Last Sunday, The Observer asked how can we make our schools fit for the 21st Century, which is a question that many of those of us who are interested in sustainability are asking all the time. It did this by having its Observer Panel, chaired by Yvonne Roberts, discuss the issues. The panel is:
Guy Claxton, professor of learning sciences
Melissa Benn, journalist and campaigner
Rachel Wolf, education adviser
Peter Hyman, teacher and former political strategist
Sue Street, inner city school teacher
Here are their opening statements:
Rachel Wolf The best thing that schools can do now is make sure people have the core of knowledge and skills and ability to decide what they want to do with their lives.
Guy Claxton Education means learning to think for yourself, learning to make and repair friendships, learning to see other people's points of view, learning not to be frightened of uncertainty or difficulty. Unfortunately the system, whether it be in a free school, an academy or a comprehensive school, seems to comprehensively neglect the development of those qualities in the obsession with exam results.
Melissa Benn There's something more to education, which is about learning how to live in society, learning how to be a citizen, learning how to be self-reliant and all those kinds of skills. It's a bigger task than just exams.
Peter Hyman I think we're preparing children for the middle of the 20th century and not for the 21st. And by that I mean we are not equipping them with the skills and the attributes and the competencies that they need. And I think that's partly an obsession with a certain type of rigid exam. And there's no assessment of all those other qualities which we all know that children need out there in the real world. The main graduate website lists all the qualities that employers are looking for, like problem-solving, like initiative, like teamwork, like very good spoken communication. We've got to totally revamp what we're teaching
...
Skipping to the end, they were all asked what is the best asset with which to come out of school. Responses were:
Guy Claxton Open mind and inquisitiveness.
Sue Street Knowing that they don't know everything but knowing how to find it.
Melissa Benn Informed curiosity.
Peter Hyman The ability to think.
Rachel Wolf Adaptability.
So that's it, it seems. All very underwhelming, I thought – and far too much a rehearsal of prejudices. At the end, I came up with an alternative question: how can the Observer make its panel fit for the 21st century?
Respond