Jun 14 2009
An Example of Badman’s Bias
In the Home Education Review, Section 4 is titled “Elective Home Education in Context: The Views of Home Educators and Others.” As I mentioned previously, the views of only two home educators were actually given, and one, at first glance, looks so extreme as to be easily dismissed.
Here is the comment as quoted: “No one from the LA [local authority] would in my opinion be on my child’s intellectual level or they wouldn’t be working for the LA.”
Fairly uncomplimentary, you might think (no matter what your personal opinion!). And then I came across the explanation, in the comments section of this article in the Guardian.
“This quote in the review was taken out of context btw. I know because I have the original letter sent to Mr Badman.
It was in response to a question about whether a scientifically gifted child would benefit from having a science teacher from the LA come and give them tuition. It was to point out that scientists at the top of their profession are rarely working for the LA, so anyone sent out would not be on the same intellectual level as the scientifically gifted child.”
A brilliant example of Graham Badman’s fair, unbiased and not at all partial representing of the evidence.
