Creative Schools? Part 2

The creeping standardization and privatization of education in the UK is coming about because companies are taking over the running of more and more schools. Of course, there are "economies of scale" if a larger organization is involved. Everything is easier and cheaper if all of the schools (and all of the teachers) follow the same plans and codes of practice. Instead of expensive textbooks, everything is projected onto the whiteboard. Men in suits double-check that everyone sticks to the company's policies.

Gordon Beningfield was a famous artist. His beautiful drawings and paintings of the English countryside were reproduced in a series of books. Beningfield's Butterflies, Hardy Country, The Downland Shepherds and quite a few other books were very popular, especially in Japan, of all places. So what has all of this to do with creative schools? That is a very good question.

When he was a boy, the headteacher of his school called him into his office and said to him, "Gordon, you are no good at English and your Maths are poor. You're not very sporty, but you have some real talent for Art. That empty classroom at the end of the corridor is now your studio, so you are going to be painting and drawing all day and you will not be going to your other lessons. We are going to put on an exhibition of your artwork at the end of the term."

Well, Gordon Beningfield never was any good at Mathematics and that is why he employed an accountant. He could read and sign his name, but his English was not up to much and that is why he had a secretary. He also had a rather nice Rolls-Royce and his books (and his paintings) sold all over the world.

Talleyrand said that war is too important to be left to the military men. Perhaps education is too important to be left to the teachers (and to the politicians).