Thanks for your reply. I’m conscious of the danger of simply sounding negative about existing educational structures, and not offering constructive alternatives. And your last comment brings things into focus – there’s a huge difference between talking theoretically about education and having to think how best to advise your own children.

I was still thinking about this yesterday, when I came across a couple of interesting posts suggesting alternatives to university. I blogged about those last night:

http://schoolofeverything.com/blog/university-everything

I guess I have two sets of questions (which I’ll pick up on in future posts):

- do we need something to “replace” tertiary education, in the sense of alternative institutional provision? or might it be possible to gain an education outside of an institutional environment, by seeking out people, resources and opportunities?

- is the expectation that university is a place you go at 18 or 19 a good idea? wouldn’t it be better to make it a place you go when you’ve got a reason to go there, with no particular pressure about what stage in life that should be?

I think it’s interesting and encouraging to see people like you thinking about and offering options to the unchallenged norms. I don’t think you’re alone in wanting these. I’d like to see more discussion around these, although at the same time, I wouldn’t be encouraging my sons to rethink teritary education unless there was something to replace it.

Dougald here, one of the School of Everything co-founders. I found this fascinating, especially the conversation you describe with your son. And I’m not clear that it’s as simple as whose goals you were talking about – although looking back to my teens (from the grand old age of 31!), I think I interpreted most of what my parents said in terms of what direction they were trying to steer me in.

I was the kind of kid who couldn’t tone down if I tried – not a comfortable situation, growing up in a small town in the north east of England. Even so, it wasn’t until my mid-twenties that I realised I had to make some choices between doing my own thing and the models of success which school, university and careers advisors had to offer. That I had the confidence to go off in my own direction, leaving behind the beginnings of a succesful career, owed a lot to my parents’ quiet scepticism about such models (and how little they had actually tried to steer me in any particular direction).

The American essayist Ran Prieur has some harsh things to say about the effects of schooling:

“When you were three years old, if your parents weren’t too bad, you knew how to play spontaneously. Then you had to go to school, where everything you did was required. The worst thing is that even the fun activities, like singing songs and playing games, were commanded under threat of punishment. So even play got tied up in your mind with a control structure, and severed from the life inside you…”

(http://ranprieur.com/essays/dropout.html)

From my experience, there’s considerable truth in that, and it takes time to find your way back to spontaneity. I’m certainly still working on it!

I’ve been playing with the idea recently of a campaign to encourage teenagers to think twice about going to university. Not because I think it’s a bad thing to do – but because there seems to be very little opportunity for young people to think about why they are going, whether it’s the best thing for them, or how many other paths there can be through life (including going to university later, when you’ve found your own reason to do so).

Anyway, it’s good to hear that School of Everything is provoking thoughts and conversations like this. And I’d be interested to hear more of your son’s side of the story.

Thanks for the linkes.