wasn't sure whether to join in this thread or not but hey ho, here goes... (*essay alert* - sorry for the length of this post!)

Firstly I agree that there are some things going on in todays education system that are very wrong. The pressure that teachers are under to jump through a different set of hoops every 5 minutes, the lack of mutual respect between parents/kids/teachers/management (in all directions!), the constant exams and pressure to perform and for schools to do well in league tables.

However, I would dispute that it is either the worst that it's ever been or that it is all the fault of politicians and civil servants.

Some aspects of education are just as good as they've ever been. That's not to say they're perfect, but we don't live in a perfect world. I know quite a few teachers (both primary and secondary) and some of the things they do with their classes sound either remarkably similar to stuff I was doing as a pupil 25 years ago, or sound better and more fun. There are plenty of happy well adjusted kids out there who are doing just fine.

Some of the things that make school hell for some kids & teachers are seemingly a result of the way some families operate in the current society (for example, lots of bullying behaviour either from parents to kids, parents to teachers, or kids to other kids) and while it is imho very wrong for any child to have to suffer the effects of that, I think it is unfair of society & the media & us on mudcat to be laying the blame squarely with 'the education system'. Yes it is wrong that kids are not treated as individuals and are not listened to. Yes it is wrong that some kids with problems don't get what they need to become happy people, and in the meantime make their school mates & teachers lives a misery. But how can we expect schools to pick up and fix all the problems that some families have?

Governments - and that is any government, not a particular party - have to operate within the law and within the budget. Civil servants and government departments do on the whole try and deliver the best they can within the constraints, and are not usually the malicious, petty minded or inept individuals that the media often portrays them as. While completely overhauling the way that schools operate and e.g. having much smaller class sizes and better paid happier teachers who didn't have to take work home because they were given sufficient prep time during school hours to do what needs to be done sound like sane solutions, the question remains of who would pay for it. Funny how the people who are first to criticise a government for getting things wrong are also often the first to choose not to re-elect them if taxes have had to go up to pay for change and more expensive systems.

I'm not really offering a solution here. I just think we all need to be a little more honest with ourselves about taking joint responsibility for where things are at, and about finding solutions that do work ok for our own kids. In my experience, most kids who are happy and well adjusted in their home life can cope with a less than perfect school life, and for those who can't because something is going particularly wrong at their school, the important thing is to be there for the child, and consider as many options (up to & including home schooling) as needed to find something that makes life ok for the individual child.

For kids who are not happy and well adjusted in their home life, I think there is little a school can do to fix fundamental problems and there should just be as much support available as possible from teachers, teaching assistants and if needs be social workers etc to try and help the whole family.