It seems that if you have children, one of the things which is always foremost in the thoughts of the parents is their education. I think for many people this a continuing and nagging pain in their mind, where worries about whether little Jonny will get to the right university, even though he is only four, or whether little Jocasta will be elected Secretary General of the UN after having gained a Nobel Prize for peace based on her work in algebraic topology leading to the Fields medal (she of course becomes Pope later on, uniting all the world's major religions and eventually getting a bionically enhanced Richard Dawkins to discover God and proclaim the coming of the new Messiah.)

Toni and me discuss the little ones' education often but the conversation is always started by Toni. The talking rarely goes well and usually ends in a small row. Toni thinks I don't care, that I am not showing enough interest. I am very interested, but from a completely different perspective.

I'm not overly worried about the OFSTED rating of our school. I don't mind whether they use synthetic phonics, whether the GCSE syllabus is to be replaced or if there is enough traditional rote learning of multiplication tables. I don't think any of this matters at all.

Our society has become obsessed with arbitrary measures which tell us little, except someone's ability to perform a particular and often irrelevant task.

It is important that everyone can read, write and do maths. An understanding of history, geography and art are essential, but education is not about learning to do or know things. True success, happiness, these are ultimately not dependent on your ability to do any specific thing, but on your character.

Honesty, kindness, compassion, perseverance, imagination and above all a love of play will trump any acquired skill or learning.

In the words of Plato:

The most effective kind of education is that a child should play amongst lovely things.

This Plato chappy really is right up my street - the guy in the video is good too.