Thursday 12 December 2013

Saturday 16 February 2013

It Beggars Belief!


Would a school appoint a musician (no previous experience in chemistry) as head of chemistry in a school? I think not, so why do we have a journalist (no previous experience in education) running the education system?

The efforts of schools and their teachers (no fault of theirs) are aimed at 'hitting targets' (all that matters is that we achieve X% A-Cs in these so called 'key subjects') so they are not perceived as failing according to standards that are a nonsense . It is common knowledge that everyone performs better when they are relaxed and happy yet the current system prevents this. Education should be about encouraging pupils to become independent learners and creative thinkers, nurturing the individual talent each pupil has, irrespective of whether or not it is in one of the aforementioned 'key subjects'. This cannot be achieved until a relaxed environment (where a teacher is not constantly 'on edge' in case someone with a clip board comes in to see how he/she is measuring up against the silly standards) is created in schools. 

I'm speaking about the UK but I'm sure the above applies to the US and many other countries.
I'll leave you with the video: http://goo.gl/oHByGk

Tuesday 12 February 2013

We Must Take Note

"If we teach today's students the way we taught yesterday's, we rob them of tomorrow" - John Dewey
Check out: http://alturl.com/jd3wj

Should the Government begin to Question?


Were I the CEO of a business where 50% of its employees left in their first three years I should seriously question my policies.   As 50% of Maths and Science teachers leave the profession in their first three years should not the government be seriously questioning its educational policies?