Education in British schools isn't good enough. It's not remotely

The words of Richard Rogers—“Education in British schools isn't good enough. It's not remotely imaginative enough. It lets down too many children, excluding them from society, and, as I've often said, people who are excluded from society tend to express themselves in ways not acceptable to society.”—carry the weight of warning and the fire of compassion. Rogers, an architect who shaped the skylines of cities, here turns his gaze to the scaffolding of human lives—the education of children. He reminds us that when education lacks imagination, it builds not citizens but outcasts, not bridges but walls. To fail in teaching is not a small mistake; it is to sow alienation, and from that alienation comes rebellion, anger, and fracture within society.

The ancients knew this well. Plato declared that the education of the young was the root of the just state, for only when the soul was nurtured in wisdom, music, and imagination could the city flourish. But when the young are neglected, they become strangers to the society that abandoned them. Rogers speaks in this ancient voice: when schools fail, children are excluded, and the excluded will find other, often destructive, ways to speak their pain. For no human being will remain voiceless forever; if society refuses to listen to a child’s gifts, it will one day hear their rage.

History offers countless proofs of this truth. Consider the story of the industrial slums of nineteenth-century London. Children worked in factories rather than attending schools, denied both learning and imagination. The result was not merely ignorance, but alienation—a generation cut off from the society that exploited them. Many fell into crime, gangs, and violence, because when society gave them no acceptable place, they carved one out with desperate hands. It was only through reforms in education, through acts of visionaries like Lord Shaftesbury, that the cycle was broken, and children were brought back into the fold of society.

Rogers, himself a creator of buildings designed to inspire, understood the link between space, imagination, and the human spirit. He knew that education without imagination is a lifeless shell, a mechanism that teaches children how to repeat but not how to create. A society that teaches only conformity excludes those whose minds burn differently, and these excluded children, feeling abandoned, grow bitter. Their rejection is not quiet; it comes forth in ways deemed “unacceptable”—through crime, protest, or destruction. Yet these acts are not born of innate malice, but of society’s failure to embrace them.

This teaching carries with it a deep responsibility. For it is not only teachers who fail, but all of us when we allow education to become narrow, rigid, and unimaginative. A society that values only examination and utility, while neglecting creativity and spirit, betrays its children. And those betrayed will not forget. To educate without imagination is to plant seeds of exclusion, and exclusion is the mother of unrest. Rogers, in his wisdom, declares that schools are not just places of learning, but the foundation stones of social peace.

The lesson for us is clear: education must be imaginative, inclusive, and alive. It must not merely prepare children for tests, but prepare them for life—giving them the tools to belong, to contribute, to feel that society has a place for them. To fail in this is to weaken the very fabric of the nation. Each child lost to exclusion is a fracture in the wall of society, and too many fractures bring collapse.

Practically, this means fostering schools that celebrate creativity, individuality, and imagination. It means supporting teachers who nurture, not just instruct; building classrooms that invite exploration rather than fear; and investing in education not as a burden but as the highest duty of a free people. Parents, leaders, and communities alike must hold themselves accountable for whether their children feel included or excluded. For the fate of the child is the fate of society.

Thus, Richard Rogers speaks as both prophet and builder: if education excludes, society will crumble; if education inspires, society will thrive. Let us not neglect the imaginative flame in the young, for upon that flame rests the hope of tomorrow. And let us remember: the measure of a nation’s greatness is not in its towers or wealth, but in whether every child feels that they belong to the world they are asked to build.