Thursday 13 January 2011

Friday 13th of January

This week, Jason will introduce our discussion on “How should you have been educated?“

What children should be doing with their time is a topic on which many people, including children themselves, hold strong views, and the same has doubtless been the case for many centuries. Most adults believe that much or all of this time should involve 'education', which many (though surely not everyone!) would define as 'preparation for adult life'. But what is actually seen by the majority of people to constitute an appropriate education seems to vary widely across space and time.

One current trend in many places is towards more regimented activities and more time on academic subjects (and examinations on these) for young children, and away from unstructured play, as discussed for the US in this New York Times article. (link: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/06/garden/06play.html) In the UK, the new Education Secretary apparently believes (link: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article7052010.ece) that one should look to the past for the appropriate way to educate children: "Most parents would rather their children had a traditional education, with children sitting in rows, learning the kings and queens of England, the great works of literature, proper mental arithmetic, algebra by the age of 11, modern foreign languages. That’s the best training of the mind and that’s how children will be able to compete."

Meanwhile, Boris Johnson, the mayor of London, bemoans (link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/mar/17/boris-johnson-lobbies-tories-latin-curriculum) the decline of Latin teaching in the UK's state schools. Time for you to introspect – given your current place in society and life, look back on the various elements of your childhood education (from before school through the end of high school, both inside and outside school – so this also includes ‘play’ and ‘extracurricular activities’ of various kinds). Which elements did and didn’t constitute a ‘good’ education for you, given what you know about your adult life now?

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