On 2008-07-25 18:14:40 +0100, Tony Bryer said:
On Fri, 25 Jul 2008 08:26:38 +0100 Stuart noble wrote :
IME bright kids will sail through their A levels, whatever system
they're in.
And ISTR Princess Diana got just one GCSE despite a no expense
spared private education
Probably, which demonstrates that you can't *buy* education in itself,
you can only buy the opportunity for education. If the child is
unable to use the opportunity, it doesn't achieve anything.
Conversely, one can say that providing opportunity by virtue of access
to facilities and low teacher
upil ratio can facilitate education and
learning.
I can still vividly remember my first days at primary school and indeed
each of the teachers of my primary years. All of this was in the state
sector. The teachers were essentially facilitators. Some
children were interested in sports and were encouraged in that; others
in natural history which became a great vehicle for learning some
science in a real way. Others showed aptitudes in maths or english
and were suitably encouraged in those directions. There weren't the
hangups about selection at 11 that there became later through political
interference. The point was that the children were encouraged to
learn as opposed to being taught.
Some years later, during my secondary years, the comprehensive system
began to be introduced. There was an almost immediate demise in
motivation among teachers with the more able ones across a wide range
of disciplines moving to schools still having selection (not all
grammar I might add) and to the independent sector.
I was fortunate in the sense that I had left the system before head
teachers had become politicians and the major damage of the
comprehensive system was in place.
I was able to go through university when that still had the approach of
facilitating learning.
Nowadays, in both schools and the new "universities" we have what are
basically training programs. Training does not equal education and it
most certainly doesn't equal learning or the ability to learn.
In essence, for more than a generation now, the politicians have been
comprehensively wrecking any semblance of education that we had.