A link to this article from community care was left on Kelly's blog. If you scroll to the bottom of the page there is ever such an attractive check list of *risk factors*. Highlighted in red in the victims section is *home educated*.
Looks like those made up statistics of Mr Badman's have been doing the rounds then. Whosoever is behind this lovely little chart is clearly suffering from a particularly bad case of FSBP (flawed statistic based policy).
ETA: Ali has posted an excellent piece about this on the HE Forums here.
Saturday, 18 September 2010
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I hadn't had time to look at that yet. That is absolutely beyond the pale. Has anybody shown that to Graham Stuart yet? Unbelievable. How dare they.
ReplyDeleteI may have said this before but.... Why do you persist in defending the term "home education"? It has become a meaningless catch-all term that is of no use to anyone. I, and I suspect you, have nothing in common with 99% of "home educators" (how's that for flawed phoney statistic?) apart from a supposed lack of interest in, and avoidance of, the school system - this is the point that we share with the alleged child abusers... ipso facto. When it comes to the education of your children you have legal parity with any other parent. Why the need to create this separate entity/cul-de-sac/ghetto called "home education"? Previous posts suggest that you just want to get on with living your life. Does that include, for example, "home catering" or do you just get something to eat when hungry; or "home laundering" or do you just do a bit of washing when required? "Home education"? Just say "No"! Liberated from the home ed silliness you are free to find out what you need to know/find interesting and/or amusing according to your age aptitude and ability in full compliance with the law. It does not need to be called anything, nor described, nor championed or defended.
ReplyDeleteDuncan, whilst philosophically I am inclined to agree with you, politically I disagree. For me, home education is something that is worth defending because I am sick to the back teeth of anything to do with parents and the home being suspect. We spend a large part of our time at home, as it happens, and that is not something we are ashamed of, neither should we be.
ReplyDeleteHome education is a label given to us by outside forces. For us, we are just living our lives, albeit in a slightly different way to the majority of the population. But, we do still come up against these outside forces - for instance if we need to use hospital services the name of the child's school is often one of the first questions asked. Now we could be bolshy and refuse to answer the question, but that doesn't seem a sensible course of action in today's climate. Perhaps not having young children you aren't aware just what it is like for those of us who do at the moment. I appreciate that your children will have been young when otherwise education (I WILL NOT use the term reversed no matter that it is the legal term, because the organisation that has subverted that term is not something I wish to be associated with, even indirectly) was not as popular as it is now, and that must have brought it's own problems with authorities, but, and please correct me if I'm wrong, I don't think your choice was highlighted in official documents as a risk factor for child abuse.
For me, using the term home education is as much about reclaiming the home, full stop, as anything else, because I believe that home is somewhere worth celebrating.
You've been saying this about the term HE for the past few years, and as a philosophical argument it's all well and good, but you never get down to the brass tacks of the practicalities, and actually it pisses me off when you start about this, because I have seen both you and M use the term yourself. So come on Duncan, flesh it out, tell us how this would work with the form filling that is sometimes unavoidable.
Home education is as good a term as any to describe our learning, most of which does take place at home. And it's gradually becoming recognisable in the wider world, not least because of those of us who go out and talk about what we're doing.
ReplyDeleteI'm happy to say we home ed (I get all the philosophical stuff, but it's an argument too far for most of the population) and I think I'm being awkward enough when I correct ppl who refer to it as home schooling.
@ Duncan - enjoy the navel-gazing, I'm sure someone will join in, but personally I'm far too busy with real world issues which require a widely recognised term to be bothered.
ReplyDeleteI agree Jax, you can see the look of confusion on people's faces when you correct from home schooling to home education (my MP was a case in point a couple of weeks ago).
ReplyDeleteAnother point re the defence of this particular term: there has been talk in the recent past about about moving towards the use of the term *community based education* by some home educators, but IMO that is worse, because it denies the home as a valued place, and it makes those who are mostly at home even more suspect. As a home educator we can make use of community resources too, but if we choose not to that's OK, which would be harder to do were we *community based*. I agree we shouldn't need a name, but we don't live in a bubble, and the rest of society likes it's labels and will attach them to us even when we don't use them ourselves.
Regardless of what terminology is used to label their minority status, and regardless of which govt is in power, parents in England who do not use schools are still coming under sustained attack and subject to an ongoing smear campaign by state sanctioned bullies.
ReplyDeleteAn FOI request has been submitted by a HEF member to elicit some definitions of the at risk status labels used in the CRAM.
See:
http://www.home-education.biz/blog/education/lies-and-deceit-infect-the-met-or-were-the-cram-creators-conned
"Home education" is a label created by home educators (see HEAS, HESFES etc.) not something attributable to "outside forces". The defence of home and privacy are worthy causes philosophically and politically but they are separate issues. Legally we only need to worry about educationally...
ReplyDeleteI would, and have, put "Educated otherwise than by schooling" on forms requiring school details. Then point out the shortcomings, discriminatory and uninclusiveness (my made up word for today!) nature of their form design. This description being close enough to the legal requirements but indicates a lack of any semblance of schooling.
I do wince when I find myself using the HE words and try to limit such usage to derogatory outbursts ;-)
Speaking on behalf of "the rest of society"/"most of the population" (always love the way HEers see themselves as some entirely separate entity/species) I will attach apposite labels as I see fit ;-)
Duncan, regardless of what you write on a form, the practice of not sending your child to school is what is being looked on as suspect, whatever name is given to that practice.
ReplyDelete