Why do we need new places of learning?
The Achievement Model
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We are all familiar with the mantra: go to school, get good grades, earn a degree, find a good job, make money, get married, have kids and then you will be happy.
While aspects of this achievement model work for some people we know too well that this path does not always lead to happiness. In fact, the opposite is often true.
The majority of children are unhappy in school and the majority of adults are unhappy at work. This is devastating when we consider we spend approximately 70% of our lives going to school and work.
I find this saddening that school is often a place that strips the child of their joy for the world. Isn’t life too short to be spending a quarter of our time in a place that lacks inspiration and hope? Chris Thompson, Green School.
Freedom of Information requests showed UK councils received at least 49,819 notifications in 2022-23 from families wanting to home educate a child. BBC 3 June 2024
“The fact is that given the challenges we face, education doesn’t need to be reformed — it needs to be transformed. The key to this transformation is not to standardise education, but to personalise it, to build achievement on discovering the individual talents of each child, to put students in an environment where they want to learn and where they can naturally discover their true passions.” Sir Ken Robinson.