Hilary Cremin, the doubtful Professor of Education at Cambridge University, has called for the "rewilding" of education. Her muddled book inspired a thunderous piece from Michael Gove reminding us that those who suffer from poor educational standards are those at the bottom of society. Well I hate to break it to Michael Gove, but the process of the rewilding of the education system is already fully entrenched and is accelerating at pace.
For all the heat around ‘strict’ schools such as Michaela, hundreds of Alterative Provisions (APs) or Non-School Education Providers (NSEPs), Education Otherwise Than At School (EOTAS) Forest Schools, Trauma Sensitive Schools, schools that focus on social, emotional and mental wellbeing needs (SMEH), Enrichment Centres and private tutor and mentoring companies are being established or funded with public money.
These are not the much needed schools that are specifically for children with profound physical and mental learning difficulties, but rather cater for the looser categories of children with arguably more speculative neurodevelopmental needs including ADHD, Anxiety, Autism Spectrum Disorder and Emotional Based School Avoidance (EBSA). Those like Cremin who want to shrug off the restrictive exam factories of modern schools ought to be celebrating because vast numbers of children are successfully ducking out of formal education completely, replacing it with an outdoors curriculum of knitting, den building and slime making.
Such establishments are proliferating across the country, some well-regulated, others not, all of which are putting enormous pressure on local government finances. Where I live and work
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Well, well, well – Newton Wood Barn. Just so happens I went there last year on an estate visit and I was not the only one who thought it was utter bullshit. In our day being naughty brought physical punishment, not a chance to play in the woods, build shelters etc and effectively have very little education. Lovely new buildings paid for by taxpayers on the estate land.
The dumbing down of standards began when CSEs were introduced alongside GCEs. A Grade 1 CSE was a Grade C O Level which was considered the GCE pass level. So instead of challenging children to hit the higher level they were given effectively a failure qualification. Streaming children by ability allows those not so good in maths to have a full 5 years to get an O Level while those who are better can do it in 4 years and then go to a higher level in the remaining year.
Having now created lower qualifications there had to be some use for them so step forward the reduction of other standards, in my experience in engineering the ONC/OND qualifications. Jumping courses mid term meant I was put into a maths class on… Read more »
The author thinks kids are better off sitting through lessons they find boring, being sent to detension, and then failing their exams. Five years totally wasted. Exam factories where most learned knowledge is forgotten within a few years. The entire system needs ripping up and reimagined. The 1.6m who don’t attend already know this.
It’s a lot easier to con someone who can’t add up…
Love the photo … “Cambridge Fools Conference”
That was my instant reading of it too!
Has this change in Education been discussed in Parliament. Did Phillipson just hand over education to various NGOs with a guarantee that what ever ‘education’ ideas they came up with, it would be funded by Gummint, which means us?
A bit like the crazy stull that Charlotte Gill finds in Higher ‘Education’ where any doofus can put forward some research idea e.g. ‘Transgender Underwater Basket Weaving’ and one of these Funding NGOs will approve it. Paid for by us.
Oh I wouldn’t worry. Those who want their children educated will find a way to do it and those who don’t care, will let their children run wild, or spend all day affirming that they are worth it.
like the peasants of old, they will be totally illiterate in about ten years time; which will suit the anointed no end as like the priests before them, the majority will have to rely totally on “trusted sources “ for their world view; live about five minutes from where they were born and rely on instruction from their betters as to what they should do.
dismantling basic education is the first requirement of Neo feudalism.
Socialists play a completely different game to those of us who aren’t socialist.
We strive for things to work, to be the best they can. We believe in the intrinsic value of things.
Socialists view everything as an instrument for their ideological purposes. There is nothing they are not prepared to distort or sacrifice if it serves their ultimate purpose – nominally some form of equality, but really, deep down, the acquisition of power.
While we are working to make things better, they’re working on the side and against us to undermine us, sabotage us and capture whatever it is so they can use it as a tool for themselves.
One of the biggest ‘dumb downs’ has taken place in agriculture, where rock-solid soil science, based on centuries of research and experiment, has been jettisoned in favour of ‘regen’ and, yes, rewilding. Bizarrely, the VIPs beating a path to regen faming’s door are also the ones trying to make the case for domestic food security. As an old school farmer trained in the classical tradition (Liebig’s Law and all that), I find it bewildering.
I think there is a place for rote learning, lots of structure, learning facts, learning methods, getting solid basics in English and Maths, learning our history. Also a place for practical activity and skills. But there is also a place for letting creativity loose, and giving space to people to think for themselves. I think the problem is that the latter sounds good but is used as a cover for political indoctrination and accepting low achievement.
A few weeks there was an interesting article in the Spectator by Lara Brown about how the imposition of VAT had pushed many private schools off their parents affordability cliff. Among other things, Lara pointed out that it was being seen as an opportunity by Private Equity to swoop in, buy suitable premises on the cheap, and launch ‘Special Needs’ schools whose profits are effectively guaranteed by legally enforced local authority funding. I take it that Alton/Anstey Manor School is a prime example. Just another imposition on those mugs who still work for a living I suppose. How many more straws before the camel’s back finally breaks, I wonder?
Two questions about these schools:
1.Are schools that sell their places to the local authority VAT registered?
2, Are these schools ‘selective’, does a kid need a diagnosis from a qualified whatever, for the taxpayer to fund their alternative school provision?
VAT doesn’t matter. If it is charged the LA gets it back.