http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/education-21903397
I get to hear a lot about the direction teaching and learning is taking in the UK.
Enough to know that school would be even more miserable for me now than it was then.
If I were at school
I’d be failing my teachers.
And letting the school down
As well as myself.
I’d be skewing the data
And missing my goals
At the cost of my teachers’
Emotional health.
They would hide me away
When the OFSTED inspectors
Were stalking the school
For their comments would burn.
Because someone would notice
That in twenty minutes
I just couldn’t demonstrate
All that I’d learned.
Yet I was a swot
And an overachiever
At least in the subjects
At which I excelled.
I passed my exams
And completed my coursework
No textbook unthumbed
And no vocab misspelled
A deep-thinking learner,
My brain’s a slow burner.
I mulled it all over
Through months and through years.
But if they had asked me
For halfhourly updates
Then school would, for me
Have meant failure and tears.
So pity the children
Who learn the way I did
The ones who need time
Each idea to explore.
The ones who hear questions
That haven’t been asked yet.
Who know that to each
Simple answer, there’s more.
For school must be hellish
If you are a dreamer
Who won’t fit in boxes,
Who fails every test.
And if it were me,
I’d be starting to wonder
If grown ups in government
Really know best.
Tom Juniper Poetry 