Well the English Baccalaureate has been unveiled and it looks
like we are going back (as the
abbreviated version Bac suggests) to something similar to the old O level and
this was after the discussion of abolishing the A level.
Play in a band for three days with the experts and detress!
This could be just a rant on my part but I want to focus on
the long term aspect of education and what they focus is for this
reorganisation is attempting to create or correct.
The idea of a race to the bottom created by the examination
boards maybe a good point however I see pupils working much harder in the
schools than I ever remember doing whilst I was at school and maybe this is why
I am so good at playing guitar because I had time to practice! My concern in all of this is why become
educated? What is it that we are striving for? If the answer to this is to get
a job then I would argue that the jobs market is changing so fast with jobs
disappearing or morphing into something else with new disciplines appearing in
areas that two or three years ago did not exist how can you prepare? If the
idea is to broaden the mind and to learn to use your brain power in a focus yet
flexible way then the education system has lost its direction and the ‘new’
examinations will also fail dismally.
Teachers in schools work harder than many other professions
putting in extra hours unpaid as a normal part of the regime and as for the head
of Ofsted to make the comment that teachers should go the extra mile probably
makes most teachers so angry that they would like to take Mr Wilshaw and shove the
Ofsted reports where the sun does not shine and maybe make that go the extra
foot.
I have never involved myself teaching in the classroom for
one very good reason it’s a thankless task and more about box ticking than
teaching but I see enough of it and I know enough teachers to know the score.
What is the answer to this question? Well children are
clever enough to do well whatever the system and if they are encouraged to have
an open mind and become passionate about learning they will be able to outperform
their contemporaries who may be far more privileged than they. Flexibility of
mind is the answer, keep learning and to paraphrase Winston Churchill “Never
stop learning, never, never stop learning”.
Vic
