Allie has been writing about her reaction to an article which included this rather fabulous quote by Dr Philip Dixon, director of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers Cymru.
“Home educators…have a very narrow definition of what education is.â€
Now, perhaps it is just me, but forgive me for a moment. Most home educators have been educated in the school system, am i right? If so, just whose fault is it if they have “a very narrow definition of what education is”? Could it be, perhaps, that it might be the fault of the system that educated them? I mean, after all, by Mr Dixon logic, school is where you learn everything, so therefore school ought to have taught them the definition of education, one would have thought. And modelled them a nice positive version of broad and balanced education while it was at it.
And if that is true, then they ought to be perfectly placed to educate their own children, because they know exactly what education should be. And if Mr Dixon is going to disagree with that, then presumably he’d have to agree that in fact education in schools doesn’t teach you everything you need to know, in which case, i can’t necessarily see a good reason for being there.
Put that in your pipe and smoke it, Mr Dixon.
What is about top bods in teacher unions, whenever they pontificate about HE they always come out with some daft statement or other
*chortle* Love the response!
Hmm, yes…the people who believe that the whole world is their child’s classroom have a much narrower definition of education than those who think that learning only takes place inside the four walls of a school. *smacks forehead*
oooooh Get YOU!!! 😉
Which planet exactly is that man living on??? Does he really think that we isolate our kids from the world so they only ever see one viewpoint and see nothing outside that. mutter mutter rant, and as for them going off the rails when they go to Uni, sorry but I’ve seen plenty of kids who have been through teh system that do that to mate.
rofl Allie!
Mmmmm…. actually, i often think that one of the best groups of people they could get to speak for bith sidea would be some fairly ordinary, 45+ teachers. Ones who remember pre NC days, have a wide experience of teaching and children and remember parents before we all needed to be told how to be parents 🙄 It is fairly rare to get a teacher, not caught on the back foot or defending themselves, who can’t say some positive things about HE i think. Not that anyone bothers to go looking for them, being as morbid radicals are much more news worthy.
Oooh – good argument, Merry.
I always get this sinking feeling when they get teaching union bods to comment on HE.
“So, life as a vegan – a good idea, or not? We asked a butcher what he thought…”
Well quite. It’s a shame they can’t do it by selling their product, instead of demeaning the opposition though really. How much more positive if they said “HE has this, this and this but we have this, this and this” instead of essentially mudslinging and deriding.
Maybe so, but teaching union bods are going to feel compelled to defend the school model. They really wouldn’t be doing a very good job at defending their members’ interests if they said anything different.