A plea to Nicky Morgan and STEM evangelists

It seems, if the reports I have read are true, that the Education Secretary,  Nicky Morgan*, has warned schoolkids that choosing to study Arts subjects, "Could hold them back For the rest of their lives."

It seems she said this at a 'Your Life' event to promote and encourage kids to study the STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and maths). She told the gathered masses that studying arts and humanities closed our children's career options rather than opened them. She continued by saying that those kids who have no idea what they wanted to do tended towards the arts and humanities stuff but this closed so many options whilst STEM subjects meant doors would be one for you to pursue careers in medicine (bit of a silly example after the comments from yesterday's doctor's strike) and engineering (wonder if she's visited the former manufacturing centres recently).

She said that employers valued maths as the most desirable subject, which is a fair comment because being numerate is important, but then put any spark of intelligent thinking out before it could catch fire by adding, "People who study maths to A level will earn 10% more over their lifetime."

The last nail in the coffin was banged in with the observation that too many kid are making the wrong career choices at 15 - perhaps this means that we need to give them more information and let them make their choices a little later?

It seems to me that the three foundational subjects derive their status because everyone needs to be able to read, write and count - I don't think many would disagree with this - but the event was about the STEM subjects (maths and physics in particular) so I guess we can write off Morgan's comments as mere marketing. But I don't think we can ignore them because in her words we find more of the same old tosh that is damaging our kids and making our nations poor as we disregard the arts and humanities. Mind you, looking at some of the tosh that gets wheeled out in the unmade beds, concrete hours and other 'art' that some competitions parade and applaud, perhaps the arts are doing the work for her!

Now I am someone who studied maths and science and had pretty useful careers in engineering and technology. I am a STEM person and I have enjoyed the world I inhabited before swapping it out for a dogcollar, but have to make a few observations and issue a few correctives:

i. Education is about imparting knowledge in a way that enthuses and informs. It's goal is to discover in each of our children those things that attract them (so we need teaches to understand and make them attractive) and things they have natural gifts and attitudes towards- and maximise them.

School is about discovery, nurture, excitement and enabled and fulfilled kids - not blessed grades!

ii. Whilst I, as a kid, wondered about those who 'don't do science' I soon came to realise that we are all different and my spending every available minute in London's Science Museum (I'd walk their and back from Stoke Newington most Saturdays as a kid) was something that shaped me. I wonder what I'd have done if I'd discovered the V&A first (was nineteen before I lived there for a week listening to Wagner) or stumbled into the National Portrait Gallery - would I have become captivated by music and art then rather than fifteen years later?

Taking up the STEM subjects in favour of the 'soft' subjects might, as Morgan says, get you a career in medicine, science or technology BUT if you don't have additional languages you'll function at a disadvantage and need those who did humanities to speak and listen for you. Oddly, most of my medical friends were musicians and book readers - loves that began at school and saw them get better grades in English and mUsic than they did in Maths and some of the sciences.

What we are heading for with this eschewing of the 'soft' arts and humanities is a bland, uncreative and dismally grey world.

iii. This is not about enabling kids and seeing them fulfilled, this is (in my humble opinion) about creating a country who are at the forefront of technology and science: It's about Gross National Products and out 'taking our place' as a major technological and scientific force. Because this generates money and wins worldwide approval.

This is about more than making our children numerate - it's about guaranteeing income and marketable goods for future. Isn't that why we worry abut out the advances in technology from the East?  We buy their stuff because they use cheap labour and high technology whereas where once might ocean-going vessels were built we now find a few men welding shopping trolleys (I kid you not!).

What I think Ms Morgan should have said is this:

'Kids, find the things that excite you and put everything you have into making them yours. Become the best person you can be at the things that excite you and seek to understand the world around you. Learn that we are all different and understand that 10% extra earnings over a lifetime is a lot to pay to deny who you really are!'

Going on, she should end with:

'Teachers, excite and enthuse those in your care. Help them to explore the whole world before them: Take them to the theatre, concerts, museums, art galleries and more beside (this is where she apologises that they can't really do this because of the lack of government funding and the deconstruction of the state education system). Take you children and watch them and as the flame flickers in them, fan it into a fire that consumes them and help them to blaze with passion for those subjects.

Some are called to be actors whilst others are called to be doctors - both bring cheer to the soul.

Some are called to be artists whilst others creat computers that enable to who aren't to be creative.

Some will build and do technology, but without the copy writers and journalists, who will read about them or buy the products?

Some will make music and sing, others will dance and all, regardless of their occupation will find solace, comfort and inspiration in this.

Dear Ms Morgan - don't condemn our children (or our nation) to a grey stodgy future.

When I was doing Physics we were told to buy the book 'Scientists must write'
By the time we're finished will it be 'Scientists need to learn to read?'

+ 'Your life' is a campaign to encourage the kids to study maths and physics; their goal being a 50% increase of kids taking exams in the subjects over the next three years.

* perhaps from henceforth that should be amended to 'moron' (should we have a poll?)

Got five minutes? Then please pray

Here are just four of the things that need our prayer - if you have five minutes to spare - please read and pray (and discuss these issues with others) - Thank You:


Iraq and Syria
In Iraq those who oppose the ISIS forces, or are from different sects within Islam or different faiths, are being put to the sword or fleeing for their lives.
Churches are desecrated and bear the writing shown below - proclaiming that they are now the property of the state.
In Syria, in the northern province of Raqa, ISIS militants have killed at least 85 soldiers - more than 50 being summarily executed (which is murder and a war crime) - UN spokesman says:
'Some of the executed troops were beheaded, and their bodies and severed heads put on display in Raqa city.'
This is as much of a humanitarian tragedy as the Israel conflict - and yet is now generally unreported - please pray that people will understand what is going on and will call upon their governments to act.

'Property of the Islamic State' - on the wall of a former Christian Church

Israel
It is right to pray for the peace of Jerusalem - and for that of the Palestinian territory.
To pray that those who fire rockets into Israel would stop and choose a path of dialogue and peace.
To pray that the nation of Israel would remember that the law calls on them to act with proportionality and to avoid retaliation that endangers those who under the law have protected status.
It is right to pray that the US, rather than vote 'No' and turn its eyes away from the humanitarian tragedy that is this conflict makes a stand for that which is right, moral and courageous.
That those nations who fuel this conflict through arms, political means and self-interest seek instead justice, mercy and peace.

Why can't we be friends?

Ukraine
Please pray for those who sift through the wreckage: For their protection and their sanity as the engage with such a scene of loss and devastation.
Pray for the relative and friends of those who were lost and for their protection and support as they come to terms and live life without loved ones.
Please pray for the political situation and for peace and commonsense to come to the fore.
Please pray for those who seek power everywhere that they would understand the results of their actions and, even if they will not repent, step back.

The greed of men is paid out with the lives of the innocents

Education
Please pray for the education of our children in this country of ours as Academies fail to deliver, reforms of the student loan system look likely to increase the fees Universities can charge and schools are seeing more and more teachers leave, or crumple, because of the pressures on them
Pray that education is seen as means of delivering a well-rounded and fulfilled population - it's about living to our potential, not maximising our earning (isn't it?)

Money and Education: when did it become such big business?

Holocaust Memorial Day 2014

Yes, I know the actual day is January 27 (the day Russian troops entered the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp in 1945 and liberated those within its fences). But I wanted to lay down a marker so that those who will be in church this weekend make sure that it is remembered in the prayers (or a candle lit or whatever you do where you are) and marked.

Today I find myself talking to people of varying ages over the SHOAH - the Hebrew word for 'desolation' which is preferable to 'holocaust' ('burnt offering') in that those who died under the Nazi German regime. Alongside this will be dealing with the (too) many acts of genocide before and since that awful event and the eight stages of genocide and some 'Journey' stories.

Not too late to do something or get involved - you can visit here

There will be a service or event somewhere near you (we even do one on the Sunday evening service slot at 6pm)

It's World Diabetes Day

I don't know about you but where I am, the most common ailment that I encounter these days is diabetes and today, the anniversary of Frederick Banting's (one of those who developed insulin) birthday is the day set aside to bring the disease into the spotlight.

This year is the last in a five year cycle that dedicated to education and prevention and so mark the drawing to a close of that particular campaign.

But what do we know about the illness?

The shock statistics (for me at least) are the estimation that more than one in 20 people in the UK has diabetes (diagnosed or undiagnosed). That means that something around 6% (or higher) has this condition and it is predicted that around 5,000,000 (that's five million) people will be suffering from it by 2025!

The frightening statistic is that which says around 850,000 people in the UK have undiagnosed diabetes.

SO WHAT DO WE DO?

First and foremost read this (it's the key statistics and figures on UK Diabetes)

Then read this and if you think some of them apply to you - talk to your doctor;

Type 2 diabetes: Develops slowly over a period of time - often only picked by optician's visit (that's the puff of air on the eye!) or a general medical examination. The main symptoms of undiagnosed diabetes include:

• passing urine more often than usual, especially at night
• increased thirst
• extreme tiredness
• unexplained weight loss
• genital itching or regular episodes of thrush
• slow healing of cuts and wounds
• blurred vision

Asking someone who works in this area what the greatest prevention was - their answer was:

Watch your weight for type 2 and being overweight go hand in hand!

Please take a moment to have a think about this disease and your own health - being aware of it might stop you offering those you know who suffer from it biscuits and sweets!!!

Please pray for those who suffer from it and for those who work to find a cure to this debilitating and life-shortening illness.

Edukation - By Gove we're in trubble!

On a day when an OECD* study puts our sixteen to twenty-four year olds somewhere very near to the bottom when it comes to literacy and numeracy. Now before we deal with the claims that it isn't a legacy from Labour and some sloping shoulders from Gove, the man who has done little to help education since he took over from another equally woeful incumbent, lets celebrate the fact that we are placed :

22/24 for Litteracy and a much betterer 21/24 for maffematics!

For a nation that gave the world some of its greatest literature and brightest stars in mathematics and science this is nothing but a disgrace and a national shame.

What worries me more is the reality that once other factors are taken into account the reality is that the wrinklies are better than the you - an indicator that the old standards where Reading, Writing and Arithmetic (the three 'Rs') took the front row, might just be the telling issue here. Perhaps we need to buy books rather than show the video (and I kid you not - one of our children watched a film in class rather than read a classic because it meant they didn't need the books - 'God help us all.' cried Tiny Ted).

So tonight we find something like 9 million adult with the numeracy skills of a ten year old and that's apparently a year older than the majority's reading ability.

Skills Minister, Matthew Hancock had this to say:

'This shocking report shows England has some of the least literate and numerate young adults in the developed world!'

 Of course Hancock then went on to try and pass the blame onto Labour - no surprise there then :-) - just as their chap stood up and pointed to the better grades and pass marks under labour (what's that Sooty, they lowered them? Surely not ;-)  )

Let's have a look at where we are on the better of the two tables (Numeracy) and see if there are any surprises or things to celebrate:

Netherlands
Finland
Japan
Flanders (Belgium)
South Korea
Austria
Estonia
Sweden
Czech Republic
Slovak Republic
Germany
Denmark
Norway
Australia
Poland
Canada
Cyprus
Northern Ireland
France
Ireland
England
Spain
Italy
United States

Source: OECD* Survey of Adult Skills 2013

Well we're above the Americans but then again anything less would be the end of the world as I know it - but of course, only just!

The time has come for those of us with children to engage with their education and redress the woeful experiences that so many of our children are having. Labour might forget Lord Adonis' Academies and look to the ConDemn Coalition - but the reality is that none have clean hands here and whilst grades are tinkered with and teachers are taken from teaching to grade manipulation exercises (and modular education is not all bad by the way - the manipulation of grades by clever selection and re-sit is the problem that needs resolving) and a dumbing down of what they're teaching (Snell's law, Kirchhoff and the like - remember them anyone?). Perhaps we all need to watch that prophetic film 'Idiocracy'

Can I encourage people to take a look at the report (not just the spinning reports from whatever press source or bloke on the train is available) and then press for change - do it as parents, citizen's and as Church - for we need to stand to make education something that maximises the abilities and potential of our children - it's about that, not potential earnings, isn't it?

Come on people - make a noise and make a stand for our children's sakes.

*Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development 

The report can be found here

How to communicate effectively

I've just seen this (Thank You Mark) and have to say that this is one of the most effective and entertaining ways I have ever seen to get across an extremely important and serious message.

I won't say who produced it but will let those who watch it find out at the end!

But it deserves applause and thanks - I will be using this in the schools I visit this coming academic year.

This has to be a superlative in its field.

Motivating our children

And setting their sights high - surely one of the goals of education.

Education is not about maximising the child's earning potential but helping them to fulfil the potential that they have to be exactly who they are and to do what they might actually enjoy, or even be 'called'  to do and be.

But apparently I am greatly mistaken as the recounting of a recent 'careers' lesson at one of our local schools clearly shows. Here's a brief rendition of the lesson as performed by the reduced 'Vic the Vicar' theatre company:

"Good morning children, welcome to the careers lesson. I am Ms Nohope; let's begin with some ground rules:

First, it's a very good idea to be realistic and to start from the very first stages of thinking about what you want to do by realising that you won't be living out your dreams when you enter the world of work; so let's drop ideas of being footballers, singers, actors or other glamorous jobs and start thinking about jobs you can really do! Jobs like working in supermarkets, shops and perhaps even motorway service areas.

Now we've got that out of the way you need to realise that setting your sights too high just leads to disappointment (thinks to self: I never thought I'd end up in up place like this!) and it's better to aim low and get what you can, isn't it?

So (points to pupil), what you you like to be? (The answer is that they'd like to be a doctor)

Well that's good but you'd be better off perhaps trying to be a nursing auxiliary as that's probably within your grasp.

Yes, I know you want to be a doctor but I know about these things and that's not really realistic from a school like this (thinks: in a town like this) and you'll only end up disappointed whereas if you take my advice you'll get what you want and have a nice blue uniform too!

Yes, I do know what I'm talking about - I'm just trying to help you make choices that you have a chance of fulfilling. "

Scene shimmers and lesson ends leaving our heroic careers teacher to dream about what would have happened if they had only managed to become whatever it was that they failed to do. . . . .  And the children to accept that they are but plebs - yes, schooling is no longer aspirational and enabling, it is merely the means by which those who have are given more and those from less aspirational areas are schooled to accept their lot (and to know their place).

Many years ago I found myself in a headmaster's office in Hounslow fighting with teachers who regarded the kids from the estate I served as nothing (at best) more than potential baggage handlers, airport workers and shop workers. All they sought to do was contain the kids until the reached an age where they could be sent out into the world to take their place in the world of benefits, social housing or the airport.

I struggled to get the school to raise its game and serve their pupils better - but like DH Lawrence's  lovely Miss Brangwen they merely clung to the belief that it was cruel to show them a wider world when all they had was Hounslow West and no aspirations.

It was wrong then and it is wrong now. I fought then and, no surprise coming, I'm willing to take up the gauntlet again, especially as we see our state school system eroded and destroyed by Adonis' disgraceful class engineering that is Academies.

Game on teacher Dudes - Molesworth was right: 'Down with Skool!'

Education - 'Soft Subjects'

Listening to a debate yesterday on 'soft subjects' in the school curricula left me feeling frustrated and potentially homicidal!

We now live in the Orwellian nightmare world where, thanks in a large part to our politicians, we now see funding at school favouring the so-called 'hard' subjects at the expense of the 'soft' ('hard' subjects good, 'soft' subjects bad!).

A couple of weeks back I heard an apparently moronic moron witter on about encouraging the 'proper' subjects in our schools as this would make those leaving 'more employable'. Turns out the 'moron' was an MP (so the cap might well fit!!) and all that they left out of their highly informed and influential point of view was the voicing of a desire to return to the days when Britain was the home of technology, industry, manufacturing and the whole of the globe was red! Another contributor to this debate said that doing art was great preparation for a life of unemployment.

Now, to cap it all I understand that the Russell group of universities are about to release a new handbook and, if the Grauniad are to be believed, it will travel along these lines:

"By not studying at least two of the following subjects – maths, English, geography, history, any of the three pure sciences or a classical or modern foreign language – "many degrees at competitive universities will not be open to you,"

The world of education that I came from focussed on the sciences because I was heading into the world of science and technology and Art, Music and Religious Education were available on the non-academic 'Arts' stream whilst Technical Drawing, Woodwork and Metalwork were available to those who took the 'Technical' path.

Those who took the arts route generally appeared to end up teaching (which is ironic I guess).

Those who took the technical route generally worked in engineering, construction and related industries until they found themselves unemployed in mid-forties onwards. Many of these people now exist in 'benefit world' or in alternative careers (one I know of works at McDonald'sm which isn't a problem but perhaps makes a statement!).

Those who took the academic route seem generally to be split between those who are still employed in offices doing admin' work, those who went into higher education (and mainly now find themselves in early-retirement) and those who have managed to keep a job in their chosen occupation.

The irony is that many of us who were pushed (sorry - I mean 'guided') into the Maths, English, Physics, Chemistry (plus others) appear in later life to have wished they'd done humanities, drawn things, played instruments and took up subjects that would benefit them now. Mind you one of my former scholar colleagues says that geography probably helps him with his daily work :-)

Having had a graduate from 'Bimbo University' work in one of my previous areas of influence (first-class BA in Tourism!!) I take more offence at the soft degrees and whilst I can understand that 'A levels' in media studies, Religious Education (the queen of all sciences), art and design, photography, psychology, business studies and other 'soft' subjects might be seen as an easy option to building a portfolio, there are times when the intended career path demands, or at least is supported by, them.

Here in the Vicar's palace we have one child embarked upon English, Music, Art and Psychology 'A levels'. The next is looking to do Maths, Physics, Art and Computing, One looks towards a career in the wonderful world of performance and arts whilst the other seeks a path that takes them to the world of animation. Both report that at GCSE many of those who opted for Art soon slipped away as they found that the workload was anything but soft and this is also the experience in other 'soft' subjects.

Here's the reality:

Most of us who did degrees find that what we did has little or no connection with the career/s we ended up with.

The pushing of our children into 'hard' subjects because this will get them the places is tosh. We should be encouraging our children to study the subjects that they enjoy (which usually means that they have a passion or skill in and for).

We need to develop a love of science and maths (I remember the passion (of now Prof) George Mathon for the 'art' that is mathematics) and from there see our children study the subjects because of the emerging passion for them (but this means we need inspiration and well as perspiration from our teachers).

We need to stop seeing education as something that can be converted into drinking vouchers. Learning develops passions, skills and abilities in us and we teach to enable people to fulfil their potential as people not as earners.

Soapbox away :-)

Pax

The role of education - Obama

Delivering a speech on the state of the US of A, the President delivered a couple of interesting thought, the first (speaking of putting teachers back into work) seemed to sum up the role of education as the process that delivers earning potential. I quote the (perhaps less) esteemed gentleman:

"Let's put teachers back into work so our kids can get good grades, go to college, graduate and get good jobs."

Back in the dim and distant past an English teacher (Colin Chapman - but not the Lotus chappie) told our class that as the number of people going to university rose and as access to higher education became easier the day would come when, "You'd need a degree to become a dustman!"

Labour Day 2011 saw the President in Detroit and one of the reports on the day consisted of interviews with people in that place, the majority of whom were unemployed, regarding their situation. One young man had been unemployed for four years and spoke of the ways that he and his wife struggled to make ends meet. He, like a few others interviewed were graduates and in fact he'd completed postgraduate studies but was unable to find work. He spoke of how McDonald's had opened a new restaurant and that he'd have killed to get a job there but the queues were too long. Another man interviewed had a doctoral qualification and yet was working as a scrap man to pay rent and eat. Eloquent and educated his words brought me back to that lesson in the late sixties and the teacher's words.

Seems my English teacher might just have been a visionary!

We need to pray and work with those who are marginalised by the recession(s) and the financial instability caused by the greed of others. Oh yeah, and get our attitudes to education sorted - we need more vocations and less pushing our children into areas that are merely 'earners'.

Pax

Removing imagination from reading

I was watching an interesting news item last week regarding electronic books and the addition of soundtracks and sound effects to them. What made the news piece more interesting was the cry, in unison, from our four children that such a feature would remove the need to have imagination when reading.

As we discussed this we found that we all regarded the 'mind's eye' images and sounds to be focus and means by which books were special. It was this that made a book great and often made the film of the book weak when the silver screen's interpretation fell short of the book we had read.

This led to the fact that one of the local schools had decided to show the video of Jane Eyre on the grounds that it:

a. saved the cost of n books, and

b. made the story accessible to those who might have struggled a bit with the reading!

Of course the whole point of English at school is surely to teach the language in both written and read forms and so point the second left me wondering if this was one of the reasons we have such poor reading standards displayed by many young people (gosh, don't sound like a young, trendy Vicar this morning, do I?). Secondly the film was an interpretation brought about by editing and modifying the story and so the story as it left the pen was not the same story as that which hit the screen. It might have been an approximation, but often with films there are omissions and quite major changes made to keep running time, cast and cost under control.

The issue of saving the cost of the books is another quite frightening issue as far as I am concerned because as Academies and Free schools and other 'out of the State system' educational bodies become the norm', surely this 'cost-cutting' will become the order of the day in oh so many ways?

Recently the family has seen 'Much ado About Nothing' in a variety of formats ranging from unexpurgated and modernised versions on film to a stage play of the same in a London theatre (more later) and modernised version and play excluded different elements. It was the same story but the journey was different in each. The main points were present but something was lost in each and whilst all three were enjoyable - it was for me - the reading in association with the other media that completed the whole.

One of the people on a London radio station who discussed this suggested that perhaps abridged talking books were a better way of helping our children do English - heaven forbid!

Still, grumble done, let the day begin.

Pax

Teaching our children - People vs Possessions

I have received a missive from someone who describes themselves as an educator who takes offence at what I have written. Have a read (seems I might have touched a nerve):

"The role of education is to equip our young people to be effective and productive members of society. The education process teaches them how to indeed maximise their income and make themselves attractive to the employers, what else should it do? Your bleeding heart, sugar-coated, unreal words suggest that you are yourself little more than someone with little real experience of the world of men or of work. As a career teacher I have taught for over thirty-five years and have seen my students enter well-paid and successful careers because of that which I have instilled in them.

We seek to produce people who can demand the highest salaries and command the highest positions. This is what education is about, not the 'be happy and make a difference fluffiness you preach. Good job you are a priest, you can do little damage there."

Some interesting points arise from this communication. Some are, I fear, far from the the reality of my work life and some of my correspondent's comments rely strongly upon assumptions made from their own life which I suspect is a life lived outside of the real, working, world.

Now before my teaching friends reach for shotguns and hounds, please understand that I am not saying that being a teacher isn't work, for it most certainly is (and very challenging  and rewarding work too), but I am saying that it is not the world of work the majority of those in work experience and that the parameters from within which conclusions are drawn are not the 'real' world.

So, let's address the issues and see what this brings forth:

The role of education - is surely to 'educate. Simples? Education is the art of imparting the skills, knowledge, customs, values and beliefs of the society in which the pupil finds themselves. It opens the eyes, encourages questions and brings forth answers that the student can make their own in such a way as they can develop their passions, practice the things they enjoy and maximise their potential to be creative, scientific, linguistically-enabled or any other art, craft or science that makes them who they are.

I recall in one of the Lawrence books Ursula Brangwen sees cruelty in a botany lesson for it makes the children aware of something that will never be open to them in their drab mill-worker's lives. Their being aware of stamen and the biology of the plant is a door to a world they now know of and yet will never be part of. The education she sees in the closely knit rows of back-to-back worker's cottages is that which trains the children to respond to the alarms for the start and close of work and for meal breaks. It teaches enough to generate the drones of the Industrial age and leaves nothing of the person developed or revealed. This is surely:

Education that teaches maximised income and attracts employers - The blue collar drones who once laboured in out dark satanic mills and grimy, unsafe mines, factories and industrial places. The underclass who were not taught to think but merely be obedient and submissive. The very people who (generally) no longer exist in today's society. To think as my correspondent does is to think with the mindset of the post-war, Daily Mail, dinosaur rather than as an effective or realistic educator. I would rather have Neill's 'Summerhill' than this glimpse of days (thankfully) long gone.

That said, I'm not sure whether this person is a teacher of the elite or the proletariat but I'm assuming that this person is turning out 'haves' rather than the 'have nots'. In seeking to produce 'people who can demand the highest salaries and command the highest positions' I fear that they might be breeding those among us who have found that they can live their miserable lives miserably in comfort and plenty. This, is as I understand it not at all what education is about and without those who are 'happy and make a difference' the world we live would be even sadder than that which such'educators as this correspondent seek to create (for surely this is hell rather than heaven).

"I can but end with a rejoinder to the comment, "Good job you are a priest, you can do little damage there."

What a sadness you are an educator, for you do untold damage!

Good job I'm a priest isn't it? Someone needs to remedy the errors and antisocial outworkings of educators such are portrayed here;)

Then when you get your converts you make them twice as fit for hell as you are yourselves perhaps?

Pax

Are Arts Subjects Worthless?

having been discussing the topic of A Level subjects with my daughter yesterday we came to the conclusion that for many people the 'academic' subjects were the only one which had any worth or value. We reckoned that for many, the educational system existed with a few subclasses, namely:

Proper Subjects
Maths, Physics, Chemistry and Biology (AKA The 'Academic' subjects)

Moderately Proper Subjects
English (Language and Literature), French, German, Law.

Fluffy Subjects
Art, Music, Geography, History, Religious education, Physchology, Physical Education, Drama, General Studies (AKA the 'Easy Option ' or dossing subjects)

Defunct Subjects
Citizenship

Today on Radio Four's episode of 'The Archers' we were entertained by the missing of an examination by one of the cast. But, not to worry for it was only 'RE' and there wasn't a problem as the missing pupil had promised to be present at the proper subjects, Maths and English!

It was once held that theology was the Queen of all the sciences and the foundation upon which all academic excellence stands was English. But it seems that we now see education as merely being the means by which we train our children to maximise their earning potential rather than develop their skills and extend their abilities.

Where is enjoyment and creativity in our education system? The answer us that there is little or none!

Why? Because we've lost the plot and are seeking to produce cloned drones rather than intelligent and creative, free-thinking individuals.

Sad isn't it?

Pax