What Price Learning?

The uber-gurus of education and ideas seem to live in two camps. Those (like Howard Gardner) whose ideas are sent out free of charge into the world for us to apply. And those (like...well I'm not exactly going to say am I) who jealously guard their intellectual property, cascade franchises and royalties. This begs the questions, "Who owns a thought?", "Who owns an idea?",  "What value a concept?", "What price learning?"

The price of English university learning has just potentially trebled; the lower- middle and mid-middle classes (in a roundabout way) will continue therefore to subsidise the money-heads who helped derail our financial engine (yes, we are all complicit in this crisis, but some are more complicit than others).

And here's the challenge: if we value learning so highly, should its cost to us also be high? If it's free (or cheap) do we take it for granted and forget its richness? And as I continue to say (a running theme through this blog's history) did anyone in government ever sit down adult to adult with student leaders to creatively solve the problem? Did we ask the client, the end user?(Did Gove's team run consultations directly and unpatronisingly with 7 year olds before the white paper?) Those of you working with young children know how free and creative their thinking can be - so long as we don't ask them to hold our adult baggage.....In 11 years time, those 7 year olds will have the chance to go to university (I hope). What value their learning? What value their ideas....