An Education
What do you feel is the point of an education? Is it about teaching you skills? Should it give you lots of subject knowledge? Should it make you feel you are part of a society and have a role to play? What might be the test of a good education some ten years after a person leaves formal education? For example, how important is it that they can remember things they learnt? Or would it be more import that they still enjoy doing or reading things they studied at school? Or do you think the sign of a good education is that people continue to want to learn and to study throughout their lives?
What do you think you will remember about your school in ten years’ time? What do you think your early years or primary education gave you that is bearing fruit now?
Do you think schools are the best places to get an education or should young people spend more time getting practical (vocational) training out in the world?
Do schools teach young people to think?
Is it fair that many young people claim they are bored by school? Do you think school increasingly cannot compete with the sort of technology and software young people have access to at home or on-line? Would you agree with the statement raised by some that in some schools many young people have to reduce their horizons in response to the kind of technology that is available to them there?
Are schools – especially secondary schools - scary places? Are they too large? Do people get lost?
Does it mystify you that a sizeable minority of parents choose to home educate their children? What might such children be gaining and/or losing in the process.
Are schools about much more than lessons and formal learning? How important are al the ‘soft-skills’ young people can pick up taking part in sports and clubs and getting along with a wide range of fellow students?
