What should education be about?

England is cutting costs on the backs of state school pupils whose GCSE Latin will no longer be funded.  Remember, this is for poorer schools and not the elite schools of the upper class.  It may be an unpopular but unstoppable decision.  School leaders, scholars and authors are urging the Department for Education to offer a reprieve to the Latin excellence program and thus enable hundreds of students to complete their GCSE courses though this would only delay the end of it and not change the outcome.  The DfE announced shortly before Christmas that it would end funding in February for the program supporting Latin lessons for more than 8,000 pupils at 40 non-selective state schools.  Schools, also in a funding crisis, will either have to come up with the money or let go Latin teachers.

I only wish that we had a targeted program in the US for Latin in the poorer schools across our nation.  I only wish that languages, art, music, and dramatic arts were not also the victims every time it looks like a budget needs to be cut or funds are running short.  I have no idea what it is like in England but in America the schools are shouldered with all sorts of programs unrelated to their core purpose of education and designed to address difficulties presumed in the home life, family, or social aspect of the student's life.  We seem as a nation to find funding for all sorts of things related to gender and sexual desire and especially for athletics but when it comes to something that truly enriches a whole life, music and the various arts are much more relevant.  As countless memes have said, it is highly unlikely many of our kids will make a living from sports and most of them will watch their teams from the comfort of a couch with a favorite beverage and snack in hand.  Music is a lifelong gift.  We sing in worship, we play in community orchestras and churches, we play for our own enjoyment and benefit, and we play because this has proven to be an effective and useful activity for the preservation of memory.

While I lament the decision of any government to stop funding music and the arts, I lament even further that we think education in technology is all that is necessary for people in life.  It is ridiculous to assume that the only purpose of education is to get a job -- especially when it seems that job may change and the career change half a dozen or more times along the way.  We don't need to teach our children how to use a screen.  We need to teach them what is not on the screen.  We need to make sure that our schools are educating the imagination and not merely providing tools for the almighty paycheck.  We need to reinvigorate those things that elevate and ennoble us as a nation and a people and a culture.  That starts with music and the arts. Only a fool would believe that one day we will wake up to an educational landscape made up significantly or more of classical schools.  But the schools we do have would profit from a renewal that included Latin, music, art, the dramatic arts, and a host of other things we seem hesitant to fund.