Discipline and Conformity in Schools
Whatever side you take you can’t deny that Michael Gove is shaking up the education system in this country. GCSE’s and A-Levels are now to be governed by ‘rigour’ in a return to what the education secretary sees as the defining principles of the past. In many ways some of these changes are long overdue; courses are too narrow and for too long there has been a nationwide consensus that true success comes only through the pursuit of “academic” subjects.
However, another side to this revolution in education is, for me at least, more negative.
In the political and social atmosphere in which the coalition was created there has been a reversion to idle populist thought and actions. After the financial boom of the last decade, the consequences of its collapse have resulted in a certain tightening up, of course in the financial field but also in that of politics. We have become scared of doing things for ourselves; we have placed our faith in the power of the state to clear up the mess that has been created in the public finances over the past few years. The enormity and severity of the problem faced has caused, admittedly rather reluctantly considering the various scandals MP’s have been embroiled in recently, the placing of our confidence in our elected representatives more than ever. Naturally a heightened desire for hierarchy and order has taken root as the country seeks leaders in one of the nation’s most difficult periods since the war.
It is this same sentiment that seems to permeate the Department of Education’s actions. The epitome of this is Gove’s plans to allow groups of ex-soldiers to set up free schools with the idea that this will introduce more discipline to schools, and, for Gove, the more discipline the better the school. Of course there is a reason behind this and that is Britain’s plummeting ranking in the international education league tables having fallen from 17 to 25 in reading according to some studies. For Gove the only way to drag the country back up these tables is through rigorous exams and additionally the restoration of an explicit and harsh hierarchy.
For me, this is merely window shopping and conforming to what international organisations see as being what a good education system should consist of. Discipline is necessary in a school but too much can also be counterproductive, providing the students with something to rebel against when there needn’t have been anything there. Similarly if there is no opportunity to dissent or complain the institution simply becomes vapid, lacking in any radical thought or strong academic fabric. The students are forced to conform and the manifestation of this conformity comes in the form of the uniform. Any sense of the individual is stripped from the student and expression of the self becomes nigh on impossible. Are these moribund schools the types of institutions we wish to create? And on a wider scale do we want a society with such people in it?
There is a reason why the people who have inspired most admiration were radicals, prepared to question their respective status quos. They rejected the norm because they believed in something better and they thought the realisation of their dreams was possible. No one remembers those who conform; consequently, schools need to instil in students an innate sense of probing, questioning, rather than subjugating them under a rigid regime of discipline.
However, another side to this revolution in education is, for me at least, more negative.
In the political and social atmosphere in which the coalition was created there has been a reversion to idle populist thought and actions. After the financial boom of the last decade, the consequences of its collapse have resulted in a certain tightening up, of course in the financial field but also in that of politics. We have become scared of doing things for ourselves; we have placed our faith in the power of the state to clear up the mess that has been created in the public finances over the past few years. The enormity and severity of the problem faced has caused, admittedly rather reluctantly considering the various scandals MP’s have been embroiled in recently, the placing of our confidence in our elected representatives more than ever. Naturally a heightened desire for hierarchy and order has taken root as the country seeks leaders in one of the nation’s most difficult periods since the war.
It is this same sentiment that seems to permeate the Department of Education’s actions. The epitome of this is Gove’s plans to allow groups of ex-soldiers to set up free schools with the idea that this will introduce more discipline to schools, and, for Gove, the more discipline the better the school. Of course there is a reason behind this and that is Britain’s plummeting ranking in the international education league tables having fallen from 17 to 25 in reading according to some studies. For Gove the only way to drag the country back up these tables is through rigorous exams and additionally the restoration of an explicit and harsh hierarchy.
For me, this is merely window shopping and conforming to what international organisations see as being what a good education system should consist of. Discipline is necessary in a school but too much can also be counterproductive, providing the students with something to rebel against when there needn’t have been anything there. Similarly if there is no opportunity to dissent or complain the institution simply becomes vapid, lacking in any radical thought or strong academic fabric. The students are forced to conform and the manifestation of this conformity comes in the form of the uniform. Any sense of the individual is stripped from the student and expression of the self becomes nigh on impossible. Are these moribund schools the types of institutions we wish to create? And on a wider scale do we want a society with such people in it?
There is a reason why the people who have inspired most admiration were radicals, prepared to question their respective status quos. They rejected the norm because they believed in something better and they thought the realisation of their dreams was possible. No one remembers those who conform; consequently, schools need to instil in students an innate sense of probing, questioning, rather than subjugating them under a rigid regime of discipline.