The purpose of education

This weekend we (Louise was a trooper and came to see what the fuss was about) went to Sheffield on a Saturday for the first Purpos/ed face-to-face event.

The event was kick started by Andy Stewart and Doug Belshaw, two folk that I have a lot of time for.

The format was to meet folk for 4hrs and have an open discussion on the purpose of education. Between the few anchoring talks there were a number of  3min lightening talks picked at random that were all very diverse and a welcome change to traditional long sessions.

Bringing Louise along was the best thing I could have done as it was refreshing to hear the voice of a non-educational type (she works for a Mental health charity), who is still greatly affected by education – many of her client base have missed parts or all of school. It is easy to forget who the ‘people’ are and so next time I strongly urge everybody to bring along a friend or family member.

The event also got me thinking about the education my family has undertaken and the paths we took and now follow today. Four different brothers with four unique tales of success, indifference, compromise, dreams and mistakes – yet all very happy! I hope to ask them about what they feel the purpose of education is and maybe bring then along next time.

I am also more convinced that by informal education I can safely chuck lots of non-academic subjects into the pot.

It was also nice to meet new faces and catch up with great folk like Brian Kelly and Steve Boneham.

Oh and the printed book of a collection of 500 words was an amazing surprise… who do I give it to next?

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