We don’t need no education
Education throughout most of the developed world is an utter failure, that we would be better off without.
It needs to be started again, completely from scratch.
Most schools are giant state education factories, churning children through an impersonalised, government statistic satisfying and out-dated system.
The system is teaching them often outdated stuff, not relevant to the world we live in now, often relevant to a world that no longer exists.
Getting them to obtain as high a grade as possible, in meaningless tests and exams, setting them based on these results, in order to ensure that the ‘brightest’ children are put in the highest sets with the best teachers. So that they can ensure the best results possible, to tick boxes and satisfy government set standards.
If I was put in charge of education of children for their future lives, I would start with looking at what they really needed for life. Life skills not subjects.
I would do away with all subjects, I would do away with all tests and all exams. I would get rid of sets, I would remove any form of grading children or labelling them. I would encourage a culture of worthiness, that we are all already worthy as individuals and we should never be judged on what we achieve, how much stuff we’ve done or grades we got in a one-off test.
We need to take shaming out of society and the best place to start is at school. My daughter recently suffered the shaming of being put down a set in science, after 3 years in the top set, she was put down a set because of the results of one test. She was told that it will enable her to improve be being in a lower set. She only feels inferior and not encouraged to improve. She was also taken away from friends.
Education is the biggest shaming experience that all of us have to suffer and often it scars us for life in terms of self-confidence. For example art is one of the worst in terms of effecting our confidence in later life, along with PE. Often from peers and teachers ridiculing us for our art or sporting ability.
I would make schools much smaller, personalised, locally based and much more entwined with local businesses, communities and people. Then children can stay at the same school from early age to the end, so that a real bond and understanding can develop between children and teachers.
I would reduce the time that children spent learning and I would not force them to be stuck in old school style classrooms for hours and hours. I would incorporate much more physical activity, outdoor time and much more creative/play time. Children would start school at later age of 6-7 not at 3.
I would then look at what interested individual children and tailor learning around them and what they enjoyed to do. I would make the learning much more creative and I would introduce much more technology and interactiveness into teaching.
I would teach children about values and get them to understand the importance of knowing their values and showing them how important it is to be true to them.
I would also look to teach children about self-awareness and self-improvement. I would teach them about wellness, meditation and the importance of having a healthy mind and body.
Then I would put as number one on the agenda the importance of happiness in life and work towards ensuring that all of the children and people involved focussed on that above anything else.
I would then look at the physical environment to ensure that where children learnt and did activities was open plan, with lots of natural light, comfortable and bright. The space would need to be set out to encourage collaboration and to allow children to feel safe and feel at home.
I would look at teaching children about the world not from the perspective of the old school nations, races, religions, wars and all the stuff that has been carved into all of our brains. I would start off by teaching them that we are all human beings and that we are all part of the same human race.
In terms of subjects, I would stop having the narrow based subjects that we have now, that are too rigid and not relevant to most of us and our real world lives. We are all taught ‘pie’ but I have yet to meet anyone who has used that in real life.
We need to prepare children for a world of freelancing and self-employment, as by 2020 more than half the developed world’s population will be self-employed.
So teach maths that is relevant to the real world, not old fashioned fractions, algebra and other stuff that we will never use.
Teach children to code, design, start a company, use social media, teach them how to open a bank account, fill in a tax return etc.
Also encourage much more creative learning through art, music, literature, drama and other elements that are simply a way of enriching our lives.
All to often children are being prepared to be good employees for corporations.
Start teaching children to be chasing their dreams not the dreams of others, encourage them to pursue what makes them happy.
When teaching them practical skills, then get them taught by people who actually do that skill in the real world. So instead of ‘food technology’ (aka cooking) being taught by a teacher, may be take them to a local restaurant kitchen to learn, take them to a local bakery to see how cakes are made and so on.
Get children used to the real world of life by allow partnership between the local organisations, businesses and people.
Education has to be radically changed and it takes a real radical solution to bring about the changes required. Otherwise we will find that children will become more and more disconnected and disenchanted with it and the world that they then enter when they leave.
I am sure many people will read this and think that this is all too fluffy and utopian. Many people want different results to what is currently being achieved from the education system we have, yet are not prepared to look at radical solutions.
All that happens is successive governments just tinker with the education system, kicking it around like a political football. Nothing radical has been done to change education since the 1800’s.
Time for a big shake up.
Philip Dodson 