I tore this from the Guardian at the end of August and it was used as a bookmark in 'The God Delusion' (review coming very soon, see Book Review page) until I handed the book to my son and I remembered I wanted to write something about the article. They do a small feature in which people can write an imaginary letter telling someone something they might not otherwise feel able to. This one, as you might be able to discern, is from a mother to her five year old son in the weeks before he starts school.
My first reaction to this letter was sadness. The mother plainly
regrets all the things her son will lose by going to school and how
much it will come to dominate the rhythm of his life. She clearly
sees all the things that are going to happen to him, but appears to
accept it as inevitable, and even the negative things are to be
accepted because of the necessary lessons they teach about life.
She describes in the penultimate paragraph all the things they will
do together, that they have obviously enjoyed together, before this
momentous change occurs. The title acknowledges unequivocally what
it is that her son is losing ... his freedom, and then she back
tracks at the end, announcing "Here's to our futures and all that
they hold."
And so I am left, as usual, feeling angry that people see things but do not follow through to the consequences of that observation. Her son does not need to sacrifice his freedom in order to have a future. Children do not need to give up all the things that have given their life meaning and submit themselves to a meaningless system. For example, why can't he wear his spider-man outfit to school? Why does what he wear apparently make so much difference to his ability to learn things. It is the petty intrusions into personal choices that exacerbates the sense of alienation that many young people find in the school system. Everything that the mother describes in the letter is a loss of personal autonomy. School will dictate not only what you learn and when you learn it but what you wear, when you eat, when you shit, when you speak, what you will value and how you will define yourself. Why do more parents not want to help their children be more than what they are told to be. She sees him condemned to being "a measurable entity", but she sends him anyway. Why are more people not asking why?