What keeps me awake at night? For me, it has to be the unprecedented levels of anxiety that modern-day schooling inflicts on children. Our exam system coupled with league tables means that children are constantly being told they should strive for the future without being allowed to live in the present.
For what? Our leaders can’t even predict what kind of jobs will exist by the time our students graduate or what percentage of workers will have been replaced by robots or computers.
We are told that we need to be more like the Chinese when in fact the very reason that thousands of Chinese parents send their children here is precisely because our education system is perceived to be more relaxed and creative and less exam-focused than their own. All work and no play doesn’t just make Jack (or Jill) a dull boy (or girl) it is also ensuring that they will be less equipped to thrive in society.
Mental health at risk
No wonder that thousands of children are now displaying symptoms of mental illness as they become trapped in an unnatural vortex of fight, flight and freeze. Anxiety, after all, is just imagination driven by fear.
As playtime is continually eroded, schools are exhorted to adopt mindfulness lessons to help children to focus on the present. A great idea…but not at the expense of break time.
Any biologist will tell you that the mammals with the most to learn will play the most. Dolphins play more than most creatures. Unstructured play enables the development of crucial life attributes - character, emotional intelligence and teamwork among others - as well as helping to build resilience and a love of life itself.
Similarly, young children learn more practical real-life abilities through unstructured play than they will in the classroom. Perhaps if playtime was renamed “unstructured creative leadership and character development time” our policymakers would give it the status it deserves.
The here and now
Enjoyment of the education process is the key here. The irony is that great learning takes place in the present - the wonderful, glorious here and now - without the fear and anxiety that our over emphasis on past and future creates.
Before Tick, Box and Miss Management hijacked the agenda, teachers were still able to help their pupils to get the best grades that they were capable of achieving, but to do so by enjoying the journey instead of focusing purely on the destination. Learners function best when they are relaxed and happy, and the same is true of teachers.
A child’s happiness is the single most important thing in his or her life. As well as causing unnecessary misery for thousands of children, our tick-box culture is undermining the one thing crucial to a great teacher-pupil relationship: trust.
Rather than cramming our children’s head with facts we should be teaching them how to think for themselves and to always ask “Why?” We need to learn to value wisdom and contentment - as Benjamin Hoff put it in his bestselling book about how Winnie-the-Pooh demonstrates the principles of Taoism, The Tao of Pooh: “We can no longer afford to look so desperately hard for something in the wrong way and in the wrong place.”
James Glasse is a tutor and education consultant
Tell us what keeps you awake at night by emailing chloe.darracott-cankovic@tesglobal.com
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