Monday 23 August 2010

Todays GCSE results

The publication of GCSE results today seems to me to be a moment for reflecting upon what these examinations mean to home educating families. One often sees things written by parents who are educating their own children that minimise the importance of GCSEs and suggest that they are hardly worth having, so devalued have they become by so-called 'grade inflation'. This strikes me as a neat excuse for indolence; why should we bother with them, they aren't really worth anything anyway? The truth is that GCSEs are becoming ever more important. Indeed, without them young people face almost insurmountable problems in their future lives.

Let us begin by looking at an article from today's Daily Telegraph:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/7961011/University-candidates-selected-on-their-GCSE-results.html


This article suggests that many universities now use GCSEs to weed out those candidates whom they feel are not really worth bothering with. In other words, they first select those with a string of As and A*s and then chuck out the rest. This process is done regardless of the A levels, OU credits or International Baccalaureate scores. In short: no GCSEs, no consideration. With the squeeze on places at university, this is likely to be even more the case this year and for the foreseeable future. Any young person who wishes to take his pick of universities had better have a clutch of As and A*s at GCSE. Otherwise, he will be restricted to the less prestigious universities or indeed none at all the way things are this year. So for higher education GCSEs are, as I have been saying for years, absolutely vital.

Of course, not everybody wishes to go into higher education. Some young people wish to get jobs at sixteen or eighteen. Here again, the lack of GCSEs is likely to prove a grave disadvantage to them. In its Survey of Employers, published by the Learning and Skills Council in 2006, many employers revealed that they would not even consider giving an interview to a teenager without any GCSEs at all. In fact GCSEs were of huge importance to the potential employers in deciding who they would take. In employment too, as well as in higher education, the lack of GCSEs is a serious handicap for any young person. With rising unemployment, this too will tend to make the GCSEs which an applicant has of crucial importance.

There were two reasons why it seemed to me a wise move to ensure that my daughter had a string of A* GCSEs. Firstly, the information contained in the specifications for these examinations is very useful in itself. Rather than devise a curriculum of my own, the biology, chemistry and physics International GCSE specifications already had in outline the scientific knowledge which a reasonably well educated person should have at her disposal. From that point of view they were valuable for their own sake. They are also useful for making sure that a young person has as many choices as possible in life. My daughter hopes to apply to a Russell Group university. For this, at least six A* GCSEs are indispensable. If, on the other hand, she wished to start work at once, then eight A* GCSEs in academic subjects would impress any potential employer. It is a win-win situation, no matter what she chooses to do. All that we have done is ensure that she has as many options as possible for her future life.

Failing to take all those GCSEs would have curtailed her choices. To give one example. She hopes to apply, as I said, to universities in the Russell Group. The fact that she has been to two summer schools this year, one at Oxford and one at Cambridge universities, will be a great help in this; just what looks good on the personal statement. However, to get on those summer schools in the first place, it was necessary to have a string of A*s. Without them, no summer school.

In his judgement in the case of R v Secretary of State for education, ex Parte Talmud Torah Machzikei Hadass School Trust in 1985, Mr Justice Woolf defined a suitable education as one which:

Primarily equips a child for life within the community of which he is a
member, rather than the way of life in the country as a whole, as long as
it does not foreclose the child's options in later years to adopt some
other form of life if he wishes to do so.

It seems to me that by failing to arrange for their children to sit and take GCSEs, many home educating parents are indeed taking an action which will 'foreclose the child's options in later years to adopt some other form of life if he wishes to do so'. Children are not really able to foresee the consequences of not studying for GCSEs and it is not fair to thrust the responsibility for such a serious decision with so far-reaching implications upon them. Few children probably read the Daily Telegraph and will not be aware that in several years time when they might wish to apply to university, that their lack of GCSEs might disqualify them before they have even sent in their UCAS form. As parents though, we know and we have the responsibility to see that their future prospects for either higher education or employment are not wantonly blighted in this way. That is what home education is for parents; a serious of duties and responsibilities to do the best for our children. Those who would shirk these duties by hiding behind some mythical 'right to home educate' and who seek to pass the buck to their children for serious decisions affecting their future life, should think very carefully about the consequences for those children.

36 comments:

  1. Webb says-Those who would shirk these duties by hiding behind some mythical 'right to home educate' and who seek to pass the buck to their children for serious decisions affecting their future life, should think very carefully about the consequences for those children.

    It is our legal right to home educate nothing will stand in the way of this right no one!
    Whats wrong with asking a child about decisions about his/her life? or are children just to be told what their should do?

    some professor was on sky news saying the GCSE are to easy!

    are you and your daughter still sulking that the children bill went down the drain!

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  2. Well, I am off this morning to collect all the exam results of our home ed group(and some module results for my youngest daughter) but then we are travelling diectly on holiday, so won't be back here to read others comments for a few days.

    Hmm, I am definately in favour of taking exams as a choice for most HE students - but I still think your tone is a bit extreme. In fact, it is probably the ones who have taken no exams at all who seem to be most easily settled in their choices. They (at least down here)know that they are going to have to start on foundation level courses, and are often the more "arty" types anyway, so were never interested in, for example, going of to college to study A level chemistry. They don't seem to have any aspirations to study at uni level, so I can't see they have suffered for their/their parents decisions.

    The ones who are in more difficulty are those who want to go to college to do a level 3 vocational course, but haven't managed to take quite enough GCSEs to be sure of getting in. I shall be collecting results for 2 such students today- both came out of school relatively late, have taken a few exams (at of course, some expense to their beleagured mothers) and probably won't quite make the grade. The issue is the nature of the courses they want to do and the young peoples experience themselves. I am sure in both cases they will be offered places on the equivalent foundation courses, but I think it is fair to say that these courses will be full of the very type of children their parents had removed them from school in order to avoid in the first place.

    So I am concerned - but I am not sure what the answer is; I should also add that I am fairly certain that the same young people wouldn't have managed to do much better had they remained in school either, because of their circumstances and terrible school experiences.

    In fact families whose children have never been to school or who come out in the primary years have plenty of time to make (I hope) sensible and balanced decisions about what they do about exams; it is those who withdraw their children in year 9 or later who have a much harder time trying to find their way.

    Waffling now, so shall go back to packing.....

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  3. Having a string of good qualifications is usually seen as giving someone more options. This isn't always the case.

    In the early 80s a friend of mine with a good economics degree, decided economics wasn't for him and got a job as a fireman, which he loved. In his spare time he set up a thriving window-cleaning business.

    A few years later, another friend, armed with a PhD in Geography from Cambridge, couldn't get a job. Any job. Desperate to earn a living, he tried applying for anything - shop assistant, garage forecourt attendant. What he found was that he was either inappropriately qualified, or overqualified. No one wanted to employ a petrol pump attendant who was likely to be intellectually intimidating, get bored and leave the minute a more challenging opportunity arose. In the end he worked, as a window-cleaner, for the fireman, until a more appropriate job came up.

    The idea that paper qualifications only open up opportunities and don't foreclose any, is inaccurate.

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  4. Oh well, that's my child's future down the drain then. He didn't get any A's or A*'s for all those IGCSE's I helped him with, just B's and C's.

    The silly sausage hopes to go to a reasonably good university and is about to start A Level courses to that end. I may as well tell him not to bother with A Levels at all and to ask about a job with the dustbin men. Maybe he can do an NVQ in Waste Management?

    Mrs Anon

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  5. I am simply pointing out the way things are going Mrs Anon. In other words this piece is descriptive and not prescriptive. Here is a bit from the telgraph's article:

    "Research by The Daily Telegraph found that Imperial College London’s faculty of medicine said applicants needed three As and two Bs in GCSE biology, chemistry, English language, mathematics and physics.

    Sheffield University’s medical school said students needed six As in GCSEs, while Kent said students needed five passes at C or above, including English, for all its courses"

    This trend, to demand As and A*s at GCSE has been common at places like Oxford and cambridge for years and is now spreading to other universities. I do not say that I think it a good thing, only that this is actually what is happening.

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  6. Simon said "Children are not really able to foresee the consequences of not studying for GCSEs "

    I do agree that children can't always see the consequences of their actions - in many ways, not just exams. That is why I am the sort of parent who makes for example ( back to these old issues) decisions about bedtimes/eating habits/teeth cleaning ... and so on. To be honest though, I do wonder how many home ed young people are the decision makers at all in the whole exam thing; they may have been involved in the process (didn't Shena say that when her daughter returned from Germany they realised together that her German was already beyond GCSE? hence the OU?) but few seem to have been the ones who said yes/no - the parents seem to have been hugely influential in the whole process!

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  7. Yes, I read the article and was actually reassured. Ds is is not hoping to study medicine at a Russell Group uni. He has other, specific plans. And I'm confident he'll be fine.

    The tone of your blog post however, was a tad over the top.

    If it is a trend, then it's sad. As the Eton Head said (I think), it seems to discriminate against late bloomers. I was one of those. I had poor O Level results, mediocre A Levels and yet went on to a good uni and got a good degree result. What swung it for me and uni entrance was the reference from my teachers at school who said my results didn't reflect my ability. Not sure how much weight that would have today when it seems to be all about the points.

    Mrs Anon

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  8. "the parents seem to have been hugely influential in the whole process!"

    This is absolutely true. You said Julie, 'but I still think your tone is a bit extreme.'. The point here is that I am reporting upon what is actually happening and at the same time explaining why I made the decisions which I did.

    A couple of years ago, many parents on the lists were claiming that GCSEs were finished and that there was no point in their children taking them because they were worthless anyway. Since then, more and more universities have, like Oxford, started using the GCSEs as a benchamark to decide whom they will choose. In fact GCSEs are now more important than they were two years ago, not less. As I said, not all children will wish to go into higher education, but without GCSEs they might not even get the option.

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  9. Mrs Anon said "The silly sausage hopes to go to a reasonably good university and is about to start A Level courses to that end"

    It is all a matter of which course and where. Looking at the news and the sorts of offers that some of the young people I know get for uni can be very depressing - they all seem to be offers such as AAB - and the students all seem to have got a lot of As at GCSE to start with. However all too often the candidates themselves seem to have only appied to highly competitive courses at well known unis; and few people seem to be worried about proper insurance offers (hence the numbers who end up in clearing with good results and no offers at all)

    If someone does very well at A level then their GCSEs will be less important unless they are applying for a well known uni or some thing like medicine. Don't despair Mrs A!

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  10. "The tone of your blog post however, was a tad over the top."

    If this is so, Mrs Anon, then I apologise. It is just that I can see so many parents making a decision which will have a terrible effect upon their children's future prospects. Of course I didn't mean to suggest for a moment that anybody without a dozen A*s might as well become a crossing sweeper! I think you probably know that.

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  11. "What swung it for me and uni entrance was the reference from my teachers at school who said my results didn't reflect my ability. Not sure how much weight that would have today when it seems to be all about the points."

    This is the whole point; the way things work now is grotesquely unfair against those who are late bloomers. These days, the universities might not even look at the teachers reference. they would see the GCSE results and make their decision based solely upon those. I agree, it is terrible, but nevertheless a trend which has been developing for some years.

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  12. "and few people seem to be worried about proper insurance offers "

    Good point indeed. I am still trying to bring my daughter to a realisation that the LSE is not really to be regarded as an insurance offer! I have a feeling that some of my snobbery in such matters might have rubbed off on her.....

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  13. Yes, in my day..... (oh dear) my 1st choice was Durham, and then my insurance offer was something like DDD from Hull or Newcastle, and then I even appied for a poly place from CCAT which was EE.... (I went to Durham). One of my tutees from this year (college candidates, not HE) has an insurance offer of AAB from Royal Holloway - hardly effective insurance!

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  14. Just to be sure that people are clear about this, I do not approve of the importance now being attached to GCSEs by universities. At my daughter's college there are bright young people who are doing really well at their A levels and who say things like, 'I didn't really bother much with my GCSEs, but I'm really working hard now.' What they don't realise is that their GCSE results will be haunting them, even if they get three As at A level. It is almost like the 11 plus. The amount of effort that a child puts in at fourteen or fifteen is likely to affect their lives for many years to come.

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  15. "Failing to take all those GCSEs would have curtailed her choices"

    I'm doing that by aiming for the British system. Not doing la maturità will curtail my son's choices. But then I don't want Italian university as a choice (cat fur ball noise, seven years of - read a book, vomit book on tutor, all at a massive cost, thanks but no thanks).

    Many choices we make to some extent cuts off other choices, it kind of depends if you are cutting off the choice because you think it is inappropirate or potentially a one way route to greater limitations than the other road you had in mind.

    I'm miffed to see the five "needed" GCSEs has gone up to six. In six years time will it be twenty GCSEs and 11 A levels ? God help my purse.

    I've already salted away an unbelievable amount of money for uni (and we aren't there yet, cos I'm sure EU students will see fees rise faster than domestic students). I'm seriously going have to give up even the faint remains of my Imelda Marcos syndrome to cough up for gadzillions of GCSEs and A levels at this rate.

    Oh how very depressing. I was rather hoping to provide my son with an education AND have the occasonal pair of powder blue, criss crossy, T-bar high heels.

    (stomps off to sulk in a very "bankrupt" frame of mind)

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  16. 'read a book, vomit book on tutor'

    LOL! That's what I did for 3 years at the taxpayers' expense.

    When one is paying large sums of money for a degree one is inclined to consider the if/when/where's of university much more closely.

    Mrs Anon

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  17. @mrs anon

    I wouldn't mind if the brain was engaged before each vomit, but this really is stay at home, memorize single book chosen by tutor (who wrote it, so his royalties go up) and then orally parrot fashion it back to said tutor on rare visit to campus.

    I see uni as a way to get Son of Thor to try (semi)independence on for size (not popular in a country where 35 year olds generally still live at home, not having ever left, cos mamma has the apron strings around the neck of their "baby") and to immerse himself in the other half of his bicultural identity...before they body snatch him completely.

    I do kind of hope he will get something out of educationally, but I have another cunning plan going on underneath the "educational" front.

    One that just won’t happen in an Italian uni with their tight subject range and “my royalties” mafia outlook.

    I had to crowbar my husband out of his mother's house at the "premature" age of 32. Trying to retrain him into some kind of non dependance for feeding, watering, clothing...uphill battle with knobs on.

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  18. "The truth is that GCSEs are becoming ever more important. Indeed, without them young people face almost insurmountable problems in their future lives."

    Why insurmountable when they can take them at any time? Just enrol on correspondence courses and a year later you can have your GCSEs.

    "In its Survey of Employers, published by the Learning and Skills Council in 2006, many employers revealed that they would not even consider giving an interview to a teenager without any GCSEs at all."

    It may be what they say in surveys, but my teenager without GCSEs has been offered two interviews, one by the NHS.

    With regards to qualification required for university entrance. It must depend on the course and the university. On the local news someone had not gained the A level results he needed for his offer. He only needed 2 Ds and a C.

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  19. Yes, well Simon is more than a tad obsessed with Oxbridge and so on. One wonders why... Is it really all about your daughter wanting to go there, Simon? Did you ever apply? Just curious...

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  20. Saucer of milk, Allie? No, I didn't apply to Oxbridge. My obsession is with my daughter being able to aim as high as she wants and not being handicapped by the lack of an education. My own academic achievements were not outstanding!

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  21. It occurs to me on reading the above exchange that what Allie presumably wanted was for me to give a strangled sob, before crying mournfully, 'I could have been a contender! Those bastards at Oxford couldn't see how clever I was, but i'll be revenged upon them, even now, forty five years later!'

    If that was indeed the response you sought Allie, you may take this to be my innermost secret if it pleases you to do so.

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  22. "Just enroll on correspondence courses and a year later you can have your GCSEs."

    If you are still a dependant. On the other hand if instead you are cobbling together part time jobs to make ends meet as it is (and fees look astronomical compared to your income), knee deep in toddlers, knackered from a demanding job that you are stuck in cos you've hit a qualifications ceiling, caring for aged parents, or any of the other curve balls that living as an independent adult can chuck at you...maybe the "just" will feel very optimistic.

    Yes people can go back to take qualifications. That doesn't mean that life will give the time, energy or extra cash to do so. Often in adulthood your own needs, your own ambitions have to take a backseat while you take care of everybody else’s needs first.

    Far better IMO, if at all possible, to take advantage of a period of your life when you are free of adult responsibilities and the expectations that go hand in hand with that, just in case you are one of those who further down the line finds themselves in a money trap or in a time crunched existence and sees in retrospect that leaving education was closing a door and locking it for several decades, rather than leaving it propped well ajar as imagined.
    I got fed the "you can always just do it later" line back when I ploughed my o levels. It was terribly seductive to a sixteen year old who thought the 25 quid a week of a YTS was riches beyond all belief.

    I'm 42 and this is the first time I have had a realistic shot since then of going back into education myself. Still not sure how I am going to juggle HE, setting up a school AND an OU course, but at least at this point I can afford to absorb “wasted” fees if the time to study is the area that gets squeezed out.

    It's been a hell of a wait and I do feel slightly resentful of the " "just" go back to education later tra la la", attitude that spoke more of the speakers' attitude towards qualifications rather than any real consideration of me, my needs, my future and my potential ambitions.

    I intend to make sure my son knows that education doesn’t have to stop at X time, but there will be no “just” slapped onto the concept. Deferring can carry a price that you can’t necessarily imagine when you are a teen. He needs to know that while you can go back, it might not necessarily be when he wants or needs to do it.

    While he will always be welcome in our home and I would always support him in every sense of the word, giving up your independence and taking a step back can be a very hard thing to do once you have got used to the alternative. If he needs us to be there when he has a wife\husband and kids in tow I'd immagine they'd have soemthing to say about the change in status quo too.

    Although I will be a wonderful, non interfering, non critical MIL. Scout's Honour. (you did not hear any faint snarly noises about crossing swords with son's future spouse over strange Italian childcare practises, that was your immagination)

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  23. "On the other hand if instead you are cobbling together part time jobs to make ends meet as it is (and fees look astronomical compared to your income), "

    Yes Sarah, I too was impressed at the causal way that some people can apparently take correspondence courses in this way. Average price around £300 per GCSE. So five would set you back around £1500. Last time I looked, I didn't have that musch spare in my account!

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  24. your in the wrong job Webb maybe you should become an LA officer i have heard the pay is good and you never get the sack!

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  25. Did you know that councilor David Kirk is dead Julie?

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  26. "If you are still a dependant. On the other hand if instead you are cobbling together part time jobs to make ends meet as it is (and fees look astronomical compared to your income), ..."

    Yes, I was thinking of the dependant kind of situation rather than one you describe when I said that. However, we sound in much the same boat in some respects. I left school for work with a few O levels though in our family nobody went to university so it didn't feel like I was giving anything up. I took various O level evening courses, then managed to persuade an employer to let me go to college on day release for a BTEC business finance course equivalent to A levels after I'd been working for about 4 or 5 years. A few years after that I became self employed and put myself through a part time HNC in computing and have just completed S104 with the OU so I do appreciate that that taking qualifications after the 'normal' age is not an easy option and I've explained this to my children.

    BTW, if you live in the UK you can get financial help with OU courses. The course I took was covered by their financial assistance and I was also given a £250 grant towards study costs, so low income need not prevent study.

    I appreciate that 'just' is not always appropriate, but on the other hand, I don't like the idea that people could right themselves off at 16 because they don't already have umpteen GCSEs. We are far from well off (about 4/5 average income) but intend to support our children until their education is finished even if they are older than those who have gone through the school system and I suspect this is quite common amongst home educators.

    "Average price around £300 per GCSE. So five would set you back around £1500. Last time I looked, I didn't have that musch spare in my account! "

    Maybe you should move to a cheaper part of the country? We are on a relatively low income but could manage this if necessary. How are you going to cope with university costs? One of ours is studying away from home this year and it's costing us £250 a month even though they hope to find a part time job.

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  27. I think you deserve a huge "well done you" for having achieved so much. My only issue was with the "just". No, kids should not be written off and told the horse has bolted, but at the same time, as you said, they should only be letting the horses out to play if they have a clear idea of what barriers might be in their way later on down line when they try to return as adults and what compromises they may have to face in terms of what, when and how much.


    I rather think Simon might have been thinking about finding a grand and a half to spend on fantasy GCSEs for himself (as an adult returning to education) and seeing moths in his pockets given that he knows he has a university education to pay for very soon.


    I’m looking at estimates at 21 grand going on university in about 8 years time and it is playing havoc with my OU plans because I feel like any money I spend on that is directly taking money out to the future uni pot for Son of Thor.

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  28. "don't like the idea that people could right themselves off at 16 because they don't already have umpteen GCSEs."

    'right' ! And I gained a B grade O Level! LOL

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  29. B grade English Language O Level even.

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  30. Gosh, Simon, it seemed I touched a nerve. Sorry!

    In all seriousness, I do think it's important to remember that different paths need different qualifications. Yes, you might say that not ensuring your child has plenty of high grade GCSEs prevents them attending a top university as a young adult. But every path we take means we do not take another. So you might equally say that those of us who have not trained our children in gymnastics from toddlerhood have prevented them becoming gymnastics world champions. We will all make the judgments we think best as we go along.

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  31. "So you might equally say that those of us who have not trained our children in gymnastics from toddlerhood have prevented them becoming gymnastics world champions."

    Poor analogy. Hardly any children go on to become gymnastics world champions; almost half of all children go on to attend university. It is therefore far more important to get the rules for university admissions right than the unspoken rules which lead to success in the world of gymnastics.

    "Gosh, Simon, it seemed I touched a nerve. Sorry!"

    Not really. You were making a catty remark in hope of producing a reaction. I simply obliged with what I assumed to be the reaction that you wished to see. You can't seriously imagine that I would expose my nerves and tender spots to some of the characters who make comments here?

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  32. But, Simon, you are not concerned about how young people might get to attend university - just how to get to a 'good' university at eighteen or nineteen. There are lot of paths to university - and lots through life.

    Of course it is important to know the facts about further and higher education options. I've nothing against that. But you tend to present your choices in home education as the best ones. They may have been the best for your daughter (given her goals) but not necessarily the best for other people. You tend to assume that people taking other paths are merely fools, when they may be making perfectly rational choices for themselves and their families.

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  33. " They may have been the best for your daughter (given her goals)"

    I had no idea what her goals were. I wanted to give her as many options as possible.

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  34. "I had no idea what her goals were. I wanted to give her as many options as possible."

    Yeah, there is pretty much where I am.

    Son of Thor is too young to think about the future much, unless you count clock watching until his mates are due to arrive. I look at him and try and imagine what direction he will want to go in, but I just can't say for sure which of his passions will stick and even if they do will he want to keep them for pleasure or will he want to turn them into work ?

    My overriding concern is making sure that he freely chooses his path based on what he wants rather than scaling down to what seems possible in the immediate, due to a lack of bits of paper.

    Not just in the short term either, people burn out, or bloom late. I'd like to help set him up early on, so if at 30 or 40 he needs to break out of a rut he has options. I'd hate to see him feel trapped because he didn't have a "passport" out and getting that “passport” meant postponing his ambitions/dreams for six years or more while carrying on doing something that was sucking the soul out of him, every single day, to keep his head above water while chipping away at the barrier.

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  35. its not true that 'almost half of all children go on to university'.

    According to the Guardian, 68% of 16 year olds choose to stay in full time education, and that is a 'record number'. When I was in school two decades ago it was nowhere near that.

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/jun/22/further-education-record-number

    And not all of these go on to uni, the estimates I've found are around 40%, but it isnt clear if thats of all teenagers or just the ones still in education.

    Again, it was a lot less when I was in school. Most of the adults I know do not have a degree. It is still the privilege of a minority.

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  36. According to this article it's about 43% of young people, but nearly 23% of those who start a degree drop out and working class young people are under-represented.

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