If you believe the buzz, knowledge is king right now. Knowledge is power. “Look on my knowledge, ye Mighty, and despair!” will be the battle cry of all school leavers fending off competition for jobs and university places (knowing full well they’ve just referenced a 19th dynasty Pharaoh and a drowned Romantic poet).

AE Housman famously claimed that “all knowledge is precious whether or not it serves the slightest human use” and while I personally see much to recommend in Housman’s statement (anyone who rhapsodises over the Shropshire hills must have known what he was talking about), I do wonder about the “human use” part. How does your education support you when the human use in question needs a practical solution? Where are the skills needed when knowledge alone literally won’t cut it?

The answer, according to surgeon Professor Roger Kneebone is, "on the wane". The professor, who teaches medical students at Imperial College, London, made headlines when he revealed that his medical students lacked sewing skills and said he could no longer work on the assumption that skills such as cutting, sewing and making things would be taught in schools.

Knowledge vs practical skills

Obviously, it’s not an either/or situation (teaching knowledge without skills is a bit like trying to teach swimming without water) but is the emphasis on a knowledge-rich curriculum squeezing out time spent on practising practical skills? I don’t think it is in infant classrooms where learning numbers and the alphabet go hand in hand with skills such as holding a pencil and forming letters. If you think skills aren’t important, try doing playground duty with 180 infants who don’t know how to peel a satsuma. 

But while physical skills are taught daily in the youngest classes, how are these built on as children get older? Our Reception class have a "tinkering table" full of old printers and wind-up toys for children to take apart and examine. You won’t see this further up the school – it’s been replaced with a bank of maths and grammar challenge cards. DT is largely taught as a bolt-on and skills such as sewing and cooking have been mostly relegated to after-school clubs attended by only a minority of children.

Of course, part of the problem is the sheer density of curriculum content to get through. There’s also the issue of accountability: Ofsted isn't coming to inspect your blanket stitching, and league tables never mention the percentage of Year 6 children who can make a scale model of Tower Bridge to expected standards.

There also seems to be a notion that increasing knowledge at the expense of teaching practical skills is the surest route to success and happiness. I’m not convinced.  My plumber drives a brand new Mercedes and has two children at private school and my sister, who works in the City, says it’s becoming increasingly common to see burnt-out directors walk away from their seven figure salaries to pursue careers in landscape gardening and carpentry.

While my generation weren’t taught nearly as many practical skills in school as the one above us, there seems to be a growing trend to compensate for that in later life. A large proportion of my friends are currently spending hours crocheting blankets, hemming curtains and painting pottery like the industrial revolution never happened. 

Unsurprisingly, I have resisted the urge to craft. Practically speaking I am one of the great unskilled – but maybe that’s not such a bad thing either. Just ask my plumber.

Jo Brighouse is a pseudonym for a teacher in the Midlands. She tweets @jo_brighouse