We’ve often criticised the ‘Every Child Matters’ agenda on the basis that, as well as being an outrageous intrusion into children’s and families’ privacy, it sets up a dangerous confusion between child protection and more general child welfare concerns.
In today’s Guardian, an interesting comment piece points out the effects of ECM on education:
The French philosopher Montesquieu observed in The Spirit of Laws that education systems seem to transmit a main principle which informs both individual behaviour and a corresponding system of government, a principle for what Foucault would call “the government of self and others”. Education transmits the principles of honour in a monarchy, virtue in a republic and fear in a tyranny. If Every Child Matters is anything to go by, we can say that today’s society is ruled according to the principles of health and safety.
Well worth reading.
definitely worth a read- thanks for pointing it out to us.