I’m going to have a small celebration tonight both as our children are now through the English school education system and have emerged relatively sane. So it’s goodbye to supporting our two thorough a Victorian model of education which strives to compartmentalise children and drive them through endless cycles of review and target setting with the sole purpose of maintaining their school’s place in the league tables and staving off OFSTED for as long as they can. Not that I blame the schools, of course, there are thousands of inspirational teachers out there striving to do their best to bring creativity and enjoyment into a narrow sterile curriculum which is focused on passing tests rather than enriching learning and supporting the development of the whole child. They are constantly told they are not doing well enough and that we lag behind other World countries ( in league tables of course ) and that South Korea is held up as a country we should be emulating with its 12 hour, 7 day a week study programmes and highest suicide rate of young people on the planet. I think I was lucky to get out of the classroom just before the last drops of enjoyment, fun and spontaneity were eradicated from teaching methodology. I tried to put it back into teacher training when I left the classroom. It worked fine in theory but as soon as the harsh reality of modern classroom life kicked in for the NQTs it started to disappear. I think if you asked both our two if they enjoyed school they would say no. They enjoyed the social fun, making friends, occasional school trips ( dwindling) and extra curricular activities ( dwindling) but they found most of their time in the classroom a slog and their fear of missing targets and falling behind lives with them to this day. By the end they saw no point of doing anything in school unless it was assessed. Of course it’s not going to change while Education and the drive for Standards ( whatever they are ) makes such good political rhetoric across both parties. ( Sorry Nick, the combined debt of £104.000 which my children will have accrued by the end of University makes me liken the speaking of your Party’s name to that of Voldermort’s ). Still, I’m through all the worst bits now. If you are coming up behind, good luck. Just make sure you support your children, encourage them to read, take them to museums and theatre, get them to play sport and join clubs. Show them that learning is not just the domain of school and keep the lid on their sanity. We just about did it but it was close.
Posted on: Thu, 14 Aug 2014 15:18:25 +0000
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