Beware the howling ghosts of Pavlov's dogs

Abstract

AT NO level should education become an ‘inputoutput’ process, we should never try and manufacture future employees by resurrecting the howling ghosts of Pavlov’s dogs. Education should always be an endless succession of opportunities: To explore, to question, to learn, to understand, to fail, to succeed, to handle, to negotiate, to extend, to theorise, to dream, to reach, to imagine and to achieve. Th is is not a list for high achievers only, this is not an exclusive list, these are opportunities that every child needs, whatever their starting point, and that education in our country needs to off er. Is your setting at home, in a nursery, in a pre-school (come on, let’s change the language we use for a start, this isn’t the 1950s  is it, Mr Gove?), a children’s centre, a primary school, an academy, a free-school, a Steiner school... ultimately, these things do not matter, it is what we off er children and how we off er it that counts and what we should be judged on. Exam results, profi les, SATs, school league tables, none of these are goals or achievements in their own right. Th ey do not make happy, adaptable, creative, imaginative, hard-working, problemsolving, loving children or adults. Th ey do not make for future generations that will overcome the many problems we will leave them with. Why can’t we re-focus in this country? Why are we still slaves to an outdated concept of education? Why are we still tinkering with the edges of creaking systems  academies and free-schools, are they really the answer to the many questions our education system asks of our society? Is such blinkered tunnel vision really going to deliver for our children. Honestly? I keep reading statements and pronouncements from Michael Gove, making bold claims for academies and free schools, and recently he has turned his attention to primary schools, stating that turning the 200 ‘worst performing’ into academies would be a proven track to turning them around. First secondary schools, now primary schools, watch out, the minister will soon be appearing at a nursery near you... Proven? At primary level? I can’t see any mention or understanding of the myriad factors that aff ect each child in those schools, their parents, the teachers and the opportunities they have. Of course, there are always ways to improve the learning and life experiences you off er children, even in those ‘golden academies on the hill’ (I always think of the end of Pilgrim’s journey in the Th e Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan, when I read the Department’s website). And this really is the problem. Th e bulk of our education system is stuck in the mindset that English and Maths results are the main indicators of future success  whatever that means. Yet, we know in the early years just how unique every child is, and just how holistically we need to work with them to ensure they develop happily, healthily and with a positive attitude to learning and challenge. Th is is what we need to fi ght so hard to protect, and why we may need to educate those who should know better. Editor Neil Henty MSc