Talking of education

LITTLE ROB, the chef/manager of the Pub, is moonlighting as a cookery teacher at the local college of education.

“How’s the teaching going, Rob?” I enquire.

He slumps down onto the stool next to me, and grimly shakes his head. For a moment he seems to be struggling to find the words to express himself. “Awful,” he says finally. “Just awful.”

And he goes on, “Have you any idea about what the real state of education is in this country?”

“Oh dear,” I murmur. “Is it that bad?”

“Oh, the kids don’t actually learn anything. They aren’t there long enough, for one thing. I mean full-time vocational courses run now for just two and a half days a week. The rest of the time is allocated to what they call ‘private study’. And when they do come to exam time it’s all multiple choice questions. They can just guess and tick the box and they’ve got one chance in three of getting it right.”

PD agrees, himself a former geography teacher. “Yeah, I always used to tell my kids don’t worry if you don’t know the answer. Just use a bit of common sense to get the obvious wrong answers, then make a guess at the right one.”

“It’s a Mickey Mouse course,” Rob goes on. “It’s got no real educational value. Even at university these days a lot of exams are in the form of multiple choice. As for GCSEs – well, providing you’ve got a pulse you’ll almost certainly get your certificate. They dish them out like confetti. And all so that some politician can stand up in the House of Commons and boast how good his party’s policies are.” Rob shakes his head. “It’s really depressing.”

And he adds, “It’s a relief to get back here and fry a few chips!”

Reflecting on this conversation, I’m struck by how much things have changed since I was in education. In my day, as a student, you had to actually write essays – and to do that you actually had to know something, either from lectures or books or whatever.

And although I never worked as a teacher in a schoolroom setting, I was on the educational side of the museum service, as a schools guide and administrator. Dealing with the kids was a joy – I tried to make learning fun, and I always made sure that they went away sharing something of my enthusiasm.

And from the follow-up letters I used to get from both children and teachers, clearly I was doing something right.

Such a pity that our children’s education has become a object of league tables, and statistics and reducing learning to the lowest common denominator.

Oh dear, oh dear! Old fogey or what?