LETTERS
My search for ‘something better’, in my own time, began with the publication of this letter by The TES, in response to an article concerning the increasing popularity of ‘EO’ (Education Otherwise), the practice whereby some parents keep and teach their children at home, as they are legally entitled to under sections 36 and 76 of The 1944 Education Act.
While pleased with its appearance in this esteemed weekly newspaper, I was, however, disappointed that the last paragraph was not printed!
The Times Educational Supplement
Dear Sir/Madam, 31/01/1982
Privileged Few
The practice of Education Otherwise is a valid but ‘selfish exercise’ which is in effect just another form of privilege. It is a privilege because it can only be practised by those who are in a position to do so. It constitutes another attack on, and erosion of, the principle that it is the responsibility of the community to provide a suitable education for all of its children and young people in a fair and equal manner. Worse, it is a practice which LEAs will be inclined, in the present circumstances, not to discourage because, while cuts are being made, it will save them money.
The way to improve education for all is not by ‘selfishly’ removing one’s children from the maintained system which the majority of people are forced to accept and for which there is no practical alternative but by using that time and energy now spent on looking for alternatives from private education to living in a commune in a search for changing radically, if necessary, present arrangements in order to meet more fully the needs of all children and young people and hence the needs of the society they will later enter as fully developed, well adjusted adults.
This is not to say that such changes might not include some of the more valuable ideas present in the practice of Education Otherwise and put forward so convincingly by those parents who keep and teach their children at home, some of whom I have met (while preparing a Long Study for an Advanced Diploma) and found to be, in most cases, well motivated, genuinely concerned and, according to their own beliefs and principles, fully justified in the course of action they have taken – hence, the validity of the exercise.
The significance of Education Otherwise perhaps will lie not in its current practice but in its wider implications, if and when changes which such a movement suggests are necessary are made to the present education system.
Yours, etc.
I had now become very interested in Anarchism and Ecology.
Soil Association Review
Dear Sir, 06/12/1986
I am a great admirer of the Soil Assocciation. You alone almost half a century ago foresaw the dangers to mankind and the planet of pursuing practices, especially in the area of food production which ignore the needs of both. You alone, while warning against the consequences of such action put forward a sane alternative voice for adopting healthier more appropriate ways of doing things. Now indeed you have been joined in this cause by other pressure groups such as Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace and The Nature Conservancy Council to name but a few and an emerging but so far ineffective political party i.e. The Greens.
But what has been the result of all this activity? In my opinion very little. Yes, a few farmers now cultivate their land and rear their animals in accordance with sound ecological principles but the majority continue to run their agribusinesses by relying heavily on chemical fertilizers, toxic pesticides and growth promoters. Yes, conscience levels concerning the need for conservation and a sustainable world have been raised amongst certain groups of people but still the majority could not care less where what they eat comes from or the damage the way it has been produced might be causing them or their surroundings. Yes governments have become more aware of ‘the green presence’ and the need to win their vote at the next election but still the majority will cast their vote for the party which promises more jobs/tax cuts rather than long term stability.
Apart from a few slight improvements, nothing fundamental has changed and nothing fundamental in my opinion will ever change unless and until the root cause of all of the modern world’s problems have been tackled. The root cause is the system itself, i.e. the system of maximum profit (Capitalism – both private and communist) and patriotic fervour (The Nation State) which, amongst many other things, demands that landowners must employ intensive farming methods or else they will go out of business, that industrialists must pour filth out of their factories into the environment in order to keep their products competitively priced and economically viable and that governments must adopt policies which will get them re-elected even though they are ecologically very suspect.
No amount of demonstrations, writing letters to MPs or piecemeal reform can alter these basic facts of life, these present day authoritarian bureaucratic and hierarchical conditions which force the majority of us to behave the way we do and thus cause so much harm and damage to ourselves, each other and the very earth we live on. No amount of preaching, giving to charity or government intervention can create a better more desirable and enlightened world. Only radical change to the fabric of society, as contained within the libertarian theories of mutual aid, free association, decentralisation, self-management, all round personal development and the re-establishment of the community can achieve that goal!
Yours, etc.
And, so, after years of independent study, I came up with these thoughts which, one way or another, found their way into the public sphere.
Guardian Weekly
Dear Sir/Madam, 07/03/2017
George Monbiot finishes his article on the unsatisfactory state of our present education system by saying, “Let’s engineer our children out of the factory and into the real world.” (March, 2017)
I could not agree more. But, unfortunately, he does not present the whole picture. In particular, he forgets to mention that the real world is still capitalist, organised around pyramids of wealth and power, for which our offspring are prepared by a method of education that reflects and supports these conditions and, therefore, is generally repressive and authoritarian.
There is only one way to fundamentally change this situation and that is by transforming today’s society into one based on “self-governance”, the organisation of our own affairs for and by ourselves without recourse to hierarchy and domination. For, as this more advanced society comes into existence, it will require a very different liberating and self-regulatory approach to education. The two, therefore, must go hand in hand.
Yours, etc.
https://amp.theguardian.com/global/2017/mar/07/guardian-weekly-letters-monbiot-education
New Internationalist
Dear Sir/Madam, 01/11/2017
Re: NI 505, imho, there is only one way in which to change the way we educate our children for the better and that is by changing the way we organize society - from one which is imposed from above to one which is 'self-regulatory' for, given the current divided, unsustainable and dysfunctional state of affairs on this planet, both are urgently required.
Yours, etc.
Guardian Weekly
Dear Sir/Madam, 16/12/2017
Of course we live in A World Divided (16 December, 2017). Your esteemed newspaper draws attention to this fact every week, as well as in this special edition.
But let’s be quite clear. We also live in a society that is primitive. For example, we watch adults and children starve to death and do very little about it; we are destroying the planet, our home in the universe; and we settle our most serious disputes by killing each other.
Only a civilisation in the first stage of its evolution, i.e. one which is primitive, would do such things. We, therefore, need to start creating a united and more advanced society.
Yours, etc.
https://www.theguardian.com/global/2017/jan/03/weekly-letters-political-correctness-trump
Greta Thunberg, Facebook
Hi Greta, 22/01/2020
Why are you pleading with leaders, e.g. at Davros (2020), to do something about the climate emergency and, then, becoming upset and/or indignant when it becomes clear that not much - usually, for economic reasons - is being done?
Surely, you are beginning to realise that it is the system itself which is causing the problems in the first place and, therefore, cannot be expected to address them adequately!
It, therefore, needs to be ‘progradically’ (i.e. progressively and, then, more radically) adapted, perhaps, as outlined on the website below!?!
Yours for moving on,
Colin Millen
PS. And, no, I am not talking about the imposition of a divisive and regressive, socialist world but the possible, democratic introduction of something ‘more advanced’!
