February 6, 2013
Being a keen employer of school leavers and bright young graduates, Guru is taking an interest in the debate surrounding education. He’s noticed that it doesn’t appear to be a particularly popular view, but he finds himself of one mind with education secretary Michael Gove who’s reforming education back towards a more information- and memory-based approach.
Over the years Guru has met many bright young things with high marks and glittering records, and repeatedly been surprised that in all that education they don’t seem to have acquired any actual knowledge. The mantra to justify this state of affairs seems to be that children are taught “how to think”, but is being “taught how to think” necessary, and is it not possible to teach somebody how to think while teaching them some useful things to think about? Guru would suggest the answers are no and yes. Furthermore - particularly at degree-level, which is still largely the preserve of the middle-class - it is pretty insulting to suggest that young adults should be subsidised to spend three years “learning how to think” while everybody else learns how to think while providing useful services to society (like working their way up the HR ladder).
So Guru supports Gove’s measures and looks forward to interviewing a new generation of HR candidates who can remember some actual information they’ve garnered from the hundreds of exams they’ve sat through.
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