The Rules of Parenting, 2nd Edition

RULE 68

Schooling isn’t the same as education

I’ve known people leave school at 16 or 18 and know nothing – except perhaps their times tables and where Burkina Faso is and what the repeal of the corn laws was all about (beats me). In other words, information. That’s what school gives you: information. OK, and a few analytical skills such as long division and grammar, much of which you may never use again. Some of it is useful, such as foreign languages, but much of it apparently has no value at all.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not knocking school. It teaches you how to learn – which is a useful skill for the rest of your life – but it takes 10 or 12 years or more to do it. And think about all the things it doesn’t teach your kids during those formative ...