EDUCATION FOR THE GOOD SOCIETY - Support

11. Re-taking the highground: steps towards apersuasive progressiveposition on schoolingMartin YarnitGetting beyond polarised debatesIf we are going to get beyond a tit-for-tat debateabout schooling that fails to connect with publicopinion, the centre-left needs to find a new way offraming shared aspirations and showing why we arethe best advocates for closing the learning divide.In the US, much political debate is paralysed andpolarised with highly ideological positions takenby left and right on key issues such as gun law,abortion, race discrimination, federal spendingand gay marriage. In English politics, schoolingis the issue that is similarly benighted with everysuccessive government determined to re-makeeducation policy and to save schools from thehands of the enemy. People on the centre-left findthemselves at a particular disadvantage because thetit-for-tat form of the debate favours traditionalviews of education that chime with the experienceof much of the public, with conservatives andtheir newspapers adept at playing on the fears ofparents about poor standards and behaviour. Forthe left, winning the educational arguments is anup-hill battle that we can never win, unless we canre-frame our case and use a new strategy to presentit. The mantra ‘a good school for every neighbourhood’makes perfect sense, but cuts little ice withpublic opinion. It is just not enough to take themoral high ground unless we can also set the styleof the debate. So this is an argument for re-thinkingthe content of our position and for re-shaping theway we go about winning support it.Learning from successful campaignsHaving moral and intellectual force backedup by well-known experts who can wheelout the supporting evidence is a useful aid incampaigning, but history suggests it is rarelyenough to win the day. Shifting public opinion onbig issues involves a paradigm shift so that peoplecan view the world in a new way and recognisethe potential for change. The campaigns for theabolition of Third World debt, to abolish slavery,to ban smoking and to introduce gender equalityall began to gain traction when people began tosee the world through new eyes and to make uptheir own minds about thinking and behavingdifferently. Here I argue that there are six stepstowards bringing about paradigm shifts in publicopinion.1 Develop an inspiring visionFirst, there has to be a vision of a different order,one that inspires as Martin Luther King’s dreamdid. Traditional interpretations of educationalreality are very powerful because they play onwidely accepted truths and images. Most peopleare comfortable with images of schooling thatinclude classrooms with a teacher to transferknowledge to respectful students, the preeminenceof certain intelligences and subjects,and the importance of a broad liberal educationfor the academically able but practical skills forothers.In the notion of the Good Society, Compassprovides the basis for an educational vision witha capacity to inspire rooted in a profound senseof freedom, which starts with the individual butrecognises that we only make sense and havemeaning in relation to others through interdependence.In this sense education is about themost important thing we can ever learn; teachingus to live together and to collaborate to build abetter future. From this are derived a set of principleswith which we can shape the debate abouteducation and which provide the basis for a newvision. 1 That vision values:• not simply the ability of every student torealise their potential to the full but also theability to develop their capacities to playa part in shaping both the society and theschool, a fundamental democratic issue• the common or comprehensive school as aninstitution that promotes inclusive learningand social solidarity, and a secure, caringenvironment1 See http://compassoneducation.org.uk/education-for-the-goodsociety-statement-version-2.Education for the good society | 53