At last a chance for every child

That is if the Labour back benchers don't scupper a vision for education that is cyring out for immediate attention.

As Will Hutton passionately argues in the Observer today At last, a chance for every child. Tony Blair's plans for school autonomy pass power to ordinary people. We should seize this opportunity

Absolutely, its a strange one for me, I feel that our sense of trust in G(g)overnment has been massively eroded over the past few years. Post Iraq and now more political sleaze.

But in conversation with some key people close to this process I am absolutely convinced that Blairs vision for schools is necessary for the economic survival of this country.

Giving schools back to their communities is a vital part of this process.

Did you know that children were never given priority in any of the education acts between 1870 to 1988.

Did you know that SATs test are plateauing. Whilst many are still wedded to post-war structures which in fact means that reading ages have not improved for 40 years.

The LEA's (Local Education Authorities) are about process and the status quo and their controlling place in the world. They are not about unleashing the creative potential that we so desperately need in a world where we can no longer compete via our manufacturing prowess.

As Blair said referencing the famous Callaghan Ruskin speech that spurred on education reform

Our number one priority for investment is education. The reason for this is simple. In the 21st century, as we forge a new progressive politics on the centre-left, the battle of this century between the 'economic' and the 'social' will end. The old dispute between those who favour growth and personal prosperity, and those who favour social justice and compassion, is over. The liberation of human potential - for all the people, not just a privileged few - is in today's world the key both to economic and social progress. In economic terms, human capital is a nation's biggest resource. Brainpower, skills and flexibility - not cheap manual labour - are the key to competitiveness and productivity. In social terms, the old basis of civic society, built around deference and hierarchy, will not do. Today's people will accept citizenship on nothing less than equal terms - opportunity to all, responsibility from all.

This is how Lucky Jim outlined his vision of what was necessary for education back in 1976.

The Labour movement has always cherished education: free education, comprehensive education, adult education. Education for life. There is nothing wrong with non-educationalists, even a prime minister, talking about it again. Everyone is allowed to put his oar in on how to overcome our economic problems, how to put the balance of payments right, how to secure more exports and so on and so on. Very important too. But I venture to say not as important in the long run as preparing future generations for life. RH Tawney , from whom I derived a great deal of my thinking years ago, wrote that the endowment of our children is the most precious of the natural resources of this community. So I do not hesitate to discuss how these endowments should be nurtured.

So that is the agenda. we no longer need a world of muscular but not very intelligent sheep heading down the coal mines, to the docks to build ships, to the factories to spend mind numbing hours sticking or welding etc., A to B. The only resource we have that is limitless is our creativity. The ability to create and deliver knowledge as competitive advantage.

Will Hutton weighs in and I will quote him at length

Which is why I find myself so taken aback by the passion of the Labour rebels' opposition to the Education Bill. It's no use saying that all parents want is a good local school and that the only form of public education delivery is through a local education authority because that is the only guarantor of democratic accountability and equality. It's like trying to tell Tesco not to offer choice or your kids not to watch Sky. Unless the public sector recasts itself, it will be left culturally beached.

There are lots of good reasons to argue with Blair - he has got almost every aspect of the war on terror wrong - but on education and health reform, he is championing the right cause. What the government is attempting is the creation of a more networked delivery of education through more autonomous schools beyond the territorial jurisdiction of individual local authorities. The aim is to increase radically the chances of parents finding schools that will meet the particular needs of their children.

The advantages are many. Ordinary people can make choices that almost all the well-heeled journalist critics of the bill already make for their children when, for example, they educate them privately: LEAs, equality and community for you; private school with constitutional autonomy and selective access for me.

But under these reforms, schools get the right to constitute themselves independently, to take a different approach to schooling, to link up with other schools with better or complementary facilities, to create a rich variety of courses and develop a school ethic that is not just dependent on the energy and commitment of one head teacher. They will also, scarcely noticed, give children from 14 to 19 a constitutional entitlement to vocational education. The autonomy that has helped private schools create their particular ethos will be recreated in the public sector.

The realisation and the reality is and I know that centrally driven and controlled initiatives don't work.

Nobody is as clever as everbody and as Tomi says in a connected age, sharing information is power.

Now let me give you some personal experience. All my 3 kids are dyslexic or they have learning difficulties. I personally don't give a flying F**k what you think all I know is that I have witnessed the near destruction of one child who did not fit the one size fits all approach to education and have also witnessed the we don't want your kids in our school because they will drag our league tables down and we can't be flexible in how we teach.

See - your kids are fucked not us. Which really pisses me off. My son Josef now has to board at a school miles away from us so we can give him a future of hope, of confidence in himself and also the abilty to acquire the tools that he needs.

But my kids are not stupid they all have exceptional IQ's. I nearly cried when Josef's headmistress said when a child does not understand something its not the childs fault its the teachers and we just need to work out how to get that particular idea across.

That is education, that is freedom to teach, that is small class sizes, why do the Finns have such highly educated people? Durrrgh.

Industrial mindset - structure - the same - cookie cutter end'O'line outputs and the big word... scale

These are no longer relevant -

Hutton argues

The new system openly builds on that insight. Every parent will have the chance fairly and equitably to choose the character of school they believe their child should attend. Most parents will work hard to get the choice right; a minority will not. And those who get it right will do better than those who do not. Competition between schools will intensify. It's a trade-off. We don't want a Darwinian education system where the devil takes the hindmost. But equally, we don't want a system where the commitment to equality means there is no embedded tendency to improve, nor any chance of personalising choices.

Now lets go leftfield to China and again Hutton explains

In China, Deng Xiaoping always argued the case for equity against the Maoist insistence on equality; in the education system, it meant breaking up Mao's comprehensive system and trying to let a thousand flowers equitably bloom. Kinnock, Prescott, Alastair Campbell, Fiona Millar et al are on the wrong side of this argument - the quasi-Maoists against the Blairite Dengists. Deng won his argument, forcing a great improvement in Chinese educational standards. Blair and Ruth Kelly have to win.

See its about individuals and we are all different, its about community and belonging. Its about self esteem and self respect. Its about engagement.

Its not about raw materials, its not about raw muscle, its about co-creation and creativity because that way we need to have to get involved.

And finally see, its like this... you engage someone they feel engaged, you ignore someone the feel ignored, ask them to participate and they will... and we have a ton of examples of how that works

This sense of personal commitment and belonging cannot be underestimated.

Comments

[JG]

I found a brand new website I thought you may be interested. It is a Dyslexia Blog Community. I just joined it and wanted to spread the word. JumbledLetters.org
It would be nice to have a community where we could relate to one another and share experiences.

[alan moore]

Thanks JG for the heads up.

I shall go and check it out.

It would be good to have a community for Dyslexia.

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