‘65% of today’s students will be employed in jobs that don’t exist yet – so we should focus on teaching transferable skills rather than outdated and potentially redundant knowledge.’ Nothing to disagree with there, right? Well, actually yes – the strand of leftwing thought it represents, that the teaching of knowledge is rightwing, regressive and redundant, and should at all costs be resisted. Read more
It was March 2011 when the coalition government announced proposals to reform England’s special educational needs (SEN) system with promises to make things ‘stronger and simpler’ for parents and children. But from the start, the changes were plagued by confusion, slipshod administration and the effects of austerity. SEN is inevitably a niche area of policy, but there is a big story here, of one of the David Cameron era’s most howling disasters. Read more
Considering all the truly evil things which happen in this country, it is strange that people get so furious about politicians saying that yes, since you ask, they wouldn’t seek to change the law, but as a theoretical matter, they aren’t wholly on board with the modern progressive beliefs about sex. Progressives love to denounce Christian sexual ethics. But does secular liberalism have any answers? Read more
Teachers and school leaders need to rise above the endless political back and forth and start making a proactive case for education. From the curator of lost languages, Robert MacFarlane, this week we learnt a new word: ‘úht-cearu’. It’s an old English term signifying the worries that gather as one lies sleepless before dawn. I’m guessing it was a word that over the past few nights could be applied to the nation’s teachers and educational leaders. Read more