Kids on a Treadmill.

I was watching a group of mothers and their offspring coming down the lane from the village school earlier. It struck me how we put kids on a treadmill at a very young age, forcing them into a school system where they’ll stay for somewhere between twelve and twenty years. They’ll spend most of their precious childhood, and at least most of their youth, being conditioned to the mores of the culture and what we grandly call ‘the work ethic.’ And I wondered how many parents question what they’re doing, and how many just do it because it’s what you do.

I know there’s an argument for claiming that this system is necessary to maintain social cohesion in a complex society, and I realise there’s some truth in that. And yet I also know from personal experience that some parents do question it. I’ve known parents who’ve said ‘I want to teach my kids myself. And, what’s more, I want to teach them what I consider important, not what society tells me to teach them.’ Some of those parents are highly intelligent and capable people, probably more so than many of those who run society and the educational system. But if they say that, they’re accused of being irresponsible and risking damage to their children. And if they try to carry out their wishes, the system criminalises them. And that’s what makes me uneasy.