28 FALLING STANDARDS OF EDUCATION

Smith laments, ‘The discipline of colleges and universities is in general contrived, not for the benefit of the students, but for the interest, or more properly speaking, for the ease of the masters… It seems to presume perfect wisdom and virtue in the one and greatest weakness and folly in the other.’

DEFINING IDEA…

My education was interrupted only by my schooling.

~ WINSTON CHURCHILL, ORATOR, HISTORIAN, WAR LEADER AND BRITISH PRIME MINISTER

Apparently holding the attention of pupils has been a problem for hundreds of years, not a new phenomenon at all. Interestingly, Smith lays the blame squarely at the teachers’ feet, ‘No discipline is ever requisite, no force attendance upon lectures which are really worth the attending.’ In other words, had the teacher enough of a grasp on the subject they were employed to teach, they would be able to bring that knowledge to life with modern examples and ideas to enthuse pupils and encourage learning. Instead, Smith suggests that incompetent teachers simply read from dusty old textbooks often written in a ‘foreign and dead language’. Although to be fair, it can’t be easy being an unappreciated teacher!

In modern times those lamenting the falling standards of teaching in the UK have pointed to the 11-plus and suggested today’s children wouldn’t be able to answer the questions. The 11-plus was established in 1944 to help the most able children from disadvantaged backgrounds reach their potential by qualifying them for state grammar schools with the emphasis on academic subjects. It was taken by all pupils at the end of primary school and had the potential to change the entire course of a child’s life. The question is, could an 11-year-old today divide 5,408 by 26, or figure out how many people were at the party when one-sixth of those present were adults, four-ninths were girls and the remaining 42 were boys - both questions from an 11plus exam. But then again, could an 11-year-old from the 1950s master technological advances in the blink of an eye?

Smith’s distress at the quality of teaching is mentioned several times in his books and is largely due to his belief in its vital importance. According to him there are four ways that naturally introduce subordination:‘The first is the superiority of personal qualifications, of strength, beauty, and agility of body; of wisdom and virtue, of prudence, justice, fortitude and moderations of mind… The qualifications of the mind can alone give very great authority.’

Considering the second is age, the third is wealth and the fourth is superiority at birth, i.e. royalty gaining an education, this is one of the few ways over which we have any control. Plastic surgery aside, there’s not much that we can do about beauty, body or strength, so education is critical to progress in this world.

HERE’S AN IDEA FOR YOU…

If you are helping your kids with their homework and you can actually help, try and make the subject relevant to them. Most people find it easier to understand something new when they can see the relevance of the idea in real life. If you can find ways of making abstract concepts come to life, your child (or anyone else for that matter) is much more likely to understand.