Comments on: The meaning of Gove

By: Mr Reasonable

Mr Reasonable — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 13:42:00 +0000

In reply to Mick.

I have never met any militant left-wingers in any school in which I have taught! Lots of footie fans, cake bakers and Ikea fanatics, though! You may be referring to the late 60s or the 70s, but not, in my experience, the 90s/00s. Conversations about politics would be met with rolling eyes and a tendency to shuffle away from the speaker.

And there is no such thing as ‘neutral teaching’. It’s all subjective. Teachers personalise the lessons they teach; not dogmatically, but through their enthusiasm and their personal characteristics. (Or not!)
A ‘neutral’ lesson would imply a lack of commitment or even involvement on the part of the teacher, which is always a bad thing thing. Which is also to say that sometimes lessons fail and teachers make mistakes – we are not ‘neutral’ robots! If you don’t care about the lesson, how too can the children you are meant to be teaching?

‘Crashing failure’? Evidence, please!

By: Mick

Mick — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 22:05:00 +0000

In reply to Mr Reasonable.

“I have taught in ‘bog standard comprehensives and found the staff far more committed to excellent teaching than the embittered gentlemen who liked wielding the cane at the grammar school I had the misfortune to attend.”

New Labour made them bog standard, with crashing failure and militant left wingers more interested in politics than neutral teaching.

As can be found if you Google NEW LABOUR EQUALS TREACHERY: EDUCATION. And LEARN.

By: Selohesra

Selohesra — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 09:33:00 +0000

In reply to Mr Reasonable. No I think the left wingers were those unreconstructed marxists sitting in their academic ivory towers trying to destroy the education system from the inside

By: Robert Jones

Robert Jones — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 13:14:00 +0000

In reply to scousefrog. Arabic? What use is that? Chinese or German would be far better choices.

By: Robert Jones

Robert Jones — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 13:12:00 +0000