Gardner Digs ‘Snowflake’ generation hooked on social media and safe spaces

Am I alone in being bemused and mystified by the ever more curious “developments” in the shifting sands of our education system?

Here are a few recent examples of the weirdly puzzling antics in schools and on university campuses, and the peculiar ideas of administrators.

Children walk out of classes, with the tacit support of many teachers, to highlight the dangers of global climate change.

Youngsters going on strike, rather than internally debating or writing essays on this important topic, seems a ludicrous and empty gesture that will achieve nothing while costing the loss of a day’s learning.

But should we be surprised at the nippers’ walkout when they’ve seen their teachers employing this form of extreme and outdated action?

Lessons seem to be lessening. Of late we’ve seen the introduction of six-week terms, half-term breaks stretched to 10 days (we used to get a couple). Thursday classes reduced, and a shorter day of studies generally.

Hottest news from the lofty realms of education-shapers is a loud demand to scrap GCSE and A-level examinations.

They are now deemed unfit for purpose.

They will be replaced by some wizard test of 18-year-olds.

In other words, banish the tried and true, fail to make rigorous checks on the learning quality at age 16, and plunge into a “challenging” period of chaotic uncertainty.

Up at our universities, hordes of students are promised places even with low exam grades.

They belong to a fragile “snowflake” generation, hooked on social media and ever-seeking safe spaces.

They cannot stomach listening to views that may conflict with their inflexible opinions.

They strive to remove memorials to historic figures, branding the likes of Nelson, Churchill and Kipling as racists, while attempting to rewrite or expunge our history.

The emphasis on ripping up the old rule book and hoping for the best is the thread running through modern education.

However, beware of “better systems”.

Remember Baroness Warnock, a chief architect of comprehensives back in the 1960s?

Decades after their introduction and the widespread abolition of grammar schools, she confessed to having been wrong; the comprehensive scheme had been a failure.

None of the above inspires me to believe that a brave, new educational paradise will appear just over the horizon any time soon.

‘They cannot stomach listening to views that may conflict with their inflexible opinions’