I knew there was a reason I home school my son Ruaridh.
Seth Godin, that marketing God, has just written a fantastic article about the higher education system which I urge you to read here.
Nothing gets me into more arguments than the subject of education and the fact that I home school our eleven year old. It really upsets people and I suspect it is because deep down everyone knows there is something fundamentally wrong about our education system but to question it, is heresy.
Let me be clear, the reason I took Ruaridh out of school is because I care about his education.
In the same way that Net Profit and Gross Profit are not the same thing, School and Education are not the same thing.
When I am consulting I often have to deal with the problem of “Local Optima”. This is where you focus on the local goal at the expense of the global goal. In education they focus on exam results at the expense of education. The logic is sound “better exam results = better education” but in reality there is no correlation.
Statistically, we have never been more educated. In practice, it doesn’t feel that way.
So ask yourself, what is it you want, more qualifications or a better education. They are not the same thing.
