Some teenagers, particularly working class boys, get disillusioned and disengaged with school because they can’t compete or keep up with the rest of the class in academic subjects. I have noticed this at around age 14 and they then disrupt classes for all students. They often do poorly in GCSEs at age 16. Some have poor attendance and lack motivation because they are not interested in the subjects taught and have no talent for them. It seems cruel to force them to study subjects which they have no talent for and which make them feel like failures, especially when they have other, perhaps more practical talents, waiting to be developed and discovered.
I would like to see the possibility of them leaving school at 14, or only going to school 2 days a week, so that they can learn skills such as car mechanics, carpentry, business, sales, painting and decorating, plumbing etc. They could earn a small amount of money and the responsibility would help them to mature. I believe something like this was commonplace in the early 1900s.
They would still need to be literate and numerate and should have a good grasp of science and British history. They could take a reduced number of GCSEs. It would also help us to reduce our skills shortages and could reduce anti-social behaviour or the temptation to join a gang where they feel respected.
Complete agreement. It’s so dumb how the idiot Tories went the opposite direction and pushed later school leaving ages and more academic focus.
As in many things, the traditional older systems (you’re right that this is how things used to function) that allowed for school leaving at 14 worked much better.
The main thing to do would be to bring back more rigorous trades qualifications to go alongside this.
Agreed! A lot of the apprenticeship schemes nowadays don’t seem to give enough training in the skills required to do the job. I would like to see highly experienced people delivering training to pass on their knowledge to the younger generations.
Which is why we used to have streams when I was at school. It worked but we had to make sure that nobody had their feelings hurt.
We had streams too, at first. I went to a good state secondary school. After a few years, they started to get rid of streaming and it is even worse now.
Nowadays you can get children who can barely read, or who at least are not academic, in classes with very academically gifted children unless you can find a grammar school or can afford a private school. The class is forced to slow its pace drastically and a teaching assistant will often be trying to help some of the less able children to keep up. There aren’t enough LSAs to go around and anyway they are really there to support children with physical, psychological or learning disabilities. As funding is very tight, one LSA will have to cover several children - the child with the funding and a few others without. That means putting more challenging children together in one class which affects discipline.
I have watched this happen. The less academic children are being set up to fail and it affects them deeply. Many just seem to give up trying after a while. However, these children will have other, often practical skills which lie dormant and undiscovered because we force everyone to compete in the same academic race.
More academic children become bored and frustrated at the slow pace of lessons and may also give up and play the fool. This seems to be an issue with boys.
I would like children to be treated as individuals and to be respected for their different strengths and talents, not all forced to try to be average students with a bit of book learning.
When my parents were young, there were plenty of secondary modern and grammar schools. Now we try to ensure that everyone is exactly the same, or as near as may be.
What makes you think that the construction industry (I’m an electrician to trade) would want disruptive 14 year old children on a building site? The Michaela Community School does not seem to have this disengagement problem and the leavers at 16 get snapped up by local employers. I was talking to some only recently. The kids are motivated, able to turn themselves out smartly and turn up everyday on time.
You wouldn’t take disruptive 14 year olds onto a building site. My original point was that a few decades ago, no one thought there was anything odd about a young man leaving school at 14 to learn a trade with an older man to guide and train him. That would have to be done starting at the basics, maybe in conjunction with a college, not by throwing them in at the deep end. Part of the benefit is to their self esteem, personal growth and sense of responsibility.
Michaela is a very good school. Most schools are not like this nowadays. However, I think that part of the point here is that not all schools can or should be exactly the same. They are catering for people with different talents, needs and interests.
Must be careful to insure they dont sit on their backsides 3 days a week and come out of it with a job
