Tag: Heads or Hands

Life skills and educational ‘basics’

One of the things that the Left-wing takeover of education since they began the attack on Grammar Schools has resulted in, has been the growing assumption that the educational basics (language and arithmetic) just arrive for everyone at the same time. That life skills are only something that poor learners (the more practical) or those with special education needs should be given focused time for – as everyone who is ‘able’ just picks these things up as they go along.

Sadly, they don’t.

We have arrived at a point where the idea that everyone can have a degree has reached a critical fork in the road where graduates – yes, that’s young people who have already gained a degree – don’t have the basics. They are, as such, therefore not fit for work.

Pre-14 education has simply become too diversified for it to treat everyone fairly and in a wholly balanced way.

There needs to be a shift back to ensuring that every young person achieves an acceptable level of fluency in English and Maths – but more importantly a basic understanding of how life works and how they can function effectively in the world of today by being taught real life skills such as critical thinking, so that everyone can support themselves adequately in the 21st Century UK.

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Making the most of the differences in the way that we learn

So here comes one of those highly controversial moments. Yes, I am going to say that we really need to embrace and make the very best of the differences in the way that we learn – just as we did without really thinking about it in the past.

People really are either heads or hands. I.e., people are either more academic or they are more practical in the way that they learn.

Whereas the current Education System is skewed to academic attainment and learning – even in what we are told are its vocational qualifications – we must return and redevelop a genuine twin or parallel educational pathway with an academic route and a genuinely vocational route for learning and attainment that begins at the age of 14.

Education

Hopefully, by now, you will understand that one of the underlying messages about Levelling Level is that you and I are as important as each other. It’s the way we think that gets in the way.

Earlier, within the chapters where we discussed the Left-wing approach of levelling down, we covered the problems with today’s education system and where the myth of intellectual sameism has resulted in nothing but loss, the lowering of standards and yes – the removal of opportunities for some of those that need them the most, resulting in a net downward spiral for all.

Heads or Hands: The stupidity of pretending we are all academically equal

Given that the Labour movement was built around the needs of the working class, there is plenty of irony in the approach that the Blairist Labour Party pursued in its attempt to create an environment where everyone could achieve an undergraduate degree.

Whoever you are and whatever background you are from, you will know from experience that academic learning and attainment is not a process that works for all.

In fact, recognising, accepting and indeed celebrating the benefits that come from understanding and then harnessing the reality that in educational terms, both practical and academic learning has equal but different value, is something we should really see as being highly advantageous to a modern economy.

Yet for Labour and the Left, the obsession with ‘equal rights’ have also made them blind to the reality that different learning pathways not only have the potential to be very good for business and the economy. They are also much fairer and considerate of the individual learner too.