Students are at breaking point in a broken system | Letters

Sheila Hayman laments the continuing neglect of vocational skills, Stephen J Decker describes the need for school counsellors, and another reader, whose son took his own life, asks where childhood has gone

I too have a daughter who, though creative and gifted, cannot do squiggles on paper, has spent 12 years of her life learning that she’s “thick” and “useless” and is about to sit – and likely fail – her GCSE maths for the third time (GCSEs are failing stress test as students suffer, Letters, 22 May).

I also had a mother who was president of the Mathematical Association and brought the International Mathematical Olympiad to Britain, and a sister who sat on Tony Blair’s Tomlinson commission, which recommended a much broader mix of academic and vocational skills for all children – and was promptly ignored. My mother, a great teacher, always said there was no point in forcing children who struggle with maths to do it, and always began her classes with an example from their own lives which made it “relatable”.

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from Children | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2L0AJSc