We see more and more of this "blame the individual" instead of the system kind of thinking each day. We are being educated to not ask if the system is correct, but instead ask how do we fit the individual into the system.
And as the system gets worst and worst, more and more individuals are getting pushed to their extreme and excluded as being a problem. As pointed out, we're starting earlier and earlier.
Great article perfectly describes my son’s education experience. We are extinguishing joy and self esteem it’s not good. No surprise that mental health issues are now endemic. It’s so very sad. They deserve a proper childhood where they play and learn first and foremost to delight in their own fantasticness.
Very eloquently put. Over the last ten years as a teacher, I’ve seen the education system move rapidly into a fear driven state. From a teachers point of view, I could not support the level of pressure being posed on 6 and 7 year old children to pass SATs exams, and the worry their parents had, who instead of getting them outside in the fresh air, enjoying their childhood, had tutors to help them pass a test that is solely for government driven purposes.
I’ve worked with teachers who instead of doing some physical education, opted for extra maths or English lessons. Ones who have carefully ‘marked’ books, in case of moderation. Why are we scared of the education system?
Education should be joyful, harness the inner curiosity and natural talents of children. Instead, it pits them against each other in a competition that seems to go on long past school years as they enter society.
Until some brave people start to stand up, the ones that are at the top and rally together, I’m at a loss of how we can create real change beyond the classroom teachers.
If 40% of young people are coming out without any GCSEs above a grade 4, then the system is not tailored to deliver 'comprehensive' education. My ASC son is not ready for GCSEs, but he might be by the time he's 18 or 19. He's not a failure, he's just 2 standard deviations away from the GCSE normal population.
The sausage machine of education is too constrained, with targets and stats much more highly prized than any pedagogical relationship that might actually meet that child's needs. What's measurable may not be valuable, and what's valuable may not be measurable. The only way to get this approach is to medicalise, with a diagnosis that labels them 'unfit for the system'.
My son has been on the receiving end of the same English curriculum, with the same 20 poems, for nearly 3 years (for example). He's totally lost interest in learning because of the obsession with rote learning the prescribed answers for an exam which holds no meaning or significance for him.
The social contract is broken: working hard used to mean qualifications, a job, training, being able to buy a house for your family, and a secure future plus retirement. Our young people face never buying a house or retiring, and all the uncertainties of climate change - yet they must learn their poems. No wonder it feels irrelevant for them.
Brilliant piece. They are really the canaries in the mine as far as I can see. The messages they are telling us (about school, curriculum, ways to learn, relationships etc) need to be heeded. To do so would benefit all children!
We should definitely prioritize lifelong learning over short-term exams. I completely agree with this. Especially nowadays, when all the knowledge of mankind is available at the click of a button. Instead of teaching self-education, we still focus on enforcing learned information. Unfortunately, the school system is very inert and simply cannot keep up with the real world.
This needs to be published in at least the Gardian and then turned to the UK government for a petition into schooling reform. So eloquently and precisely expressed. Thank you.
We appear to maim children in this country...break them down if not by end of primary, hen definitely by high school. This has to be recognised.
In my current role in the Youth Justice Service, I see lots of children with SEN. A lot of them have been pushed out of Mainstream schooling and in turn, been groomed and exploited into criminal activity.
I totally agree with you. Children are being abused and the majority of parents and teachers are blind to it. I am shocked every day at the number of adults I meet, including medical doctors who have no awareness of what abuse is. Abuse seems to generally be seen as physical abuse where wounds, broken bones ir marks are visible. My child got so traumatised from being in mainstream school and so was I. He was being punished, shamed and humiliated. Sent away to others class rooms for not being able to do what he was being asked. Teachers would say "go to year 5 classroom". He'd have to walk there and sit until they came to get him ( he was in year 3). He'd sometimes be asked to go sit outside the principals office. He'd no idea why. He has bladder and bowel issues but felt he could go to the toilet when he needed. I raised his issues with the school, 2 Catholic schools. I approached the school heads. I contacted the local authority. I contacted the local MP. I had head teachers and principal tell me "no we don't use punitive approaches, we remind the child kindly 3 times about what they are to do and after the 3rd time we send them to another class to regulate." My son is a really honest child and one day the teacher told him he'd lie to his mother by saying he was in detention. They didn't like or understand the meaning of the word detention used by my child. My child cried for many days and nights and 2 years later he hasn't yet forgotten about it. The school never saw my child's struggles, his needs. He has dyslexia, ADHD, Autism. I had to privately get him assessed. I ended up on benefits after spending savings and resigning from my job to support my child. I was determined that I'd get a big group of parents from various school and approach the local MP together and raise issues and advocate for children. However, I used up all my energy in dealing with my child and the school, even with his GP who refused to pay any attention to his physical issues and labelled everything as mental health. My son is now in a Sudbury school and both him and our family is a lot more settled.
Yet, my heart cries every day for the way I see children treated with such disrespect. No consideration for their development, bring commanded to do things they don't want ir are unable to. Children are so judged and so many adults seem to have hearts of stone. Children have been abuse and brain washed in schools for over a century so most adults have experienced abuse in the school system. I think we are having traumatised and brain washed adults acting out the pain they didn't heal, the emotions they weren't allowed to process. We generations on nervous systems in survival mode dictating how the next generation must behave, etc. Adult children are damaging the next generations but refusing to go deeper into themselves. The UK seems to still be highly focused on the external, a shallow way of living where you want to see what you like and that's the most important thing. I pray that the system crumbles and becomes unsustainable. Seems to me the way is to be in touch with one's vulnerability. From there the heart can heal and we become more human.
We see more and more of this "blame the individual" instead of the system kind of thinking each day. We are being educated to not ask if the system is correct, but instead ask how do we fit the individual into the system.
And as the system gets worst and worst, more and more individuals are getting pushed to their extreme and excluded as being a problem. As pointed out, we're starting earlier and earlier.
Great article perfectly describes my son’s education experience. We are extinguishing joy and self esteem it’s not good. No surprise that mental health issues are now endemic. It’s so very sad. They deserve a proper childhood where they play and learn first and foremost to delight in their own fantasticness.
Very eloquently put. Over the last ten years as a teacher, I’ve seen the education system move rapidly into a fear driven state. From a teachers point of view, I could not support the level of pressure being posed on 6 and 7 year old children to pass SATs exams, and the worry their parents had, who instead of getting them outside in the fresh air, enjoying their childhood, had tutors to help them pass a test that is solely for government driven purposes.
I’ve worked with teachers who instead of doing some physical education, opted for extra maths or English lessons. Ones who have carefully ‘marked’ books, in case of moderation. Why are we scared of the education system?
Education should be joyful, harness the inner curiosity and natural talents of children. Instead, it pits them against each other in a competition that seems to go on long past school years as they enter society.
Until some brave people start to stand up, the ones that are at the top and rally together, I’m at a loss of how we can create real change beyond the classroom teachers.
This is why many good teachers leave.
How do you get your information to the people who can make the change?
If 40% of young people are coming out without any GCSEs above a grade 4, then the system is not tailored to deliver 'comprehensive' education. My ASC son is not ready for GCSEs, but he might be by the time he's 18 or 19. He's not a failure, he's just 2 standard deviations away from the GCSE normal population.
The sausage machine of education is too constrained, with targets and stats much more highly prized than any pedagogical relationship that might actually meet that child's needs. What's measurable may not be valuable, and what's valuable may not be measurable. The only way to get this approach is to medicalise, with a diagnosis that labels them 'unfit for the system'.
My son has been on the receiving end of the same English curriculum, with the same 20 poems, for nearly 3 years (for example). He's totally lost interest in learning because of the obsession with rote learning the prescribed answers for an exam which holds no meaning or significance for him.
The social contract is broken: working hard used to mean qualifications, a job, training, being able to buy a house for your family, and a secure future plus retirement. Our young people face never buying a house or retiring, and all the uncertainties of climate change - yet they must learn their poems. No wonder it feels irrelevant for them.
Brilliant piece. They are really the canaries in the mine as far as I can see. The messages they are telling us (about school, curriculum, ways to learn, relationships etc) need to be heeded. To do so would benefit all children!
We should definitely prioritize lifelong learning over short-term exams. I completely agree with this. Especially nowadays, when all the knowledge of mankind is available at the click of a button. Instead of teaching self-education, we still focus on enforcing learned information. Unfortunately, the school system is very inert and simply cannot keep up with the real world.
This needs to be published in at least the Gardian and then turned to the UK government for a petition into schooling reform. So eloquently and precisely expressed. Thank you.
We appear to maim children in this country...break them down if not by end of primary, hen definitely by high school. This has to be recognised.
Why would petitioning the facilitators of the abuse work? Why would their propaganda agents help?
In my current role in the Youth Justice Service, I see lots of children with SEN. A lot of them have been pushed out of Mainstream schooling and in turn, been groomed and exploited into criminal activity.
Why do parents remain blind to the nature of the school system? They send their children to be conditioned and abused without any hint of protest.
I totally agree with you. Children are being abused and the majority of parents and teachers are blind to it. I am shocked every day at the number of adults I meet, including medical doctors who have no awareness of what abuse is. Abuse seems to generally be seen as physical abuse where wounds, broken bones ir marks are visible. My child got so traumatised from being in mainstream school and so was I. He was being punished, shamed and humiliated. Sent away to others class rooms for not being able to do what he was being asked. Teachers would say "go to year 5 classroom". He'd have to walk there and sit until they came to get him ( he was in year 3). He'd sometimes be asked to go sit outside the principals office. He'd no idea why. He has bladder and bowel issues but felt he could go to the toilet when he needed. I raised his issues with the school, 2 Catholic schools. I approached the school heads. I contacted the local authority. I contacted the local MP. I had head teachers and principal tell me "no we don't use punitive approaches, we remind the child kindly 3 times about what they are to do and after the 3rd time we send them to another class to regulate." My son is a really honest child and one day the teacher told him he'd lie to his mother by saying he was in detention. They didn't like or understand the meaning of the word detention used by my child. My child cried for many days and nights and 2 years later he hasn't yet forgotten about it. The school never saw my child's struggles, his needs. He has dyslexia, ADHD, Autism. I had to privately get him assessed. I ended up on benefits after spending savings and resigning from my job to support my child. I was determined that I'd get a big group of parents from various school and approach the local MP together and raise issues and advocate for children. However, I used up all my energy in dealing with my child and the school, even with his GP who refused to pay any attention to his physical issues and labelled everything as mental health. My son is now in a Sudbury school and both him and our family is a lot more settled.
Yet, my heart cries every day for the way I see children treated with such disrespect. No consideration for their development, bring commanded to do things they don't want ir are unable to. Children are so judged and so many adults seem to have hearts of stone. Children have been abuse and brain washed in schools for over a century so most adults have experienced abuse in the school system. I think we are having traumatised and brain washed adults acting out the pain they didn't heal, the emotions they weren't allowed to process. We generations on nervous systems in survival mode dictating how the next generation must behave, etc. Adult children are damaging the next generations but refusing to go deeper into themselves. The UK seems to still be highly focused on the external, a shallow way of living where you want to see what you like and that's the most important thing. I pray that the system crumbles and becomes unsustainable. Seems to me the way is to be in touch with one's vulnerability. From there the heart can heal and we become more human.