It’s the journey which is important not the destination.

 Subject: It’s the journey which is important not the destination.

How important are the 'creative' arts in the school curriculum. With the likely election of a labour government, they have put forward more funding in State Schools to offset the money currently spent in Private Schools.

The argument that we need engineers and chemists in this modern world rather than poets and actors is a reflection of the 'bang for buck' and the need to manufacture things instead of entertainment, whether it's for yourself or to appear on a formulate Stars discovery show on the telly. There's a discussion about the type of schooling your child should attend, one which focuses on exams and the attainment of A levels and the one which allows the child the freedom to explore its interests on the assumption that learning improves with enthusiasm and ownership rather than rote learning.

Of course in a world where work and the skills required by the various professions a person might try and are very important, not only for self esteem but also the potential to earn more money which then allows one the freedom, in later life to enjoy the freedom you feel your child might have lost in having to pass those blasted exams.

Playing the oboe in a national orchestra pays £30.000 a year whilst the person on the minimum wage, flipping burgers is £20,000.

Self esteem is crucial in life What ever you do. The poet in his garret has a sense of his worth in the use of words through which he captures his sentiment but it hardly pays the rent. The obtuse reasoning towards what's most valuable, a sonnet or a legal phrase

is best captured by comparing Dickens to Hansard the one memorable the other factual and dry. Unfortunately there aren't many of the genius Dickens displayed and we do unfortunately need Hansard, if only to keep track of the lies politicians tell.

Can a person, in this tick box society, where character is purportedly revealed by the school tie (a misnomer if ever there is one) and the car you drive, be satisfied with  connecting with nature, shunning materialism, taking pride in being different and finding your own destination. Schools which encourage self discovery rather than following a purely academic path are rich in opportunity but not necessarily in the opportunity to later engage with the majority who seek materialism as their goal in life. Since we are communicative souls and usually need some sort of acceptance in what we do the Bohemian lifestyle needs bohemian pals, not the drop-out failure who often carry tons of baggage but the confident person who, on a small boat, living on an atoll in the Bahamas has found solace in the sunset and a bottle of rum.

To plough your own furrow in a confused world of perpetual interference is perhaps something to strive towards and maybe a 'Steiner School', which purports to set its pupils along the right track and is a way to protect your child from the vagaries of group think.

Does the value of independently working out life’s concepts through a more hands on exposure to the fundamentals and not forced fed like battery raised chicks in an under resourced education system competing with the much better resourced Private School sector. Children from poor backgrounds do succeed but often against the odds and in an increasingly “don’t care” environment, obsessed with short cuts to success which usually, like the lottery lead to failure.

Perhaps, as is often said, it’s the journey which is important not the destination.