Medway Messenger, 27th August 2004: Back To School Blues

The August Bank Holiday has often left me with a sinking feeling. The last Bank Holiday of the year, the last Test Match of the cricket season, the end of the summer.

And – in younger days – only a week before school would start again. That terrible food, the lousy uniform with the wretched tie, and back to facing the bullies. When people told me that school days were the best days of my life, I wondered how bad the rest would be.

There were good things that came out of school. I did well at the hated exams. I made two or three friendships that last to this day.

But maybe I’m just a miserable so-and-so who finds a cloud with every silver lining. If I compare it to the expectations foisted on today’s schoolchildren I think I got off lightly.

What message are we giving rising generations by our treatment of them in education? The statutory testing at seven, eleven and fourteen add to the pressure on young people. Is it for their benefit? I suspect not. They are just being used as cannon fodder in political wars. If this is the case, then we are hardly treating them as people at all.

And the fact that they are expected to ‘perform’ at these ages, as well as at GCSE? It’s fine if that approach to learning works for you. But what if your gifts are different? Are you less valuable as a person? Even if a student does perform well in tests, we are still saying that their value as a person is measured by their accomplishment, rather than by who they are as a person.

I’ll never forget bringing my first school report home. I had done really well, and I was proud of my achievements. My parents said something to me that I didn’t understand then, but which means the world to me now: “We’ll love you regardless of how well you do at school.”

My parents gave me a lesson in unconditional love. Later I discovered that was the way God loved me, too. It wasn’t about my performance. I couldn’t do anything to earn his love. He loved me anyway. I could work hard out of gratitude for his love, but my performance couldn’t earn that love.

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Copyright © David D Faulkner, 2006 except where other sources are attributed or noted as inspiration.