I introduce this blog with a message about education and learning. We are in deep trouble all over the Western cultural sphere. Self-anointed priests of educational novelty and "reform" have had a full generation's time in power in too many (most) West European countries.
Most of you who read this have been in their care and I'm afraid you never knew the difference between what you got and the education you could have had. These wayward idealists are now in positions at the top of the educational establishments; hence just a few potshots at them will not work. As OECD report upon report documents their failures, politicians still seek their advice for the education of the future. Their targets have been the classical education standards underpinning "bourgeois society", and they are not about to give up this close to their goal.
By now, "bourgeois society" is long gone. Quality education, however, must be rebuilt. Formal education is indispensable to the societies we live in, and must be brought back to its former standards. The technology we are so proud of is dependent on that, and so are the political systems we have allowed to get watered down to he point of irresponsibility.
Mass immigration from cultures outside our own sphere is adding its own complications. Additional languages are central to what needs to be checked. The problem is nothing new - but the urgency is. Look to Finland for the solution. Look to Spain - or for that matter Norway - and their language education policies for examples of wasted resources.
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