We had a visit from one of Theo's friends a few days ago. During his visit I was a little shocked when he raised his hand to ask me if he could have more juice and mistakingly called me 'Miss'.
It would be easy to dismiss this yet it has stayed with me. It brought back memories of Theo calling me 'Miss' accidentally when he was still at school. 'Miss can you pass me the glue' that sort of thing. It used to upset me a little but I brushed it off as a side effect of him being sent to school each day and spending more time with his teacher than with me. On reflection, I think this runs deeper.
There is a hierarchy in society even in the twenty first century. The politicians, as we keep hearing, hail by a majority from the few elitist schools in the country. They are the old boys at the top of the pile, the fella's in charge, stroking the egos of bankers and business leaders. The private schools are maintained to prepare the next generation of our 'leaders'.
Our state schools are allowed to thrive on the idea of hierarchy. The teachers stand before their children, unquestionable, separate. They reinforce the idea of 'us' and 'them' in our children from a ridiculously early age. A child can ask a question if it falls within the accepted boundry of the task at hand but as we discovered when Theo questioned his faith (or put more properly their faith), to question beyond these pre-ordained boundaries is unacceptable.
It is social programming. The majority of children at state schools will become the worker bees of society with those from privileged backgrounds attending the likes of Eton and ultimately running the show.
I recall being sent to visit one of our countries top universities, being told by my tutor that it was within my abilities to attend the hallowed halls of this ever so English institution. I remember to this day the feelings of inadequacy which enveloped me as I stood shoulder to shoulder with a group of people from very much the other side of the track. I lasted for maybe an hour before I bolted and spent the rest of the day sulking by the river. Even in my own head I always put my dramatic escape down to my artistic rebellious streak. Now as I approach middle age I can admit that I was intimidated, nothing more nothing less. My schooling and my heritage impressed on me that my existence was capped, it had an upper ceiling limit. This was so ingrained in me that even when someone told me there was another path I was unable to take it. I was scared and intimidated by the institution. It wasn't for me - it was for them.
The system is archaic and is still based on an outmoded educational model. Schooling is still split into private preparatory schools and mainsteam comprehensives. Private preparatory schools exist in order for children to move through a system separate from mainstream society where the next stage is for upper and middle class children to attend private schools and prestigious universities. This has been the case historically for hundreds of years.
In the 18th century it was commonly upheld that too much schooling for the poor 'would simply make the working poor discontented with their lot' (Chitty). When schools were eventually introduced it was to train the young up to fill the jobs created by the industrial revolution. A certain level of reading was beneficial and as time went on Britains ship-building grew and clerks were in great demand. It became requisite for children to be taught maths and English so that these positions could be filled. The population had gone from around 7 million just before the industrial revolution to 26 million. There were jobs that needed filling and education of the masses served to prepare the working classes for these perfectly. There was always the concern that too much education would arm them with too much knowledge and they would be unhappy with their lot. There is still a marked difference between the curriculum taught in mainstream education today and the education given to children in private schools. It is still us and them.
The teachers march about pointing fingers and telling our children whether they are good enough but compared to what - a shipbuilders clerk? We test them relentlessly as the system is so results driven. Mums compare marks and grades in the school yard because they believe it genuinely makes a difference and the wedge is driven in further. In mainstream education there is an acceptable curriculum - learn this and no more. Too much knowledge will make mainstream society restless and discontented - we can't have that. The world has moved on from clerics and loom workers and education needs to follow suit. We need inventors and creative thinkers if the world is ever going to move forward, physicists and philosophers.
Schools are not beyond examination as institutions. They are not exempt from critique by virtue of them being a component of established authority. The very idea of schooling the masses was once debated and examined for many years before it came to fruition. It is time for the same level of debate to be started again although the focus should not be whether education is beneficial, we know it is, it should be how to make today's form of education relevant to contemporary society. We should not keep using models simply because they are already in place. Hierarchical society is an antiquated form of civilisation and by continually buying in to it we are denying the world of the next generation of explorers, scientists and free-thinkers. How many game changing scientists might have been lost because of 'class', because they wore tracksuits instead of tweed or came from a council house? Education should celebrate the talents of our children and be geared up to identify and fine tune these skills. It should offer children ways of learning which are fun, which appeal to their senses and which encourage creative thought processes. It certainly shouldn't be singling children out for not being able to read at five or for not being unable to recite times tables by six.
Our solution has been to provide a better education for our children at home. We have removed the barriers that are created by school for our children by simply stopping them from attending. They don't put their hands up, they don't need my permission to learn, to seek knowledge. Their futures are not restricted - they are free to decide who they are and what they will be.
Are you content with the current education system or do you think it is time for change? Did you chose to home-educate because of the failings of mainstream education or would you consider home schooling as an alternative?
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