I have just listened to a piece from the radio, starring Michael Gove, the education secretary, in an unnecessarily heated argument with a caller. I was very glad to see Mr Gove 'keep his cool', which, as I also find, often infuriates the people who want to have a good old row, as they mistakenly feel that they are being patronised.
I voted Conservative in the general election. I don't particularly like the Conservative party, and I don't class myself as a 'tory', but they are a party, by and large, which reflects my values. Or used to, anyway. Its policies are often well-thought out, and based in traditional practice. Ideally, as in emulation of the model conservative, Edmund Burke (a political hero of mine), 'conservative' policies should not really fit into any category, but are based on what is the right thing to do at a particular moment.
A party which is truly 'conservative' should not really follow stereotypes, because it adapts itself naturally to the age it is in. No, that is wrong. It is the other way around. The present situation forms the conservative.
I like this notion, as espoused by Burke at the end of the eighteenth century, because it is not idealistic, based in some fantasy of what a political individual would like the world to be, rather, it is steeped in reality, as we should be.
The Conservative party in the UK is the one party which comes close to this method of politics, though it has been way off the mark over the centuries. The fact that the Conservative party has changed so much and has been a party with all sorts of different policies (I identify more with the pre-Thatcher era of politics), is testament to this.
As people nowadays are not usually grounded in very much reality, rather, they live in fantasy, is probably why they are unable to understand why a) the Conservative party can change its appearance and style and b) why and how coalition government works. I find the last point particularly pressing. It frustrates me when people are unable to understand what a coalition is, even now, after a while in government. It may create a weak government, but that is a bonus in my book.
Anyway, part of my reasoning for voting Conservative at the last election (not only because I could not bear the idea of having a man in the cabinet without any academic qualifications any longer), is their education policy.
I think it is clear how Labour's education policy failed. There was not enough 'beef'.
Children who were well educated in the olden days would probably be able to outwit 'well educated' adults of today. They knew all about arithmetic, grammar, the arts and humanities.
Our education system has made our children stupid.
They may be able to use a computer at the age of 4, and know how to use a keyboard, be good at colouring in, know what recycling is, and know what an average child in Mombassa eats for breakfast. I, on the other hand, was faced with a young lady in Barclay's Bank recently who could not add up 3 numbers ending in '0' without the use of a calculator.
I thought the modern comprehensive education system was supposed to comprehensive. I thought it was supposed to allow all children to have access to good education. But, as is the case with socialism, it has simply equalised what was the case previously to a mean average, rather than push up the quality for all. Socialism is not the improvement of society, it is the equalisation of misery. It does not afford people equal opportunities, it makes some opportunities available for some, on their terms, and prevents opportunities for others, often, those who are able.
Conservative education policy sought to undo the mess we had gotten ourselves in, and restore a good deal of the traditional education system in a modern framework.
Friends of mine educated abroad (in their own country, funnily enough), using what in England would be seen as a traditional grammar school mode of teaching (in terms of method and content), are not only very intelligent, but they are happy people too.
School and university is not supposed to teach people to a particular standard, enabling them to 'get a job' and work for the rest of their life, benefiting society (a socialist model), it is designed to enable children to grow up, and keep growing through adulthood, into fully realised human beings.
A school system which teaches what the child is good at, or what it likes, is not good enough. So a child might not be good at maths. So what?
I hated maths, music, English and P.E., and was terrible in those subjects, but I'm glad I was made to do them, because they have formed me.
I liked my secondary school at the start. It was a traditional state secular comprehensive school. We had blackboards, a big library with lots of books in it, pens and paper, R.E., school uniform, assemblies, a head master who we used to have to stand up for when he walked in the room, the Our Father at assemblies, eccentric teachers, and crap all over the boys toilets. Moreover, I thought that was marvelous.
As time went on, however, and the full force of the socialist ideal with which this country is infected with took hold, these things started to disappear. The Our Father, standing up for the head master and R.E. were the first to go. Then the blackboards went (apart from one stalwart teacher). The teachers became less eccentric, and slowly, they all started to look and act like bank managers. The library lost book shelves for computers, and even, the worst of them all, the school got rid of the traditional school uniform, replacing it with a coloured polo shirt.
As I grew older and taller, I could not only feel my childhood slip away into the past, but I could see the mould in which my beloved childhood was formed, crushed with the hammer of reform and equality.
I remember how distraught I was at seeing Tony Blair come to power in 1997. Even at 9 years old, I could see right through New Labour, and no-body listened to me then, so I shouldn't think anybody is listening to me now either!
Let's just be balanced with what we do with our country.
As Disraeli said, 'England cannot begin again'.
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