Saturday 30 June 2012

Smoke and mirrors in informal education

The type of home education to which my daughter was subjected is that popularly known as ‘hot housing’; whereby the intellectual development of a child is ‘forced’ by intensive stimulation according to a programme devised by the parent, almost invariably the father. She was reading fluently at two and took IGCSEs earlier than is usual. This kind of approach has been contrasted unfavourably with the more relaxed and laid back way adopted by those who believe in  informal, child-led education. I want to look at two cases of how this latter kind of education is represented by those who undertake it, one of them very well known.  I will not use real names, but both the parents involved are well known in home educating circles, having  appeared in newspapers and on television and radio. Both are fierce opponents of monitoring and advocates of autonomous education.


A few years ago, I expressed certain views on home education in the Times Educational Supplement. Among other things, I said:

Many autonomous educators are dismissive about GCSEs and A-levels, saying, “They can be taken later.” However, without at least five GCSEs at C or above, a teenager will find it all but impossible to get into college or sixth form to study for A-levels.

Before we continue, yes I am aware that an autonomously educated child might choose to take GCSEs, but this is not at issue here. The point is that I am suggesting that without GCSEs, it will be difficult to get a place at college. A rebuttal was written of this piece, which said:

XXXX, now completing a biomedical research PhD, was autonomously educated from birth until he went to college, aged 14, to take A- levels.

Since this is being written to refute my own claim about the necessity of GCSEs, the impression is that this boy got into college to study A levels without needing GCSEs. I thought when first I heard this story that there was something deeply fishy about it, as who would not; of which, more later.

Here is another case of autonomous education. A child who taught himself to read for the intrinsic motivation of the process. He needed to read to pursue his hobby and so at the age of six, he ‘picked it up’. How much better than my own mad scheme of teaching a two year-old with flash cards! This is a natural type of learning, where the whole thing is initiated by the child himself. From a newspaper report:

he didn't want to start learning to read until he was six, and has rejected the system of phonics which is used in many schools. XXXX was not forced to read, but instead started to pick it up when he realised it would be useful for him to learn about other things.

There now, the wonders of a child-led approach. It really does seem that it is not necessary to teach a child to read; he can just pick it up on his own! Fancy me fussing around with flash cards when my daughter was two, rather than just letting her develop at her own pace!

Now for the missing elements in these two accounts. I feel a bit like one of those spoilsports who explains how some baffling magic trick was performed, so those who wish to retain their illusions should look away at this point.  For several years, those like me who suggested that home educated children without GCSEs would find it hard to get into college were referred to the case of the boy mentioned above, who got a place at college to take A levels at the age of fourteen. You see, it can be done! There's me, getting my daughter to sit IGCSEs early; all quite unnecessary. The part which we were not told when this particular account was going the rounds was that this boy’s mother had arranged for him to take GCSEs years before he started at college. He took his first GCSE at the age of twelve. This fact was somehow left out of the anecdote until it had been circulating on the internet and in newspapers for several years.

As for the boy who taught himself to read; this is on the face of it a classic case of intrinsic, rather than extrinsic motivation for learning. He was eight when the article appeared in the newspaper. Six years earlier, when he was two, his mother had actually taught him to read systematically in precisely the same way that I hot housed my daughter; by the use of flash cards of numbers and letters. Here is a lesson from January 29th, 2004

http://www.evilsusan.com/susan/Recording3.mp3

Here is one from five days later, where he is being taught to recognise individual letters:

http://www.evilsusan.com/susan/kitalphabet.mp3


Anybody think that this teaching, four years before he ‘started to pick it up’ might have had some bearing on his learning to read?

Many of the cases of informal and child-led education that one hears about are similar to this. Crucial bits are left out of the story and the result is a misleading account of a child getting into college without GCSEs or teaching himself to read. I wonder whether any of those who comment here can guess the motivation for these deceptions? It is not a sinister one and if nobody can hit upon it, then I shall post another piece on this subject in a few days time.

43 comments:

  1. I suppose many people wish to believe their child is a genius. Parents love to bask in reflected glory. The same parents don't so much love to accept fault when things go wrong, however. I would say that this is a common enough thing among both school and home educated families.

    I wonder if it's more amnesia than deliberate deception, most of the time? As usual, on the fence with this one.

    Old Mum

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  2. You seem to be implying that it is impossible for children to learn to read by themselves. Perhaps it is - *if* they are not exposed to any experience of it. Both of mine learnt to read with no teaching whatsoever, no flash cards, no ridiculous reading scheme books. no compulsion. One was 3 when she started, the other was 5. I read to them every night since they were small babies, and they of course noticed both parents reading frequently - that was all they needed. Both are regularly complimented on their grammar and vocabulary now...again, no formal teaching of this occurred.

    I also personally know a completely autonomously educated lad who did not read or write until he was in his teens. He took no GCSEs but is now at college. It does and it can happen.

    I don't know why you continue to bash autonomous education, perhaps it's because you feel you wasted all those years hothousing your daughter?

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  3. 'I suppose many people wish to believe their child is a genius. Parents love to bask in reflected glory.'

    Curses! Don't you hate it when somebody guesses the answer to a riddle at once? Yes, this is all that I think is going on here. I think that having a child who learns to read without being taught is quite impressive and perhap an infant prodigy, but if you have been beavering away for years at the process, it becomes a little more mundane. This is not of course restricted to home educators. We have several friends who put i a huge amount of effort into stimulating and teaching their children and then claim to be amazed that the kids do well. It is a common enough thing.

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  4. 'I also personally know a completely autonomously educated lad who did not read or write until he was in his teens. He took no GCSEs but is now at college. It does and it can happen.'

    I have known such things happen with art, photography and so on, where students can get by with a protfolio or an audition. Not common for A levels though. What course was this and where is the college?

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  5. Horticulture, Isle of Wight.

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  6. 'I also personally know a completely autonomously educated lad who did not read or write until he was in his teens. He took no GCSEs but is now at college. It does and it can happen.'

    Of course it does. It is very common for home educated kids to get into colleges with no exams. However, as Simon says, it is invaiably for vocational courses only. I've not known one single one be accepted on an A Level course without IGCSEs, O Levels or OU etc equivalents.

    The other point to remember is that, frequently, kids entering colleges for vocational courses with no GCSEs etc are forced to enter at levels much lower than their potential ability. So, for example, a student wishing to study Health and Social Care will have to study at Level 1 or Level 2 instead of entering at Level 3 (A Level Equivalent), where his age-peers with GCSEs would enter. They then have to study for an extra two years to get to the point they would have been at.

    So, a bright kid, who uses his Health and Social Care Diploma Level 3 to get into university will therefore get to uni 2 years later, and start to earn a salary two years later. This is financially significant.

    For many, this is no big deal. They perhaps needed the extra experience at college for social reasons or enjoyed working through the lower levels etc. That's fine, but please don't give people the impression that there are no consequences for doing things this way. There are.

    Old Mum

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  7. Peter got into college with no problem what so ever starts in september college have been very helpful and where very postive about him attending wonder if Julie put in a word for him lol!

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  8. But didn't you say he was going to do GCSE maths when he first got to college, Peter??

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  9. My daughter was also reading at 2, passed 3 GCSEs 2 years early (with excellent grades) and has taken another two 1 year early, with more to follow in the next year. But our approach has been autonomous - she just happened to decide that she wants to sit some exams to make her route through college easier. Let me clarify: I said 'easier', I didn't say 'possible' - it's entirely possible for home educated youngsters to enter college with no qualifications and go on to academic courses sitting level 2 and level 3 qualifications in tandem.

    Back to our daughter's case: exam prep has so far taken up a maximum of one day a week and she gets on with the things that genuinely interest her the rest of the time. Hothousing really isn't necessary if the child personally sees the point in jumping through the hoop.

    HOWEVER, if the child sees no point in these exams then really wouldn't it be better for said child to enjoy exploring the world on his/her own terms? Qualifications can be picked up later if or when the need arises.

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  10. Incidentally, regarding my previous comment, my child learned to read at 2 without flashcards or any of that nonsense - she watched the words when we read her bedtime stories. It's not that unusual a phenomenon either: I know of at least 2 other children in our immediate circle who went through a similar and entirely autonomous process. One of these 2 is now privately schooled: her parents very much buy into the idea of pushing a child to achieve, and therefore have no reason to claim autonomous learning if it hadn't occurred.

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  11. "So, a bright kid, who uses his Health and Social Care Diploma Level 3 to get into university will therefore get to uni 2 years later, and start to earn a salary two years later. This is financially significant."

    My child did just this, starting at level 2 without any previous qualifications. After a few weeks on the course the tutor asked them if they wanted to join the level 3 course but my child decided against this, preferring to use the first year to get used to college, etc. So they started university a year latter than ' usual' (though about a third of the class were their age or older). My child said they preferred doing an extra year of college to 11 years of school!

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  12. 'My daughter was also reading at 2, passed 3 GCSEs 2 years early (with excellent grades) and has taken another two 1 year early, with more to follow in the next year. But our approach has been autonomous -'

    I have not the slightest doubt that this happens. The question is,is this more effective than conventional education and how frequent are these outcomes? Since those using this approach are in general resolutely opposed to objective research and testing, we are not likely to find out.

    'I don't know why you continue to bash autonomous education'

    In fact, this sort of thing is probably more common in children at school. it is just that this blog is about home education. However, to even things up a bit, I shall tomorrow do a piece on how these tricks are performed by parents whose children attend school. The aim is the same; to remove the scaffolding and pretend that the child has achieved everything by his or her own efforts. How this happens with schooled children is even more fascinating, but I am worried that I shall be accused of 'school bashing'!

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  13. 'Incidentally, regarding my previous comment, my child learned to read at 2 without flashcards or any of that nonsense'

    Dear me, there is something very rummy about all this. Are you saying that the intensive use of flashcards which I mention in this post is somehow incompatible with autonomous education? This is curious. If it is not, then I suppose that what I had supposed to be the hot housing of my daughter was in fact autonomous education. If on the other hand, such methods are incompatible with autonomous education, then the child I mention in the post, whose education has been reported in newspapers and on television as being a great success story for this type of education, is in fact a product of coercive education. I can see that his parents will have to resign from a few internet lists, if that is the case! At the very least, their credibility will be damaged. I await readers' verdicts on this with interest.

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  14. I'm sure you know, Simon, but it's a little unclear in the article that autonomous/child-led education is not the same as informal education. Autonomous education can include informal learning but is not limited to this style. Much of my daughter's education would have looked familiar to a hot houser, it was formal, but child-led. Just in case any readers are unfamiliar with autonomous education.

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  15. Please excuse my phone's predictive spelling and my poor proof reading!

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  16. Great minds think alike! If your daughter had a free choice and saw the flash cards as a game like any other a parent might play with a child then, yes, it might be AE. One of my children loved this game, the other did not (nor alternative learn-to-read games/activities) so we didn't play it. The first learnt to read at 3, the other at 8, but we can't tell the difference now!

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  17. ' If your daughter had a free choice and saw the flash cards as a game like any other a parent might play with a child then, yes, it might be AE.'

    Heartening news indeed. I suppose that logically, the same must also apply to all the rest of the education which she recieved, since she did not actually object to it. By extension, every child at school who does not actively beg to be educated at home, must also be autonomously educated. In fact since most children are indoctrinated to look forwward to school, I suppose that there can be few children in the entire country who are not autonomously educated. This is an intriguing hypothesis.

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    1. So your daughter would never have chosen another activity to the ones you suggested when you suggested them? I would guess that my children went along with about 1 in 10 (maybe less) of my suggestions. One also spent a term in school by their own choice too. If your daughter had a totally free choice and you would have supported and helped her with alternative activities if she didn't want to do what you suggested, then yes, that would be autonomous. AE does not prevent a parent making suggestions, it just means they don't enforce them either by bargaining with the child or repeatedly 'suggesting' that it would be fun after a child has declined the suggestion.

      If a school child knows that HE is a freely available option and they decide to stay in school, they are choosing school a their method so it can be autonomous. University is not compulsory and can be freely chosen, ie autonomously chosen, but often people are pushed into it by the expectations of others, so it is clearly not autonomous in those cases.

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    2. Not sure why you would feel heartened though, unless you want to have educated autonomously ;-)

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  18. Why is this so difficult for you? Exercising free choice to do or learn something because it interests you is rather different to not objecting too much to being told to do something at a certain time because 'it's educational'. I'd have thought the distinction was absolutely obvious.

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  19. 'Why is this so difficult for you? Exercising free choice to do or learn something because it interests you is rather different to not objecting too much to being told to do something at a certain time because 'it's educational'. I'd have thought the distinction was absolutely obvious.'

    It's difficult because the child featured in the recordings above does not ask any questions and is being rewarded by his mother saying in a bright, cheerful voice, 'Good Work!' every time he correctly identifies a number or letter. If he fails to identify it correctly, she uses a neutral voice. This seems to me to be the very antithesis of learning as an intrinsically rewarding activity. He is responding to the external stimuli of his mother's pleasure. It is clear that the mother has initiated the process at a time of her choosing and is maintaining it with the purpose of teaching the child something which she has decided he should learn.

    There is all the diffference in the world between this sort of thing and a child spontaneously becoming interested in some topic and pursuing it by asking questions and seeking out information. However, this child is apparently being educated autonomously and so I assume that extrinsic rewards must fit in quite well with that style of education. Tell me, do you regard what is happening in the recordings as autonomous education?

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  20. My comment was not in relation to the recordings because it's easy to cherry-pick a particular anomalous example to support your argument. Which is why I chose not to engage with it.

    My comment was a response to this:

    " By extension, every child at school who does not actively beg to be educated at home, must also be autonomously educated. In fact since most children are indoctrinated to look forwward to school, I suppose that there can be few children in the entire country who are not autonomously educated."

    I believe that the distinction which I highlighted - between active use of free will and passive acceptance of the status quo - still stands.

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  21. Home education is legal in this country and autonomous learning a recognised model.
    We could debate all day long the various methods of learning, what suits one family may not work for another, to each their own!!
    Can we not get away from what I see as school playground one-upmanship mentality

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    1. We are subject to enough scrutiny and ridicule from the general state educated populous as it is.
      Does anybody else see the irony?
      I believe we should embrace our diverse views to home education not try to pick them apart!!
      How can we convince the wider population that we are not "deviant hippies", etc. when all we serve to do is reinforce those stereotypes

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  22. "It's difficult because the child featured in the recordings above does not ask any questions and is being rewarded by his mother saying in a bright, cheerful voice, 'Good Work!' every time he correctly identifies a number or letter. If he fails to identify it correctly, she uses a neutral voice."

    For one thing, it's quite common for people to begin HE in quite a structured, parent-led way, but rapidly (or not so rapidly) move to a more mixed or child-led approach, so it's possible that this happened with this family. But also, it's unreasonable to expect any parent to 'turn off' pleasure at a child's accomplishments. It's entirely normal to express pleasure when a child achieves something they wanted to achieve - like riding a bike for the first time, for instance.

    I suppose some children will be more easily swayed towards their parent's wishes - all children want to please their parents to a certain extent and this is normal and I can see why you might view the behaviour this way. But I know for my children this only went so far and it certainly didn't prevent them turning down many of my suggestions! It was clear from their reactions that they felt pleasure at their achievements first and then were happy that their parent's also appreciated what they'd done. But I have seen children who look first to their parent to gauge the parent's reaction before expressing pleasure themselves which is quite sad, so I think I know what you are getting at. It is a danger to be aware of if you are attempting to avoid manipulating your child's interests.

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    1. Also, I meant to add that games don't always involve questions! Children play many games with their parents. Singing nursery rhymes, card games, drawing and painting together, science experiments, etc. Autonomously educating parent's don't just sit around waiting for their child to ask questions or request activities. Playing the flash cards game is just that for some children (one of mine at least). The fun is getting the answer right, not getting answers to questions in this instance. I'm forever playing games like that - crosswords for instance.

      If you ask a child, 'shall we play the flash card game?', and they say, 'yes, yes, yes!', excitedly, it's likely to be autonomous. If you need to say, 'shall we play the flash card game, and then you get to play at the park?', you are probably not educating autonomously, but I admit there are many shades of grey between and parents do get it wrong at times!

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    2. That all sounds as if it's come directly from the TCS indoctrination booklet.

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    3. LOL, thanks, I'll take that as as compliment!

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    4. Excuse my ignorance. But what is the TCS booklet?

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    5. TCS is a parenting theory. It stands for Taking Children Seriously.

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    6. Sorry, I haven't answered your question fully, you asked about the 'indoctrination booklet' mentioned above. I've not seen the particular booklet they mention, but you can read about the theory here, http://www.takingchildrenseriously.com/ Maybe the indoctrination booklet is only made available to the 'inner circle', or some such conspiracy terminology.

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    7. Here's how it works...you read the website, write your own pamphlet and sell it to someone who doesn't know any better.

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  23. Apologies for all the unnecessary apostrophes - I really must proof read my work ;-)

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  24. peter wil being doing gcse and Julie but accroding to the college if he shows he good enough there will put him into the A level class he best subject is Maths still think you put in good word for us with the college LOL may be i see you at parents evening i sit next to you lol
    the college where very helpful no shouting or silly nonsense and where very keen to have Peter attend there where intersted in his iq of 170 and his chess now that he become a natinal master

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    1. Just think...once he's in college you won't be able to go to them nice places to stay.

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  25. 'the college where very helpful no shouting '

    Very revealing comment! Why there should have been shouting while a child was registering at a college of further education is an interesting point. Obviously, nobody from the college would be shouting and so the inescapable conclusion is that episodes of shouting in Mr Williams' life are so common that a transaction like this which does not entail any shouting was worth remarking upon.

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    1. It's always the same in supported learning, that's why we give them biscuits.

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  26. No webb i found LA staff shout and some teachers do to! so was pleased to see college did not shout or get uptight over home education
    it all went very well Peter goes next week for open day

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    1. I think it's you that does the shouting and gets uptight.
      Librium used to be good for that.
      Anyway sooner or later you're going to end up getting tasered for doing it.
      A shame we'll probably miss it, but let's hope it ends up on youtube.

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  27. I've known stray dogs wander into colleges for the open day.

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