Solstice - A Turning Point?

The longest night beckons, with the turn of the year on the winter solstice yet again. And so now we are on the up towards spring and summer, the weeks of winter set to fade behind us. It would be nice if the optimism this time of year always brings to me could be levelled towards every other aspect of current life on this archipelago or the world in general, but alas, 'tis not so. With the narrowing of life's aspect for so many through poor education - that includes the most expensive available, as well as the most lowly -  and hence poverty of experience and agency, along with the influence of the insidious echo chambers of social media and the many and various reactionary forces at play in the world; we witness daily the crumbling of our social fabric as if dispassionately observing the decay of a museum display in a vitrine, unaware of our part in the play.

But play our part we must: this decay must be halted before 'tis too late, and the agents of discord held to account and our children once again be properly equipped to make sense of the chaos of this world in order to effect the real levelling up so glibly alluded to by the forces of the neoliberal right before they destroy the world for the rest of us. We are in dire need of some genuine guiding lights in moving forward, and they are out there: we just need to listen to, converse and debate constructively with them, hence to wrest the tiller away from the out-of-control lunatics currently steering us into the maelstrom.

We need schools that teach life, and that includes basic arithmetic, language, literature, art & music, with a good dose of history, geography and politics thrown in [to the those of us of a certain age, it sounds kind of familiar, don't it?]. Also, make the learning of practical skills: the use of actual tools - even the making of tools: something I was taught - as well as cooking, housework, decorating, &etc:  i.e, basic life skills. All else can be learnt later, in sixth-form and beyond, if necessary.

Without a proper, broad, general education as the foundation for further learning and finding one's place in the place in the world, nought else can follow. The current economic and political shambles we are collectively the victims of is testament to our abject failure as a society over the last half century to equip ourselves and our children to properly maintain that society. Vote the Tories out for good, buy books and think outside the trammels of the drip-feed of media: you know it makes sense.