Letter published in the Observer
Sonia Sodha in her article “Is the state sometimes wiser than parents?” (6 Nov 2016) goes too far. She proposes banning home education and suggests; “Some may be getting an adequate education – we just don’t know”. The reality is we do know because there has been plenty of research showing that such education is largely very effective. Her stance is mirrored by that of the state in wishing to ignore inconvenient evidence.
Let’s take another example. The Government’s own research has shown that every year at least 10,000 children get worse results at GCSE just because they are summer born. These young people are also less likely to go to university and more likely to be bullied in school. It is a sensible parent that recognises the problem and takes alternative action to undermine the discrimination practised within secondary schools.
As to bullying, we know that at the very least over a quarter of children are bullied sometime in their life in school. It can be a sensible parent that decides on an alternative to school instead of sending their child in each day to be beaten up. Indeed research on children that have had traumatic experiences, such as bullying, is that they are three times more likely to suffer psychotic episodes in adulthood.
The evidence is clear that parents may need to take matters into their own hands because the state ignores the evidence.
Ian Cunningham
Taking the long view
Once upon a time there was a boy in Bolton with no interest in his schoolwork. He tended to spend time with his mates or watched comedy VHS tapes that he had recorded. He gained one GCSE then after school did a series of seemingly dead-end jobs such as in the bingo hall and at the local cinema.
Because he enjoyed cracking jokes and fooling around he started to do some stand-up comedy gigs in local pubs. Eventually he developed a comedy stand-up act. He was officially entered in the Guinness World Records book for the planet's biggest-selling stand-up tour. His ‘Tour That Doesn't Tour Tour… Now on Tour’ show sold 1,140,798 tickets in 113 arena dates between February 2010 and November 2011, earning him a place in the 2013 edition of the book.
His name is Peter Kay and he has also won awards for his comedy acting.
His time when he was seemingly loafing and doing nothing was actually a crucial time of learning for him. He learned from watching comedians the art and craft of doing stand-up. He also used his time in the bingo hall and at the cinema to listen to people so that he could learn the potentially funny things that went on in daily life.
Looked at from a short-term point of view he was a complete failure. Taking a longer view it’s the opposite. He was, and continues to be, a brilliant self managing learner.
Whilst everybody is to some extent self managing in their learning, clearly not everyone is as effective as Peter Kay. Hence our developing Self Managed Learning. What we try to do is to create structures and processes that support effective self managing. However even within these structures and processes we have to be patient.
In SML College we’ve seen students who seem not to have settled and not to be doing much eventually get the idea and go on to successful careers. Patience is absolutely crucial in our work because structures and processes are not magic. Trying to force it is often unhelpful and it requires high levels of trust in young people from adults working with them to avoid inappropriate encouragement.
Ian Cunningham