EDUCATION FOR THE GOOD SOCIETY - Support

8 See Ann Hodgson, Ken Spoursand Martyn Waring (eds), Post-Compulsory Education across theUnited Kingdom: Policy, Organizationand Governance, IoE Bedford WayPapers, 2011, for an analysis ofcommonalities and differences ineducation and training systemsacross the UK.9 A number of campaigns forprogressive education haveemerged in recent years, suchas Whole Education (www.wholeeducation.org/), which actsas an umbrella for a range ofrelated initiatives.10 An interesting set of articleson mutualism and reciprocity(e.g. by Anthony Painter) can befound in Jonathan Rutherfordand Alan Lockey (eds), Labour’sFuture, Soundings and Open Left,www.lwbooks.co.uk/ebooks/laboursfuture.html.proper apprenticeship. Even the so-called winners,the ones with the top results, cannot claim tohave had a rounded education in the narrowA-level regime. Moreover, these quantitative gains,which have held the neo-liberal project togetherover the past three decades, now look in doubt.Severe reductions in public expenditure and aConservative-led Government bent on a moreelitist and static view of education could see anactual reversal of attainment and educationalparticipation. Everyone outside the top 25 per centcould suffer setbacks, not least those deprived of aneducation maintenance allowance (EMA).The Good Society – challenging theneo-liberal settlementWhat we have described here has been theexperience of England. However, you do nothave to travel to Finland or Sweden to see adifferent approach to education: you merelyhave to visit Cardiff or Edinburgh. Scotland hashad its own distinctive system of education fordecades and, since parliamentary devolution,Wales is developing its path along more socialdemocratic lines. 8 Within England, too, there isan undercurrent of alternatives and progressiveideas – policies from teachers’ unions, civilsociety organisations, research and campaignslike Whole Education. 9 At grassroots level, eachand every day, teachers and others involvedin schools, colleges and work-based trainingstruggle to make education the enlightening andlife-changing process it ought to be. A vision ofeducation, which is both very new and very old,is stirring beneath the surface of politics, with thepotential to break the neo-liberal mould.Building on progressive policies of ourmost immediate neighbours and innovativeprofessional, research and policy developments,the Good Society is a route map out of thiscondition that has come to dominate ourlives over the past three decades. We have torediscover hope and the possibility of a differentfuture that emerges from the globalised worldin which we live. There is no shining city on thehill, an opposite and existing world to inspireus. But there is injustice that, combined with thecrisis of neo-liberalism, gives us the potentialfor something different and better. Inequalityhas widened nationally and internationally; theeconomic system is highly unstable and ourvery existence is threatened by climate change.But collective responses have been underminedby the sense of disconnect between peoples andgovernments and the lack of a popular alternative.The old is dying and the new is yet to be born.In this complex context, the Good Societyhas to be a qualitative extension of our verybest experiences. It will involve treasuring someof things we have lost because of uncontrolledcapitalism, particularly the solidity of publicinstitutions that can embody collaboration andreciprocity. 10 Public libraries, for example, arenot just for the middle classes; they are hubs forthe wider community. What we founded in thepublic realm will have to be defended even inthe most difficult times. But the Good Societyalso has to envisage relations beyond our currentcondition, built around a profound sense ofequality, democracy and sustainability, with afocus on community, time, care and well-being.At its heart it is a project centred on the humancondition.These features imply, in the first instance, adifferent form of capitalism in which the marketis controlled and socialised. In the longer term,the full realisation of the Good Society suggestsits complete transformation, but the word thatconjures up the Good Society more than anyother is freedom. It is a word we have allowedthe Right to capture and we need to take itback. Not just the freedom to earn and own butreal freedom; the freedom to shape our lives,which we can only do in a meaningful sensecollectively and if we have sufficient resourcesand are, therefore, much more equal. Freedomin this deeper sense starts with the individual,but recognises that we only have meaning inrelation to others. Given this starting point,education is about the most important thing wecan ever learn, teaching us to live together and tocollaborate to build a better future.The Good Society will be signalled by agreater willingness to build social relationships,strengthen the sense of community to combatthe ‘social recession’, exercise a different lifestylein support of sustainability, and tackle inequality.These ambitious aims can only be pursuedwhen ordinary citizens take greater control overtheir lives and communities. They cannot be10 | www.compassonline.org.uk