Ken Boston, chief executive of the Qualifications and Curriculum authority, asks whether it is better for children to be taught about the battle of Malplaquet or how to cook; the battle of the Nile or managing a mortgage.
It seems perverse to encourage another generation to succumb to the dementia of British property prices, so it could be argued that the less those leaving school know about mortgages the better.
As for cooking, will the syllabus cover washing up the dishes afterwards? Anyway it must be a long time since any child studied the battles of the Nile and Malplaquet especially as Henry VIII and Hitler were not participants in either conflict.
What my children have been studying will become clearer when the school reports arrive. I always enjoy the section devoted to sport. Curious images were conjured up by the news conveyed in my son’s report last term that his rugby had improved by ‘leaps and bounds’. And six years on I remain baffled by his games teacher’s stern admonition that his catching skills required much attention because ‘he will find it an important social skill in later life’.
A Punch cartoon I find particularly sympathetic is by Roger Pettiward who signed his humorous drawings ‘Paul Crum’. He died at Dieppe in 1942. Two men are pictured in their club. One leans forward confidentially and enquires, ‘Would it interest you to see my son’s report?’
His companion replies, ‘No’.
It is reasonable to be fond of one’s own children even if they spend the whole summer in the bedroom, curtains drawn and lights blazing. It is not reasonable to expect anyone else to be even remotely interested in them.