23rd April 2013
Dear Mr.
Gove,
I write to
express my deep concern about your recently reported comments relating to the
extension of the school day and the shortening of school holidays. I am also very concerned by what I consider
to be unhelpful comments about nurseries by one of your Junior Ministers, Elizabeth
Truss.
I write as
one who has no children currently in school or nursery, from my concern as a
Christian Minister for the welfare of children and for the dignity of all human
beings.
I have read
your comments about the extension of the school day and the shortening of
school holidays. The main thrust of your
argument, as I understand it, is that lengthening the period children spend at
school will lead towards greater academic achievement and allow parents to be
able to work longer hours. It seems that
your main concern is actually about producing future more efficient workers and
enabling the current workforce to put in more hours; rather than a genuine
concern for the whole child or for family life.
I am
concerned that the current government and, it has to be admitted, previous
governments do not see children as people with needs, hopes, fears and dreams
but simply as future economic units whose value to society is simply to work
and contribute towards the increasingly obscene profits of national and
international companies and to line the pockets of the wealthy elite who already
have more than they could possibly need.
This is also how the current adult population are treated, as having no
real worth unless they are contributing to the economy, so maybe I should not
be surprised that children are apparently seen in the same light. I am not surprised, but I am saddened.
As I said, I
am also very concerned by comments made by Elizabeth Truss concerning
nurseries. She is reported on the BBC
News website as having said, "I want to see more teacher-led nursery
classes where children are learning so that they arrive at school ready to
progress." (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-22184434). She is also reported by The Guardian as
having said she had "seen too many chaotic settings, where children are
running around" (http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2013/apr/22/childcare-minister-elizabeth-truss-nurseries). The implication, as suggested by the
Conservative supporting newspaper The Daily Mail, was that she thought “many
nurseries were filled with toddlers 'running around with no sense of purpose'.”
What is
actually wrong with that? What is wrong
with children running around and playing and enjoying themselves in an
unstructured way? It is called play and
children enjoy play most when they are playing in the way they want to. That is not to suggest that children don’t
need boundaries and guidelines about how to behave; clearly they do as any
responsible adult will agree. Children
need to be taught manners and they need to be taught how to behave and to
relate to both adults and their playmates in an acceptable manner. This is, I suggest, mainly the responsibility
of parents.
What they do
not need, as two and three year olds, is structured play with an educational purpose
and the kind of discipline that whilst important in school is not appropriate
for infants.
Again it
seems as if the government is trying to cram in even more education for
children; all part of their preparation as economic units for the world of work
but not necessarily good for their growth as fully rounded human beings with
hopes, dreams and aspirations that involve more than working hard to boost the
wealth of those who already have more than enough.
I am not
stupid or naïve. I know that it is necessary
that people work to earn their living and to provide for their families: but
there should be a lot more to life than work and a lot more to childhood than
more and more time spent in school be educated for work. Education itself should not just be about preparation
for the world of work, which is all it seems to be these days; but about
producing fully rounded and happy human beings!
As a
Christian Minister I believe that God created human beings in his own image and
that we are of infinite worth. The
purpose of human life is not to work and then die, it is and should be so much
more than that!
Your plans
will lead to teachers, who on average already work more than 11 hours of unpaid
overtime each week, have to prepare and mark work in the evening and at
weekends and voluntarily come in during school holidays because they care about
the future of their pupils, working even longer hours (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-22202694). What about their lives outside of work?
As Christine
Blower of the National Union of Teachers has said: "Teachers and pupils
already spend longer hours in the classroom than most countries and also have
some of the shortest summer holidays."
Children are
precious to God. Please reconsider this
move towards longer school days and shorter school holidays. Children deserve to have a childhood filled
with play and fun and laughter. They
need education, of course they do; but childhood should be about more than
school and work and the stress of exams.
Yours
sincerely,
Rick Ormrod
