Revolutionary change in education

Knowledge

Easier literacy then makes more learning possible. The pursuit of knowledge must no longer be demeaned, as it often is, as merely collecting fragmented torrents of information. Primary school is the time for a foundation of knowledge with a structure in time (history) and space. Knowledge is still power. Creativity, philosophy, imagination, constructive and critical thinking, all these goodies, require the fertiliser of knowledge that comes from books, real-life experiences and practical skills, not only from computers and classrooms. While busily assessing academic progress, schools could encourage students of all abilities with Standards Certificates that list all achievements, rather like scouts’ badges.

Forgetting

Classroom lessons can be wasted if there is no attention given to help remember what is learnt. It has been suggested that everything the average person remembers from school can be written on two foolscap pages. A revolutionary change would be for students to keep a record of their key learning experiences to take with them, and continue as adults.

Curriculum of the environment

It will be revolutionary for all government schools to be beautiful and child-scale, with apprentice-style learning in multiple practical manual and mechanical skills, and with non-segregated community interaction. Children can learn early to value their individual differences, with social diversity as essential as biodiversity. Their own value is asserted as all schools teach the UN Declaration of Human Rights. The variety of students’ home backgrounds and family origins contributes to learning about world history and culture and about people who have been laughed at.

Another tremendous problem of disadvantaged students can be lack of what is labelled self-esteem. They fear being laughed at, and they see no prospects of achieving anything worth while. So comparative studies and learning about others' resilience boosts morale. Not only the advantaged need the chance to see ahead visible rewards of prizes, status and fair livelihoods.

What does the State do?

Beyond ladling out the money, government policies set guidelines and visions and spread knowledge of successful problem solving. A first major concern is to stop the single greatest disadvantage of underprivileged schools - disrupted classes - and second, to prevent educational segregation that breeds future social conflicts. “Multiculture” must be mutual sharing and fertilising.

“Revolution” means preparation for our future challenges and it requires learning from the past, not discarding it.