The purpose of this Paperback is to start a debate about the real problem of how we should educate our young people. It is based on the book 'Chance of a Lifetime: How the other half loses' by Jonathan Langdale and John Harrison.
To be winners today, young people have to be 'good at school' (or very lucky). Clearly, a great many of them aren't 'good at school', but we believe they are all good at something.
Because the Great and the Good became the Great and the Good because they were 'good at school', the received wisdom is that their kind of academic schooling is good for everyone - it must be Look how successful they are
Thus the 'best schools' must be facsimiles of their schools and schoolchildren must all be judged by their standards - the gold standards of GCSE A*-C and 'A' Levels followed by university. If only everyone was as academically clever as they are, wouldn't the world be a better place?
And the children who fail at their kind of schooling are just that - failures.
Over the years we have blamed the failure of secondary education on:
The governors
The head teachers
The teachers and above all...
The pupils.
'Chance of a Lifetime' shows that:
It isn't the governors
It isn't the head teachers
It isn't the teachers and
It certainly isn't the pupils
It's the academically focussed secondary school itself.
You can join the debate as soon as this website's Messages Forum is up and running in a few weeks' time/by the end of March 2007 and the book is available to purchase. Join the debate by adding your voice to the growing number who want to give hope to all our young people through an education that is right for them as individuals.
About the Author
The authors are practitioners with many years experience in teaching, educational leadership and training. They are not "educationalists." That is why they are able to challenge the received wisdom that schools are the only way in which young people can be educated. Both have a passionate interest in enabling all young people to develop their individual talents to the full.
Jonathan Langdale is a former head of both junior and senior schools. He now delivers inspirational and motivational courses to teachers and governors and inspects schools. A writer/director of educational and training films, he is a published writer in the personal development field and is also a county level sports coach.
John Harrison is an innovative, independent training consultant for public and private sector employers and schools, also operating in the field of personal development. For some years he was responsible for the direction of an Approved Training Organisation (ATO) for engineering apprentices. He works mainly in the UK but also in the USA and in the newly independent states of central Europe.

Wot, No School? - pocket, Engelsk, 2009