What is the purpose of education?
I’ll warn you now I don’t have the answers but this question was prompted by reading, on facebook, that there is going to be a Virgin Disruptors debate on education. Having read the article I decided to share it and add my own comments. When I started I didn’t realise quite how much I had to say and I thought I’d bring my thoughts over here as well.
“I had to share this. I love that this debate will take place. I am really grateful for the education I had. Looking back there seemed more encouragement, less comparison and effort appeared to be valued as much as results (maybe my glasses are rose tinted).
I know that I still had to strongly influence the direction that my education took. I may have been shy but I was the one who refused to take exam subjects just because ‘they’d be good for a job’. I insisted on taking art because I loved it, not because I was good at it (I passed though). I arranged my own work experience and refused to go to university. All with the support of my parents I hasten to add.
When I left the education system I was most proud, not of the tally of exam results, but of the reference I asked our headmaster for. (I have no idea where I got this idea from).
In it he referred to a charity fashion show I’d organised as well as to my exam results. He went on to comment that I had shown that success could be achieved quietly without blowing my own trumpet.
It may seem like I’m blowing my own trumpet now but I hope what I’m showing here is that I benefited from taking responsibility for my own decisions, for my own belief in what was right for ME as the quiet but determined individual that I was.
That is what my work is about now. Helping others to see their skills, strengths and possibilities and to take responsibility for making the best of them.”
