Ruth and Eamonn
best columnist Eamonn Holmes reflects on the vital lessons our children need to learn at school – and they’re nothing to do with grades
BACK TO School
It’s almost back-to-school time and, whatever our ages, chances are, if we are parents, it still has a hold on us. We used to be able to put how good a summer it was down to how our holiday went, or if the weather had dampened proceedings. But, for those of you stressed out by the demands of education, exam results and school selection, I don’t know whether to hug you or keep you at a distance.
Schooling is results-based, often seemingly blind to realising that teaching us how to handle our own finances, or understand pension rules and taxation, will serve each pupil with an education for life – instead of achieving a grade in something as non-transferable as maths or the sonnets of Shakespeare.
Don’t get me wrong, I do believe in learning, and I understand that, whatever your background, it is harder to deny children a pathway in life if they have the right grades. I am a huge advocate of the best, and best-resourced, primary and secondary education our taxes can pay for. For every child.
All children should have the same education and, most importantly, the best education.
We all had to go to school, but did it serve us well? We all need primary school
to teach us to read and write and do our arithmetic. We also need it to form relationships, the lessons and people which often stay with us for life.
Social skills, teamwork, bonding, growing and, hopefully, a lust for learning stay with us through our secondary years. All vital, but then this is where you lose me – third level, or tertiary, education.
University is fine if it brings you an expertise in medicine, law or science. And, yes, if you have a vocation, a career that you want to pursue… but count me out of the obsession that came with the Tony Blair mantra of ‘Education, Education, Education’.
Third-level education isn’t for everyone and there should be no shame in that. For those that want it, fine – but you don’t NEED it… Except we now have a culture which says that, even if you want to stack shelves, the big employers are looking for a degree.
I pity those of you who sacrifice all for Junior’s mediocre degree, and that’s what most of them are at two a penny. Whose kids lost their childhood in the pursuit of studying for A-stars or A-pluses?
If you aren’t that parent yet, well, the disruption to family life is just about to begin as we enter the autumn term.
Anyway, as a father of four, I’ve been there, done that, got the T-shirt, and am a firm believer that intelligence and aptitude shouldn’t be gradedependent. There has to be a better way, where being prepared for life – not the test paper – is the real goal.
Where developing friendships, intelligence, skills for the workplace, knowing how to look after our physical and mental health, and how to be a good citizen are counted as more important skills than the aims of pushy schools or, worse, pushy parents and an outof-date education policy.
Teachers, I salute you and, if I ran the country, I would elevate and support all of you. To parents embarking on a new term, maybe for the first time, good luck. To the children, I’d say, try to enjoy it but don’t waste the time you have there – and everyone else’s.
I put it to you: a child educated only for the classroom is not as educated as their grades would suggest.