The Jason Arday scandal, part deux

[KatiePricesKnickers]

As the book launch is coming, let the discussion continue.

First thread: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5563599-the-jason-arday-scandal?utm_campaign=thread&utm_medium=share
This is lifted from the thread in the education section, which is an interesting summary
https://www.ian-leslie.com/p/the-great-and-unfortunate-story-of?r=8w0woc&triedRedirect=true

Or AIBU with not letting this fade away?

Massively, massively, depends on institution I think. I would imagine, but may be wrong, that academics at Cambridge are left to it and can mark as they see fit much more than more bureaucratically-minded post-92s, for example. And there might be a lot of variation in terms of feedback given and marks justified by marking matrices and so on, too.

I had some problems in early childhood with selective mutism. I think teachers thought I was autistic before that was a thing and i had a really rocky start to education.
I actually found it really powerful to hear Jason’s story and see what he had achieved - despite his issues being much more profound than my own.
I can’t imagine how upsetting it must be for people with a bright child with Send who may have taken inspiration from his story to hear that it was all untrue.

The reality is we as the general public cannot know or guess at this point what the impact was on the students. We are not privy to the details of what happened within the department.

This is exactly why there needs to be a transparent and thorough investigation to determine whether there was a detrimental effect on students, to what extent it impacted them and what should be the legal consequences and compensation awarded.

This is why I sincerely hope the former students do take legal action, and if they can prove a clear cause and effect that it then leads to damages being awarded.

This should be a watershed moment for academia. It needs to be prepared to turn it's professional analytical skills onto its own processes and staff actions to determine what failures it enabled in allowing this to happen.

If Cambridge doesn't apply that analytical rigour then as the Times has recently commented 'it's just a collection of old buildings'.

I'm sure I read they tried to intervene in the single sex space judgement????

I would say it's the deception on overcoming barriers to learning which is the most cutting in this scandal.

It will be upsstting for many parents of non verbal childdren
He said he was non verbal
Not selectvlly mute
As the parent of non verbal as in cant speak at all 16 year old i found his claims incredible and i know lots of non verbal children most will need a great deal of support throughout their lives and even if some do gain some speech the vast msjority will not be living independently
There will be lots of parents of much younger non verbal children who will have clung to his claims
And its very cruel to give them false hope.

I was just pondering about his claim that he couldn't read or write till 18 and how that sits alongside his claim that he got two GCSEs, in PE and textiles.

Someone who couldn't read or write would either get zero GCSEs, because PE and Textiles both have written components. OR, if to get around the fact that he couldn't read or write he had a reader and a scribe write his exams for him, then he should have been able to get GCSEs in other subjects too?

And being unable to read or write, he still managed to go off and get a BTEC which also have written components?

Good observations. In his GCSEs as you say he would have had a reader and scriber, he still would have had to articulate his thoughts. No way could that much teaching support have been allocated to the required written components in his Sport and Development BTEC. Plus what about any resubmissions.

I feel some people confuse ‘can’t read or write’ with ‘functional illiterate’. You are classed as functionally illiterate if you can’t read beyond a primary school level, which is actually a decent enough level of reading, certainly enough to get you through day to day life at a reasonable level.

If, he was completely unable to read or write when he did his GCSEs would he have been entered for them at all?

He certsinly seems to be confusing a lot of things if this is the case
Maybe hes one of those people who embellish things so much they become unrecognosible from what the truth is.

Agree a lot of ifs

The idea that some students will have been marked higher is yet another if but highly likely as this type would typically do that for anyone that strokes their ego or has same ideological ideas or simply just to make sure less people complain about his teaching.

Done two degrees and the last one was recently so seen these things happen first hand. Best way to get a good mark from some lecturers is simply to work out their own views on a subject and write an essay tipped in that direction. Sadly challenging the views of your teacher is not something to do in university these days. Hence the state of some of our universities and how radicalisation can flourish within them. Kids are taught not to challenge but to follow like sheep in some places.

I wonder if the truth is that perhaps he had a mild form of ASD or some other kind of neurodiversity, plus dyslexia. At the time when he was at school (1980s) this was unheard of and led to kids being singled out by some teachers.
This is what happened to me.

Comments like - slow, behind, stupid and highlighting perceived social failings. My difficulties were not huge and I went on to excel but this early experience did leave a big impact on my sense of self.

For someone affected by this kind of treatment, it might not feel too much of a stretch to turn that experience into: ‘I was non verbal/ I could not read or write.’

This is, of course, a complete exaggeration of the actual situation but it is perhaps a way of trying to communicate the huge mental impact of being so completely misunderstood and told there was something fundamentally wrong with the essence of yourself at a very formative age.

Just a thought but might be a reason why he was able to tell this story for so long and so convincingly - beyond of course being a total grifter!

Maybe ,he does seem to massivley exaggersted or in some cases totally made up a lot of his claims
Its the fact it was all beleivrd snd nobody questioned it that fascinates me.

Best way to get a good mark from some lecturers is simply to work out their own views on a subject and write an essay tipped in that direction. Sadly challenging the views of your teacher is not something to do in university these days.

@Neverstopwondering that’s exactly what happened to my ds at university. There was a module on the Spanish Civil War and you can imagine the tutor’s views on that.
Obviously Franco and his henchmen were very wicked but the communists weren’t saints either …….or maybe in some people’s eyes they were.

Its the fact it was all beleivrd snd nobody questioned it that fascinates me.

Me too. Television and radio interviewers, dons in the same field as Arday, Professor Baron Cohen who specialised in autism….absolutely extraordinary.
It can be added to other hoaxes in history such as the War of the Worlds (though was that a deliberate hoax?) and the Hitler Diaries.

I'm sure I read that he said he didn't say his first word till 11 and it was 'Hello' so a claim of no language. And that when he was at uni doing his Masters, his reading ability was about the same level as that of his 3 year old daughter (that tidbit comes from his memoir apparently).

I mean, surely someone said 'look Jason, that's obvious horseshit'.

Or cons like the Fyre Festival.

Not to mention the stance on the conflict in the Middle East. I find it hard to believe there was much nuance in that area, in classrooms and lecture theatres.

It wouldn’t matter if a teacher had said he was slow or stupid. Arday claims that not only was he nonverbal, but he couldn’t understand what people were saying to him/ couldn’t understand speech. He claims that even at university he couldn’t understand lectures or what people were saying to him or even the texts he needed to read.

PBS interview where he makes the claims:

https://www.pbs.org/video/the-importance-of-early-intervention-4mokof/?utm_source=chatgpt.com

I mean, claiming you had a reading age of 12 and couldn't understand the lectures or texts at university doesn't make me think 'wow', it makes me think 'what the fuck were the university thinking in accepting him onto the course and how the hell did he pass?'

So either it's not true, or the university needs to explain what happened.

Yes exactly unless his 3 year old daughter was on the same level as some mumsnetters " genius" children and reading the entire works of shakesphere
Than that was obviously nonsense.

Why is Mumsnet auto-hiding links to Dan Neidle's tax policy website?

Dan has published the Carter Ruck letter here on twitter, let's see if that gets hidden too

https://x.com/danneidle/status/2087095547479945612?s=61&t=U9XrcF693-JpMxeIueYG7g

Are fraud and falsification of documents as well as obtaining a pecuniary advantage not criminal.offences? Has anyone raised these issues with the police?