To do exactly that, we welcome Ross Hunter to the studio. Ross has worked as a geography teacher in some well-known independent schools in the UK before becoming a headmaster and founding a series of private schools in Russia and China. Ross is now the interim headmaster of The English Science and IT School in Moscow.
To the question of whether or not schools encourage children to specialize too early, Ross says that the key thing is to have choice. “…I think for most students, by the time they get to around 16, they know where their strengths are, and it is common to start knocking off the odd subject area that is going nowhere.” Host John Harrison says that nevertheless, there are many people who feel that they were encouraged to drop certain subjects by parents and/or teachers too early, and that they would have been better off waiting for a year or two. A discussion ensues whether it is beneficial for very gifted children to study subjects which are far removed from the subject of their main talent. Ross says that most schools, and not only independent schools, will approach this subject with a certain amount of flexibility.
The situation in China is briefly discussed; where children may be being forced into getting good grades in certain subjects regardless of the child’s natural abilities. Ross answers that “that can happen in any system. There are a variety of terms for over ambitious parents, ‘helicopter parents’ is one, ‘car park mafia’ is a phrase that we sometimes use. That’s not to do with the school system, that’s to do with unrealistic expectations from parents. …What is perhaps interesting is the spread of UK-type schools across the globe and the determination that children are equipped with a practical and flexible skill set rather than a quantum of knowledge. …A lot of East European and Asian families have decided that boning up ever larger amounts of information to regurgitate doesn’t make for healthy university life.”
Discussion of the importance of a balanced education is discussed in the second half of the program. “Opinion without proper factual knowledge is vacuous, dangerous and easily manipulated. Young people are starting to realise that they have been let down by the older political classes, and that they need to step up and take responsibility. That needs to be on the basis of sound knowledge. …If you shy away from a good grounding in the scientific world, you end up with children who are prone to absurd conspiracy theories, whether its denying that the Apollo missions actually got to the moon, or the patently obvious changes in the climate… it is only poorly educated people who are denied the chance to see the obvious for themselves with some fairly worrying consequences as we’ve seen this last week or so. …If you descend to the level where you deny knowledge and resort to who can shout propaganda more successfully, then you do not end up with a healthy democracy, as is the case in North America and to a certain extent North Western Europe.”
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