Our Big Brother in Westminster.

You might remember a post I made recently called Shrinking Childhood, in which I bemoaned plans to extend the education curriculum for young children.

Well, there was a piece on the BBC news text pages tonight headlined Curriculum to Destroy Childhood. Quite. It seems that some academics are also bemoaning the government’s plans, not only because they threaten children’s right to a childhood, but also because cramming their heads at too early an age won’t drive up standards anyway. That’s the experts’ view, and it makes sense to me.

The government’s response to this charge came from the Education Secretary, who said that the government ‘won’t apologise for having high expectations of pupils.’ This is typical politician speak – smooth and mildly rhetorical to impress the easily impressed. In short, arrogant fudge.

I think the present government (and probably most governments, come to that) needs to be reminded that they are elected by the public to serve the needs of the public. They have no right to have ‘high expectations’ of anybody but themselves and their employees. Their whole responsibility in this matter is to provide young people with the means to aspire to their personal goals in accordance with the individual’s skills and personality. Children are not there to be treated as pawns in the politicians’ chess game. I think George Orwell might have agreed with that.