Home education online groups now full of conspiracy theorists?

[MyopicBunny]

Has anyone else noticed this? It seems that there are now a lot of people in HE groups telling others that they have no place in the group if you vaccinate your child or follow other mainstream guidelines.

I HE because my daughter is autistic and not really compatible with MS.

It's a bit exhausting the amount of anti science people who think the world is run by satanic pedophiles. Are there any groups that aren't full of paranoia?

That’s a shame, and I agree with you, very concerning. My daughter home educates, but she’s not mentioned similar. We’re in Scotland. We have opinions on “mainstream guidelines“, (not vaccinations per se), but prefer not to discuss them as our view is that we make decisions for ourselves, and have no business with other people’s choices.

Yes, anyone not deciding on traditional schooling obviously has different reasons. But some of them are convinced that Covid was a hoax and I was told I shouldn't be in a HE group if I have any mainstream views so to speak.

What groups are you on?

I'm on big ones like Twinkl Home Ed, Home Ed UK, Educational Freedom and my local groups and have never come across this.

Unfortunately I don’t think that’s surprising, since some people choose to HE because they don’t want their children taught actual science, or anything else that they’ve decided is a hoax or global conspiracy. Though I thought that was a USA thing tbh.

I've only at one period in my life had any form of continued contact with a HE group, with whom we used to coincide regularly at a village playground, and at a few classes/events in the village hall. It did seem to include several parents who were vocally anti-vaccination, and held vaguely 'freemen on the land' type views. and deemed the rest of us to be dozy sheeple shuffling along at the bidding of our overlords.

I know this, because, despite the fact I barely knew these people's names (it was a matter of sitting near them while our children did an activity), they told me. In detail. To the point where I sat elsewhere.

I have no idea how representative this is. It's perfectly possible that I met the lunatic fringe of the local Home Ed scene, and that the normal ones were at a different playground rolling their eyes.

No, I haven't seen anything like that on the local or national groups I'm on. Which ones are you talking about?

There are a few people with unconventional views like you describe, but they are a small minority. None of the FB groups I am on allows any discussion of vaccination, except factual statements of where to get vaccines for those who are getting the runaround and being told their kids can only get it at school.

The Freeman on the Land posters are invariably shut down quite quickly by moderators, because following their "legal advice" could land people in hot water.

Oh no, this isn't good OP. Can't advise but hopefully you'll find more supportive groups, have you searched UK wide?

Oh, is 'freemen of the land' that thing where people think that they don't have to pay council tax and where they refused to shut their businesses during Covid quarantines? Batshit.

The thing about these people is that they very quickly become personal and spiteful if anyone doesn't hold the same worldview as them.

Where are you coming across these people though?

In Facebook groups. 'Vaccines are poison' and so on. The illuminati etc 🙄

Those freeman of the land types, they take out mortgages and then believe they dont have to pay them back.

Bless!!

😂😂

HE was very antivaxx when I was part of it, but that was around the time of the MMR scare, which was relatively niche compared with the pandemic.

There are a lot of eccentrics in the movement, but it didn't bother me at the time - I wasn't keen on the conservative Christian ones, but they weren't that numerous. It was the cliquiness that bothered me, together with the fact that nobody made any attempt to include those who were rural/skint/car-less. I ended up doing my own thing, for want of a better option.

Ironically , considering I was always negatively judged for EHE, my younger DCs were in school when the rest of Britain was forced to HE - we'd moved countries and the timing of the lockdowns was different!

The advantage of HE is that gives you, in theory, the opportunity to choose who you socialise with. You could try to put out feelers with a view to starting a group that wasn't antivaxx, or whatever. Social media might be handy here - it didn't really exist yet when I was HE.

Crunchy to alt right is a well established pipeline. Home-ed would be a feeder stream.

Lots of normal people are also there but it's a fast-track if you're inclined towards swivel-eyed lunacy!

Beware of the currents!

Are you joining 'Vaccines are poison' facebook groups? Couldn't you just stick to the big/mainstream HE groups?

No they look like normal HE groups and then conversations start about not vaccinating. They say you're a disgusting parent if you pump poison into your child. Unpleasant and hostile.

What home ed groups are they though? They don't sound like any of the normal ones

There definitely is a minority of crystal woo/anti vaxx/extreme religious types in home ed but it seems very odd that you are managing to find online groups containing lots of them when most groups don't allow vaccine or conspiracy theory discussions.

The rules usually state no discussions about contentious issues like that but in the groups that I was in, these posts were allowed to stand. So I've just left them.

I've noticed this too.

The home ed scene is becoming infested with conspiraloon bullshit. Magna Carta quoting plonkers on half the posts in our biggest local HE group 😔

What groups were they?

I've seen a few people in online HE groups complaining like the OP about these "oddballs", conspiracy theorists, freemen, magna carta, etc but I've rarely seen any of these people either online or irl, except maybe once or twice in one or two posts related to laws, etc, and I've been HEing for years. I only see people talking about them once they're brought up.

I imagine if you get nasty posts about not being welcome with mainstream views, you're either in a group with rules mentioning they only accept non-mainstream views or you report to the group admins who would quickly remove the post/poster if in the regular HE groups.

I honestly never know what to make of these claims of "seeing these types of people and posts everywhere in the HE community" but it could be that they really are zapped quite quickly - and if so, it shows that these are rarely allowed and are not everywhere - or relegated to niche groups where I assume they're not just "Home Educators" but other things that are non-mainstream like Homesteaders, Preppers, etc and/or stuff like that. So they really aren't what you'd call Home Ed groups, I'd say.

I also ask to know where to find these people out of curiosity but I never get a reply. Lol Just like pp have asked the OP what groups these are and no reply yet.

I'm sure there are people with different views who HE their children as well but that is the beauty of HE. There's space for everyone. As long as they aren't forcing others to join their group or think like them, it's alright and their business.

As you've left the groups now, that should help with not seeing them, I suppose. I suggest you join the regular national HE groups and your regular local HE groups. A lot of them are connected to each other.

Ok, I'lll explain what happened in one conversation I saw. Parent asks about how to get their child vaccinated because they were told the vaccines were only being offered at school and a whole bunch of people react with an angry emoticon before saying that vaccines are evil and rudeness and nasty comments directed at some of the people giving genuine advice.

I don't know why you'd think that people would make this up.

From where I sit, a lot of these people who now HE, started doing so during the pandemic because that was when they started believing that the government tries to indoctrinate children and that there is a 'new world order' conspiracy.

There is nothing whatsoever wrong with being eccentric. Some people might describe me as eccentric. That is not what this is about. It's about people who firmly fit into the camp of alternative right who are insulting and attack anyone who doesn't think like them.

I'm shocked!

If you're not making it up, it's very weird that you won't say what the group is.

It's clearly not one of the big national groups, is it a local group?

various parts of society have their versions of fox mulder etc.