Slash and burn!

I had occasion to visit a primary school the other day and was surprised to find the management team, within said location, in the process of removing, from the library, a number of beautifully crafted, yet no doubt harmonically-defunct, musical instruments. I think that there may have been a couple of violins and a guitar, nestled within a somewhat larger array of curios; the sort of items that one almost instinctively 'rescues', before recognising that one's own shelves are already bending under the weight of a gradually accumulating cornucopia of previously acquired objet d'art.

Upon arrival in the school's car park I had already noted the large skip, parked obligingly (or worryingly) adjacent to the premises, and was, thus, anxious to enquire as to the reallocated location for the noted items. I had mistakenly assumed that they might offer an interesting variety of angled plains, shapes, textures, reflected and refracted lightings and shadows for, perhaps the number of budding or interested artists, numbering amongst the school's role. Thus, I was to be further 'enlightened' as to the direction of education today.

Thanks to lokarta

Perhaps I should explain, before you assume that I am in the process of condemning this particular school, that previous visits to this place-of-learning have always given the best of impressions, that the staff are industrious and diligent in the extreme and that the pupils always present as polite and friendly. Not that one should, for one nanosecond, be fooled by such a narrow spectrum of judgement as Ofsted reports or skewed league-tables, but I also know that even these can offer only positive data regarding the school's progress. This school fares well, given the constraints within which it is expected to operate.

Nonetheless, the response to my observations did somewhat take me aback. I was informed that such items were now only seen to be of 'educational use' where they offered direct support to the 'core curriculum'; that unless these consummate objects were able to embellish the 'greater' subjects they were effectively merely taking up valuable space that might otherwise be occupied by Maths or English related support materials. "And, the creative arts?" one might have ventured, but the chosen course was already brightly illuminated, so one did not.

We are undoubtedly educating our children for the markets of tomorrow; thus enabling them to develop the entrepreneurial spirit required of the next generation, to venture out, into the global marketplace and compete for Britain. Common sense! The capitalist's dream! The 'free market. The message from the 'great and mighty' beckons as brightly as the fires within the gates of Hell.

And again, lokarta

Needless to say that, back in the car, meandering back homeward, I actually shed tears. It's just a shame that an enterprising young police officer wasn't able to exploit such compromised driving and create some much-needed revenue, with a well-landed fine of some sort. A factory for Blair-Cameron-Clegg-like clones; the mind almost recoils in horror!

Should we not, just for a planet-and-society-saving second, stand back and spend a few seconds re-analysing the world that we've already created? Really? Satisfied, are we? Honestly?