Friday, January 20, 2006

Article about Home Education by LEA Officer

From The Independent, an article on Home Education by an LEA officer. Perhaps I'm grumpy in the middle of the night, but I felt it could be perceived as a subtly undermining piece.

For example, Mr Mooney 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 also 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.

HT: Daryl at HE&OS

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Most of the article seemed, as you say, anti-home education, for instance:
"These parents portray home education as an exciting and fulfilling adventure. But from my own limited experience, nothing could be further from the truth.

I find myself visiting families on deprived working-class estates. I try to help parents who have turned to home education as a last resort."

So going to the local comp, being bullied, and returning to the 'working-class estate' would be so much more exciting!

Ken

Anonymous said...

I don't like how he looks down on poor people, I find that terrifying.

But some of his worries are my own, to be honest.