When I was little, which wasn't that long ago, school was fun in the early years and it was enjoyable to learn. It only got a little bit pressurised later at the age of 13 or 14 when all those O'level exams started (I am showing my age now) and then all the other exams that followed. These intensely pressurised periods of last minute, panic stricken revision and blind attempts to decipher other peoples poorly written notes secretly borrowed from their rightful owners in the false belief that they may have paid more attention in class than you, allowed us to successfully sit exams after only 20minutes of sleep the night before. All this in a desperate bid for a higher than deserved grade in the exams that allow us to wave O'level, A'level and Degree certificates at potential employers. To this day, nobody has ever asked to see any of these certificates of playtime lost, not that I know where they are anyway or even remember how many I got. My mother no doubt has them somewhere, but as she managed to lose my original birth certificate which at some stage must have been fairly precious to her, I don't have much hope that the slightly less sentimental exam certificates will be found.
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| Some Teachers Yesterday |
Anyway before all these pressurised exams, apart from the usual spelling tests my first big test was the 11+ which was hardly pressurised, I think if you finished it in more than 11 minutes you were officially classed as stupid and had to be separated to protect the others from harm. It made no difference anyway, our local grammar school was rubbish and nobody wanted to go there and so everyone ignored the results. That failed grammar school has since been turned into luxury apartments for stupid rich people that couldn't get in first time around..
The whole point of today's rant is that up until the age of 13 or 14, children should be allowed to be children as there is loads of time for the pressurised scary stuff later on. This allows children to develop their character, because the early years is when characters are essentially formed and we all know that character maketh the man or woman or ladyboy. It is character that gets people grown up jobs rather than the results of pressurised exams sat at the age of eight. Yes, exams at aged eight, and two hours of homework each night from the age of six. The prep school that my children originally went to were all streamed into groups at the age of 7 based on ability. What is the point of that at that age? All the children in the bottom groups were coincidentally all the youngest. But the only difference now is that they have it in their mind that they are stupid rather than just being the youngest. Not good.
The English School system is not allowing our children's characters to form but they are bashing whatever they have out of them. I am not talking about state schools, they don't learn anything, but fee paying prep schools. I will talk about state schools another time in the interest of fairness. I am focusing primarily on London, though I can imagine it is much the same in the Sticks of Richmond and beyond.
Its not as if these schools are cheap, they all appear to be strangely much the same price, I am not sure whether they use the inverse to the the price checking system that the supermarkets use but it seems that they are trying to match the most expensive. Perceived value appears to be the name of the game in London which is a polite way of saying cartel with a heroic charity status.
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| Original English plans for the first moon landings |
But what do you get for your £15k per child per term at prep school? You get an overly stressed child who has strangely developed an Australian accent! All the teachers appear to be just friends of friends who just needed something to do. I have heard that apparently you don't need a teaching qualification to teach in a public school, you just need to be a mate, though I could be wrong on this. I need to point out at this stage that the three half days per week at nursery that my daughter enjoyed as a 2/3 year old was significantly more than the prep school and apart from cheerfully punching me in the dingles every time she saw me at pickup (she thought the reaction was hilarious) there was little else to show for this investment, though there were some pretty mothers to talk to.
At my school we did have some eccentric teachers, especially in science. One was very much in the ilk of Francis Godwin the famed 17th century bishop who planned the first moon landing using a flock of geese and a heroic chap in a harness, it wasn't rocket science but interesting nevertheless and I had fun learning.
The early years of education should aim at installing the joy of learning and not installing the fear of failing, there is plenty of time for that later. In many respects I blame the psycho clipboard parents who demand that their children be tortured so. It may be unintentional but it could be classed as a form of emotional abuse. I think children should remain children and not face too much pressure until they are strong enough to cope with such pressure. The alternative is children whose characters are being moulded by emotional stress and not by the joy of learning. I say that the clipboard parents should put on the top of their lists in big letters 'My Child's Safety and Happiness'.
The early years of education should aim at installing the joy of learning and not installing the fear of failing, there is plenty of time for that later. In many respects I blame the psycho clipboard parents who demand that their children be tortured so. It may be unintentional but it could be classed as a form of emotional abuse. I think children should remain children and not face too much pressure until they are strong enough to cope with such pressure. The alternative is children whose characters are being moulded by emotional stress and not by the joy of learning. I say that the clipboard parents should put on the top of their lists in big letters 'My Child's Safety and Happiness'.
