I find myself becoming increasingly irritated by people who say that we no longer need schools. The “argument”, if I can so dignify their pronouncements, seem to consist of the “logic” (ditto) that kids have lots of access to technology, and they can teach themselves how to use it, and therefore schools, and by extension teachers, are redundant.

I’ll say why I think these people are wrong in a minute, but I should like to make the observation that the only other time in my career that I’ve heard people say school is irrelevant is very, very occasionally at parents’ evenings. I’ve worked in three of the most deprived areas in England, and most of the parents were immensely supportive of school, because they saw it as a way out of poverty for their children. But now and again a parent would say to me something along the lines of:

“Well, I left school at 14 and it didn’t do me any harm.”

You can read the rest of this article here: Why school is still necessary in the age of technology. I published it on 12 November 2014, and it’s still relevant today. Perhaps even more so.