As well as being the new Shadow Secretary of State for Education, Tristram Hunt is also the author of an excellent introduction to Penguin Modern Classics edition of The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists. Hunt has also written elsewhere about this novel and its author, Robert Tressell – in an article here for the Guardian and another one here on… Read more »
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In this post here I noted that E.D. Hirsch often cites Antonio Gramsci’s work in defence of his ideas. The quotation he (and others) often refer to is this one: The new concept of schooling is in its romantic phase, in which the replacement of “mechanical” by “natural” methods has become unhealthily exaggerated. Previously pupils… Read more »
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On BBC Radio 4 Analysis just now I quoted Robert Tressell to explain why important knowledge belongs to all of us. “What we call civilization–the accumulation of knowledge which has come down to us from our forefathers–is the fruit of thousands of years of human thought and toil. It is not the result of the… 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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Stephen Twigg is quoted here in the Guardian as saying that: ‘While in government, Labour made huge efforts to raise the status and quality of teaching; introducing programmes like Teach First to attract bright graduates, linking performance to pay and giving heads greater freedom to remove under-performing teachers.’ (my emphasis) Is this the case about… Read more »
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In my last post, I referred to a great post by Andrew Old where he uses a quadrant to clarify a common misconception in educational debates. I have drawn up a quadrant to represent something similar. As with Andrew, my x axis represents content. But my y axis represents not entitlement, but school structures. The… Read more »
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I just read an excellent post here by Andrew Old which clarifies a frequent misconception in debates about education. Put simply, there are two key debates in education – one is about the content of the curriculum, and one is about entitlement. But generally, these two ideas get conflated. Thus, if you believe in traditional… Read more »
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I just posted a blog about 21st century skills over here. I got some very interesting and thought-provoking responses from people in the comments and on Twitter. All good. One person, Sam Freedman, retweeted it saying ‘This is good’. So far, so good. Then Brian Lightman, General Secretary of the Association of School and College… Read more »
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