Thursday, 9 January 2025
Educashun, Educashun, Educashun
David James has an interesting Critic piece on Education. Interesting because education is another important area where we see the problem of influential, supposedly intelligent people who cannot live in a world of multiple viewpoints.
Educashun, Educashun, Educashun
The blob is back, and it wants to dumb down the curriculum
As we begin 2025 it is hard to be anything other than pessimistic about what lies in store for schools under this Labour government. The Secretary of State for Education, Bridget Phillipson, will no doubt continue to put ideology before both pragmatism and evidence, and many children will see their education adversely affected, with no amount of time, or “lessons learned” by her successors, able to repair the damage done. Never a fan of independence, in whatever form, Phillipson has already stopped funding promised to free schools by the previous government, and it seems inevitable that responsibility for opening such schools in the future will return to local authorities. So much for freedom: the blob is already regenerating.
The whole piece is well worth reading as a reminder that there is such a thing as intelligent ignorance where clumsy ideology hacks away at an evolved culture until there is no culture left but the ideology. Beyond that there is a failing ability to adapt, which is where we are now.
In 1869 Matthew Arnold published “Culture and Anarchy”. For Arnold the “study of perfection”, or “the best which has been thought and said”, was fundamental to a society’s moral integrity: it is the safeguard against the “anarchy” of materialism, individuality and relativism. Culture unites an otherwise divided society, it elevates it to something finer than it would otherwise be. We have come a long way from the “sweetness and light”, the beauty and truth, that culture fosters, and the values it promotes. Arnold’s armies of ignorance have won, their influence spreads across every position of power that shapes the future of education today. It is a national tragedy.
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3 comments:
A lot of the problem seems to be that once a culture of criticism and relativism is taught, then the content thereafter has to be the lowest common denominator. The hard stuff can be dismissed because it's "boring", so all that can be taught is the easy stuff because that's what grabs the attention. Which in turn means that the difficult material moves further and further away from the range of possibility.
I noted that in a recent child abuse case it was suggested that home schooling should be eliminated for 'the sake of the children'. I regard this as a (mildly) disguised aim to put all education under government control... and perhaps adds to the ideological reasons for raising VAT on private schooling.
Sam - yes, gravitation towards the easy stuff seems to be a major trend. The easy stuff can be much easier too, because nuances and complexities are dispensed with. The easy stuff tends to be more like stories too, stories which are easy to absorb - easy to elaborate too.
DJ - I noticed that one too, ideological sights set on home schooling because, so the story goes, school teachers can be trusted to look out for signs of child abuse.
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