From Voyager 2 which is now nearly 10000000000 miles from Earth can be compared with information from it says to craft Voyager one to increase our knowledge of solar winds b.b.c. News in half an hour from now the 1st in a 3 part series on music and mental health Chris Hawkins examines the life and legacy of the lead singer Scott Hutchison of the group Frightened Rabbit that's in the art of not at half past 11 1st that trigonometry you learned at school how interesting did you find it now on radio for the writer via back to school to find out whether giving teenagers a say in their curriculum might make them more engaged with learning. To write everything. First of all there. Was a more thoughts as expected with. 10 years ago I was in your position hours choosing my subjects thinking about what I wanted to do in future and I ended up leaving school just because I wasn't interested and I was motivated. My name as far as. 25 I'm a writer an editor and I love learning but this wasn't always the case when I had my teenage years I lost interest in school couldn't see the point in it I don't see anyone to chew now at the start of adolescence about a 3rd of 14 year olds report being bored at school and it's a phenomenon that students teachers and parents alike will recognize. This border leads to disengagement which can result in lower achievement of course but worse than that it can mean a life devoid of the joy of learning Luckily for me my curiosity came back and one thing I'm curious to know all about is this so-called educational dip around 1314 I work on the teenage brain Sarah Jane Blakemore is a good place to start She's professor of psychology and cognitive neuroscience at the University of Cambridge and also the teenage brain you could even ask what isn't changing in a adolescence you know you have puberty these huge changes in sex hormones at puberty the resulting physical changes the way we treat young people changes once they look more like handled so they're given more sponsibility more Ptolemy more culpability we become in early adolescence more sophisticated in terms of our ability to make decisions to plan to inhibit in appropriate sponsors to empathize with others understand other people's minds and other people's perspectives the brain is changing massively at this time not only in terms of functioning but they're also huge structural changes going on that makes it a period of transition and also vulnerability but what causes an education age that you know 14 you can only look at what other things are going on at that age and it has been put down to lots of different things like changing from a small school to a big secondary school changes in academic pressure but all that means is they correlate with that education to really know what causes it if the experts don't know why not go straight to the source good day there is a high performing secondary school in the south west of England. Have you found that you have become less interested in learning when you sort of hit your mid teens say around $10.11 Have you found a difference in your interest in the 7 a I was really excited for the school as it's going on not just becoming less interested in learning about graphs and straight line equations and things like that like I'm older and I kind of understand a bit more now about like the bright world if you ask like most of our parents they probably learn quite a lot of the same lessons and the way the world changing I think. We could learn and we could benefit from before we hear what subjects the students did want to learn I had a burden to pick with someone as a teenager I struggled to understand the relevance of what I was learning to me in my life I love history now but school I thought I hated it what was the benefit of learning kings and queens and just who had decided that it was the history of dusty old monarchs that had to fill my brain when he just sees. I have no idea I was 10 years ago in the records but you do a lot of yes there are loads Kenneth Baker the man responsible for the national curriculum which came in under Margaret Thatcher's government in the eighty's the national curriculum has been through a number of changes since then the most recent of which were the much remarks upon reforms by Michael but I was keen to meet the man who started it I started school in 1998 which would have been 10 years after the national curriculum came in voiceless it when I think. There was no national curriculum school decides upon their own curriculum and therefore good schools and good critical and poor schools are portrait looms and so there was a determined effort to try to provide a standard curriculum for children letters of committees did serve in what was a curriculum in English messenger of history it is very difficult to do their real battle if we look at the original 1988 the national curriculum one of the aims is to prepare such people for the opportunities responsibilities and experiences of adult life I remember right here yes there were great debates in the government with Margaret Thatcher and others who wanted a much simpler not so broad base but I want a broad base for those involved in music and cultural subjects and I also introduce a terrible subject to scientific knowledge which is not being phased which I think the big mistake. And so that is why I say what say we just going to youngsters 1314 I think youngsters are going to be prepared much more for the world of life and work well teenager has opinions of ways is involved in the making of the national curriculum why he's speaking to them about what they wanted for that occasion. I think we made some attempts to speech them but I didn't think it was a material matter in it quite frankly I think it was educational system as broad a range of education I could possibly get so I suppose the question is considering that children out of growing up with technology should they have a big part in establishing what that curriculum is yes I have a very good to have taught so you think listening to the views of students here that has an effect on the academic performance in favor of all of that are you going to treat children more mature way I was believe that every child there's a bit of flint and the purpose of education is to find the flame to strike you Mr Spock. So we've got the approval of the father of the national curriculum so I ask the described tools youngsters what they wanted to learn we were going to spark that Flint's by asking them what they wanted to learn and then jolly well letting them learn it. Democracy agency the suspect power what they choose to learn capillary maybe welding string theory the pursuit in the history of feminist start in Japan I couldn't wait to hear their ideas. So we go round and share your ideas what you would the curriculum is going to start on the left I think we should add like sign language because there is a chance in life that you might be and there is a lot of people in the u.k. That death and I think there is room for improvement in how we accept people with disabilities and people here as that is different to us and I think it would be a big step into having a lot of acceptance for disability and people are despite it. And Libby also mentioned climate change why do you think that's important as the creature I think is important because it's something that is to get affect us that personally I don't really see much change happening climate change and stuff as I already have sort of included drug however some things like politics and on are showing including the curriculum or as whatsoever if somebody is trying to get on the housing ladder sometimes why not know which party wants to go and build more houses which one just well I kind of once would like to introduce council housing and so I believe that we should learn about taxes and health by how soon and how to act in an interview because I just think coming. To Koos. Well we leave education more than broad questions Macbeth analyzing poems and things that. I think lead to like me a lot of the extracurricular activities into our school timetable to everyone has to be cycling or any of the extra curricular helps it's might be more like artistic or like about history or anything someone is interested in to just engage them back into the day. I think we should learn about mindfulness and self-love and how to like understand our brain because there's like a lot of lack of confidence in this and how do you see if we are the choice of what we want to do. Are really into football and. Once every 2 days or so on we can just have the last football government enjoy it on I guess is your opinion like your choice of are you one of the cities that make you think that is that you would like more choices in the school days so yeah. Even though the kids picked up pretty different things like mindfulness and sign language which seem completely random on the surface as I started talking more about their ideas it was very clear that what they were saying was we need space in our day to have a break and learn stuff that we're not going to get tested on and stuff that is going to be useful and beneficial for us as people and I suppose what's. Even more interesting is considering that idea How do you turn a fair one parent of the day into the school day to do that in a way that suits all pupils I realize that if I put the kids in charge that everybody seem to learn more as to which is key is a rubric of a journalist and a highly regarded all sorts here in education we thought she might have the answer to how to cater to everyone's different passions She's the author of many shots in education which advocates giving teenagers control over their learning allowing them to see their passions and creativity for 20 percent of the time with help from adults but letting them set the party. From a studio in California she told me what she'd learns about 14 year olds you know when you're before the age of 13 you're willing to do what the system wants follow instructions but I think it's your biological changes and just to change an attitude as a teenager the number one thing teenagers want is independence because they are tired of just following instructions and they want to be able to be in control and the system doesn't work with that the system is even harsher and penalties if you don't follow instructions and then we produce an entire generation of people that follow instructions and then we wonder why are the people you know the workers they don't seem to be very innovative Well why don't we just look at the way we trained them they were trained to be obedient and as I understand it part of fuel price in doing that is the 20 percent rule could you explain what that is right so my suggestion is how about just 20 percent of the time can be called moonshot time it can be called innovation time you can call it whatever you want and in that time students can work on projects that they care about or work on curriculum that they care about and if they want to do something in a textbook that's fine but in fact they should be given the opportunity to do a project about whatever it is they're interested in so if you respect their ideas which sometimes seem a little wacky I'll tell you they'll be pretty happy and they won't experience this dep as an educator then how would you facilitate that within the classroom setting so one of the things we have to do is allow students to move out of the classroom we should facilitate some way in which they can contact other people. While they're quote in the education time period and so I used journalism as a way to teach these skills but you could use math you know you can use science science is all projects that's what science is all about industry is interested in what they're doing and they're interested in them as employees because they have the skills that most employers are looking for they're willing they know how to collaborate and communicate really well they think critically and they're creative and I think that's what most employers are looking for today and they are finding that in students coming out of the traditional program so back at the school we also see it has to take a focus on the various different ideas they had come up with including this option for a student driven independent learning. Or as we called it Choice time I was sure they would go for Choice time and brought some order folks so with every sort of real hope of our. Program we've had some time to think about the justice you gave last time I was like here to have a vote on these subjects now so I'm going to run through what they were we had learning sign language mindfulness and self-love adult life. So that job interview technique learning about finance is things like that we had a change and we had a choice time so having a lesson where you can decide what it is you want to do perhaps actually critical activity or working on a cortex and something that you're really interested in so could you. Just saying Ok clear was a lot about climate change. Is one of change Ok he would pay for adult life. Oh Ok that's life. 1234567891011121314151617 and then the last one choice time you would vote for that 8 of you would vote for Choice time Wow Ok adult life skills taxes mortgages insurance interview techniques not wired expected when we 1st met the class it felt as if they wanted more choice to pursue their passions but when it was put to a vote a huge majority went for this category of adult life skills we made it really clear that they could choose to learn how to file their taxes within the free choice lessons if they wanted to but would also have the freedom to learn how to knit or how to build treehouses but they insisted they just wanted the adult life skills classes so wondering if the teacher had secretly bribed the move we went to a different school still a school with good results but closer to the city center Abby would Community School in north Bristol and here's what they said Fina politics more languages self defense criminology. Life Skills Politics Lost goes on life skills yeah let's get more languages how to handle things I like school. Ok what came out there were a lot this life skills I think about 5 or 6 of you said life skills What do you consider life skills things just don't a lot different from conventional lessons so you don't actually learn how to play or solve inches on a lawyer. Like parts of a few finances and how to apply for jobs just awful. And like how you're supposed to work instead of just doing like a regimen to program could work not like probably cooking on like learning how to take care of yourself like. Others as well center and ask. Them to pay bills like insurance. And this. Trying to look after yourself emotionally but then also not just to take care of yourself but physically like Cook and. Like finance and things like that but also be enough to deal with things like to creep into things like that as well but I'm getting is that you think it's important to prepare for the future why would that be interesting to you as opposed to why would it be useful why would it interest you left school like people will be there to like help you like you have to do everything yourself if you're not about my skills that are like I was this is going to help me in the future I need to learn about this stuff to myself all. Yeah that is really interesting and that's kind of what we've seen I think there's a bit of a generational divide where people are actually in school they're just really keen on learning how to be an I don't. Think of my costume when I was 15 we would have very stupid stuff I mean just any you know anything can everything I think I really wanted to be a pop singer when I was that age and I was famous for class on how it's become a pop singer we probably would have thought of. You know every kind of bizarre and outrageous and not very useful topic under the sun because it would have been fun for us to do that and these kids just didn't even seem to think that that was worth entertaining that they could do something for fun it was we have to be adults and understand what's what because that's what's waiting for us back a good day no school Mr Hill tried to make sense of the classes but I. Wonder if how many of you feel. Bad about the future quite uncertain about it and actually this makes you feel more confident maybe it's the stuff you see in the news maybe it's your experiences from home or stuff that you're saying you know about life that should make you feel a responsibility to engage with your life. If you would you think this is about feeling confident in your future. One of the. So it seems the choice of so-called life skills is about feeling in control feeling confident about the future but the future by its very nature is uncertain adults on sure how to prepare for it let alone 14 year olds. To get an idea of what might be coming through these teens when they are adults we consulted 3 grown ups with crystal balls a future ologist horizon scanner and an expert on the future of what So what we do is that what we try to understand how technology is reshaping in the world of work in terms of the jobs that we think might emerge in the future the type of jobs that we see disappear and what that will be in for the future of growth in income inequality and so docs a call for a is co director of the program on the future of what Oxford University the 1st thing you want to make sure is that the skills you acquire are not things that machines are relatively good at if you want to focus on things and which machines perform poorly and that is complex social interactions creative thinking in originality and I think these type of skills are best thought by having children interact in the classroom by discussing and debating and I think that the curriculum should increasingly reflect that Ok so which jobs are going to go and what he wants might be coming so among the jobs that are likely to disappear with the past drivers taxi drivers cash errors receptionist insurance underwriters telemarketing us so we don't see a lot of people working at call centers for example in terms of the jobs that will emerge so much harder right so if you would have asked your grandparents what they would have thought in you know 1920 are going to be jobs in the year 2000 there were probably not have said software engineers and yoga instructors and so on but I think certain things we do see already so they test become new material of our Asian That is not just you know that people need to learn machine learning skills but actually sort of simple things like understanding the news I mean we're living in air out of fake news where people constantly doubt what experts say and I think people need to be. Able to actually make informed judgments of a truth seeking individual to be able to find out who's actually writing who is perhaps the best arguments so our expert on the future of work would introduce a clause on fake news and creativity we also spoke to Professor Cliff he thinks AI's contribution to the future is overhyped My name's Dave cliff and I'm a professor of computer science at University of Bristol I work in artificial intelligence machine learning and also looking at the kind of societal or social economic effects of technology some way into the future so sometimes that's called horizon scanning. Obviously the temptation for me as someone who works in computer science not to show intelligence is to say oh you should learn to code or you should learn about eye on machine learning and I think those things will be important but I think by the time current teenagers are in their thirty's a lot of that technology will have played out and probably the thing that would be most valuable for them right now would be to become acquainted with the technolog