School.
I hated school.
I had a very happy childhood, but I hated school. I’ve always had and still have some brilliant friends from those days. I’m even still close with a few people who were with me on my very first day.
Now I’m watching my own children move through the system. My son is about to choose his GCSE options, and my daughter is finishing high school. Seeing school from a parent’s perspective has been interesting. They’ve both had very different journeys, for very different reasons.
My Daughter is “a joy to teach”. She has a good group of friends, never in trouble, gets her work done.
My son has a loud, deep voice, he can’t whisper, he can’t blend in, and he definitely can’t get away with anything. I’m not delusional; I know he’s no angel, and sometimes he absolutely deserves the consequences that come his way. He isn’t being bullied, he has a nice group of friends, he’s popular, he seems happy enough…
But he hates school.
At the end of Year 8, he was asked to write a poem about something he felt passionate about. He chose school. That surprised me but maybe that tells you something. The poem he wrote is one of the saddest things I’ve ever read:
“School is the place where you learn.
School is the place where your imagination dies.
School is the place where your dreams are taken away.
School is the place where the creativity of a child is sucked away.
School is a place where the wild mind of a child is ripped out of them.
School is where the broken, corrupt grey system takes a child and changes them completely.
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School is where the child is destroyed, broken down, locked in a cage, to sit on a chair and be still.
School is a place where a child is taught to listen, be silent, and to keep our thoughts, opinions and dreams to ourselves.
School is where a child is made to be a robot, to make them neutral, to make them grey, to take their colour away.
School should be the place where creativity is encouraged, where imagination is encouraged and made to be stronger and more colourful.”
I know I’m his dad, so of course it hits harder. But the thing is… that was my story too.
The school system we use today was built during the Industrial Revolution. Factories needed more people who could read and do maths. Fair enough. But in many ways, we haven’t evolved much since then.
And I get it; no government is putting education reform at the top of the priority list any time soon. There’s no money, and the system is enormous. But the number of people who come out of school with a negative connection to it is huge. So many kids struggle to sit still or can’t memorise enough facts to get through their GCSEs. The system feels out of date. It’s just not working for far too many.
I’ve never used SIN, COS or TAN in my life. I can’t even remember what on earth they are for or do. Someone out there absolutely needs that knowledge and thank goodness they have it. The same goes for the periodic table; I don’t know the seventh element, but that doesn’t make it unimportant.
The point is, not every child needs the same things.
I didn’t know what I wanted to be when I grew up. I still don’t. I’ve been a waiter, barman, factory worker, delivery driver, support worker, carpenter, caretaker. Ive even earned money playing drums. I’ve been employed, self-employed, unemployed… and now I lead a charity. Who knows what comes next?
What I do know is this: too many kids are struggling in school.
They leave with no aspirations. They leave feeling like failures. They leave angry and frustrated.
I spend a lot of time talking to people who are overwhelmed, stuck, or unsure of their next step. This theme comes up again and again: school didn’t fit them, and they walked away believing they were the problem.
Surely there has to be another way.
Surely we can imagine something better for the next generation, something that doesn’t take the colour out of children, but helps them see more of it.
