Let's ask, what is the point of school?

If I had my time again as a child, I’d have asked myself and probably my teachers 'What is the point of school?' much more often. Not because I wanted to be mischievous, but because the answer wasn’t always clear. It still isn’t.

I suspect if you asked a group of teachers, parents and children this question, you’d get lots of different answers that span lots of areas. That in itself is strange given how much time children spend at school. The point of it should be crystal clear to everyone who is involved in that journey.

What is the point of school?

We often get asked this question at Role Models Luckily, we are very clear on our answer. We believe the purpose and point of school is to foster an environment in which children become interesting and interested. We love those two words. They define the kind of Role Models we hire, and they define our focus in supporting young children through their passions and talents and through the real life skills that we teach.

The more you support children and encourage them to follow their passions and interests, the more interesting they become. The more you can encourage them to learn the real skills of listening, empathy and teamwork for example, the more interested they become in other people and how they can impact their lives.

Much is written about standardised testing, the death of education as we know it and the rise of the machine. All issues that are worthy of more column inches than I have here. They are, however, all underpinned by something much more fundamental and important. How do we give our children the confidence and resilience to make their difference in the world and how do we support them to become as curious, as empathetic and as collaborative as possible? After all, these are the skills that all employers want to see.

So, interesting and interested are words that are etched into our company’s DNA. They should be etched into every school’s DNA and they should be pinned on every parent’s fridge in the country. If we can all help develop a generation of interesting and interested children, the world is going to be a better place. Hands up who wants that?

If you’d like to find out more about our Life Skills Courses, then please click here