Column: Dennis Richards, former headteacher's view on education - ​Are these the good old days after all?

​Invariably a term used by an older generation, what we are really doing is looking back to an era when we were young.

Adrian Chiles, the television presenter has written a hilarious account of his move into middle age. He describes it in terms of the number of pills he has been prescribed for his hypertension, anxiety, indigestion, and vitamin deficiency. Next add in the painkillers and sore throat pastilles. His daily routine has now necessitated a pill box. His dad’s is twice as big.

Furthermore, closer scrutiny of “the good old days” in relation to our national story by historians, has shown them in many ways to have been the bad old days. Slowly but surely, we have had to come to terms with the realisation that Britain’s colonial past was not always quite as glorious as we may once have been taught. The recent tumultuous events in France are telling the French much the same thing.

Maybe in our schools we are again looking back to a glorious past that never was. It is fair to say that all schools have always had their have ups and downs. Just as it is fair to say that every school year has its high points and its low points.

Currently schools are approaching the end of the school year. The school proms have been as popular as ever and the school holidays will soon be upon us. There is, however, increasing evidence that young people have changed.

Education psychologists are unanimous that “the arrival of the smartphone has radically changed every aspect of teenagers’ lives from the nature of their social interactions to their mental health.” That much is now clear. Sport, Music, Art, Dance, Drama and Outdoor Activity can still be their salvation. Much as they always have been. The Government would, therefore, be wise to get the chaos in our schools sorted out now, before another year of disruption and burned-out teachers is upon us.

Two features of the June 29 edition of the Harrogate Advertiser gave me hope. Great to see the retro photos of schools’ sports teams of years gone by. For those students, some unforgettable memories. That was followed by some excellent positive news in Graham Chalmers news report about Harrogate High School. I had a wander around the campus this week for the first time in several years. On a lovely summer morning it was calm and clean, no litter in sight with a clear focus on its community significance.

The school should take particular pride in its record for an “ambitious curriculum” and also for establishing a “culture of reading.” I also bumped into a familiar face I had not seen for years. I knew what was coming. It used to be a comment about the weather. Not now. The inimitable June Whitfield has described the three ages of man as follows. Youth, middle age and “My word, you do look well.” Perhaps these are the good old days after all.