Utterly Meaningless » Blog Archive » EDUCATION OTHERWISE
  • EDUCATION OTHERWISE

    Filed at 5:02 pm under by dcobranchi

    The Independent (UK) has a fairly balanced piece written by an LEA officer. I was all prepared to hate it, but I couldn’t. The concluding graf sums up the article fairly well:

    Despite having four decades of teaching experience, I would never attempt to educate my children from home because my knowledge in certain areas is not extensive enough, and I would always be worried that I would be letting them down. At the same time, I have occasionally seen failing, timid, school-hating youngsters blossom through home tuition. They may not have obtained GCSEs at the age of 16, but they have gone on to further education colleges without any fear and knowing exactly what they want to achieve None of us should be too negative about home-schooling, but nor should we idealise it and ignore its imperfections.

    5 Responses to “EDUCATION OTHERWISE”


    Comment by
    Tim Haas
    January 19th, 2006
    at 7:02 pm

    So he admits he has no experience with mainstream home educators, and then goes on to make sweeping statements like this:

    Even the best home-educators find it hard to sustain the commitment needed to keep their children’s educational development moving forward after the onset of puberty. The ones who can afford it seek help from home tutors for GCSE work.

    I guess I can’t hate the piece, either, but I don’t think it’s exactly well intentioned.


    Comment by
    Tim Haas
    January 19th, 2006
    at 7:06 pm

    OT: Hey, Daryl, your daryl@...ranchi address is bouncing back with a “permanent failure” flag. You might want to check with your hosting service.


    Comment by
    Daryl Cobranchi
    January 19th, 2006
    at 7:18 pm

    Hey–

    From which account. Your gmail or pobox?


    Comment by
    Tim Haas
    January 19th, 2006
    at 9:59 pm

    Pobox. I just sent you a message from gmail to see if it works. (Sorry, readers!)


    Comment by
    Carlotta
    January 19th, 2006
    at 11:08 pm

    I think it is a subtly aggressive piece. He clearly would like to convey the message that he is a learned individual with plenty of experience, and yet he STILL wouldn’t consider HE in case he let his kids down! (ie: what on earth are all you HE nutters out there thinking of?)

    He makes a big play of many HEors not getting GCSE’s but then says (in support of his contention that one must be balanced in one’s perceptions), that many HEors go on to college without qualifications but with no problems. It is then dishonest to conclude that we mustn’t ignore the problems with HE because this implies that there are some, even though he hasn’t actually pointed to any problems which are not actually potentially easily soluble for HEors.