The Richard Gerver Blog

I am currently on a bit of a world tour; on Saturday I was privileged to speak at the inaugural Global Education Forum in Madrid…there were over 1000 Spanish educators present and thousands taking the event by live stream around the world… They all share the same passion and vision for the future of their students and they all share a clear and profound concern about the over prescriptive and outcomes dominated system they are told to deliver… truth is, I could have been speaking to any teacher in any country of the world. education, as it stands, is failing to prepare our children for the future, we know this, governments know this, but they continue to do nothing about it; they’ve commissioned reports, tinkered around the edges and launched big noise policies at our expense, but what has changed? I mean really changed? Same subjects and subject hierarchies, same timetables, same exams and test obsessed cultures; and there we are; the world keeps turning, our kids get older and the system is still the system. The frustration in the profession is extraordinary; we know what’s wrong and we know what to do yet the status quo remains… Is it the fault of Governments or the people who elect them? The Public, the parents of our future, want the best for their children; of course they do, we all do… I want my two kids to live long, happy and rewarding lives, I want my kids to be successful and satisfied in all that they do and like all parents, I know that a successful education lies at the heart of that… The problem is that for most parents they can only judge what’s right based on their own experience of education; good or bad, we are framed by our own experiences, as a result, we all think we know what good education looks like, truth is, we know what good education used to look like. life’s paradigm has shifted and with it the demands facing the next generation… We can no longer afford to look to the past to find answers for tomorrow and as a result, more than ever we need to trust educators, whose professional understanding and passion will lead our children into a successful tomorrow; we must also realise that in the new paradigm, we are all educators and that the future lies in the hands of society beyond the marble halls of political power; politics is a slow and short term beast which cannot keep pace with the educational needs of our young; if we are to really build a future for our children that will ensure their happiness, safety and prosperity we need to carry the debate about the future of learning to the wider community so that they can demand that the future of education policy is in the right hands…

So we have Big Dave’s big idea… The Big Society, the Government’s very own CSR policy! The way he tells it, this is new and a personal passion… The truth is the country is filled with Big Society people who have small voices… Extraordinary people who show amazing levels of social entrepreneurship and responsibility. I was lucky enough to meet the founders of The Enthusiasm Trust in Derby recently; a couple of guys who looked at there community and decided something had to be done to create a constructive environment for it’s troubled youth…they did something and created the trust, no fuss, no bother…and what a difference they have made! www.enthusiasm.org.uk

The point is that there have always been people at the heart of our communities who have rolled up their sleeves to make a difference… We need to recognise them, support them, fund them and follow their lead…

In the next couple of weeks I will be starting my new podcast series available right here on richardgerver.com. I will be dealing with all issues education; talking to people all over the world from various walks of life… Please join me and listen in… Also please email or post questions you’d like me to ask my various guests. In the next few weeks I will be podcasting from Pakistan, Spain, Brazil and the US… It’s time to start “talking education!”

This is a test of the new podcasting facility on this site. The audio here is from a 2008 London Business Forum event, ‘Education, Education, Education’.

 Education, Education, Education [5:35m]: Play Now | Play in Popup