Monday, April 04, 2005

Who's Got the Power?

According to the Sun of March 26th, NUT members were infuriated by promises made by Education Secretary Ruth Kelly to put "parent power" at the heart of education policy. The NUT labelled this idea "patronising" to teachers.

I have to say I'm rather surprised at how the NUT members seem to be reading Ms Kelly's policy statements, since whenever I've looked at her speeches and statements, they seem to suggest that behind the rhetoric and hot air, the only genuine priority in Labour's education policy is that we prepare our children to fit in with the needs of the economy, (as if the economy is not actually driven by the desires and motivations of human beings, but anyway).

But it would be interesting to know how parents of schooled children feel about being regarded with such implicit contempt by teachers. Not of course, that we have to resort to such real politik in order to convince people of the likely superiority of Home Education. There are hundreds of good arguments in it's favour, such as:

Do you want your child to be moulded to fit the workforce, or do you want him to grow as he would and make the workplace his creation?

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