Trivium 21c

As April is the cruelest month I take a jaunt down by the river and see how things are progressing, so much building is going on, people moving in, putting plant pots on their balconies, and a bike on the nineteenth floor. Down on Greenwich Reach potential purchasers are promised property that combines: “…brilliant architecture, breathtaking views and sophisticated living accommodation, New Capital Quay provides a dynamic fusion of exclusive apartments attracting owner/occupiers, investors and tenants alike.” The glass fronted dynamism faces across the river the taller glass dominated offices of Canary Wharf, this is the brave new world.

The river sweats
Oil and tar
The barges drift
With the turning tide
Red sails
Wide
To leeward, swing on the heavy spar.
The barges wash
Drifting logs
Down Greenwich reach
Past the Isle of Dogs.

The old wasteland is still visible alongside the new one, not so dynamic anymore, the barges offer industrial colour and the red sails take tourists and office parties up and down the river. The Isle of Dogs is to be renamed the Isle of Designer Dogs, the residents are all Cock-a-Poo…

Progress is inevitable, but not inevitably better, we always take the rough with the smooth, the same is true of our brave new world of schooling. The decline into our contemporary educational wasteland might have started when some schools called themselves ‘academies’ but I think the worst sign was when some tried to ditch the idea of schooling entirely by calling themselves ‘learning villages’. Turning schools into villages is the same trick an estate agent uses to make some glass effrontery seem cutesy and community based. How many ‘investors’ are being attracted to London’s property market? Good place to park some money…

It is all about money, right? That Independent schools, used to being in the market place, might be entrepreneurial and look to the well heeled communist and business families of China as sources of income is understandable but an English State school too? Over 40 private schools have campuses in Asia and the Middle East we are told in this piece in the Telegraph  and now “The trust that runs Bohunt Liphook academy in Hampshire will open a new school in Wenzhou in 2018.” Yes, the school that took part in a telly programme to see if Chinese methods of teaching were more effective than ours; that the Chinese ‘won’ that particular game is of no consequence, as an English education as a ‘brand’ is easily sold abroad. Some money raised on the backs of the fee payers in the far east will be ploughed back into the state school academy trust in England. Schools are becoming more like businesses, they might be a good place to park some money for investors looking to see how the markets might be moving.

You would think that businesses would be loving these changes: academies, villages and markets but no they are not happy, according to the TES, the Institute of Directors say that: “In the past, education was about imparting knowledge… today, it is about providing students with the intelligence and skills to navigate an increasingly uncertain and volatile employment market.” ‘Providing intelligence’ as an ‘off the shelf’ alternative to ignorance perhaps? “Buy your intelligence at Bohunt Chinese Academy!” “Shop away your stupidity at our learning village where we offer a dynamic fusion of exclusive skills that will attract employers and investors in your branded persona…”

The IoD go on to say that pupils should be: “imbued with curiosity, open-mindedness and the ability to make connections between seemingly unrelated bits of information…” and that: “with widespread internet access, the labour market no longer rewards workers primarily for what they know but for what they can do with what they know…” They, cheekily, add the idea that schools should not be ‘exam factories’. No, they should be Exam open-plan offices, all clean and computer based, glass fronted everything, and suits not overalls, wraps not sandwiches, prosecco and not beer. You see them all at Canary Wharf, the brave new workers all curious and open-minded… or not, as the case may be, but what lives do these people have when they go home from the glass covered office to their glass covered home in their glass encrusted village? This uncertain world that the Director’s worry about, this volatile employment market… as though these things are out of their control. This ‘real world’ where the business you’re working for wants you to spend all your school years being turned into a clone to satisfy their needs will drop you as quick as a flash if you’re no longer profitable. At least the old factories tried to give you a job for life… And Richard and George Cadbury built a village  for the workers to live in, ah patrician capitalists valued their workers… (sometimes… I remember the industrial strife… okay it wasn’t great but…) but our ‘volatile’ world should not be entirely shaped by the needs of capital, that is what makes it volatile.

Perhaps the Institute of Directors should do less pontificating, schools should not be about churning out workers, they should be about enriching their pupils’ lives. Humanity at heart – people before profits…

Perhaps these directors could start seeing their workers as human beings and start seeing education as something you can’t just conjure up on a screen or that ‘provides’ intelligence. Maybe, it’s more important than that, if they want to do good, they could use some of their acumen to invest philanthropically in their community schools, build theatres, science labs, provide sports fields in their dynamic fusion villages and in other older villages and towns.

Don’t throw away the ‘factory model’ of schools and replace them with the ‘office model’ of schools, instead educate for humanity’s sake, and children will grow to know, to think, connect and communicate beautifully, and instead of employing ‘workers’ employ human beings and shape businesses more to their human needs.