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Thursday, 12 March 2009 10:50 |
 In his latest blog, Pete Goss writes about risk. He explains at length his decision to take his 14 year old son with him on his historic voyage from Cornwall to Melbourne. You can read his blog here. But he has no reason to defend that decision: it was self-evidently a brilliant thing to do. He says: “One of the things I wanted for Eliot out of this voyage was to get out there and live it rather than watch others doing it on an electronic box in the corner of the room.”
We agree. In our editorial written when Spirit of Mystery arrived in Melbourne following the knockdown and Mike Maidement’s broken leg, we asked: “Do we really want a health and safety society where even pancake races are considered too risky, and young people are prevented from experiencing any kind of danger? Or do we want a society where teenagers are allowed to take risks in order to reach their potential? Yes, when risks are real, then there will be tragic accidents. But remove the risk of any accident, and a kind of rot sets into society, bringing with it all kinds of problems.”
But Pete raises an even more important issue. He writes about the narrow framework of our current education system. “There are two routes to education; the University of Knowledge and the University of Life, and in modern society one can't help but feel that the University of Life is being overlooked in the quest for paper certificates.”
Once again, he is right. There are some young people for whom an academic education is excellent. But for others, the kind of experience given to Eliot is something far more suitable than chasing academic qualification for which they are not fitted. Imagine the outcry in some of our tabloids if the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families started putting money and resources into an alternative educational programme that provided yachts instead of classrooms, sailing lessons instead of physics or maths?
Yet this is exactly the kind of learning that will enable some young people to see the relevance of physics and maths. What is sail trim if not physics? What is navigation without maths? What Pete Goss has identified is the need for a much broader understanding of education that doesn’t see the University of Life as a second-rate or alternative experience. Cornwall Playing for Success is a brilliant enterprise, but it shouldn’t be left to Charities to provide the kind of educational experience needed by so many of our young people.
Those of us who have found in yachting or boating a life changing experience should be campaigning for a change in the education system. Jamie Oliver made himself unpopular with politicians by lobbying for better school meals. He wasn’t satisfied with providing ‘added extras’ of fruit in the vending machines. He wanted children to have the very best as part of our state provision.
In the same way, we should be campaigning for a change in the education system to enable the funding of different kinds of learning. Just as there are specialist music schools, why can’t we have specialist yachting schools? As I see it, Pete didn’t ‘take Eliot out of school.’ He simply broadened the definition of school by making learning relevant. |
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Last Updated on Thursday, 12 March 2009 10:55 |
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