Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | More parents teach their children at home
and
Guardian School’s out for ever
Anyone would think they were on commission!
Edited to add:
I was going to put this in a comment, but decided I’d add it on the post instead.
Hm, while I’d like to think that all publicity is good publicity, it does slightly disturb me that there is increasingly a standard equation of “good” home education is autonomous which in itself means radical unschooling (really?!) and the only reason that you’d do it differently to that is if you’re a religious nut (apologies, that’s not what I think, but that is how it often seems to be written).
What happened to freedom of choice and supporting all ppl to take responsibility for their children’s education, however they see fit? The research that M FW quotes doesn’t ring true for me – I think the vast majority of ppl I know have some pretty educational resources around, and a lot of ppl have some sort of structure. Was it just that nobody with younger children filled in his research? Time for our own research, targetted at the early years?
Comments
15 responses to “Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | More parents teach their children at home”
mmmm…. i’m not dead keen on either article though, tbh.
I would certainly take part in any early years research as LC is not going to go to school as are many of our children from blogland.
the second article was okay, ish. Did anyone see M FW’s research questionnaire? Did I answer it? I vaguely remember doing something, I think. The thing is that like anything, you can ask questions and then interpret them however you like, can’t you.
I’m not sure whether I saw it or not – I’ve a feeling I did something but rather more recently than this would have been if it’s due out in print soon.
I answered it – i don’t really recall thinking the questions worked out to let me express myself, but its a long time ago.
I think i agree with your comment. I thought the article was pretty “sneakily” weighted to make the NUT person, or who ever it was, seem like the voice of reason, while the parents just seemed “mildly loopy” and i daresay they aren’t really. It seemed a pretend effort to show two sides while really saying “these people are unfettered nutters” – it annoys me to see that.
I really hate seeing “autonomous” written up as if its some sort of “dress in fairy dresses and waltz around the garden like we are carefree middle class victorians” scenario. That isn’t a picture of how i see autonomy, nor is it something i recognise from any households i know. Nor is it the only way that works, but it does seem to be the version of HE most easily held up for criticism or, oh i can’t think of the word, making look like it’s nutterdom. It’s like people get fed either the extreme steiner-ism or the Ruth Lawrence-ism. Everyone else, who falls inbetween, seems to have no legitimate voice or depiction.
If i’d been considering HE, i think it would have put me off to some extent; when i started HE-thinking, the idea of no structure terrified me. I couldn’t have done it if i hadn’t discovered that “radical unschooling” was not the only way and that it was okay to find my own way from the conventional world to the slightly less conventional one.
But don’t you think that a lot of ppl *in* the home ed world hold up autonomy as if it *is* the only way? Or is that just my own sensitivity on many of the more established lists? I dunno, I’m probably not in the right frame of mind to critique this in any kind of comprehendible way, so I don’t think I’ll try.
Yes, i do think they do. I don’t know anyone personally who does, but i find the “you’ll eventually come round to our way of thinking” thing really irritating on the lists. Its brilliantly useful to be able to say “chill out, it’ll all happen” to newbies but it seems to me to be equally fair to say “let your way emerge but letting things happen.” But i don’t want to see autonomy, even at its most autonomous (iyswim) held up as loopy, any more than i want to be seen as a virtual child abuser because we have a structured half an hour a day.
i would be happy to do a young years thing. i don’t think we will be autonomous in the radical way, but certainy child led in time we spend on things in the day, and projects etc, but child centred in overall picture. Also not ashamed about this!!
The article in the main part seemed better than the one in the supplement.
I don’t know where M F-W advertised for his research. I’m nomail on most of the main lists, but I certainly don’t remember reading anything about it where I do get mail, like Sonlight UK and (gasp) StructuredHE 😉
It was a fair while ago his questionnaire, wasn’t it?
Can’t help thinking that the questions were a little leading – I mean, it doesn’t sound that outrageous or radical that 2/3 of HEors don’t use timetables, but that hardly translates to the running around on the hills, doing $%*& all ‘idyll’ described by Veronika. I hate all that “oh, cooking is maths, writing a shopping list is literacy” stuff – it’s hardly the case that you can only do that kind of stuff if you HE, is it?
So what if on UK-HE the prevailing philosophy is autonomous education? As Jan points out, there are plenty of other lists to be found 🙂
Hm, but it sounds like the research might not have been quite as widely advertised on them, which hardly makes for a balanced selection of views 😉
There’s a StructuredHE list? Haven’t come across that one in my travels!
Oh? I’m on that one 😉 It’s very quiet compared to others.
just seen this and its bedtime, but v interested in reading it and what you all are saying. Yes, surely, it is up to each family to do what works best for them- that’s the whole point in HE for me- I’m certainly not going to fit into another convention, having just escaped from one, (or 2, if you count Steiner, oops!)I know I’ve just been wittering about autonomy in my blog, but I meant it in the broadest sense possible, as I’m new to what it all means, anyway.
I don’t think autonomous learning would have occurred to me – certainly not *radical unschooling* (! sounds like we run around waving protest banners all day) – if the children hadn’t been in school and then needed completely deschooling, which gradually turned into autonomous ed. The point is, I don’t think any two families parent or home ed in exactly the same way and everyone comes to their own unique way as a result of their particular combination of experiences, values, personalities etc. So there can’t be a universal right or wrong way to home ed! Just whatever works for you. I’d disagree with anyone who said otherwise. The other thing is that unhappy kids are very difficult to live with 24/7, so the chances are that all persevering HErs will have found the best way for the children as well as the parents, otherwise life would be horrible for the whole family.
Just wanted to add that I know this family and they are lovely – the article was only a tiny look into what they do and what works for them.