Thursday 18th February

When I was a child the point of education was firstly to teach the three ‘R’s; readin’ ritin’ and ‘rithmetic.  And this was to equip us kids with the basics of managing our lives so that we could function in society.  Then it was the imparting of a bit more knowledge, so that we would know a few basic facts, and most of this was done by rote, by repetition, drumming the information into our little heads.  I can specifically remember doing times tables; the whole class would recite 1 times six is six, two times six is twelve etc:. And then teacher would point at one of us and say “Cattermole, what are seven sixes?”  And I would reply instantly without thinking “Forty-two, miss.”  And I still know it, just as I know the capital of Peru is Lima and that there are sixteen ounces in a pound and two hundred and forty pennies in a different pound.

But now most of this ‘knowledge’ is not needed; we have calculators to add up with and the internet to find out instantly the capital of Peru, and no-one cares about ounces anymore.  Later we were encouraged to find out as much as we could about the world, especially at the Grammar School, where knowledge for knowledge’s sake had a real value.  We did take exams, but it never seemed really important; we never thought that our whole future might depend on how many ‘O’ levels we got, and indeed it didn’t; the few times I had to present a CV I invented three ‘A’ levels and nobody either checked or even seemed interested.  “Could I do the job?  Had I done something similar before?  Oh, you worked for ……., that’s interesting, tell me about how you got on with him.”  And the job was mine.

Now, all that has changed; we have gone exam mad.  Children are tested at every opportunity, and the teachers are assessed too; it is all results, results, results.  And the result is that we have a generation of boring kids who have learnt to pass exams, who know how to access anything on the internet but are not interested in the world around them at all.  Politics passes them by, even X factor is a passing fad, they bury themselves in chat rooms and computer games and the music they listen to is instantly accessible and just as instantly disposable.  So, what now is the point of education?  I think the idea is so that it will be easier for employers to select employees, though with the internet this too has turned into a nightmare; at the click of a button you can send your CV off to a thousand potential jobs, hoping that at least one might result in a spark of interest.   Knowledge for knowledge’s sake has become redundant.  Who of us even bothers to remember phone numbers anymore, we are reminded of birthdays by Facebook and a speedy post of Happy Birthday will suffice.  You can Google everything and if you forget it you can easily Google it again.  Okay, there are a few brainy kids around still; you can still see them on University Challenge, but apart from quiz shows there isn’t much use for knowledge I am afraid.