Why don't we teach kids anything useful?

I'm a Trustee for two Multi Academy School Trusts and one of the concepts that comes up every year in the education world is that students should learn useful, practical skills rather than useless theoretical knowledge such as how to calculate the surface area of a cone. I mean, when have you ever had to do that in your life?

One applicant for a Head Teacher's position pitched his vision for school improvement by saying that he would introduce DIY lessons. He felt that teaching primary school children basic plumbing skills would stand them in good stead for the future.

At a local University's small business networking event, I heard one business owner complain that university graduates are useless to him because the university doesn't teach them how to use the machines that he has in his business, so he has to train them from scratch. I mean, what the hell are they paying their over-inflated tuition fees for?

Every year, the CBI complains that universities aren't teaching graduates basic job skills. Sure, they can make installation art pieces out of discarded junk mail envelopes but do they even know how to use a clocking in machine? Can they even answer a telephone within three rings?

On the face of it, this seems like good old fashioned common sense. The kids of today, don't know they're born, when I was a lad/girl/undecided etc. On the other hand, many critics of the British education system say that our schools are simply factories that prepare children to work in factories, that are designed to remove free independent thought and create mindless automata who are happy to stand on production lines doing the few jobs that robots can't yet do. Most importantly, children who are prepared to take mindless orders from faceless bureaucrats.

The problem is time.

The education system is trying to prepare 5 year old children for the world of 2037. Futurologists are notoriously bad at predicting what the world will be like. Perhaps it's easier to say that the world will be just the way it is now, but worse. The economic divide will be wider. Climate change will have changed more. AI and robots will have taken even more jobs.

Meanwhile, corporate leaders are trying to prepare children for the world that they themselves grew up in. Every parent tries to fix their own deficient childhoods through their children. If only I had more money or better connections or a better education then I would have achieved more in life. Parents can't fix the past, they can only try to make the future better. The problem is that billions of parents, all over the planet, are trying to make the future better in different ways.

Our children are caught in the middle of these opposing forces. The error, which can be found in all goals and strategies, is that we act as if the future is a place that exists today, and we just have to figure out how to get to it. The future does not exist and it never has. Through the educational decisions we make today, our children create the future. The question then becomes, what is the best way to equip our children to do that?

On the subject of children as plumbers, there could be a reason for the UK government's lack of support for such schemes, and that lies in the Conservative DNA of free enterprise. If we have a generation of school leavers who can fix their own water pipes, how does that affect the market for plumbers? As much as we say we like the 'make do and mend' philosophy, we don't really. We want convenience and we want it now. We don't want household chores to encroach on our valuable Netflix time. Leave the little leak until it's a big leak and then call the insurance company. They'll sort it out. Someone else will always sort it out.

If I were the cynical type, I would say that the educational system is not a factory that produces factory workers, it is a factory that produces dependency on a certain economic system. Our national economy is built on consumption. Witness the post-COVID clamour to get people spending again. Eat out to help out. Get spending. Get the economy moving again. Where is all of this money coming from? Ah yes, the money that we saved during lockdown. It's no good sitting in your bank account, you should spend it so that at least you've got a new car or an Amazon Prime subscription to show for it. That's real value. Prove how well off you are by filling your leisure time with empty pursuits. All those skills you learned during lockdown? Honestly, when was the last time you ever had to make sourdough bread or play the guitar? That's as much use as knowing the surface area of a cone.

Of course, if you want to make a witch's hat for a fancy dress party, or you want to make waffle cones for your home made ice cream, calculating the surface area of a cone is quite useful. But don't tell anyone. It's easier to buy such things than make them yourself.

The educational curriculum is designed to equip our children to create a world that we cannot yet imagine. Leaking taps are today's problem. When you dream of a world in which robots have 3D printed taps designed by AI that never leak, you have truly thought outside of the box. Seriously, though, there is incredible pressure on schools to deliver the curriculum which delivers exam results. We all want enrichment but it can come at a price that many struggling schools can't afford. The government's mistaken belief that competition drives quality has damaged schools, healthcare, public transport, in fact any privatised sector that you can name. I could show you school buildings that you would be afraid to send your children into and the fact is that there is no money for infrastructure. The pipe dream of outside investment only holds water when there's profit to be made, and for as long as this country's education and health systems are free to the user, there's no profit. Of course, if the whole thing were privatised and we had to pay to learn and to heal, we'd have new schools and hospitals springing up like retail parks.

So, to answer the question, the reason that we don't teach our kids anything useful is that the government of today is trying to create a country of tomorrow based on the economy of yesterday. When we dive into the micro level of teachers in classrooms, you can bet your last penny washer that every one of them is working harder than you would think humanly possible to create a better world through and for our children. A world that we can't predict or control, and so we have to entrust our children to figure it out as they go along. From the time I've spent in classrooms, and looking back over my 37 years in working in every industry you can imagine, I can confidently say that teaching is the hardest, most demanding, most challenging job that I have ever seen. Forget the long hours, the stress, the pressure, the unceasing demands from the children. Just imagine that up to 30 parents are entrusting the safety, wellbeing and education of their children to you over a period of up to 20 years. No other job carries such responsibility.

Our challenge, as the people who could shape and support the education system, is to do what we can as parents, aunts, uncles, friends, brothers, sisters, influencers, supporters, Trustees, Governers and purchasers of assorted jumble sale paraphernalia to pass on our own life skills and experiences. There are so many ways that you can get involved and make a valuable, practical difference. There is so much that you could do, and I challenge you to find anything else that would be as uniquely rewarding.

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Peter Freeth is a MAT Trustee, author, speaker, educator, photographer, parent, learner and much more besides.

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