Take up the tennis challenge

A challenge is normally a most exciting thing. It may be daunting, or over-ambitious, or reliant on many complex factors coming together. The player himself can safely ignore most of these hurdles and constraints. For every player, for every person, they are almost identical. They are the facts of life. You may as well accept them from the outset, and get to know, and finally enjoy, those certain obstacles.

workouttennis.com is the tennis branch of Challenge Europe - a charitable organisation set up by pedagogues and academics in 2002 to offer alternative training routes for "disadvantaged" children.

When I talk about "disadvantaged" children, many people automatically assume that these children are physically handicapped. I have to reassure them that "disadvantaged" means something else entirely.

 Taken very largely, the education system of any country is a "one size fits all " system. It is almsot impossible for a child who needs to learn in a different way, or different things, from different people, to decide for himself. He has to take what's given to him. In many cases children, their parents too, have to simply accept that 20 years of education is 20 years of compromise. You won't be able to do what you want.

Can't get my way

So, with my colleagues, all of whom had extensive experience working with children, we took the term "disadvantaged" to mean all of those poor children who had to go through a national education system that didn't meet their needs. This is simply the well-documented fact that national education achieves very little for very many young people, mostly because it imposes this one size fits all idea, that is indeed convenient, and relatively cost-effective, but cannot be said to be serving an educational purpose to meet the requirements of the working world when school is finally finished.

It also includes children who may well have success at school, but through other circumstances, geographical, financial, family situation, health, cannot advance his talents as he should.

So that is the big picture of Challenge Europe.

While we don't pretend to be able to change any education system, indeed any ways of thinking, we also know that there are lots of people who think like we do, and have even officialised alternative education forms.

The models that are most interesting are private academies that are able to build in useful options in addition to a classic programme. Others simply allow a child to continue his education at home on authorised distance learning courses, and parents or other educators can tailor-make these options. It's, to cut it short, all about options. The challenge is building in options over a long period, and still maintaining a semblance of classical education, that'll give basic knowledge and communication skills for later.

Also out East

Getting back to where we started, Challenge Europe is a tried and tested global format, not just for Europe. We decided to call it Europe, because the charity is centrally placed in Europe, drawing on Europe-wide experiences and people, and serving children who are mostly based somewhere in Europe.

The challenge is finally an individual one. We don't necessarily create a challenge, or challenges, we let a child show us that he wants to take on a challenge, whatever his circumstances. We'll then find people and resources to keep that challenge alive.