Response
To Brendan O’Neill’s article at www.spiked-online.com
“There is no ‘right to be a scholar.’”I agree entirely with what you have written but I think we need to consider the historical process that has led to the egalitarian notion of education.
I put it down firstly to the institutionalisation of education that came with the industrial revolution and turned education from being relevant to a process that mass produces individuals. Individuality is to a great extent neutralised in schools and ordinary people are led to believe that schooling and more schooling is the answer to development.
Fortunately, exceptional people, who probably question all the way through the system, understand what they want from life and build their lives with or without schooling.
Secondly, democracy promotes the notion of equality and people believe that they should all be treated the same. This is a perversion of the notion of equality which is meant to be applied to access to opportunities and fair treatment. It is not meant to wash out the individuality that allows for both simple and complex pursuits.
What is required is radical reform of education at the school level – radical reform, not mere tinkering with a system that no longer works.