DCSF launch media blitz against home education
It looks like DCSF staff have been busy working on a multi-faceted media attack on home educators. Not just the spin on the Khyra Ishaq case which while deeply offensive was also sadly very predictable. No, they have also roped in the TES (hardly an unbiased publication to begin with) to publish lies about the quality of education “First official figures reveal failings of home education”
I think what’s clear is that they’ve known for a while that they were facing a rough ride on Clauses 26 and 27 and so have orchestrated as much negative press as they could timed to coincide with the Khyra Ishaq case. They must have hoped that the Conservative and Liberal Democrat front benches would be undecided and susceptible to ‘public opinion’ although what we’re seeing is of course NOT public opinion but a cynical attempt to influence it.
Blogdial makes a good point about PR although how he imagines we can afford a “professional full time PR firm” I don’t know! Unlike tax payer funded Birmingham City Council I doubt we’ll be able to find £800-a-day. No, I think we’ll have to do what we usually do and learn the business and do it ourselves.
BLOGDIAL Said on February 27th, 2010 at 3:50 pm quote
I ‘imagine’ it can be afforded in the same way that Birmingham council can afford its £800 full time PR spinner. They take an amount of money from each person who lives in Birmingham and pool it together to solve their problems. The difference is, Home Educators will not be stealing the money from other people to spread lies, they will have to voluntarily spread the cost between themselves so that they can tell the truth.
This is not rocket science, or difficult to imagine or hard to understand. What IS almost incomprehensible is why Home Educators are so hostile to the idea of doing it, finding any excuse why they should not do what everyone else in the world does. Perhaps they enjoy being vilified in the newspapers; some people like to define themselves by the struggles in their lives… who knows?
If 5000 Home Educators can take the time to fill out a consultation, they can pull £5 per month to fund a professional PR campaign. This is NOT a matter of money, and a ‘do it yourself’ approach will fail just as it has been failing over the last few years, leaving the press to make up whatever they like unchallenged.
firebird Said on February 27th, 2010 at 4:31 pm quote
Hostile? I suppose there’s a bit of that, the idea that we should have to PAY a PR company to be allowed to do something that is a fundamental human right is pretty bloody rich don’t you think? Particularly when it’s to counteract bad PR that we are also being forced to pay for. The only winners here would appear to be the PR companies!
Your maths on this would be fine except that the 5,000 was individuals, including children not 5,000 families. But let’s run with it and say that EVERY home educating family put in just £1 per month per child. Enough money … only it’s not as simple as that.
You suggest that a small number of people should have “absolute control” and that is the MAJOR problem. I don’t think there is anyone trusted by enough home educators to make that work. Education Otherwise have a reasonable sized membership base but they are categorically NOT trusted even by some of their own members so I seriously doubt they could get together the money.
AHEd would be a logical choice, but … seriously there’s a cat herding issue here like you wouldn’t believe!
It’s not a bad idea, I’m not disagreeing with the idea, I just don’t think is doable. I wish I did.
BLOGDIAL Said on February 27th, 2010 at 5:21 pm quote
I’m not sure what you mean; PR companies provide a service; the service of perception management. You have a right to do PR on your own, just as you have the right to cook your own food, but if you want a Michelin star meal, you have to go to the right chef and restaurant to get it. Cracking open a microwave pizza is not the same thing as haut cuisine, and kitchen table PR is not the same as professional PR. The results are just as different.
It is not at all ‘rich’ that this has to be done, it is a part of real life. If someone is organising a campaign against you in the newspapers, you take the battle to them; you do not sit around waiting for them to smear you. You use the same tools and weapons that they do. Birmingham council, with much less to lose, has a full time PR spinner. This is an absolute must, no doubt about it.
The fact that you are paying for the bad PR that is being used against you is something that we talk about alot on BLOGDIAL. We say that you should not have to pay for this (the BBC TV license, or council tax). It is a gross injustice, pure and simple theft, immoral etc etc.
As for the PR companies being the only winners, I put it to you that if a PR campaign had been started when I first suggested it in 2007 after the last review, we would be the winners right now.
The only way to organize this is with a small group of people controlling it. This is a military style campaign, not a democratic ‘everyone has their say’ mission. The brief should be narrow, the objective to brainwash and the people in charge small in number as I outlined and that is it. As soon as more than five people get together to organise something, it becomes a childish bun fight. That will not get you anywhere.
No MP would dare think that homosexuality should be criminalised; this state of affairs has come about due to a well funded, organised strategic campaign of public perception modification. It is now an impossibility that homosexuals will be outlawed in the UK. There is no reason why the same outcome cannot be had for Home Education.
Its a simple goal. A PR professional will be able to guide you through how it should be done. That is what they are expert at!