Covid could cost children £350bn in earnings due to lost learning?

According to this article the Institute for Fiscal Studies claims that Covid could cost children £350bn in earnings due to lost learning.  The article says: 

The IFS estimates that such a substantial loss of learning is likely to be followed by lower skills and qualifications for children at school during the pandemic, resulting in permanently lower incomes during their careers.

What absolute nonsense.  All school kids from 4 to 18 will have lost perhaps a year or so of schooling.  Are employers not going to employ any of them?  Just employ older people instead?    How often do people use matrices or calculus or know about fronted adverbials, or utilise their knowledge of trilobites and igneous rocks?  Let's face it, there's precious little that kids learn that will translate or be useful to their careers. What employers should be interested in are peoples' skills for the job and how hard they will work.  The former will be acquired from experience, not having a load of irrelevant knowledge in their heads. 

Oh yes, and I'm sure most adults won't have retained the vast majority of stuff they learnt at school anyway.  Who knows what matrices are?

The alleged deleterious effect of the virus on education

From here.

Children’s commissioner for England, Anne Longfield, said:

"children had made a huge sacrifice during the pandemic"

A huge sacrifice not having to attend school and having a 4 month holiday? 😮😄 Yeah, and black is now white.

She also said:

“The government needs to be bold ... to make sure no child is left behind. If not, they risk losing a generation for good. The stakes are simply that high”

Does she mean like all the ones that leave school who think 1/3 divided by a 1/9 equals 1/27, who think "your" means "you are", lose is spelt loose, people get hung not hanged etc? Not to mention being brainwashed into subscribing to preposterous beliefs like colours, sounds and smells don't exist out there but are creations of the mind etc.

Grammar Schools

In the UK, up until the 1970's, we had both what are called Grammar schools and Secondary Modern schools that children attended from the ages of 11-16 years old.  Those who passed a test called the 11+ attended the Grammar schools, the rest attended the Secondary Modern schools.  I believe it was only around 20-25% of children went to Grammar school.  

From the following article, the author Allison Pearson says:

I’m spitting mad. For 40 years, since the 1976 Education Act compelled local authorities to introduce comprehensive education, we have had to put up with the nonsense that grammar schools are evil and that a kid like Adam will do as well in an average comp as a child in a select pool of motivated high achievers. Well, he won’t. Far too often, such a child will drown. For four shameful decades, our country has sunk down the international education league tables, social mobility has stalled and hundreds of thousands of our brightest children have been betrayed.

...

By contrast, if you’re a brainy British kid who could seriously do with being plucked from their background, selection is a dirty word.

By "brainy" I assume she means intelligent.  Although intelligence might be a pre-requisite for passing the test, it'll obviously involve more than that.  A child who rarely listens in class or/and who has no interest in school and the knowledge it can impart (myself for example) will be highly unlikely to pass such a test, no matter how intelligent they are.    

But I agree with the author that an intelligent child won't generally do as well in a secondary modern. Indeed, I think that most people will agree that grammar schools are better in terms of instilling an education.  Presumably very few think of them as being "evil".  The problem is that their existence necessitates the existence of secondary modern schools, which will be worse than comprehensives (no selection at 11 years old, I attended such a Comprehensive school).

Another issue is that I doubt that one's education actually increases one's intelligence, at least not in one's innate capacity to understand various issues.

Note I'm not saying I'm opposed to grammar schools -- I don't know whether I am or not. But to simply focus on how great grammar schools are and ignore how poor secondary modern schools were, is not to provide an impartial view.

Remote Learning

According to this article not everyone hates remote learning. I emphatically don't.  To tell the truth, the vast majority of my knowledge comes from reading books. With reading you can reread something if you don't understand it. Have music on in background. Have breaks whenever you like.  But listening to people requires constant attention, and most stuff taught at school was utterly dreary.  This made it beyond my ability to pay attention and I just switched off and started daydreaming. Indeed, most days, before the age of around 13 years old, I literally learnt nothing from one day to the next. This partially explains my perplexity when people bang on about how important school is.

I really hated school.  I resent all my childhood being wasted by being forced to go there.  

At infants

I remember when I was in the infants (about 5 or 6 years old) the teacher asking me to work out something or other (can't remember what). I kept saying I can't. I can't do it! She said there's no such word as can't! So I replied I cannot do it. The look of exasperation on her face was a picture! But I didn't understand why at the time and for some time afterwards I never used the word "can't" but said cannot instead.

Teaching Philosophy

From here:

The importance of teaching philosophy in schools cannot be underestimated. In a world where most of humanity is running on the treadmill with the blinders on, it is paramount that we re-evaluate our own perspectives from time to time, and look at the big picture.

People thinking too much for themselves might indeed be disruptive to society as a whole?

Personally I think teaching children to be able to think for themselves sounds like a very important element of what education ought to be about. And I do get concerned that people have this propensity to simply repeat things as if it is blindingly obvious and anyone who questions something is a fool.

School and Homework

I read with interest this question on quora by someone regarding the excessive amount of homework children are required to do. It reads:

My oldest child is in 5th grade, and the burden of daily homework is not yet a disaster. But I see parents and children around us struggling with the daily routine and with deciphering why, exactly, is it necessary for us to see our children through this daily torment of mostly rote memorization. I want my children to succeed. I want them to have a future full of opportunities. I understand that good grades are a requirement (though I wish they weren't as much). But I can't see why it is necessary for us as a society to have teenagers spend 4 hours a day doing homework, including weekends. Don't they deserve a childhood? This article in The Atlantic triggered the question: My Daughter’s Homework Is Killing Me. It seems that while there has been widespread panic about American students’ falling behind their peers in Singapore, Shanghai, Helsinki, and everywhere else in science and mathematics, the length of the school day is about the same. The school year hasn’t been extended. Student-teacher ratios don’t seem to have changed much. No, our children are going to catch up with those East Asian kids on their own damn time. Every parent I know in New York City comments on how much homework their children have. These lamentations are a ritual whenever we are gathered around kitchen islands talking about our kids’ schools.

Homework is a good idea in principle. It allows children to consolidate what they've learnt (or in my case learn it in the first place since I never listened in class). But I certainly don't regard it as a good idea to do it *in addition* to attending school 30 hours a week. My opinion is that children should only attend school in the mornings. In which case a moderate amount of homework would be desirable. I very rarely did any homework when I used to go to school. It was depressing enough attending school without doing homework too! My advice to children would be to simply point blank refuse to do any. They should politely say to teachers, "no sir I have not done my homework, it is bad enough being forced to attend school during the daytime hours without my evenings being robbed too. Childhood should primarily be about playing, not work". Admittedly I didn't used to say that. I used to say "I forgot sir". Also see my blog entries: Mathematics, Education and School School and Education

Mathematics, Education and School

I have just started watching a TV programme about peoples' numerical skills in the UK. It claims that around half the adult population has the mathematics ability of a primary school child (ages 5-11 I think).  So if half of the population has learnt nothing about maths from 11 onwards, then it seems to follow that no purpose was served in them attending maths classes from the age 11 onwards.  At least not in terms of their education.

This seems to me to be a deplorable situation when we consider that mathematics is the second most important skill that we should acquire at school; the most important of course being English Language. There again many peoples' English language skills are also equally abysmal and they don't seem to have learnt much in this subject after 11 years old either.

Yet people harp on about how incredibly important school is and claim it's disadvantageous for a child even if he or she misses a single day. Well, if we are to believe this statistic, then at least for half of us this doesn't appear to be true.

Consider also that apart from holidays children are required to attend school 5 days a week from 9am-4pm (in my day, might be 9-3 now?). It seems to me that to a significant degree we are robbed of our childhood and in engaging in childhood pleasures such as playing, or reading, or doing any one of innumerable pleasurable things. Instead we are compelled to sit in classrooms where a significant proportion of us learn very little and are presumably bored to tears. To rub it in further UK Government ministers keep proposing that children should attend school at an earlier and earlier age, and do more homework!

Although this might sound surprising to many, I actually regret not playing truant in my school days. I learnt next to nothing before the age of around 14.  In all honestly being compelled to attend school up to the age of 14 was a lamentable disgraceful waste of my childhood.

It seems to me there's something really seriously wrong with the whole system. I've asked many people what a 1/3 divided by a 1/9 equals.   A good majority of people give me the wrong answer -- most often 1/27.  This suggests that they either do not understand what a fraction is, do not understand what "divide" means, or quite possibly do not understand what either word means.  The answer is of course 3.  1/3 divided by a 1/9 means how many times does 1/9 go into 1/3.  Since 3/9 is another way of expressing 1/3, then the answer is 3.

And many people use "your" rather than "you're", loose rather than lose, "noone" rather than "no one", there instead of their or they're.  The list goes on and on.  I should hasten to add that my grammatical skills are not particular impressive, but the good majority of people have even worse skills in this area.


I don't know the methods by which children have been taught in recent years.  But clearly -- at least for mathematics and English language -- a serious rethink in how children are taught these subjects is in order.  It also seems to me that reducing the hours we attend school might be a good idea -- perhaps attending 9am- 12pm for 5 days a week.  It frees up more time for children to pursue activities of their own choosing, and possibly might ignite a greater interest, and hence a greater understanding in the subjects being taught if  they are not being continually exposed to the same subject matter.  I'm interested in the philosophy of mind, but if I were compelled to think and write about it for hours every day, then that flame of interest might well be in danger of diminishing. 

School and Education

I read the following article a few days ago: School is a prison — and damaging our kids It says:

The blueprint still used for today’s schools was developed during the Protestant Reformation, when schools were created to teach children to read the Bible, to believe scripture without questioning it, and to obey authority figures without questioning them. The early founders of schools were quite clear about this in their writings. The idea that schools might be places for nurturing critical thought, creativity, self-initiative or ability to learn on one’s own — the kinds of skills most needed for success in today’s economy — was the furthest thing from their minds.

So why on earth are schools still like this? I sent off the following email a few days ago to "the Rt Hon Nicky Morgan MP" the education secretary of the UK Government. I haven't yet received a reply and I strongly suspect I won't:

Hello Nicky,

Might I suggest that the Government needs to radically change the nature of school and how it attempts to impart knowledge? Many people seem to have learnt very little at school and lack basic grammatical and numerical skills. Others just get "brainwashed" into an unthinking passive acquiescence of the prevailing beliefs of the western way of thinking.

    If after being taught maths and English for 11 years between the ages of 5 and 16 people do not know the answer to a question such as what is 1/3 divided by 1/9, or understand what a decimal point is, or understand the difference been your and you're, and loose and lose, then there's something fundamentally wrong with the whole way they're being taught. Trying to make children reach targets and cramming in information for exams doesn't seem to me to be the best way to foster either enthusiasm, interest or an understanding of the subject matter. They'll be unhappy, it robs them of the spare time of their childhood, and possibly creates an antipathy towards education.

    A teacher needs to engage, use an enthusiastic tone of voice, attempt to show the real world applications of the knowledge s/he imparts. But, most importantly of all, pupils need to be divided in 2's and 3's to discuss some problem or issue, and think of solutions.

    Also it is imperative that philosophical topics are introduced at a very early age (that is if we are interested in education per se rather than merely education for the purpose of a specific vocation). Starting to teach children the ability to think for themselves from primary school onwards, to question received opinion etc would be of immeasurable benefit in initiating the utilization of their innate intellectual capacities as adults.

Got into trouble at School!

I remember when I was at school. It was something like 1977. The queen was passing through the area and the pupils had the option of staying off school for the day in order to go and see her. So obviously I said I wanted to see her, but instead stayed at home reading Enid Blyton books all day. One of my friends spragged on me to our registration teacher, and I got into trouble!! :O