From The Tenant of Wildfell Hall: Rose, now, at a hint from my mother, produced a decanter of wine, with accompaniments of glasses and cake, from the cupboard and the oak sideboard, and the refreshment was duly presented to the guests. They both partook of the cake, but obstinately refused the wine, in spite of… Read more »
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If you want to make yourself enemies in education, probably the best way to do so is to have a decided opinion about grammar schools. They are a litmus test for a whole range of other political and educational beliefs, particularly those to do with equality and elitism. For some people, grammar schools are elitist… Read more »
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There have been a couple of posts on Dan Willingham’s blog recently about the value of ereaders in the classroom. I should declare an interest here – I was one of the first people in this country to get a Kindle. I still have it and I love it. I am obsessed with it. People… Read more »
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A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a post arguing that the ‘traditional’ understanding of a hierarchical, teacher-centric classroom has not existed in English schools since at least the 1960s. In the comments thread, I am trying to list examples of people claiming that this model of teaching still does exist (normally in the context… Read more »
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A few days ago, I wrote a blog post explaining why I left the ATL teaching union. Put briefly, it’s because the ATL’s views on the curriculum and the role of knowledge are completely inimical to good teaching. As if to confirm how right I was, the Telegraph have an article in their online edition… Read more »
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This week the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) held their annual conference. In the closing speech to the conference, the head of the union, Mary Bousted, gave a speech about the effects of poverty on schooling. In her speech, she criticised the way that education in this country is ‘stratified along class lines.’ She… Read more »
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A colleague at school recently asked me if I knew of any examples of people from hundreds of years ago complaining about ‘the kids of today’. I said I had a couple of ideas and that I would get them to him. After a bit of work on Google (see those 21st century skills in… Read more »
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