the trouble with these home ed success stories is that home ed is only seen as successful if the child can seemingly 'miraculously' produce top grades the moment he has the chance. The same child is very, very likely to have produced top grades if he had been at school too. Basically, academic challenge and success means a lot to some people; they enjoy it, and it is highly approved of.
What about all the thousands home ed or otherwise who just don't produce those academic results? (Admittedly only the home ed ones get criticised) But they are written off as second rate and (following an Economy programme on BBC2) are also seen as the 'low quality kids'.
I agree that this story does appear to pander to the schooly notion of success (not that there is anything wrong with that of course). It is just that it rather misrepresents HE community in that there is (if HEors bother to make these kinds of assessment at all) a much wider understanding here of the meaning of success.
Success for an HEor is often seen as the child pursuing his interests or passions to some worth, or exploring the world of work through taking on a number of low paid jobs and growing through this kind of passage, feeling the excitement and adventure of life, sensing the possibilities and seeing the importance of creativity and carving a niche.
These aspects of success can be very lost in a drive for standard academic success.
A while back it did occur to me to thnk in depth about what I really want for my children. My ambition for therm is simple, but is, I think quite difficult enough for them to achieve so I don't feel the need to burden them with any desire on my part for specific academic success, or anything else.
My ambition is that my children be happy.
I do have beliefs as to what it takes to be tuly happy, and some of that is about achieving your full potential and so on, but those are MY beliefs, they may choose to think something else, that is their right.
I would rather they be happy with no qualifications than be unhappy with degrees.
the trouble with these home ed success stories is that home ed is only seen as successful if the child can seemingly 'miraculously' produce top grades the moment he has the chance. The same child is very, very likely to have produced top grades if he had been at school too. Basically, academic challenge and success means a lot to some people; they enjoy it, and it is highly approved of.
ReplyDeleteWhat about all the thousands home ed or otherwise who just don't produce those academic results? (Admittedly only the home ed ones get criticised) But they are written off as second rate and (following an Economy programme on BBC2) are also seen as the 'low quality kids'.
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I agree that this story does appear to pander to the schooly notion of success (not that there is anything wrong with that of course). It is just that it rather misrepresents HE community in that there is (if HEors bother to make these kinds of assessment at all) a much wider understanding here of the meaning of success.
ReplyDeleteSuccess for an HEor is often seen as the child pursuing his interests or passions to some worth, or exploring the world of work through taking on a number of low paid jobs and growing through this kind of passage, feeling the excitement and adventure of life, sensing the possibilities and seeing the importance of creativity and carving a niche.
These aspects of success can be very lost in a drive for standard academic success.
A while back it did occur to me to thnk in depth about what I really want for my children. My ambition for therm is simple, but is, I think quite difficult enough for them to achieve so I don't feel the need to burden them with any desire on my part for specific academic success, or anything else.
ReplyDeleteMy ambition is that my children be happy.
I do have beliefs as to what it takes to be tuly happy, and some of that is about achieving your full potential and so on, but those are MY beliefs, they may choose to think something else, that is their right.
I would rather they be happy with no qualifications than be unhappy with degrees.
Top comment Tim!
ReplyDelete