So I’ve been considering education. Alex’s school is an academy school that is now being run on the principles (supposedly) of the Swedish Kunskappskolen schools. So that's why they've gone to Sweden - to look at the real thing, without the suffocation of the heavy pillow of the National Curriculum.
Michael Gove made lots of positive noises immediately following the election about removing the state control of the curriculum, freeing schools to teach and educate without ministerial interference. He gave the impression that the days of targets, league tables, prescriptive inspection regimes, micromanagement from ministers, and the dull uniformity of the National Curriculum were to be consigned to the past as an historic example of New Labour’s obsessive command and control managerial style.
'Hooray', I thought when Gove said on the radio that there were no deadlines (just another form of target) for the implementation of free schools – they can take their time, decide what’s best for the children in their area. Put some trust in the teachers – they are the educational professionals, not ministers. Teachers, parents and children working together to do the best they could.
Yeh, right!
I was an idiot to believe, even fleetingly, that they were any different. These are just posher versions of New Labour. New Labour which itself had mutated and evolved into Thatcherism with only the last vestige of social conscience, and that was about to be naturally selected out of the New Labour gene pool due to lack of use.
Gove has taken the New Labour fixation with targets, league tables and statist control, and fashioned it to his own prejudices. Targets have not been scrapped, but been changed to fit Gove's own educational preferences. So his English Baccalaureate now has targets that he prefers – they’re tougher targets too, so they must be better! [Targets are instruments which are arbitrarily devised and give control freaks the illusion of control but always make performance worse.]
The answer to schools that don’t hit his targets is to close them and set them up as academies or free schools. And league tables stay. So schools are free to follow the new national curriculum (Michael Gove’s latest radical insight leads to the conclusion that History should be taught chronologically – because his daughter is confused by studying Vikings after studying the Tudors!)
I get the feeling far from making education a more enjoyable experience he will preside over making it more of a stressful chore. We will churn out fewer media studies students because Gove doesn’t consider it a proper subject (and I can’t say I don’t have some sympathy with this) but will want more people schooled in Latin and memorising things he thinks are most important - learning by drill. Any joy that can be derived from learning will be squeezed out. It brings to mind the experience of Mr Polly in the HG Wells novel, where, following schooling:
“He thought of the present world no longer as a wonderland of experiences, but as geography, and history, as the repeating of names that were hard to pronounce, and lists of products and populations and heights and lengths, and as lists and dates – oh! and Boredom indescribable.”
I was having some fun with my son choosing incongruent adjective/noun or verb combinations. We came up with such combinations as ‘lovely bastard’, “a gorgeous stabbing”, ’beautiful din’, and, borrowed from a classic comedy duo, a ‘fine mess’.
On other occasions we talk about nanotechnology, the length of time light takes to reach us from distant stars, the struggle for democracy in the Middle East and all kinds of interesting things.
“Why don’t we learn about things like this in school?” he has asked on more than one occasion?
“Not on the curriculum.” I say, “It’s more important that you do the Tudors – again!”
“Why is that more important Dad? “
“Because the Government says so son – the Government knows best.”
“But Michael Gove wants to change it doesn’t he Dad? He wants freedom for schools.”
“Well son, he wants freedom for people to pay less tax for schools. But he has different things he wants you to learn about – and in a different order. You probably get confused by studying ancient Egypt after you’ve studied the First World War – don’t you. Well Michael Gove wants to help you. No longer will children have to think that Vikings were more recent than Hitler. We should thank Michael Gove.”
“Will we be able to do incongruent adjective/ noun or verb combinations – like ‘you marvellous bore’?”
“No son, he’ll only let you learn traditional things - so it’s only traditional adjective/noun combinations I’m afraid. He’ll probably ban Laurel and Hardy as distorting young minds.”
“Really? I don’t think I like him after all, dad. Not if we have to do traditional, congruent adjective/noun combinations ”
“Hmm – maybe you’re right. Michael Gove is a terrible cunt.”
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