A wonderful six years

Well it’s going to be mighty strange being without Edge from now on! I have had the most wonderful six years, learned so much, been constantly inspired and made so many new friends. I have absolutely no idea what I shall be doing in the future – but if you have any exciting and wildly ambitious ideas please let me know!

Thank you to everyone for their incredible support over the years and also to everyone who’s been reading my blog for your interest over the past months. I hope you’ll stay and hear more from me in the future.

I’d also urge you to stay in touch with Edge, particularly at this crucial time ahead of the general election, when the ‘Have your say’ campaign will continue call for more practical and vocational learning in the political parties’ manifestos, giving the nation a voice on what needs to change in education. If you haven’t ‘had your say’, do it now on the Edge website. You can also join Edge’s community online; become a fan of Edge on Facebook and follow them on Twitter. Edge’s website is also updated regularly – look out for information on new Edge blogs.

Continuous and relentless gentle pressure

Last week I wrote about deeply ingrained attitudes. Changing them, of course, is not easy.

The existing system - the establishment, if you like - is ‘innocent until proved guilty’. And as a campaigning organisation one is always in danger of focusing only on proving the guilt – which leads to endless tales of woe, and highlighting what is wrong. The media love this too, of course. But actually change comes through inspiration and hope and ‘we can’.

Another difficulty in changing education in the UK is that existing assumptions and institutions are resolutely shored up by middle England. If the majority of the middle classes prosper as things are, why should they (or politicians) seek change? They may agree with the need for change (most people have always supported Edge’s vision and beliefs), but they are not committed to change and are thus unlikely to act.

Finally, let me ask all of you how you deal with a very untidy teenager? In my experience there is not much to be gained from repeated shouting or penalties – perhaps the only way is through continuous, relentless gentle pressure. And so it is with education.

Thus Edge has always sought to do two things, and to do them continuously and relentlessly, without being too negative:

• To lift the curtain on what is already happening, to show the current system is not ‘innocent’ (hence the film, We Are The People We've Been Waiting For)
• To build faith that another way is possible (attitudes do not change through intellectual argument, though rigorous research evidence is of course important)

I believe that there is now sufficient support for practical and vocational learning, for Edge to change emphasis, and to focus on the latter.

'Have your say'

I have been SO impressed with the quality of the debate and comments in response to our 'Have our say' campaign – please have a look at some of them on our website.

My thanks also to Ross Mountney who has been 'having her say',and educating me re. the fact that many ‘home educators’ support more practical learning:

"Our children, both home educated in order to try and avoid the academic cloning going on in schools, have gone onto do BTECs at college to avoid the boring GCSE, A level route. But still, although these courses are heralded as practical, they are loaded with subversive academics that unless achieved mean that your overall results are poor. To my mind this completely devalues them as 'practical'!"

Deeply ingrained prejudice

Ever since Edge was launched just over five years ago - provided we phrase things in the right way - the large majority (70%-80%) of every type of audience (teachers, young people, parents, employers, opinion formers) agree with us; they want young people to have more opportunities to carry out high quality practical and vocational learning.

So why don’t things change?

It is because the underlying assumptions behind our education system are deeply ingrained and institutionalised. In the UK, more than any country in the world, we turn diversity in terms of young people’s aptitudes and intelligences into hierarchy. A particular form of academic and analytical intelligence is regarded as better than others. The social pressures to want this route to success - to regard this route as in some way ‘better’ than another - is strong and pervasive and starts from a very early age.

This may have served us well in the 19th century; but in the 21st century, unless this attitude is changed we can be very confident that our overall education system will not provide our young people with the preparation they need for a successful and fulfilling life. It is as simple and important as that.