Changing Our Minds

My first book is 99p on Kindle for July

It’s September. My inbox fills with pictures of shining children, dressed up in their brand-new school uniforms and beaming for the camera. With their white socks, grey skirts or trousers, and their neatly brushed hair, the message couldn’t be clearer. The free and easy preschool years are over; it’s time to get down to work. The start of school is a time of excitement and anticipation. Children are filled with awe about the new world that is about to open up to them. Parents are holding their breath as their babies take this first step towards independence. We tell our four-year-olds that school will be wonderful, that they’ll make new friends and learn things they couldn’t do at home. They believe us. And off they go.

For some, the promise is fulfilled. School is a chance to make new friends and be inspired. For others, it leads to disillusionment and disappointment. For all of them, the next twelve years will be a defining part of their lives. They will never forget their time at school.

Most of us cannot imagine how a child can become educated if they don’t go to school. This means that when a child is not thriving at school, we don’t really consider alternatives. We try different schools, or more support at school. We take the child to be assessed for disorders and pay for therapists, all in the hope that we can get the help they need to get them through school. Leaving the school system altogether is usually portrayed as a disaster; it’s called ‘dropping out’, and nothing good comes of that.

But what really goes on at school that is so essential? Attending school is a time-consuming business. Children attend five days a week from the age of around four to sixteen or even eighteen. In this amount of time, an adult could complete four undergraduate degrees, or train as a doctor twice over. We insist that our children invest an enormous amount of their time and energy in school. Is it worth the effort?

This is the introduction to my first book, Changing Our Minds.

It is 99p on Kindle for July only.