What is education for?

I have always found the education I got at school extremely useful. The history and geography I learnt has enriched my life and the basics provided at school have been the foundation of my gradually increasing knowledge and understanding of the world I live in throughout my life.

I reckoned that my O level latin was the most useful qualification I had when I had children. When they asked me why people walking in the street were called pedestrians, I knew why. One of my children was obsessed by why objectsand place names had the names they had. I could manage those with a latin derivation. Our geography teacher had fortunately introduced her A level students, including me, to the derivation of place names. It wa words like cinema and rhinoceros that had greek at the roots of the word that defeated me.

I agree that it is very easy to become OFSTED-tied. Jobs can depend on the outcome of OFSTED but tbh if kids are making good progress in English & maths, which they should do if it is a good school, then they can make the curriculum their own.

We anticipated the phonic panic and invested in a set of resources we liked before the gov. approved list came in. We got the kids absolutely secure (they were OK before but belt & braces!) so we cold show our methods worked and carried on teaching as before..with fun , drama, music, dance etc etc. The trick is to get the whole staff 100% committed to the school philosophy and it will work! One or two teachers not fully signed up and the system can fail.

This is a question that I asked myself frequently when my children were at school - the answer I came up with was that education was certainly NOT about what they were getting! They used to come home with some real nonsense for homework - totally pointless.

I am governor at a primary school and at meetings I listen to the head feeding back on policies, targets, monitoring etc, and talking endlessly about what needs to be done to get a good OfSted - no word of the joy of learning. And the amount of time she expends on all this is quite beyond belief.

The number of policies we are obliged to ratify is quite ridiculous - there were only two of the governors who had actually read them all!

I am going to a training session soon - it was clear that they needed someone from the governors to go to this to tick a box for OfSted, not because it was going to be of any particular relevance.

I think the teachers at this school have good attitudes, but their natural instincts and professional skills are hampered every inch of the way by the dead hand of bureacracy.

A lot of what children learn at school is irrelevant to their lives, but we force them to sit through it all till their love of learning is well and truly quenched.

Oh no. It's old money! Do you still have that in the frozen north

Multiply by 100 divide by 4?

I can't say that I remember much of the maths I learnt, but in Scotland at the time, we also were expected to pass a separate exam in arithmetic, working out bills (25 pairs of socks @3/6, sort of thing), simple and compound interest. I can't remember the formulae for those but at least I understand the principle.

The only use for calculus and the binomial I found was passing physics exams. As I had done neither I struggled in physics and only just scraped through.

I dont think that school really teaches you things that are relevant to the real world, with Maths being the exception.

It of course has loads to offer in terms of having structure,
becoming sociable etc but what relevance is knowing how many wives Henry the eight had, going to have, when you are in the real world and need to get a job to and pay your bills.

I think that Life Skills should be taught as part of the curriculum

Education for employment is not just narrowly skills that are directly used in the work place. A knowledge of the environment around you, nationally and internationally, its past, present and future, pleasure in, and knowledge of music, art, drama all contribute to the rounded person who can do their job better and contribute to a good work atmosphere.

I have lived in a 500 year old house for 17 years and on a number of occasions, delivery drivers have been really interested in the house, its age and history. Considering how delivery drivers are driving around an area from house to house, which is essentially quite boring. How much more interesting the job must be to those who have developed an interest in the age and architecture of the houses they visit and as a result how much better they must do their work as a result.

Educare Latin: to lead out. I think that says it all.

Lamps, indeed, not vessels.

When I retired as chair of governors of a primary school, a very good and much loved Y6 teacher took early retirement. She told me that while she loved the children and loved teaching, she detested having to teach to the SATs.

I am fortunate to have worked with some brilliant teachers. They worked hard to give children the opportunity to shine, to enjoy learning, to be inquisitive and playful, to develop the emotional intelligence to function as part of a group and community. Children were taught core skills (reading /writing/four rules) so they could go on to learn more and more things to help them become useful and content adults.
Some education has to be about learning key skills but education in its broader sense should be to fit us for life more generally, to be able to communicate successfully, apply and use skills in daily life and not just for work. As a head I did take account of Dept off Education directives but adapted them to fit our school's philosophy because all some of them were nonsense incompatible with our approach!

General knowledge is not just the domain of schools! I remember my parents playing games with me to teach me capital cities, rivers, opposites, collective nouns etc! We looked at books together and discovered all sorts of things! i did the same with my children and they do so with theirs!

jane that is a sad article - hats off to teachers, having to deal with all this c--p.

Also agree with the quote you gave as to "facilitating" rather than "teaching".

What I was particularly concerned with was the notion that, unless knowledge is related to passing an exam or getting a job, it is not really that important.

I know that Gove doesn't rate music, art, creativity, etc., as priorities but surely these sorts of skills are important for employment and also for all-round personal development and to develop empathy and social awareness?

I remember our inspirational Scottish teacher in sixth form saying that while we would probably forget pretty much every detail about what we thought we knew about the causes of the Civil War or the terms of the Treaty of Utrecht and so on, what we would retain, if she had her job well, was a passion for finding out WHY things happened and an ability to thoroughly interrogate evidence. Wise woman.

Absolutely Jane! Education is for enabling children to find and fulfil their potential, not meet standards that some politician chooses to advance his career. The best laugh I've had in ages was when my teacher daughter came home from Parents' Evening last week. My little grandsons were born prematurely, 1 day before the end of the academic year. Therefore, they are in a reception class with some children who are almost a year older than them. If my daughter had not had an emergency c-section 3 weeks early, they wouldn't be starting school till this September, so we are thrilled that they are enjoying school at such a young age.

However, the reception class teacher announced that they are finding it a challenge to meet some of the standards that the 5 year olds are taking in their stride, such as certain phonics and concepts - she didn't clearly illustrate what she meant, but she did say that the head teacher has managed to secure additional resources for the school in the form of an extra teaching assistant, who will spend some time with children who would benefit from one to one support. In other words, the school scrapes around to justify getting more funds and 2 little boys who shouldn't even be at school yet are used as part of their tactics. Given that they can both read their homework books to us, write their own full names, operate iPads, do Maths exercises for 5 year olds and navigate complicated technology gadgets, we're taking all this with a pinch of salt.

My mantra 'I got my education despite school!'

Just emailed that article to my science teaching daughter.

I'm afraid my geography is hopeless we had a choice of history or geography at school, guess which I chose!
I went to Egypt when I was in my twenties, when I returned I looked in an atlas to find out where I'd been. But I could have told you all about the history of Egypt and its religion.

You're right, Jane, it's heartbreaking - for teachers and pupils alike.

One of my FB friends posted a link to this article the other day - it made me so sad.

Could somebody in the UK write a huge card and illustrate it - and send it to Gove on all our behalf?

jane absolutely right! And I wish the various governments we've had since the 1970s thought the same

Indeed.

Fabulous - will remember that one, thanks so so true.

Eloethan The headmistress of the village school in Cumbria where my children went for a couple of years told me that she considered that children were not vessels to be filled, but lamps to be lit.
That's the best answer to your question that I have ever come across.