Oh, Lordy Lord *

Yesterday I attended a seminar at the House of Lords, somewhere I’d never been before. In terms of the nation’s heritage, it’s grand and impressive inside, if somewhat reminiscent of a public school. It’s well worth a visit, especially as it gives one some important clues as to why politicians seem so stuck in the past rather than looking towards the future.

In many ways, the session I attended was little better. It was entitled ‘A New Vision for Design Education: is design learning at school fit for purpose?’, and organised by the ‘Associate Parliamentary Design & Innovation Group‘, whoever they are. It was a gathering of the great and the good in the field, all very eloquently expressing the purpose and benefits of design education. Here’s the question I asked the panel:

“All the values and aspirations expressed here today were initially identified and developed in the 1970s. It didn’t succeed then in scaling itself up and being embedded in the curriculum, so how and why should it now, particularly in the context of the current political ideology in which Schools Minister Nick Gibbs recently welcomed the decrease in the time that pupils studied subjects such as Art and Design, Design and Technology and Drama as ‘an encouraging trend’?”

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/education/timetable-boost-for-traditional-class-subjects-7678723.html

Sadly no-one really responded to this challenge, although one of the panel did say something about it being important not to be pessimistic, which I regret to say I still am. No-one really said anything that had not been said already during the past 35 years. It was all largely about preparing students for life in the last quarter of the 20th Century rather than the first quarter of the 21st Century, and as a means of recruiting new designers for the old profession. The potential impact on design education of the rapid shift towards on-line learning, and how the industry itself will need to respond to the changing circumstances of a population being able to design and make things for themselves at a local level using CAD and 3D printers, was not mentioned.  And I didn’t notice anyone in the audience with an iPad, and neither was I aware of anyone providing a live commentary via Twitter.

On the positive side it was good to hear everyone essentially in agreement about the importance of design education, and an emerging consensus that a lot of the problem was that the message was not being co-ordinated and driven by a single body, though there were no suggestions as to who this might be, let alone any volunteers. Strangely no-one mentioned the fact that design education provides an almost perfect fit with the wider specification for what are currently referred to as 21st Century Skills.

However I did learn one thing I didn’t know before. Apparently no current member of parliament has the faintest idea what design is all about (OK, well we have all already guessed that). Except for one, who owns a 15% stake in his family wallpaper and fabric design business. Any idea as to who it might be? No? OK, here’s a clue:

http://www.osborneandlittle.com/

* Lordy Lord – as in the expression used to “express frustration, exasperation, worry, or tiredness”. Pretty much sums up my response really.

 

Image credit: Oliver Quinlan

The bleak tale of Oliver’s great expectations, twisted

Please, sir,  I want some more lessons in the Creative Arts

Further to the suggestion in Getting high on Classic FM that, in response to the recent Henley Report into Cultural Education in England, nice Mr Gove had ambitions to play the role of a Victorian philanthropist, All Change Please! is proud to present its own somewhat twisted version of that  literary classic Oliver Twist. So, with apologies to the great Mr Dickens, and without further ado…

The Henley Report rose from the table; and advancing to the junior education minister, paintbrush and sketch-pad in hand, said: somewhat alarmed at his own temerity:

‘Please, sir, I want some more lessons in the Creative Arts.’

The junior education minister was a fat, healthy man; but he turned very pale. He gazed in stupified astonishment on the small rebel for some seconds, and then clung for support to the copper. The subject associations were paralysed with wonder; the teachers with fear.

‘What!’ said the junior education minister at length, in a faint voice.

‘Please, sir,’ replied the Henley report, ‘I want some more lessons in the Creative Arts.’

The junior education minister aimed a blow at the report’s cover with the ladle; pinioned it in his arm; and shrieked aloud.

The Secretary of State for Education was sitting in solemn conclave, when the junior education minister rushed into the room in great excitement, and addressing the gentleman in the high chair, said,

‘Mr. BumbleGove, I beg your pardon, sir! The Henley Report has asked for more!’

There was a general start. Horror was depicted on every countenance.

‘For MORE!’ said Mr BumbleGove. ‘Compose yourself, and answer me distinctly. Do I understand that it asked for more, after it had attended the single lesson a week allotted by the eBacc?’

‘It did, sir,’ replied junior education minister.

‘That report will be re-spun,’ said the gentleman in the white waistcoat. ‘I know that report will be re-spun.’

Nobody controverted BumbleGove’s opinion. An animated discussion took place. The report was ordered into instant confinement; and a bill was next morning pasted on the outside of the gate, offering a reward of five pounds to anybody who would take the report off the hands of the parish. In other words, five pounds and the report were offered to any man or woman who wanted an apprentice to any creative trade, business, or calling…

All characters appearing in this work are sadly far from fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely intentional.

The original, remarkably similar text can be read here:

http://charlesdickenspage.com/twist_more.html

How to succeed in everything, and nothing?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/aug/31/gcses-english-baccalaureate-vocational-subjects?CMP=twt_fd

So here’s The Guardian reporting on what we all anticipated – substantial increases in pupils ‘choosing’ to study academic subjects such as geography and history for GCSE, and a decline in courses such as music, the performing arts and textiles, along doubtless with many other similar options.

But what’s really breath-taking is Michael Gove’s assertion that:

“Subjects such as physics, chemistry, history, geography, French and German give students the opportunity to succeed in every field.”

Except of course in art, design, music, IT, film and television and a host of other so-called ‘soft’ fields of work that actually help drive the UK economy forward. And that’s where we really need the bright, capable but non-academic students who are now increasingly being led down the blind alley of unlikely entry to Oxbridge.

Gove continues:

“More young people are now following the courses which the best colleges and top employers value.”

Yet, as I posted in:‘ Educashun still isn’t working’, way back in the 1980s ‘top employers’ were stating what their real needs were, and they certainly didn’t include a plethora of academic subjects.

Gove’s ’rounded education’ looks rather more like a severely squashed oval?

Why I’m voting for Mickey…

Will the proposed half-GCSE Vocational Qualifications become known as Minnie-Mouse courses?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2016995/Michael-Gove-4-500-Mickey-Mouse-courses-face-axe.html

As usual the Daily Mail can be relied upon to trivialise any story about education. Although the recommendations of the recent Wolf report are clear, it is thin on explanation and exemplification of what is unsatisfactory with current vocational education courses. Simply saying some are excellent and others aren’t is not terribly helpful. And seeking the views of employers and moving towards more external assessment is something we’ve heard many times before. Reducing the number of GCSE equivalents for each course might be seen as having some merit, but mainly for reducing the validity of vocational courses within academically-based school league tables, rather than putting the needs of students first – some of whom might actually have had a better chance of finding employment at the age of 16. Now all they will end up with is a string of F and G GCSE grades which are less likely to impress potential employers than evidence of real, on-the-job experience.

And while it is true that some courses have become little more than an exercise in completing politically-correct tick-boxes, what the Daily Mail article actually reveals that much of the course content is highly relevant to working life. For example, here is a proposed list of 50 things everyone should know how to do – precious few of which are covered in the eBacc.

Meanwhile I can’t help wondering why poor old Mickey Mouse is continually associated with vocational courses? Mickey was created by Disney in 1928 as a ‘pleasant, cheerful character always trying to do the best he could’, which  sounds to me a most positive attitude towards education.  The more negative association probably started when entering the name ‘Mickey Mouse’ on a ballot paper became a way of expressing dissatisfaction with the available election candidates, i.e. that Mickey Mouse could do a better job. Around the same time the phrase ‘Taking the Mickey’ – meaning to mock or ridicule – came into usage, and although not a reference to Mickey Mouse, the two seem to have become associated.

As a result ‘Mickey Mouse’ has over time come to mean ‘small-time’ or ‘trivial’, which is curious really, because in reality Mickey Mouse is an iconic, multi-million dollar, best-selling trademark – and as such exactly the sort of approach to business we should all be striving for if we are to revive the nation’s economy. So yet again it seems to be another example of the politicians and media perpetuating the old-school myth that only high-brow academic studies are of any value, and anything vocationally or commercially orientated, or relating to popular culture, is entirely worthless.

And finally…. for those readers still without a Twitter account:  Man goes to the doctors: “Doctor I’m addicted to twitter and I don’t know what to do”….Doctor: “Sorry I don’t follow you”…