Not At School Today

Original letter here.

“Shocking example of education today

It is little wonder we are all ill-educated. My 16-year-old son has just left comprehensive school after having taken 12 GCSEs. A brief assessment of his “education” may explain. In English literature for example he has read no single English novel. He took German but on a family visit to Germany last year found it impossible to order in a bakery, and was very upset about it. His teacher wasn’t surprised since she is obliged to teach, “My bed is next to my desk” and, “I have one older brother”.

He has left school knowing no works by classical composers, has no idea how to cook a decent meal, hasn’t visited any of the local museums or places of interest and struggles to find cities on a map of the UK. In a test, his fellow students failed to find Cardiff, Edinburgh or even London.

Sports lessons wholly avoided using the four tennis courts available, and rarely used the all-weather pitch or athletics track, concentrating on football. The two items he made in “Resistant Materials” (woodwork) had to be planned in triplicate before he was allowed loose on the equipment, not conducive to spontaneity or a mind that works by experimentation.

Although some have their doubts about home education, I would like to suggest that it goes on in every household where parents care about the education their child is receiving in school.

There are such huge gaps and oversights that not to play a part in equipping your child for life would be an abdication of parental responsibility. Rather than home educators being called on to justify their decision, perhaps it should be those parents who send their children to school, without questioning the education, or influences their child will receive, who should be asked how they will be making up the educational shortfall.

Helen-Jane Burton

Brinsley, Nottingham”