Classes of 25 have become 40+.
All that counts is the test.
An entire system of education dismantled. As is the case in the NHS, with the removal of trusted GP's who see a patient face to face, the once totally implicit ideas of continuity of care, 'whole patient' approach, gone.
Because they stare at their bank balances so much, they find it easy to believe that people are no more than robots.
Rather than emotional, living creatures with rather a lot more going on under the surface than is ideal.
Same thing in education. It was an investment in the whole person. You lay the foundations and encourage a person to live, exist and thrive. And hope the culture passes on it's wisdom. The nous to give people a shot at a balanced way to think about themselves and the world.
Whatever there is in SAT - there is no wisdom.
I'm afraid culture wars are a terrible answer to this. There is no right answer to the things we sometimes insist on imposing. Kids will get that. Even if we can't explain it. Sometimes we just end up showing that something is wrong. A resistance builds. We aren't smart or clear enough to know what the truth is - we just end up forcing strange things through for the silliest of reasons.
The best goal is different; get the individuals to think well for themselves, to work around the limitations of people inherently and neccessarily disagreeing. To accept the contradictions of the world, and approach it all as a work in progress, a best effort. To know, their view is of value. But to give them the confidence to keep thinking openly about it, privately as well as publicly. So they are not holding on to it desperately. And so they are not prone to end up swayed by small stuff. There is no value in producing fodder for people seeking to exploit easy false answers.
We have to try to give people a sense that something a bit better and more durable is possible, if they keep working for themselves, on their invisible estate, the unwritten unknowable balance sheet, the hidden garden or the secret library of the mind.
It can be measured in outcomes. The outcomes we are failing at now. That's how this happened. We only ever discuss this year's results. And so we totally overlook the obvious truth lives are shaped over decades. Fruition is a whole life deal. So are many many mental health problems. They don't emerge out of the blue and it doesn't happen overnight.
I dunno. I don't expect this to be solved. We will always be distracted by the short term. The latest cycle of results. I don't think that changes.
All I'm saying is, we can do better. IDGAF about train privatisation or many other things. I just hope that there is some move to reverse the trend on class sizes and other short sighted refusals to acknowledge humans for what they are.
