Thought For The Day - 22 June 2007

On Wednesday night at the Mansion House Britain’s Prime Minister-to-be spoke about the need to make Britain’s schools ‘world class’ and said there’s ‘too much potential untapped, too much talent wasted’. That’s something all three parties take seriously, and it transcends politics.

Education is at the heart of my faith as a Jew. Our holiest prayer taken from Deuteronomy says “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and might” And then almost immediately it says: “you shall teach these things diligently to your children, speaking of them when you sit at home or walk on the way, when you lie down and when you rise.” Judaism is a religion of education, a faith in which study is as important as prayer. Why? Because to defend a country you need an army, but to defend a civilization you need schools. So our heroes are teachers, our citadels are schools, and our passion education and the life of the mind.

In human civilization there have been two great visions of an egalitarian society. One said: give every one an equal share of wealth. But communism was tried and failed. The second said: give everyone an equal share of power. But that only ever worked for small communities like the ancient city state of Athens. Nowadays we only get an equal share of power on elections, perhaps one day in a thousand. The third way is the only way that works. Give everyone an equal share in education, equal access to knowledge, skills, opportunity, aspiration, life chances, and dignity. The other ways don’t work because with wealth or power, the more you share, the less you have. But with knowledge, the more you share the more you have. That’s why you can share it equally without anyone losing.

But that needs more than politics and governments. More even than teachers. It needs all of us. If parents don’t support their children’s education, a school may fail. If a community doesn’t celebrate its schools, a school may fail. And if the wider culture is dumbed down, schools will fail.

Schools are how a society hands its values on to the next generation, and that demands an effort from all of us. Let every church, synagogue, mosque and temple, every neighbourhood association, once a year find a way of celebrating its local school, honouring its teachers, praising its achievements. Then you’ll see education fly. Our children deserve the best from our schools. Our schools deserve the best from us.

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