What is it about EO that gets people cross?

[LauraIngallsWilder]

Thanks to julienoshoes and her ever useful links I have just found a new localish HE internet group

After welcoming potential new members the next paragraph reads:

"EO is a banned topic! I do NOT and WILL NOT allow this group to be ruined by the politics of EO, please please please refrain from using the phrase EO or worse still - spelling it out in full. (Thanks)"

What is that all about exactly?
Feel free to name change if you want to post and this affects you personally

I have read several times on here that EO isnt for everyone - Im just wondering why...................?
And obviously Im not going to ask on this new group I have found

I will bump it up for you, since no one is replying. I would imagine that it is because the group are quietly getting on with it, it suits them and their DCs and they are quite happy with the fact that schools do a good job for most children. They want to concentrate on their prime purpose, educating their DC, and have no desire to get involved with the politics of it all.

I know that one group has changed its name from HE group to the 'unschooling group'.This seems unnecessarily antagonisitc to me. Why on earth would the word 'school' come into home education? It is immediately unwelcoming and cliquey. It makes the statement to me (perhaps just me)that to belong you have to have the same philosophy as the organisers and there is no chance of being different.
If your DC has never been to school in the first place, you can't 'unschool'they have no experience and don't even know what it is all about!
If you are a parent who loved school yourself and has 2 DC who love school, and go happily every day, but one DC that isn't suited to school and you are educating yourself, you would have worries about fitting in.
My SIL has got very disillusioned with EO because although her DC are/were HEed they have always mixed with anyone and their best friends (the ones they holiday with most years)are schooled children. Her DCs have gone to school if they wanted to and she has been given the cold shoulder by some members of the group (only a very small minority but it isn't nice).
Therefore I would imagine that the internet group just want to support each other and have no hidden agenda. That is my guess-no doubt, now that I have bumped it, people will disagree strongly.

There seem to have been problems with EO trustees that I am aware of but don't know much about so wouldn't like to say anything.

But more recently, EO have had quite a bit to do with the government and have said things (while in the eyes of the government representing home educators, rather than members of EO) that many people strongly disagree with and resent EO for saying. The email list is highlky moderated and discussion of this area tends not to be permitted.

There are plenty of members and volunteers who are great, but some home educators are concerned that EO as a whole is setting itselt up as a body to represent home educators, when in fact they have never agreed to this and they actually disagree with the views. Discussions on lists can get heated and cause problems, so I imagine the list owner just wants to avoid that to concentrate on chatting and being supportive.

(Pisces, unschooling is an american term and its a certain 'method' of home educating - somewhere along the lines of autonomous home education - sometimes used interchangably but not always exactly the same.)

pieces about your last comment! Tis always the way, I bump unanswered threads with my thoughts then heaps of people come along and tell me Im wrong!

I think you have a point about this other group just wanting to get on with HE without getting involved in campaigns etc - which EO do?

I dont get why some HErs are so sniffy about families who are ambivalent about school. My ds hated school but Im not bothered on how our friends feel about school.

Its the complete disgust at the mere thought of the letters EO, or worse "spelling it out in full" that I cant understand!

I'm guessing it's just that EO might be googling to find who is talking about them, and spelling it out in full makes it easier to find.

Ahhhh anastaisia that does make a lot of sense - I am beginning to see through the fog!

My bugbear with them for what its worth is that I joined in September - because it seemed like a good starting point (as we are new to HE). We had to wait 2 months until any stuff came through the post. They have ignored my enquiry emails wondering where my info is and as yet havent paid my cheque in!

Bertie - that is a good point too

And I have spelt it out in full - several times

The HE world is far more complicated than I realised!

I dont do any H.E groups and we get along fine.

Picesmoon
Unschooling is an American Term
We'd usually use autonomous educators here.

Radical unschoolers in the US would be autonomous educators and living families.

If I were talking to someone from the USA I would say we were radical unschoolers.
I belong too a variety of support groups
including an unschooling one. Schooling is almost never discussed there-it is more to portray that what we do is the very opposite of formal schooling I think.

Horses for courses.
To each their own -and that applies to home ed groups as well as anything else in life.
Families must be free to find what suits them.

'Unschooling is an American Term'

I'm not surprised, I rarely like any American terms and I don't know why we have to adopt them.
To my mind it only fits those that have been withdrawn from school, it is impossible to 'unschool'someone who has never been.
I am put off it because it sounds anti school rather than pro HE. If I were to HE it would be because my DC wasn't suited to school, I would still think that most DCs were suited to school. I would object to it being assumed that, because I was doing my best for my child, I was making some general statement about my philosophies on education.
In the case of EO, I would guess that they have just got too big and when that happens to any organisation they get bogged down in bureaucracy and the 'little' person gets forgotten, especially if they don't agree on everything.
Just a little niggle on my part, but if you look at local groups they have Westmorland and Cumberland and they have been Cumbria for 35yrs!! I think that it was sad that they lost their identity but you have to move with the times.
Anyway-at least you got some replies:

'There are plenty of members and volunteers who are great, but some home educators are concerned that EO as a whole is setting itselt up as a body to represent home educators, when in fact they have never agreed to this and they actually disagree with the views.'

I see that Anastasia has said what I suspected. I would find it very annoying becuase they can't possibly be a voice for all home educators-they are such a diverse lot.

I have been there in the meetings with the DCSF and have said personally over and over.
EO does not represent all home educators.

I have been there when EO had said they are not interested in setting themselves up as a body to represent home educators.

Believe me or believe me not.
Up to you.

Perhaps all of the members don't realise that they don't represent everyone-hence the arguments and the reason for OP. I think that some HEers make the assumption that because they think something then everyone does.

All these thoughts are very interesting!
A few new posts on another local yahoo HE group adds a lot of enlightenment to the whole EO debate - I would post them here but I dont feel that I can cut and post someones post from another site!!!

I feel enlightened!
But also somewhat......... well scared is the wrong word, but I am very concerned that having withdrawn my ds from school because he was so unhappy there all this kerfuffle is going to result in the govt somehow being allowed to dictate to us what we do in our own home

When I was 14 and I read 1984 for the first time I never imagined it could one day be a reality. 20 years on it is beginning to feel that way

Julie - don't have troupble believing that members have spelled out that they only represent EO. Just know that some people believe differently and personally can see the government just not listening to people in meetings saying that and reporting back that EO were in a meeting so they can say they've consulted with home educators in general. Tried not to say anyone has actually done something and stick to saying that some people think this and so it causes arguments on lists.