For all of you who are concerned about the future of our country please watch this.
It is a link to an inspirational thinker, educator and genuine force of nature. It is provocative, it is very funny and it is an antidote to the bean counters who have held sway over far too many deeply thick, self-serving Education Ministers. It is rallying call to all who value free thinking and the real purpose of eduction.
Sample: a teacher approaches a small child in a primary school drawing a picture. "What are you drawing" the child is asked. "I am drawing a picture of God," replies the child. "But no-one knows what God looks like" says the teacher. "They will in a minute" says the child.
Warning to square peg people - you may not like it.
A system that reduces a bright engaged 7 year old to tears because he is taking his SATs and doesn't want to let anyone down is a shitty system. A system that encourages primary schools to devote 75% of their time to practicing exam technique is an abomination. A system that reduces teacher creativity to figuring out how to swing the figures to climb the league table is barking daft. A system that actively undermines our future potential is economic suicide.
And then Ofsted came down from their mountain top today to declare too many lessons dull. What a surprise! Fancy that! Place teachers in a straightjacket and then complain that they struggle. But whose fault is it?
In a teaching career lasting 36 years there were 19 Education Ministers. Each wanting to make their mark. Desperate to 'innovate.' The worst by some considerable distance was the slug-like smug bastard Baker who brought us the 1988 Act (which then had to be massively amended by Dearing because it was so ill-thought out). Each 'Initiative' takes no account of what has gone before - what worked, what didn't, what just needed a tweak and what needed binning.
Do they get Ofstedded? Do they hell.
They are on the stepping stone to political power and god help anyone in their path…..or not, in some notable cases, who fell by the wayside.
Remember Ken Robinson - think about his ideas - it does not have to be so bloody awful.
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