Actions and consequences

I wrote yesterday that parents who try and get their kids into college when the children don't have the required qualifications are likely to have a negative effect upon the reputation of home education in general. Judging from the comments, there was scepticism about this. Perhaps I should explain what I meant.When a child who has been to school applies to an FE college, there are certain criteria to be satisfied before he will get onto the course of his choice. In the case of A levels, this usually means five GCSEs at A*-C and in the case of...

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Time for home educators to stop expecting special treatment

I have remarked before that some home educating parents seem to feel that if all the normal rules are not bent in their favour, then this amounts to wicked discrimination against them! The latest example of this unfortunate mindset, encouraged I am afraid to say by some of the lists and forums, is to be found on the HE-UK list. A mother there, whose son will be sixteen in a few months, is upset because a local college will not admit her son. This is because he has no GCSEs.The first thing which occurs to one here is to ask why the mother did not...

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A woman after my own heart

Commenting yesterday, somebody suggested that a major theme in my blogposts is 'Women are sillier than men'. I can't think that this is true. I think rather that I have hinted that I find a lot of British home educators whose views appear on the internet silly and the great majority of these are women. I find most politicians silly and they are nearly all men. Perhaps the person who made this comment is no logician and got a bit muddled up. At any rate, it is time to celebrate a woman whose book has recently been published. Amy Chua, a professor...

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School to be run by home educating parents

It will be interesting to see how this works out:http://www.oxfordtimes.co.uk/news/yourtown/witney/8768394.Free_school_targets_Cogges_farm-home/The idea of a bunch of home educators running a school sounds a bit wei...

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In the USA

I dare say that most home educating parents in this country are aware by now that over two million children in the USA are being educated at home. Here is a piece about this;http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/culture/family/5821-two-million-home-schooled-new-study-estimatesI was interested to see the bit in this article about home educated children doing better at the SAT and ACT college entrance tests. This has been touted before as evidence that home education is better for children than schooling, but it is worth looking a little closer...

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'De-schooling' and other matters

Meanwhile, over on one of the Internet lists for home educators, some hapless woman about to take her child out of school is already being targeted by cranks who are determined to sabotage the kids education before the mother has even had a chance to begin. The most idiotic advice being offered to her is about what is known as 'de-schooling' The theory behind this is that once a child comes out of school, the toxicity which has accumulated in his system psychologically (!) should be given a chance to leach out. This means attempting no work or...

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Truancy

There is currently a campaign going on in Manchester to try and reduce parent condoned truancy. The aim is discourage parents from going on holiday during term time and the the posters say things such as;'Taking off during term time could land you with a fine. It counts as truancy. And as a parent, you are legally responsible for making sure your child is at school, or you could face a fine.'Predictably enough, some home educating parents are angry about this and want the posters amended to remind people that only pupils registered at school are...

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Dealing with idiots

The world is full of idiots. Whatever one does or says, there is sure to be some fool ready to criticise or offer an ill-informed opinion on the matter. This is the nature of the world and there is little that can be done about it. I became used to people saying silly things about my decision not to send my daughter to school. Sometimes I would respond with reasoned arguments; more often, I would just mutter 'idiot!' to myself and walk off. I have been wondering lately whether this approach is gendered. In other words, are men more likely to ignore...

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Survey on home education

The National Centre for Social Research is conducting a survey about home education. This is what they are doing;About this studyThis study aims to examine the reasons behind the decision to choose home education. The study has been commissioned by Red Balloon Learner Centres, a registered charity.Potential policy impactThis study hopes to provide information on the reasons behind people's decisions to choose home education to people working in the education and educational policy sectors.MethodsWe have sent a short paper self-completion questionnaire...

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Leave us alone (but keep sending the cheques!)

I was greatly entertained to read a sad appeal recently by a home educating mother who is now being encouraged by her local Job Centre to get a job. She is wholly reliant upon state benefits and hopes to continue in this condition until her child is sixteen. Nice work if you can get it! This started me thinking about the mental agility and sophistry which one would need in order to claim firstly that the state should simply ignore one's educational provision, while at the same time paying for it. In other words, requiring the state to back off...

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Motives of the state

Underlying much of the debate among home educating parents on the possibility of increased regulation of education outside school is an assumption that there is more to this than meets the idea. One frequently reads that the government or local authorities do not really care about the children and that something else is driving this whole business. I am frankly baffled as to what this might be. I certainly had my differences with Essex County Council and they annoyed me at times, but I never doubted for a moment that they were acting in what they...

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An historical retrospective

The thesis put forward by many home educating parents is that it is parents who are primarily responsible for their children and not the state. They regard any intrusion by the state into family life as unwarranted and something which should only happen if there is clear evidence of neglect or abuse by parents.This is not of course a new point of view. Before the introduction of compulsory education in the nineteenth century, a government enquiry was set up which looked into the idea. They decided that it would be a bad thing. The Newcastle Report...

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Seeking the consent of those affected by new laws

Somebody commenting here yesterday put forward an argument which I have seen advanced many times by home educators. It is this. Any change in the legal situation around home education should only take place after consultation with and obtaining the consent of home educators themselves. As the person said;'You can only get real change about home education if you win over home educators'Of Schedule 1 of the Children, Schools and Families Bill, it was said by the same person;' I cannot think of one planned change that would have been positive for...

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Opposing change

Everything changes. This is true of flowers and trees, people, societies and political institutions. It is really no more than the nature of the world; even if we do nothing at all, things change of their own accord. They decay, fall apart, mutate into other different things. Those who oppose this sort of change in society and politics are often called conservatives or, in a more pejorative way, reactionaries.I have been reflecting upon this since Michael Gove announced the latest revamping of the national Curriculum. For a Conservative, he has...

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Regular assessments of the social and emotional wellbeing of under fives

It sometimes seems to me that if it is possible to adopt a muddleheaded and foolish attitude towards some aspect of childhood and learning, then a fair number of home educating parents will do so. Graham Allen MP has produced a report in which he concludes that many children are being raised by parents who do not prepare them for life with other people very well and that one result is that the kids struggle and then fail at school. Anybody working with children will know this to be true. He recommends that between birth and the age of five, children...

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Open University points and admissions to other universities

Somebody drew my attention yesterday to a discussion on a forum about getting a place at medical school by using OU points rather than A levels. Quite a few universities specifically say that they are open to this possibility. On most websites for universities, they list a range of other qualifications which might be accepted instead of the conventional GCSEs and A levels. There is no doubt that this happens. We saw the case of Shena Deuchars, the new Treasurer of Education Otherwise, whose daughter is studying law at Exeter on the strength of...

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The elephant in the home education room

There seems little doubt that the number of children in the United Kingdom being educated by their parents is growing. Since nobody knows how many there actually are of course, it is impossible to say what the rate of growth is. It is probably not as fast as some have suggested. In a book last year, for instance, Mike Fortune-Wood claimed that something over eighty thousand children in this country were being electively home educated. In a post on his list HE-UK yesterday, the number seems to have grown to over a hundred thousand!The really steep...

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The purpose of local authority visits to home educating families

On one of the home education Internet lists, a lively debate is taking place about the vexed question of accepting monitoring visits from the local authority. The list owner, Mike Fortune-Wood, has expressed the view that the only reason for such visits is to judge parents and then perhaps issue a School Attendance Order if they decide that the educational provision isn't up to scratch. This seems unlikely. The issuing of School Attendance Orders to home educating families is very rare and usually they are issued only when there are additional...

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A new home education initiative

Once in a while one encounters something in the world of British home education which makes one feel like shouting; 'For fuck's sake! What is wrong with these people?' Readers will be relieved to hear that, as usual, they will be spared such vulgarity here. Instead I intend to discuss this matter in the calm and rational manner which has ever been my trademark; merely limiting myself to offering a few words of wise and good advice.Staffordshire County Council, whose approach to home education has left somewhat to be desired in the past, has announced...

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Education Otherwise

Shena Deuchars and Heidi de Wet in Swindon continue to stamp their authority on Education Otherwise. They have recently revealed, which will come as little or no surprise to those familiar with the organisation, that two thirds of EO's expenditure has been going on an office in Sheffield. This is now to be closed, marking the complete triumph of the new trustees in Swindon over the old clique in Sheffield.Many people have noticed in recent years that Education Otherwise, once noted for being a friendly organisation devoted to helping parents who...

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The unwritten rules of university admission

In order to maximise your chances of getting into one of the best universities, whether you are home educated or at school, there are a number of rules which most people do not even know about. For instance, GCSEs matter a lot. When a group of candidates all have three A levels at grade A, their GCSEs are often used as a tiebreaker. It is not so much the number of GCSEs as the subjects which have been taken. Physics counts for a lot more than media studies. This is not something which a lot of children are told when they choose their options.There...

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College and sixth form

A friend of my daughter's began sixth form last September. She is not an unintelligent child and perfectly able to pursue academic studies and hopes to attend university. The A levels which she is taking, chosen with the help of her teachers, are; Photography, Health and Social Care, Media Studies and Art. She has no particular interest in any of these subjects but was assured by her teachers that all A levels were equal and that since these were easier to get good grades in, she may as well take them. It need hardly be mentioned that this choice...

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Home education group in Derby

I simply could not resist this story. It is of an independent school which has closed down and some parents are teaching their children themselves as a result. They are meeting in a room in a church for the time being. The picture is what I found astounding. Although they are being home educated, the girls are still apparently wearing school uniform!http://www.thisisderbyshire.co.uk/news/Parents-school-shut-set-classes-city-church/article-3083319-detail/article.h...

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Ethnic minority home educators

One cannot help but notice that photographs in British newspapers of home education groups or protests involving home educating parents always feature about 99% white families. I wonder why this should be? The situation seems to be rather different in the USA. http://www.kansascity.com/2011/01/09/2571023/african-americans-choosing-to.h...

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Male and female home educators

I have been looking through some old material recently which relates to historic cases of home education. It will probably surprise nobody to hear that all the home educators of whom anybody has ever heard are men. James Mill, father of John Stuart Mill, Harry Lawrence, father of Ruth Lawrence, Laszlo Polgar, father of Judit Polgar. Then of course there is the present writer! Now while the many readers have heard of people like the fifteen year old boy who won a place at Cambridge recently and of course Ruth Lawrence, both educated by their fathers,...

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The wisdom of children

I regularly read stuff written by home educating parents of young children in which they talk of 'trusting my child's instincts' or 'knowing that she knows best', or similar nonsense. It is pretty plain to me that those saying this sort of thing are working from a fixed religious or ideological perspective, rather than basing their belief system pragmatically upon observation of the real world.In some cultures, children are held to be the repositories of the collective wisdom of the tribe or nation; they are somehow assumed to have access to the...

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Possible changes in the way that local authorities behave towards home educators

The day after Graham Badman's report was published last year, a time when many home educating parents were very worked up and angry about the recommendations which it contained, somebody wrote the following opinion on the Badman report for Walsall local authority in the West Midlands;'Having read the Home Education Review written by Graham Badman and published by the DCSF yesterday it appears that the proposed legislative changes adopted by the DCSF and now in consultation until late October will involve changes in primary legislation. There are...

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Knocking copy

One of the things which one cannot help but notice, both when talking to individual home educators and also while looking at Internet lists and forums, is that many home educating parents are more concerned with how awful schools are, rather than with how great home education is. Often, they will regale one with horror stories of their child's experience at school and also the terrible things that have happened at other schools and nurseries. It is quite possible to talk to a home educator about education for half an hour without the subject of...

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Home education on the increase in Australia

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/ipad/more-parents-choose-home-schooling/story-fn6bqpju-1225983862...

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Michael Gove writes to the local authorities

Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Education, has written to all local authorities, tipping them the wink about the new White Paper on education. He expects local authorities to act as 'strong champions', looking in particular at the needs of 'vulnerable children' in their area. Gove says that they will have a strengthened role;'Supporting vulnerable children – acting on behalf of groups of children who need extra support, including children with special educational needs, looked after children and those outside mainstream education. Local...

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Researching into the acquisition of literacy

In my local newspaper this week is the story of a woman who has just celebrated her hundredth birthday. She is a lifelong smoker and attributes her longevity in part to this habit. This reminds me somewhat of those home educating parents who claim that their children did not start reading until they were fifteen and yet still went to university. The point being of course that the hundred year old woman did not live that long because of, but in spite of her smoking. There is no doubt that some home educated children do not learn to read until quite...

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Learning to read independently

Every so often, home educating parents in this country come across a piece of research which seems to confirm that they are doing the right thing in not teaching their kids how to read and write. Many people regard this approach as a form of educational Russian Roulette but, as I say, once in a while something crops up which apparently suggest otherwise. The latest such is a blogpost by a semi-retired professor of psychology at Boston College in the USA. It may be found here;http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/freedom-learn/201002/children-teach-themselves-readIt...

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Vested interests

I get enormous pleasure from listening to the supposedly disinterested and objective criticism of home education by those who have a professional and financial interest in its abolition. In 2009, for example, the National Association of Schoolmasters/Union of Women Teachers said:'The NASUWT maintains the existence of a right to home educate isanomalous with the clear emphasis in Government policy of ensuringthat all children and young people can benefit from educationalprovision where teaching and learning is led by qualified teachers in wellresourced...

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