For all his faults, Gradgrind was right

The next time your four year old nephew smears chocolate over your trousers you are to congratulate him. According to government guidance, soon to be issued to nurseries by Dawn Primarolo, the glibly smirking illiterate would have been writing.  Yesterday’s Independent reported that in response to evidence that the gender gap between children under the age of five has widened in writing, problem-solving and personal development, the government believe that boys should work harder.  This seemingly impossible task will be eased by ‘making learning fun’: boys will be allowed to graffiti any given surface with chocolate and coloured sand.
 
What a way to begin the new decade: by creating a mass of juvenile Banksies. Concern should be voiced about the widening gulf in educational attainment, over which successive governments have presided. But no answer resides in coercion through chocolate? My four year old nephew expresses himself with chocolate, usually to indicate his distaste for upholstery, but he has no interest in expressing himself on paper with ink, chocolate or anything else.