I caught a little of the Education Secretary's speech to the Conservative Party Conference last night.
Michael Gove seemed to be really having a go at teachers and - I know several teachers who are feeling the pressure on the ground.
Hard working committed teachers feeling really horrible kind of pressure from above.
Ghandi comes to mind - when he was asked about his tough life
'What was the hardest thing you experienced?'
and he said
'The hard heartedness of the educated.'
One thing Gove said was his praise for Nick Gibb the Schools Minister who said the worst possible thing about education that me, not a formal educator - but an informal educator, and I quote it below::
What bothers me is Gove's education says that SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL learning is ghastly - not just not being 'in balance' with academic education.
Where I am coming from is that we need education of the head AND HEART.
My own interest in emotional intelligence is on informal education -education of the heart. I have seen so much disfunction and behaviour that I see a need for great emphasis on the inner not just the head.
Instead of bashing people we can love people into change - growth and development.
I believe it.
I see it happening.
I feel there is a strong case for helping children and adults to experience positive development in school and community-based programmes in social and emotional learning. Instead of bashing the welfare claimants we need to create opportunities to help them get off benefits into creative work and worthwhile lives.
Families, under pressure in so many parts of the UK, have few resources to bring to being successful parents and being able to model a life style which can be holistically, and financially, good for the soul too.
Parents are often not the best teachers so we need to supplement them in communities, helping children, and their parents, acquire life skills like self-awareness, emotional self-management, confidence and working together with others.
So often, too often, the Heart of a child - the social, spiritual and emotional,
are not even an afterthought in education and at home too.
All this impacts on the social and relationship skills for future life.
We all need Tools in our Life Toolbox in becoming a rounded whole person.
