Malcolm McLean's Blog: Faith schools and Catholic culture. - Posts Tagged "t-levels"
T-levels
The latest wheeze is T-levels. A-levels are academic, T-levels will be technical or vocational. But listen to the lady who is promoting them.
Yuck. T-level are for those who aren't clever enough for A-levels. Let's get that straight. If you're clever enough for academic work then, unless you are unusually lazy, do it. You can always go into something technical later. But plenty of children aren't clever enough for A-levels, T-level are not therefore a bad idea.
But if we pretend that they're about "that love of learning" or "skills in scholarship at a high level" then the T-level can only disappoint. They're courses in, mainly, routine technical jobs like car maintenance (but not automotive engineering) , building trades (but not architecture), office work (but not IT systems analysis). People do these jobs because they need a wage packet, they might prefer them to some of the obvious alternatives, but they seldom love them. The exception is arts and crafts, but it's hard to make a living from hand-made pottery, and the way in is often from academic courses. Arts and crafts can be a good hobby.
Don't be fooled by the DR Ogdens of this world. There is a subject that anyone can do, and that interests everybody, and which you don't have to get a good mark in to succeed at. That's religious studies.
Dr Ogden’s passion for the changes on the educational horizon is palpable: “It’s about an education that, particularly post-16, is able to inspire and motivate and equip young people,” she says. “It’s about how you are able to then use that love of learning - and those skills in the scholarship of your subject at a high level - to go on and do something great in the world. It is about the contribution that you can make back to community, back to society.”
Yuck. T-level are for those who aren't clever enough for A-levels. Let's get that straight. If you're clever enough for academic work then, unless you are unusually lazy, do it. You can always go into something technical later. But plenty of children aren't clever enough for A-levels, T-level are not therefore a bad idea.
But if we pretend that they're about "that love of learning" or "skills in scholarship at a high level" then the T-level can only disappoint. They're courses in, mainly, routine technical jobs like car maintenance (but not automotive engineering) , building trades (but not architecture), office work (but not IT systems analysis). People do these jobs because they need a wage packet, they might prefer them to some of the obvious alternatives, but they seldom love them. The exception is arts and crafts, but it's hard to make a living from hand-made pottery, and the way in is often from academic courses. Arts and crafts can be a good hobby.
Don't be fooled by the DR Ogdens of this world. There is a subject that anyone can do, and that interests everybody, and which you don't have to get a good mark in to succeed at. That's religious studies.
Faith schools and Catholic culture.
The blog deals mainly with my book Adam and Abagail Go to St Tom's. Like many British Catholic boarding schools, St Tom's is a monastic school. I intend to deal with issues concerning education, and h
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