Tuesday 15 June 2010

Enquiries - the long, the short and the unclear

Ever since I have been involved in Conductive Education I have had lots of enquiries from lots of different people at all sorts of levels, from the general to the specific. These I have answered to the best of my ability and most respond with thanks for the information. Most people have told me who they are, what they are doing and why they are asking the questions. Some don't. Only this week I had an enquiry about biographies of Andras Peto and was only given the name of the enquirer, nothing else, but I answered, as I always do. At no time has it occurred to me to question any query as to its validity.

This week I have been following the postings on Susie Mallet's and Andrew Sutton's blogs about an enquiry which turned up in Susie's spam box and I too wondered if it was a hoax. 

http://www.conductive-world.info/2010/06/ce-research-pits.html
  http://www.susie-mallett.org/2010/06/research-or-spam.html 

Then I get the same message in my spam and now understand her reaction and  puzzlement. Usually anyone doing research at an academic level mentions exactly what they intend to investigate in their  enquiry,(as well as  including where they are studying etc.) and asks  specific questions(s), which is what I would expect from a student working at that level.
 This emailer mentions he is a Master's student at a named university but also adds that he is "Working on a school project I am doing research on conductive education and my focus is CE furniture". Perhaps he means that his research is being carried out in a school nearby which is offering CE and has the furniture,  otherwise 'school project' and 'masterate' don't really go together in my book, and sounds very odd. Or perhaps that is not the case. There may be a language problem here and if so, clarification would be helpful. I hope that the enquirer writes to all of us to explain further so we can understand his request fully. 

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