A school in South Africa was known for its incredible food, so much so that pupils often went home and told their mother (disrespectfully, sadly) to improve the cooking at home! The pupils had a choice of a hot or cold meal every meal; they had the choice of ten cold meats, ten salads, ten puddings every meal. They were allowed to have as much or as little as they wanted. They could even have all ten puddings if they wanted! It was wonderful! It was wonderful to have such choice!
Every now and then it is good for us to be able to go out for a meal in a restaurant. What is more, when we do go out for a meal, we may be fortunate to have a wide choice of restaurants to visit. Noone forces us to go to any one in particular. And then, when we have made that choice, we can also choose what we want to eat from the full menu that is presented to us. The restaurant owners do not force us to eat what they say; we have a choice. However, if something is not on the menu we cannot make them cook it for us. We have to choose from what is there, if we have chosen that restaurant. That is all very reasonable. Choice is wonderful and choice is important.
We all want a choice. None of us wants to be a clone, made exactly the same as everyone else, doing and thinking exactly the same as everyone else. Choice can cater for our diversity in our tastes, diets and customs. Furthermore, we will generally do things more cooperatively and enthusiastically if we have a choice. We are more likely to eat all the food on our plate if we have chosen it ourselves; many from a previous generation might remember school food which seemed to stick in our gullets!
Some of the choices that we have are easy. We do not necessarily need a lot of thought to consider what music we will listen to at any particular time or what clothes to wear (though it should be added that this is more applicable to the male gender who generally will simply put on whatever clothes are nearest). In contrast, however, some choices are difficult. A choice might be difficult because it may be dangerous or uncertain. If we see some mushrooms around, we may have the choice (assuming we like mushrooms) of eating them but there are some mushrooms that are poisonous or to which we are allergic; that makes the choice somewhat harder!
Then again, some choices are actually immaterial, of no real significance or consequence. We may well reply to someone who offers us a choice of things, “I don’t mind!” They are not major decisions and we could be equally happy with either option so we may say, “Whatever is easiest for you.” Yet there are other choices that are actually serious. We would not say, “I don’t mind” with regard to choosing someone to marry! Similarly, we are not likely to take lightly the choice of career, saying, “I’m not fussed – you choose!”
Choice is healthy and desirable but not always possible. We have choices but we have to see that even within the choices we are limited by a number of different factors. We may be limited by the cost. We may want to eat at an expensive restaurant or choose something on the menu of a restaurant to which we do go but we may not be able to afford them. We may also be limited by availability. How often have we been told when we order something that, “Sorry, that is not available today”? Then we may be limited by suitability. We can have an endless choice of careers presented before us but not all are suitable for us. We may even have the qualifications for the job but may not have the character, so our choices will be diminished naturally. Importantly, we will be limited by history, by which we refer to our own history, to the choices we made previously. As a result of our actions today, our choices in the future may be affected. Bad choices that we make at school, with regard to our behaviour, will haunt us in future, if we are not careful.
It will not have passed us by that all of the above applies to education. We can choose whether we send our child to an independent school and we can choose where, dependent on cost, availability, suitability and history. We may not all have the same choice. It is respected that this is not an easy or simple choice but it is a crucial and serious one. It is important that we choose the right school for our child, and then choose from what is on their menu. However, once we have made our choice, we must live with it. We need to choose wisely – about that, we have no choice!
