This was the third time in history that the chamber had been open to the public, and did young people take the opportunity with both hands!
My focus in this article is the topics of the debate, not the debate itself.
Education vs Talent
With the growing uncertainty with the standard of education in this country, there has been a growing divide on the subject of what the educational system in the UK was designed to achieve.
Some believe that it should be designed to develop talent in this country, others believe it is a way of ensuring young people get jobs in future.
Many say the educational system is failing young people, is the curriculum so one dimensional that it creates dissatisfaction in young people and society?
The educational system was not designed to develop talent, the educational system was designed to ensure that in years to come we have able minded bodies that are capable of keeping society going in years to come, ergo, the educational system in this country can be compared to a mass production line, which creates an object for one purpose. The educational system, if you allow yourself to be bound by it, is another means of controlling the population, it can be compared even to the movie Matrix, the people were only products of the system and in order to counter that, Neo/Mr. Anderson needed to step out of the norm and do something different. THAT is where talent comes in.
This is where we come to a crossroads, like Morpheus, I will give you, the reader, a choice. Take the BLUE pill and you can click the 'x' in the corner of the screen and go about your every day business, forget you ever saw this or you can take the RED pill and I will do my best to take you on a journey designed show you what is wrong with the system and society, then, you can make your own judgements.
Farewell to those we left behind, let's move on......
To say that the educational system does not develop talent is not entirely accurate, this is so because without the educational system we would not have politicians, businessmen (as shady as they may be), doctors, lawyers and accountants. So what are we saying when we say talent is not developed, what type of talent are we referring to?
When young people talk of talent they are referring to, most of the time, footballing, singing and modelling talent. The kinds of talents that bring, on the face of it, alot of money for little effort. When adults talk about talent, they are referring to the lack of specialists in the many fields of endeavour around the country, this has caused a divide between young and old.
It is quite simple to understand where the problem lies really, I mean everywhere you look young people are trying to make a quick buck, so countless schemes are created where young people can make a £50 here and there, making it look like the government are doing something to counter the problems, but no long term contributions are made.
The education system is a shambles alright, but the problem is not limited to education, society itself is a shambles, I mean look at the current situation, we have politicians who don't know how to correctly claim expenses, bankers who add zero's to their annual turnover to increase their bonuses and a prime-minister who's own party members are turning against him, and that is just the top end of society!
At the bottom-end of society, the main problem we have is the lack of values, by this I mean lack of respect, lack of family and lack of the ever important sense of community. Now you may sit back in your chair and say "hmph, what do we need community for?" but there is a saying, 'it takes a village to raise a child', there are certain communities where this saying takes full effect and it shows in the success rate their offspring have in their careers i.e the asian community.
But that is for another article, what is wrong with the educational system as we know it?
The current system is too rigid, teachers are bound by strict and sometimes comical guidelines, exams are either too easy or too hard, unfortunately the exams regulators cannot make up their minds which, classes are too formal.
When I asked my friend Chantelle the same question, she mentioned a list of things but most importantly she stated that, "exams don't tell you anything about the child or their learning, exams merely tell the examiners how good a child's memory is and how well they work under pressure."
I highlight this point because it compliments my belief that the system does not foster the development of talent, but insteads breeds a new generation of programmed workers, what could a child's memory and ability to work under pressure at the age of 15/16 tell you about the child other than how ready that child is to be put through the rigours of a working life.
There is no care in the way the classes are taught, teachers no longer attempt to incite curiosity, young people are no longer eager to learn the whole demographic of teaching has changed.
A teacher has a class to the ratio of 1 to 30 students, if we were to apply this formula of addressing every students needs, given a class is roughly 40 minutes, a teacher would have approximately 1minute and 10 seconds per student. In that kind of time a teacher would just about pronounce my name right. So we have effectively proven that the system does not develop talent, but produces the workers we see every morning rushing to get to work and in the evening rushing to get home.
In the current economic times it is becoming apparent that more and more businesses are targeting exceptionally talented people to recruit, but if the system does not provide that for the current generation, then these businesses are more willing to recruit from abroad. The problem in this country is one of political correctness and media influence. The 'Every Child Matters' scheme that is running through the country has created a sense of apprehension on the part of teachers and guidelines have become so rigid, that something as menial as sneezing around a child needs to be logged in writing, the system is now over-protecting young people and this prevents them from experiencing life in education freely. Beyond that is the problem of lack of opportunities, for both excelling students and failing students.
Picture this, at 16 you get 'straight A' GCSE's,you apply for college, at 18 you get 'straight A' A-levels, you enter university, you leave university with a degree, time to celebrate and get a job in animation for example, wrong, you now have to think about how your clear the £25000 loan. When thoughts of clearing a debt come into one's head one does not think about what one's preferred job is, one thinks 'any job will do.' In the current economic crisis, less and less businesses are willing to recruit young graduates as they have inadequate experience, so why study if the curriculum does not adequately prepare the students for the rigours of labour. But, thinking like this is the exact reason why talent is not being developed, we put the wrong emphasis on what talent is and how it is developed, let us explore this further.
Talent, if we go by the talented individuals who have and are succeeding through their talent, is a natural ability, a knack, a flair in a particular field, but the talent itself is not enough to propel you to the heights, by 'heights' I don't mean fame, it is possible to be successful, wealthy and not famous. I believe everyone has a purpose for being on this earth but only 5% of us actually discover and develop our talent. Take for example David Beckham, he is one of the most celebrated footballers on earth, this is because he spent hours fine-tuning his gift, this is what it takes to develop talent.
Most of the people that have reached the heights with their talent did not rely on their education to get them where they are, take for example Steve Jobs (CEO of Apple) and Richard Branson (Virgin founder), these are successful men who took what the system had given them and shaped their talent around the knowledge they had recieved, now we have the iPhone and Virgin Airlines, the point I am making is that in order to really develop talent one has to 'think outside of the box', this is something you cannot learn on the curriculum, this is something that develops as a result of putting your mind to exploring the talent that you have, when you are trying to exploit your talent to your advantage you begin to open your mind to ideas that you would not have considered in a dead end job.
It will be difficult to find someone or an organisation who are willing to help develop talent, this is because it is not in their best interests to do so,we live in a society where profit, credit and gains are the way to a man's heart, 'what do I get out of helping you develop your talent?'
So in essence, the development of talent is more our personal responsibility than it is the government's, the talent was not endowed on them, it is your talent, your power, 'as the saying goes with great power comes great responsibility.' The measure of your development is down to your determination to be different from the norm. Many people have talents, but they do the same thing as everyone else, they fail to break from the herd. To soildify this point, take for example the annual 'Pamplona Bull Run', when the bulls run together they can be controlled by the matador and are not as dangerous as they CAN be, but the minute a bull moves away from the herd THAT bull becomes dangerous, it taps into its natural ability to be powerful and remove all in its path, this is how talent is refined.
In the film 'Matrix', Agent Smith always called Neo 'Mr Anderson', this represents the branding culture of society that put us in categories and keeps us in a mould, it is only when Neo accepts that he is different from society that he pulls on the full power of his potential. This is what the movie 'Matrix' was all about, breaking the mould, tapping into and fulfilling your full potential. You only lose the power to be who you are when you give your power away.
Instead of putting the blame on everyone else, perhaps we should consider taking FULL responsibility for our talents and work on breaking the mould that society puts us in and prove that we are powerful.
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