I feel on thin ice when I talk about education. What do I know? While it is highly anecdotal but the school system seems to be constraining students when it comes to innovation. My brothers are both academics. They both lecture and are both working on their Phds. Perhaps it's some attempt to balance the universe because I have no formal education!
Anyway, Dom's students often seem to have had the hunger knocked out of them by the time they get to him. Many seem to have long since lost their childish thirst for knowledge and are preoccupied with knowing simply how to get the grades. There is little spirit of enquiry and many have lost the passion to learn for learning's own sake.
Saul Klein, the Index Ventures VC and founder of Seedcamp summed it up nicely.
“The brightest kids, the entrepreneurs and the innovators have always taught themselves what they need to know outside of the education system. We need dedicated time where students are free to follow what drives them.”
Something like this has existed since 2008. The Extended Project Qualification (EPQ). At a recent business talk I addressed an audience of 75 people - mainly from businesses but some from universities. Only two people had hear about EPQs, one teacher and one student who had just completed an EPQ. Over 30,000 six formers submitted EPQs in 2013, nearly as many that took A level physics, but the qualification is only offered at a limited number of schools.
It sets aside 120 hours of work on a project of the student’s choosing. It has been praised by universities for developing independent research skills, bridging the gap between higher and further education. However, from my limited research it seems that six forms have constrained EPQs to academic dissertations which kind of misses the point doesn't it? The student who attended my talk did her EPQ by writing a thesis on 19th century french politics. Really, was that of the student's choosing?
By pursuing their own ideas, students will learn how to plan a project, anticipate challenges, take criticism, take risks, fail and then pick themselves up and try again. Perhaps we should make EPQs available to all teenagers and perhaps 6 forms ought not to constrain them?
