Introduction While tutoring a twenty-five year-old school “failure” I began to appreciate widespread concerns about the poor literacy standards of many young people in the UK. You can see the young man talking about his transition with a teacher who has used the book here. I am a former head teacher and English examiner for …
What, How and Why: a manual of better English – how the book came about. Read More »
Status for Teachers Whom do we trust with our children? In an emergency how willing would you be to leave a child of yours, a child of about eight shall we say, with a neighbour, someone you do not know particularly well and whom the child does not know? An adult perhaps about whom you …
Parents and Responsibility The ease and reliability of the pill accelerated the uncoupling of sex from reproduction and therefore detached it to a great extent from responsibility. This was Libby Purves on December 6th, 2021 in The Times. We were all been horrified at the fate of six-year-old Arthur Labinjo-Hughes’ death at the hands of his father and …
In a comment piece in the Times in September Clare Foges overlooked the need to consider an audience, something that was not addressed by subsequent correspondents. Consideration of an audience is a crucial matter in both spoken and written communication which I always sought to explain to my students. The need for clear, unambiguous expression in writing is …
In The Times last Saturday (Sep 4th 2021) Rachel Sylvester presents two dichotomies: spoon-fed pupils facing a high-tech future and questions about the purpose of schools. Should they provide knowledge or skills? Resolution of these dichotomies might be easier were we to acknowledge our confused approach to young people.Since I began teaching in the nineteen-seventies the …
Confused about young people – spoon-fed and ill-prepared for the world of work Read More »
A long article in today’s Times deals with a dramatic rise in the divorce rate. It considers the age at which people marry, and the age at which they get divorced. It considers where they live and in what sort of accommodation; apparently outside lavatories are now a thing of the past. There is one …
At Barking Station in East London, in the late seventies, we were returning from an afternoon trip to the theatre, a group of my fifteen year-olds from Barking Abbey School. There we were greeted by members of the National Front, one at each of the staircases leading up from the platforms, handing out leaflets telling …
Could Marcus Rashford learn from this lad or should he simply go home? Read More »
We were reminded recently (By Libby Purves in The Times 10 May 2021) of the importance of young people finding the confidence to speak out in public. I once sent a reluctant reader to stand away from his classmates on the chancel steps in the school chapel, knowing that he would be expected to read out aloud. …
At grammar school I spent Latin lessons reading the Farmer’s Weekly; aged forty-two I passed the subject at GCSE level and, by way of contrition for my adolescent shortcomings, I started a Latin club in two comprehensive schools.The Scottish Classics Group’s “Ecce Romani” is to be recommended. A former pupil of mine was asked at Sheffield University …
A recent report spoke of the need to protect younger pupils in secondary schools and talked about “behaviour management,” “educational technology training” and “controlled environments,” more appropriate for prisons rather than schools.Schools invite the trust of parents and with this trust goes the expectation that schools will keep children safe and make good use of their time in school. There is of …
