“Will ‘staying on’ to 18 raise education standards and improve the employability and promote social mobility as the Government believe?”
This was one of the questions put to a panel and a small audience at the debate tonight at Channel 4. Some interesting debate, some intense and challenging moments, but best for me was the point at the end:
“We have spent all evening discussing the ‘engineering’ of a solution, but failing to look for clarity on the aims of education”.
A recurrent problem, well observed in my view, and begged my concern that we should not forget that education is fulfilment in itself, not simply preparation for life.
“we should not forget that education is fulfilment in itself, not simply preparation for life” Personally I find it hard to disentangle the two. Certainly I don’t see education as just preparation for a career or the world of work. I do, however, think that an education it is part and parcel of a fulfilling life.
BTW, the font size showing when I type in this field (Mac, Firefox 2.2.2.11) is challengingly small:^)
Thanks Stephen – I have increased the font size.
As for disentangling, consider the case of Alexander, on the television recently, who suffered from cystic fibrosis yet continued to apply himself in his musical development. His education was a fulfilment and he treated it as such, since he had no certain prospect of a life. The danger of not disentangling is that we will oblige children always to think of jam tomorrow, and I think they, like all of us, deserve some today.