Chapter 9 Children and Education
©GeraldineBanksJune2024
Unlike work which people seem to hate, School Days on the whole by most people are remembered fondly. Of course some hated school and just wanted to get out of it or experienced bullying or unacceptable behaviour from those in authority. For a lot of people from Nursery age to maybe about the age of ten or eleven, learning and being with your class mates was enjoyable. Once the terrible teens arrived with the pressures of exams and growing up maybe the perspective changed.
The key to a good education system is recognising that learning can be enjoyed by everyone, perhaps not all at the same time , in the same way. There is no homogenised analog that will teach everyone and everyone move forward at the same pace. There are many environmental issues that make learning difficult for some. That certainly doesn’t mean that they should hop off the Education bus and never get on it again.
Again, we have a media that tell us all about top grades, top results, not to worry if things go wrong at exam results time, that it’s not the end of the world. Look at Jeremy Clarkson he’s a millionaire journalist (or is it billionaire journalist)and he didn’t do well at whatever exams he sat.
When I was exam taking age , there was never this interest in how you did in exams, you did them got your results and then saw what you could do or not do with them. Looking back the important thing was not to be put off by them or on the other hand to think that somehow with top results , you were a top person. They did not define you and they shouldn’t define anyone now. I didn’t need the likes of Jeremy Clarkson to tell me that .
Looking at the employment situation , it is probably a good idea that the leaving age for school is now 18 years of age. Though I feel sorry for the teachers who have to interact with pupils who have no real interest in education and who want to get out into the real world and earn money to do the things their parents were able to do. What do the teachers find to interest them?
Well it’s a better alternative than the misguided suggestion that National Service in the Army, Navy or Airforce would be a good option for those who don’t want to sit at a desk and learn. Maybe a more productive avenue would be big manual labour projects that are needed, eg. road building , house building or renaturing landscapes that have been destroyed by said road building or house building projects. Anything that improves the environment and makes the world better for everyone.
The great opportunity is that , young men and women who have had enough of school and want to do something; that in their mind; is more useful, could have access to work, and could choose to return to education after a period of time, should they so wish The current economic model that says their labour is worthless is wrong. There are a lot of jobs that need done and there is money in the economy to pay for them.
What is sad is making generations feel that there only option is to be a burden on the state. They didn’t make the grades in exams and for whatever reason they were not comfortable sitting at a desk. Well find out what they are good at , gardening, knitting, coding, cooking, arranging flowers , looking after animals ,painting and decorating, the possibilities are endless and the work useful. Not only that we need these things done to make our world a little more beautiful. That is the only form of National Service I want and if it is done with a universal income more the better.
The benefit system just isn’t working, and it frightens me that so much effort is being put into reviewing it and changing it. Universal Credit and whatever disclosure comes with it , seems totally humiliating. The attitude seems to be if you are claiming benefits then you must be trying to fiddle the state. It’s a bit like the culture at the Post Office which made Sub Postmasters out to have their “grubby hands in the till”. Yet weirdly we say the Police can do no wrong, which blatantly is not true. That is the effect of perception and we must drill down and actually see what is going on in reality.
The reality is that we offer apprenticeships which may or may not teach young people valuable work skills. Has the National Vocational Qualification improved the general state of affairs for people wanting to learn. Is there any data on it? Do they have surveys that ask the young people how much their NVQ in Customer Service benefited them? I would suggest that a lot of this data gathering if it has not already been done could be a good practical exercise for young people interested in applying information technology. Perhaps young people could look at the benefits system too and suggest a better alternative.
The vast majority of young people do not have access to the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme, which encourages initiative and develops young people. Yes it’s a great idea but it’s elitist. The fact that it motivates and encourages young people is great, but we need a broader, government supported programme with the same ethics as the Duke of Edinburgh scheme or indeed the scouting organisations,
This is one of the greatest benefits of the IT revolution. Access to education is possible for everyone and can be lifelong. So stepping back on the education bus at thirty , when you have discovered something that you are passionate about learning is quite possible and beneficial to both the candidate and the world they are living in.
We need to move away from a Command Economy that tells us from above via Civil Servants and Government what we should and should not do , and instead makes the resources available to people both young and old to use their skills , intelligence and application to make the world a better place. That is the best economic solution to education and will by far achieve the best cost /benefit result.
Why am I not hearing this from the Electioneering Politicians?
thenotsomightyom 