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Parenting: the Balance and Philosophy of Trust in Education
Trust as an unquestioning attitude
The joys of parenting — they are many and varied.
One minute, these small squishy humans are toddling around at home, with our influence as their main source of guidance. The next minute, they’re spending upwards of 30 hours a week surrounded by dozens of other squishy humans, all operating under the control of another adult — a teacher — who you’ve barely met.
As a parent, your choices here are limited. Short of strapping a Go-Pro to your child’s head, there is an extent to which you need to trust the teachers — and the other children — with the care and nurture of your child.
After a while, and once we get over the ‘bump’ of handing over our children into this environment, that might start to become second nature. But as they get older — or, at least, as ours got older — the stakes seem to start getting higher again. Once they hit the middle of secondary education and formal exams start to loom large, the world starts to look quite black and white.
We know that formal educational qualifications can make a difference to and later in life. We also know that access to things like a University education — where you might get to go, and what you get…
