Picture Perfect

Chapter Four: Elliot

Victoria came to collect me at the end of the day, as she was driving us across town. I liked Victoria; she loved the kids as much as I did, and she taught the year group above me, so I knew I was sending my classes each year off to a good teacher. It helped soothe the ache of the end of every school year, knowing I was sending them off at all.

"Have you been to one of these before?" she asked.

I shook my head. We were off to speak before a panel of people high up in the national primary education system, people that organised these events to hear from teachers and parents in order to improve the system.

"Prepare for mild disappointment," she warned me, as she pulled out of the car park and onto the road. "They organise these things, and sometimes they do listen, but most of the time it's a formality that they're putting themselves through only to ignore everyone."

I winced. "That's a little, uhh... depressing."

"Yes," she agreed. "But we do it in the hope that this time, there's one person listening."

I sighed, but nodded. It was important that we do this sort of thing, to try at least. Victoria and I taught the younger kids, but we still saw the older kids every day. We saw how much it stressed them out to be thinking of exams and grades at the age of ten. We saw how ridiculous it was to put kids through that sort of pressure at such a young age. The entire system of education was becoming more and more about grades, league tables, and a very narrow view of 'achievement', resulting in kids that were developing anxiety disorders and perfectionism during their early adolescence.

"It feels like we're teaching them good things," I thought aloud. "But then it also feels like we're sending them off after it to unlearn it all in place of something else."

"I know," she replied, sighing heavily. "At least we can hope that they hold onto some of it. The creativity, the love of learning. Something."

It was a slim hope. Five year olds were not likely to hold onto tons of memories, just snippets, but their experiences were vital and valid, and I wanted them to at least go forward knowing that they had somewhere safe to come back to if they needed it.

"Let's do this," Victoria said, sounding determined as she pulled up near the town hall. It was a huge building; I usually only took notice of it when weddings were being performed there. We walked in and followed the directions of the receptionist to our meeting room. It was rammed full of people, teachers and parents, and even a few kids that looked exceptionally bored.

The panel, predictably, was six old white guys. I resisted the urge to groan.

"Not a single woman," Victoria snorted, eyeing the panel. "Typical."

It was typical. Considering how female-dominated the primary school education system was, it only ever seemed to extend to the teachers of the kids. The higher up you went, the fewer women there were.

"C'mon, there's some seats over there," Victoria nudged me towards two empty seats. We took them, readying ourselves for what would undoubtedly be a frustrating evening.

It was. I heard a series of complete and utter bollocks throughout the following hour, and had to resist the urge to throw something at a couple of people. They talked about education as though it was military training, like it was supposed to be gruelling and uncomfortable, like it was supposed to churn the individuality out of a kid and turn them into the Perfect University Candidate. One parent insisted that we were focusing too much on the arts, and that teaching should be focused on the sciences as early as possible and ignore the arts entirely.

My hand shot into the air with such force, the panel acknowledged me before people who had been waiting to speak for a while.

"The arts improve child development," I said flatly, eyeing the parent with disdain. "Art helps to give a child a love of learning, aids their motor skills, develops their recognition of colours, shapes, and space, and most importantly - they enjoy it. Kids should enjoy their education - it shouldn't just be a means to an end for them to eventually get into university, which they may not even want to pursue. The sciences are important, and we focus on them wherever appropriate - but you're asking teachers to try and force young children to sit and learn things that they can't comprehend yet for six hours a day. It's ridiculous."