freedom-in-education.co.uk 

E-Newsletter

If you wish to subscribe to this free e-newsletter, please send me your e-mail address using the form at the foot of the page.

Welcome to the September edition of the Freedom-in-education newsletter which this month features an article dealing with the choices faced by sixteen-year-olds in the UK.

Recent years have seen big changes in the UK examination structure, students are put under enormous pressure to do well but there is concern that the qualifications awarded have no real value.

Impartial Advice for Sixteen-Year-Olds?

Education is compulsory between the ages of five and sixteen: few people have any choice about the school that they are sent to at the age of five, and for the next twelve years their lives are dominated by events over which they have little or no control.

Freedom of Choice

Reaching the age of sixteen provides them with an opportunity to take stock of the situation, to evaluate how much they have benefited from their years of compulsory education and to make a rational decision about their future course of action.

Independent Advice

Unfortunately sixteen year olds are in receipt of very little independent or impartial advice and are often pushed into making hasty decisions by people who have a vested interest in a particular outcome. Here is a list of questions that they could be asking themselves:

• Have I received a good education at school?
• Have I learnt a foreign language at school?
• Have I learnt to play a musical instrument at school?
• Have I learnt to paint and draw at school?
• Have I learnt a useful craft at school?
• Have I learnt to use a computer at school?
• Have I read good books at school?
• Have my teachers been wise and worthy of respect?
• Have I been treated fairly at school?
• Have I enjoyed being at school?

If the answer to most of these questions is ‘yes’ then staying on at school would make sense, if the answer is ‘no’ then it doesn’t.

The Choice

The deal that is offered to most people in essence runs something like this, “We know that you haven’t enjoyed school and that you haven’t learnt anything useful, but if you stay on to do your ‘A’ levels you will then be able to go to university. If you don’t go to university, you are a failure.”

Here are some more questions that someone can ask themselves to clarify this proposition:

• Am I really being honest with myself in believing that school is going  to get better if I choose to go back?
• Is there really any reason to suppose that university is any better than school?
• If I could do what I really wanted to do, would I choose to go to school and university?
• Is there going to be any time in my life where it is going to be easier to do what I want to do than now?

What’s the Alternative to School?

The idea of not going to school can be slightly unnerving: it means making decisions for yourself, setting your own goals and taking control of your own life.

If you no longer wish to receive this newsletter, simply reply to this message, asking for your name to be removed from the list of subscribers.