Learning v Compliance

In RE Y5 are focusing on sacred texts. This week we had a discussion about what we would put into a book that we would use to guide us through our lives.

As well as words of wisdom from people that they respected, the children suggested they would includes accounts of important events in their lives or their family histories, things they’d already learned from, quotes from books, films and tv that inspired them.

They also said they’d include sing lyrics. I thought they’d suggest some of the songs we find particularly inspiring at school, such as Lin Marsh’s Believe and Howard Goodall’s Refuge (both from Youth Music’s Singbook and available on the Sing Up site), but their suggestions were much more wide ranging and included Jesse J’s Price Tag and Chemical Brothers’ Welcome to the Black Parade.

I’m not convinced my third year junior class way back in the 80s would have had that depth of thinking. I’d like to think the current emphasis on developing thinking learners rather than compliant pupils is having a positive effect that those responsible for education policy in the government couldn’t begin to comprehend.

Or maybe they do understand it all too well and it is exactly this independence of thought that they are trying to stifle…