Why Putting Children on the Education Treadmill is Damaging their Health

"Treadmill" (CC BY 2.0) by  maHidoodi 

Metaphors have a wonderful way of providing clarity amidst the hustle and bustle of daily life. We come and go, we send our children off to school but what is it really like for them? What we really want is for them to thrive, to become more resilient, to understand themselves better and we tell them it doesn’t matter how well they do in their exams but we worry when they stumble.

One of my favourite metaphors is the one that describes the educational system as being like a treadmill and the similarities are stark.

Both continue forward regardless of your ability to cope. No time to slow down or reverse and no waiting. They have no regard for how you feel. Both are indifferent and are totally unaware of your emotions. If you stumble and fall but can’t get back on quickly you are left behind according to the machine.

Both are set up with the expectation that as the slope gets tricker and the pace increases you will cope. They recognise only the “ideal”, a long held belief as to how young people develop. If you are different in anyway then sorry. You are the problem. We will assign labels. Not ones that expound your strengths but instead demonise your apparent weaknesses.

It is a machine that cares only for the end result - you are a number, your name is incidental, just a collection of letters, your story of no consequence.

But unlike treadmills the educational machine has no on/off switch. It has only one role - to present you (hopefully fit and in one piece) at the other end. Society has invested a great deal in this process and the equipment was expensive so it’s not going to back down now.

So how is it bad for your health? Actually, your well being depends on your ability to keep up. It has little regard for your difficulty conforming because it gives the highest rewards to the conformists.

It is incredibly sad that so many of the people who’s job it is to press the buttons and maintain the machine are at a loss as to what to do when someone falls off or cries out for help. In time some become numb. I know because I have been in the midst of it.

The truth is that the machine is antiquated and not really made for the job anymore. It was designed more than a hundred years ago and made for a different age. Governments come and go, sending “updates” as if a tweak here or there will help the machine be more effective. It only serves to harm the health of many of the young people we care about. So why do we still believe in it?

Maybe it is time to take them off the treadmill and let them start living? Only then will we see what they can do and I strongly suspect they will surprise us.

John Hassall, Founder & Creative Director, JOHASS