly your description doesn't match the home educators I've corresponded with over the years.
ReplyDeleteMaybe the difference between you and those who argue against Badman has as much to do with their libertarian/authoritarian views as their political stance? I have libertarian-left views according to the Political Compass (http://www.politicalcompass.org/) and by my lights I'm in good company with the Nelson Mandela, the Dalai Lama and Gandhi. I suspect you fall within the authoritarian-right quarter of the political compass along with Thatcher, Gordon Brown, George Bush, Hitler, etc. Maybe this is why your views match establishment views so closely? You seem to use the same measures of success as the establishment (GCSEs, for example). You live in a country being run by people with similar views and outlooks on life as yourself so there is no need for you to rebel or argue against them. It may explain why you have argued publicly in support of establishment views?
I am afraid your comments are based more on prejudice than actuality. For instance the class make-up of home educators tends to reflect the area. One LEA Inspector is on record that in his LA home educators are mostly working class on council estates.
ReplyDeleteIn our case as a well informed and specific choice our son will not be starting at the age of 5. And as my wife was a teacher for a number of years I think we can safely say that we are aware of all the issues. Strangely many of the other home educators we come into contact with are similarly well motivated. In view of the many hurdles that authority puts in the way of home educating, including exceeding their statutory powers in ultra vires demands, and the vilification that home educating is currently under, accusing us all of being child molesters using home education to avoid official scrutiny, home education is a huge step, not a passing fad.
Far from being woolly liberals, home educators are just as likely to be died in the wool conservatives, and in our case we are meat eating, pro nuclear, fervently pro vaccination, neutral on flouridisation, and if I had favoured homoeopathic remedies I would be dead.
In the USA there is a slight, but very slight, tendency in the direction you portray. In the UK you couldn't be more wrong.
In the UK the only thing home educators have in common is that we want our children to have the best life they can, and we feel that the conventional, increasingly rigid school system, which successive governments have seen as much as a means for social engineering as education, cannot provide that.
Far from being a fad, this is a genuine grass roots movement unsupported by any political party or movement, and as generally popular as teetotalism.
Sorry that so many other people reaching similar decisions to yourself has rocked your boat, and led to this bad example of sloppy thinking on your part
Oh for the record I am 54, am well aware of the examples you quote, I find the fact that you fail to see that causes change as the world changes very odd. Many movements such as decriminalisation of homosexuality and enfranchisement of women withered and died because the causes they espoused were won, similarly Suez, Cuba and reading rooms are dead causes because the world moved on. None of the movements you quoted were the preserve of middle class women, and if that is your recollection of them I'm afraid your memory is faulty.
Whimsy is a fun writing style, please base it on fact though.
Fine as an exercise in poking sticks into hornets' nests but....:-)
ReplyDeleteI would say that a lot of the chatter is heading in a libertarian right wing direction.
R
Tell me David, what are these "many hurdles" in the way of home educating? I am puzzled by this. I just didn't send my daughter to school, I don't remember any hurdles. I assume that you do belong to the main lists lik HE-UK and EO. I can only say that my comments were based less upon prejudice than upon fifteen years experience of home education, including meeting many individual home educators as well as belonging to various organisations. I have noticed a difference since the early ninties and feel that the typical home educator has changed since then.
ReplyDeleteWell sharon, that has put me in my place and no mistake! You are like Nelson Mandela and I am more like Hitler or George Bush. A sobering thought indeed.
ReplyDeleteI can't remember whether or not I included "humourless" in my thumbnail sketch of the typical home educating activist......
ReplyDeleteI am sure I have rambled on about this before, but in my experience the home ed community is incredibly diverse - the only thing they have in common is home ed! That is why reactions to the Badman proposals are so varied - because although many prople are anti, there are some out there who are in favour of more leigislation.
ReplyDeleteWhere I do agree with Simon is that there is more uniformity amongst frequent posters on some of the main home ed support lists, but I still don't think they are represenatative of the whole population. So there are always lots of posts against vaccination for example when the topic comes up, and few for, but I am sure that is because those in favour don't want to engage with some of the bad science (eg "there is no such thing as a virus" conversations) - it just isn't worth the bother. In addition some people do get very shirty if you do sometimes try to speak about something against the current majority view - a pity that we who have chosen a minority way (ie home ed) end up being so antagonistic against everyone who even raises another point of view).
If your only knowledge of home ed is from the email lists, then you do get a narrower view point than if you meet lots of home educators in real life.
I'm sorry - have you actually noticed that time have changed? That various laws have changed including the introduction of 'Every Child Matters' in Children's Act 2004, and Section 175 (1) of the Education Act 2002. That the entire system for keeping track of children has become intrusive with Local Safeguarding Children's Boards, Children Missing From Education Registers (which include if your child does not have a school on their GP file, and you have not registered as a Home Educator with your Local Authority, immediate action to either force you to register or put your child in school) and if you are foolish enough to take your child out during normal school hours questioning by the police and Educational Welfare Officers (Truant Officers) and possible arrest.
ReplyDeleteQuote from our Local Authority website
"You are allowed to make other arrangements for your child's education but these must be approved by the Local Education Authority."
Wake up!!! The reason why Home Educators have changed and are more forceful, more demonstrative, and are fighting hard against Badman etc, is that in the last ten years the political and legislative climate has completely changed. Yes Home Educators have changed, it was that or roll over and send your child to school.
You don't remember any hurdles?, that is because in the early nineties they weren't there. But they are there now.
Your experience is completely irrelevant today, and unless you are willing to engage with what is happening NOW, in 2009, leave the arena, stop blogging and get out of our way.
"Well sharon, that has put me in my place and no mistake! You are like Nelson Mandela and I am more like Hitler or George Bush. A sobering thought indeed.
ReplyDeleteI think it's the authoritarian aspect that produces the 'baddies'. Authoritarian-leftists include, Pol Pot, Robert Mugabe and Stalin, for instance. Hitler is in the authoritarian-right quarter but is just right of centre and extremely authoritarian, so hopefully you have little in common with him and more in common with Gordon Brown! You can see the charts on this page, http://www.politicalcompass.org/analysis2.
David, what on Earth are you talking about? How would you be arrested for taking your child out during school hours? I never heard anything so ridiculous in my life! Of course LEAs put stuff about needing plans to be approved, but that does not make it true. And what's all this about being forced to register or send your child to school? If people want to send their children to school they can do so. If they don't wish to then they don't. The LA can make enquiries of course, but that is not a hurdle, as you put it. You don't even need to give your name and address to Truancy patrols, simply tell them that your child is home educated. I really think that somebody has been feeding you a lot of scare stories.
ReplyDelete"How would you be arrested for taking your child out during school hours?"
ReplyDeleteMaybe not arrested, but I know of three instances where children have been taken home in a police car despite stating that they are home educated (in one case a member of the public supported the child and agreed that they were home educated). Other families have been been told that they have to give their name and address details during truancy patrols. Not everyone knows that this is not the case and it's a bit late after the event.
Unfortunately Sharon, truants have been known to claim that they are being home educated. The truth is that if a child is with her parents there is not the least chance of anybody being arrested and there is absolutely no need to give one's name and address. As I said, if one wishes to home educate all that is needed is not to send your child to school. It is quite true that if the local authority hears that you are not taking up a school place they will make informal enquiries and may try to insist on a visit. This is not a case of "forcing you to register or put your child in a school" as David calls it. It is just as easy now to home educate as it ever was. Indeed, it is much easier now than it was twenty years ago, most LAs are far more familiar with the whole idea. I cannot for the life of me imagine why David thinks that anybody home educating would not go out and about during school hours for fear of arrest or questioning by the police; sounds like sheer paranoia. One of us is certainly out of touch with how things are regarding home education in the twenty first century, but I am far from convinced that it is me!
ReplyDeleteDavid, Don't you think you are being a bit over dramatic - you said "Your experience is completely irrelevant today, and unless you are willing to engage with what is happening NOW, in 2009, leave the arena, stop blogging and get out of our way." Obviously change "may" be on the way if new legislation is passed, but it is not actually any more difficult to home educate now than it was in the past - in fact, when you consider the earlier troubles and court cases of the pioneers, it is now a lot easierthan 20 years ago. Yes there are occasional high profile cases...I was one of them when I had an infuriating experience with a truancy patrol about 5 years ago (although I did get full apologies from all involved)... in fact all recent experiences that I have recorded locally when home educators or their children have been stopped by truancy patrols have been handled exactly to the book; if the family have identified themsleves as home educators no more questions have been asked. In recent years we have had 100% acceptance of families (locally) who have chosen to refuse LA visits and sent a report instead...again I know that not all areas do get it right...but to portray the system as worse when for most families it has got a lot easuer to home educate is unneccessary scare mongering.
ReplyDeleteJulie thats not true HCC have policy of home visits if you do not have one a red flag it put up over welfare conerns!
ReplyDeletePeter, That just ins't true. There are currently 124 families in my local group based in Havant,Petersfield, Fareham and Gosport. No one who has refused a visit (and that is most of them to be honest) in the last few years has had any trouble at all - they just submitted a report. A couple of families have chosen to send the LA visitor or EWO instead to visit us at the local group session (we allow that providing we are told in advance and the visitor keeps to the rules about only talking to the named child and not asking anyone else their name). That works too. A few families may chose the home visit option if they wish and all those visits have been okay too. No welfare concerns here - just a "thanks you for your report" letter. I home educated (known) for 10 years and never was even offerd a visit !
ReplyDeleteJulie- your wrong David kirk(cabinet lead member for children services) wants home visits so does Jack Cawthra if you refuse one it flags up a conern and will be refered to attendance manger. it was wrote that HCC belive that the only way to asstain home education is with meeting in the home and to see the child.Jack Cawthra as said in answers to Badman question that if parents refuse home visit or allow child to been seen further action is taken!He also wrote what type of education he wanted as well,You are wrong about HCC over this if you refuse a visit and not allow child to be seen it becomes a welfare conern.
ReplyDeleteJulie- you ask Jack Cawthra he is in over all control of home education for HCC you write and ask him and he tell you if you have no visit or allow child to be seen he refere it to attendance manger for issing of school attendance orderJim MCGilvery does this on behalf of good old Jack and both of them belive in this you write and ask HCC.
ReplyDeleteJulie i got it in writing about home visits meeting i got it in writing took us a long time to get it but we did it under the freedom of infromation act great bundles of paperwork and sly emails all sorts of letters and so mush paper work make for very intersting readin what HCC think of you i like the sly emails there send to each other and we got hold of every thing took 5 years but we got it! and boy did that hurt HCC and Jack Jim and goog old David Kirk got stuff he wrote!
ReplyDeletePeter, I am going to stop harping on about this because you clearly don't believe me- but I find it hard to understand why. What ever happens in your neck of the woods, down here in South Hampshire we don't have to have visits, we have an ever improving relationship with the LA, and we are reaping the benefits with respect to getting help with practical support for home educators. I spent the morning at a meeting getting a college place funded for a 14 year old with the direct help of the local authority...everyone couldn't have been more helpful. The EWO's now hand out our group leaflets to new home educators....it doesn't need to be a war!
ReplyDeleteJulie -well we dont get it here in this bit of Hampshire have it in wrting from Jack cawthra and the county councilor David Kirk he charge of the education service if you dont have a visit or allow child to be see it is a welfare concern. no benefits here nothing not a dicky bird it is war ALL out war a fight to the finsh and a war we will will win! HCC will never stop us home educating we will never give him we wll never give up it is our right we will never surrender to HCC. same with Badman we will never comply with him we will never surrender to him or Balls Never!
ReplyDelete"Unfortunately Sharon, truants have been known to claim that they are being home educated."
ReplyDeleteHave they? When and where was this?
Waltham Forest in May and June, Redbridge (Ilford town centre) earlier this year, Hackney (London Fields) February. It is seen by some youths as a Get Out of Jail Free card. The solution is to take the kids home and ask the parents, that is unless they are known to the LA. I am not over fond of Truancy Patrols myself, by the way. It is how we became known to the local authority.
ReplyDeleteSharon, if you want to be able to post articles of your own here, just let me have your email address and I can enter you as an author on this Blog.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the offer but I'm not going to have as much free time soon, so I'll just continue to comment as I get chance.
ReplyDeleteWell, if you change your mind, just let me know. Good luck with whatever enterprise will be taking up your time.
ReplyDelete"I am not over fond of Truancy Patrols myself, by the way."
ReplyDeleteThe whole idea is a total waste of time and money and I've no idea how they managed to get this through parliament. I mean, they have a list of children on the register, they have a list of those who are not at school, they know where they live...
Presumably I shall be allowed some respect as a home educator since I am the daughter of a bus inspector, am black and our children never went to school. Phew! I wouldn't want to be breaking the Webb Rules on Home Educating!
ReplyDeleteDaughter of a bus inspector? That's almost middle class. Now if you'd said daighter of a bus driver; now that is genuinenly working class.....
ReplyDeleteI was really just poking a little gentle fun at a certain type of well meaning, often fairly well off woman who takes us "good causes". I was not setting out any rules. I hadn't even thought about colour, but since you mention it, the overwhelming majority of home educating parents seem to be white. Quite a few Asian Muslims getting into it as well these days. When you say you are black, do you mean African/Caribbean?