State provision and the database state

I think we are probably heading, as a society, for a pretty major decision about our relationship to the state.  As things stand, the database state is starting to be rolled out and there may still be an opportunity to roll it back. Don't believe me? take a look at this:

This 21st century school system, which is beginning to develop, will look and feel very different to the one we have been used to. It will be one in which, to achieve their core mission of excellent teaching and learning, schools look beyond traditional boundaries, are much more outward-facing, working in closer partnership with children, young people and parents; other schools, colleges, learning providers and universities; other children’s services; the third sector, the private sector and employers; and the local authority and its Children’s Trust partners.

Still with me? Read on...

[W]e will further incentivise co-location of wider children’s services on school sites. Better use of the opportunities provided by modern technology will enhance all of the dimensions of a world-class education system.

Do you see where this leads? In the not-so-very-distant future, you will pack little Jonny or little Jill off to school and you will be handing them over to a surrogate parent. Suddenly real parents will start to look rather peripheral to their children's upbringing. In this brave new world, every aspect of their lives will be interfered with by the school: they will be inspected by social services, they will be examined by doctors and nurses and dentists and opticians and child welfare officers and the NSPCC, every detail being written down and recorded on the database from where it can never be removed. Your children will grow up the state knowing everything about them. The school will become the foundation upon which the database state will be built.

This is why state provision of anything is dangerous. So terribly, terribly dangerous.

This is why we must privatise the schools.

The quotes are from here, which I found on a HomeEd Facebook site.

Comments

[Angry Exile]

Oh yes, but privatizing is easier said than done. The teaching unions would cheerfully boil you in oil just for suggesting it, and since Her Maj's Opposition And Likely Next Government seem to have no position apart from Labour have been crap you probably can't rely on them to do the necessary demolition job. If you can't afford an independent school then Home Ed seems to be the only option in the short term other than avoiding the whole miserable minefield altogether by way of contraception.

[Bishop Hill]

Who knows what the Tories' position is? Modern politics doesn't allow opposition parties to reveal their platform to the electorate beforehand. Perhaps Cameron will be radical. Then again, perhaps not.

Sometime though, someone has to take on the unions.

[RenegadeParent]

Agreed. On the one hand, joined up working is a concept that is difficult to argue rationally against, because most people are so emotive and irrational ("What? You think it's OK for those poor children to slip through the net and be abused?") But on the other hand , the blurring of education and welfare is a very, very dangerous path to go down.

For starters, the two cultures are utterly different and this kind of working often leads to even more confusion around responsibilities and accountability than is usual even for the public sector. This obvioulsy puts children at risk. Secondly, if such a "surrogate parent "system takes shape, parents (especially the more vulnerable) have no incentive to assume full responsibility for their child and engage with either their education or their welfare adequately. Thirdly, if children themselves are brought up in such a removed and artificial setting, they have no way of learning about individuality, strong familial relationships, responsibilities and accountability either. This is IN NO WAY what survival and growth in the 21st century is going to be about.

For "joined up working" substitute "infantilisation of the general public". It is an issue that affects us all, whether we have children or not.

Lisa

[TinCity]

Very relevent...http://www.beretta-online.com/wordpress/index.php/facism-is-alive-and-well-in-germany/

we don't need you, we already have your children.

[Angry Exile]

TinCity, my gob is smacked and my flabber is ghasted.

[Bishop Hill]

Angry Exile

Yes, there are a number of homeschooling German families living in the UK, refugees from persecution in their own country.

[Monkey63]

This book explains it all:
http://www.amazon.com/Whisperers-Private-Life-Stalins-Russia/dp/0805074619

[Jessica22tN]

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