Is Kenneth Roy The Only Real Journalist Left In Scotland?

The title is part of a tweet to me from @frockery.  This link to the Scottish Review was also included. (Please read all parts).

I must record my admiration for the tenacity of Dee Cooper and Sheila in ensuring this most important matter is kept in the media.

Kenneth Roy must also be congratulated for his research and solid, honest journalism concerning this Evidence2Success programme/survey. He shows the manipulation of those who, once upon a time, I thought could be trusted with our children.

It’s a shocking indictment of the Scottish Government’s approach to our children’s wellbeing and should be halted immediately.

For those of you who haven’t been following this subject, one link is here with an update here.

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Teach The Children To Remember

I’m slightly out of touch with what children are taught in schools these days. It used to be the 3 ‘Rs’ and a round, basic knowledge of the centuries old sciences (physics, chemistry and biology) along with some history, geography and of course the essential French was part of our language learning.

Now we have ‘life sciences’ and a multitude of other subjects which also contain the title. Seems that the word science is as overused as executive these days - if you’re not an executive then your job is regarded as inferior.  

I must say I prefer the -ology suffix to the broad term science/scientist.

However, that’s not the reason for this post.  As I said, I’m out of touch with what children are taught in many areas of their education.  Are they taught the history of the hellish World Wars?  I can’t recall I was, but then war and it’s ravages, were still very prominent in the minds of each and every adult when I was in primary school.  

Like any large organisation the British Legion can be criticised adversely, but they do their best to keep the memory of those who gave their lives so as we could live ours in freedom.  

I wonder what they would think of the UK today.

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Should School Holidays Be Reduced?

Michael Gove wants to reduce the length of holidays in English schools.  He has also suggested the school day could be extended and the combination would improve performance and make life easier for working parents.

English (and Scottish) school holidays seem on a par with many Europeans countries but would his proposals produce the results he desires?

In his statement he said the school system hd been designed for a 19th century agricultural economy and risked leaving British children trailing those in Asia.  Children in Singapore seem to have slightly fewer holidays but similar formal teaching time, although the government does not stipulate operational hours for schools.

Of course Mr Gove's proposals will come to nothing.  The teaching unions will see to that.  Christine Blower, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers responded to his proposals:

"Teachers and pupils already spend longer hours in the classroom than most countries and also have some of the shortest summer holidays," she said.

"Independent schools in England and Wales, which often break for two weeks more during the summer and have longer holidays at other times of the year than their state counterparts, do not apparently feel the need to change and are apparently not suffering from their reduced hours."

I found here comment rather interesting. Ms Blower usually does tend to use independent schools in a negative manner, but in this case she mentions them to support her statement that state school teachers work longer hours in the classroom than their independent school peers.

Michael Gove wants standards in state schools to improve.  Ms Blower doesn't appear to see the anomaly in her remark.  It's generally accepted most independent schools provide a higher quality of education than some state schools.  If that wasn't the case then independent schools would be out of business.  She appears to accept that private schools, even with longer holidays than state schools, continue to produce good quality education and she bases that upon class-teaching time. 

We're all aware that independent schools offer a much wider education because class-teaching time is only part of a pupil's day. A great amount of work is done outwith the classroom and state schools are unable to provide this.

Will Michael Gove manage to push through his proposals?  Of course not.  The teaching unions will see to that.

I've put a wee poll in the sidebar as I think slightly shorter school holidays would help families by saving them even one week's school holiday childcare costs.

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Stop Knocking Private Schools

It's reported that nearly 50% of London 2012 medal winners come from a private school background.

"Unfair," say those who think private education is wrong in a modern Britain. "The percentage shows it's the privileged who achieve," is another oft heard remark about those who have had a private education.

Is a private education a privilege?  Yes, although many children who attend private schools come from homes where money is tight but parents have decided to make substantial sacrifices to send their child/children to be educated away from the state system.  These parents continue, through their taxes, to support the state education system and receive no tax rebate for opting out of it.

Why are there so many privately educated young people excelling in sport (as well as other subjects)?

One of the reasons is that the daily timetable for a privately educated child differs greatly from their state educated peer.  Many schools begin lessons at 8.30am, have shorter lunch times and the academic day ends far beyond the 3.30pm of the state system.  Hobbies such as extra-curriculum sports are undertaken outwith class hours and it can be compulsory for every child to have a number of interests.  The extra time pupils and staff dedicate to such hobbies in their daily timetables show rewards.

Competition has always been prominent in private schools, yet it's not so long ago it was completely discouraged in state schools.  Educators wanted all children to be 'equal' because being a loser could damage self esteem.  A dreadful policy because not all children can achieve the same results.  It surprised me how easily families accepted this without question and we created a generation of children who have little understanding of the words endeavour or effort. Medal winning Olympians are exceptionally competitive people and it's that quality which has enabled them to rise, through the ranks, to be the best.

What can be done to increase state educated children's participation in sport?

Education authorities could introduce a policy insisting that every child attends at least one extra-curriculum hobby once a week - be it sport or arts related. Not all areas of these require large financial contributions from parents.

Scotland has introduced a programme with the Active Schools Network which is progressing reasonably well but requires more professional coaches/teachers and volunteers. Volunteers are essential for those children who do not have family support.

England appears to be in a muddle.

Perhaps the most important aspect is time.  That's where the private school sectors wins, because it realises a five-and-a-half hour daily timetable is completely inadequate for the inclusion of sport or the arts in a child's development.  Most private school pupils have at least seven hour timetables with boarding schools providing mandatory weekend activities.

Instead of complaining about private schools producing 50% of Olympic medalists, shouldn't we be grateful for their systems and learn from them?

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When The "Sunday Best" Isn't Good Enough

Yesterday I was browsing in a local shoe shop - or to be more accurate the only shoe shop within a 20 mile radius.

Suddenly I heard gasps of 'wow' followed by lots of lovely compliments which were all addressed to a young girl who had just come through the door.  Out of the corner of my eye I had noticed her because she was wearing a short, extremely sparkly dress and seemed heavily made up for late in an afternoon and the shop wasn't busy.

The girl left to calls of "Have a wonderful time," from the staff and tottered across the road to a waiting taxi which swept her off to an unknown destination.

Suddenly one of the staff burst into tears and rushed into the back shop.

The woman who was helping me explained her colleague was the aunt of the girl.  The lassie was 11 years old and was off to her school prom.  She'd come into the shop to show her aunt and the other staff her outfit before she set off. The girl's mother was a single parent and had lost her job last year when the company she worked for had closed owing to the recession.

In recent months the mother had been under tremendous pressure to ensure her daughter attended this event in a style which was quite alien to her. In years gone by children celebrated the end of their primary education with a ceilidh which they attended in the equivalent of their 'Sunday best' but now the ceilidh is no more and has been replaced by the American import  the 'school prom'.  The 'Sunday best' wasn't good enough anymore and an elaborate party dress, full makeup and high heels were now standard. Gone are the sandwiches and lemonade in the school hall where other pupils, assisted by a few professionals, provided music and song. Eleven year olds now have a sit-down meal in a hotel followed by a dance in the ballroom.

The complete evening was a costly business and in order to help her sister with the expense, the girl's aunt and her colleagues had provided her choice of high heels and a small bag to match.

The story left me wondering - not about the generosity of others - but the speed with which we've adopted the whole American Prom style so completely. There are no stretch limos around here so fortunately that saves parents some expense, but I was led to believe that some children wouldn't be attending because their parents couldn't afford the complete package. One mother had said she couldn't justify buying a dress which would only be worn once because, not only would it be too small in six months, but there was no possibility of her daughter wearing an evening dress again in the near future.

Surely the idea of having a party for primary school - and secondary school - leavers was to include everyone and not to alienate those who come from financially poorer backgrounds?  I thought, as a society, we were aiming for inclusion not exclusion.

I'd like to see a return to the old ceilidh where children turned up in their Sunday best. Call it a dinner dance if need be and have it in a hotel by all means, but let's rid ourselves of the extravagance involved, before more young people are excluded from the festivities.

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Achieving Full Potential Within The Entire Education System - Part 2

A post from Tedious Tantrums

A few weeks ago I identified the following aims, which could be considered as potential starting points, for improvements to the education system as it stands at the moment.

1. EVERY pupil/student should achieve their full potential;
2. EVERY student teacher should achieve their full potential;
3. There is NO PLACE for politicisation within education;
4. There is No PLACE for religion in any area of education;
5. REDUCE the size and influence of local education department to the lowest possible level required to support schools.
6. EVERY pupil should be treated as an individual and not be subject to a dress code.
7. Successful methodologies and best practice should be adopted in order to provide the BEST learning experience possible for pupils/students.

I finished off by posing the question – “how many pupils could a teacher genuinely teach to ensure each pupil received the individual attention necessary to satisfy aim number one?”

Having given it some thought, discussed it on-line and discussed it with a teacher I’ve come to the conclusion that the ratio of teacher to pupil would be around 6:1, that’s six pupils/students to one teacher not the other way around. 10:1 is too many 5/6 probably just about right. So I’ll immediately update the aims list as follows –

1. EVERY pupil/student should achieve their full potential;
2. EVERY student teacher should achieve their full potential;
3. There is NO PLACE for politicisation within education;
4. There is No PLACE for religion in any area of education;
5. REDUCE the size and influence of local education department to the lowest possible level required to support schools.
6. EVERY pupil should be treated as an individual and not be subject to a dress code.
7. Successful methodologies and best practice should be adopted in order to provide the BEST learning experience possible for pupils/students.
8. The student/pupil teacher ratio should be around 6:1.

The first thought is cost. If the current system is straining to pay for 20:1 then 6:1 would be budget busting, bank account bursting and overdraft drowningly expensive. Ah but you may have forgotten about the removal of as much of the local council Education Departmentas possible and then some. The savings from reducing the number of employees, administration and regulation should adequately pay for the 6:1 ratio.

This ratio would open up teaching as a real career with more layers which teachers could work through to enhance their salary and their standing as the years pass by. However, the advancement of teachers would be based on achievement and experience. There would be far more room for teachers to experiment, build resources, share those resources but advancement would only be measured on single criteria – that all students/pupils have achieved. No other criteria would be used. Back to the list.

1. EVERY pupil/student should achieve their full potential;
2. EVERY student teacher should achieve their full potential;
3. There is NO PLACE for politicisation within education;
4. There is No PLACE for religion in any area of education;
5. REDUCE the size and influence of local education department to the lowest possible level required to support schools.
6. EVERY pupil should be treated as an individual and not be subject to a dress code.
7. Successful methodologies and best practice should be adopted in order to provide the BEST learning experience possible for pupils/students.
8. The student/pupil teacher ratio should be around 6:1.
9. Teacher advancement would be measured solely on successful pupils/students achievement.

And how would achievement be measured? That’ll be next week's instalment then.

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Achieving full potential within the entire education system - Part 2

A post from Tedious Tantrums.

Last week I identified the following aims which could be considered as potential starting points for improvements to the education system to take place.

Identified aims –

1. EVERY pupil/student should achieve their full potential;
2. EVERY student teacher should achieve their full potential;
3. There is NO PLACE for politicisation within education;
4. There is No PLACE for religion in any area of education;
5. REDUCE the size and influence of local education department to the lowest possible level required to support schools.

There are a few loose ends to clarify from last week. First, the suggestion that every school should have Cadet training as an activity, primarily as a means of reaching higher levels of discipline from the pupils/students. Cadets would of course be dressed in a military style uniform and be taught to march and to receive instructions, which they should obey without recourse.

This is a bad idea. Militarisation of schools? Using schools as the ground to deal with social ills? Bad idea. Keep the social issues out of schools by dealing with them in society. We don’t want our children cloned, as in wearing any sort of uniform and certainly not military style. We need individuals and a system of teaching, which will engage those who find learning difficult or who do not have access to the types of subjects, which they will enjoy, want to do and get benefit from.

That said let’s add another aim to the list of “identified aims”-

6. EVERY pupil should be treated as an individual and not be subject to a dress code.

Second is Steiner Schools. In truth I’m not a big fan of Steiner. I can see some benefits within the system and if you have a child who has difficulties it seems to help. However, there are elements within the Steiner system, which might benefit al pupils/students.

For example the age at which structured learning begins. As things stand, are our children included in formal education too early? They learn more when they are young is the common argument and that may well be the case but perhaps the type of exposure to education should be much less formal and be more tailored to each child’s maturity and ability?

Considering our aims it’s apparent that ideas and successes should be evaluated from all teaching methodologies, including Steiner, home education, independent, state, teachers and from all corners of the globe. This should provide potential improvements, which are already proven.

The list of “identified aims” now looks like this -

1. EVERY pupil/student should achieve their full potential;
2. EVERY student teacher should achieve their full potential;
3. There is NO PLACE for politicisation within education;
4. There is No PLACE for religion in any area of education;
5. REDUCE the size and influence of local education department to the lowest possible level required to support schools.
6. EVERY pupil should be treated as an individual and not be subject to a dress code.
7. Successful methodologies and best practice should be adopted in order to provide the BEST learning experience possible for pupils/students.

The list of aims would deliver significant change in the way our children would be educated. I’m sure I read a comment from a teacher heavily involved in developing and introducing the “Curriculum for Excellence. He had come to the conclusion that evolution was not powerful enough; only revolution would provide a curriculum suitable for the 21^st century,

Revolution is expensive and the changes would require a number of years to fully develop. Time for another quote “If you think education is expensive – try ignorance” as attributed to Derek Bok, a former Harvard President. All well and good you say what about all the cuts to public spending?

The savings gained through the reduction in size of the Education Department at council level would be used in part to increase the number of teachers per pupil. This would meet the first “identified aim” by providing a completely different environment for teachers to work within.

The question is how many pupils could a teacher genuinely teach to ensure each pupil received the individual attention necessary to satisfy aim number one?

What do you think?

This subject may well take more than three posts to cover.

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Achieving Full Potential Within The Entire Education System

A post from Tedious Tantrums.

A New Year and an old topic, education. I can’t keep away from it. Mrs TT is a teacher and I am a great supporter of meaningful education, which is appropriate for the needs of our young people and our country.

Education itself actually causes many of the problems we have to face on a daily basis, be it education itself, or any other of the hundreds of other topics which take up our leaders and politicians time. Our leaders and politicians come either from independent schools or a comprehensive education background, which is fair enough as long as this does not also encourage elitism and division.

Far too many of them go to Oxbridge and are taught the same subjects in the same classes and come out with the same degrees. Sure, they put a left or right spin on it, but it boils down to the same thing. Very few of them have run a business, far too many of them have gone into marketing or the softer side of the business world. Armed with Oxbridge theories and precious little experience they attempt to run the world by becoming politicians and then leaders.

If we want a great education system in Scotland and the UK we really need to start at the beginning again. The Curriculum for Excellence looks good on paper but it seems unlikely to succeed at least at secondary level, the jury is still out. Maybe it could work and work well but there are a number of flaws; teacher training, council education departments, central government and teacher career paths.

Teacher training has been hijacked for political reasons. A level playing field for all pupils/students is never going to work, a lack of competition for pupils/students is never going to work and dumbing down the content of courses cheats every single person in our nation.

Education, if it is about anything at all, is about to ensuring that EVERY pupil/student achieves their full potential. The current system does not allow this to happen. A teacher cannot give enough time to each pupil/student to ensure that this is the case. The system then is WRONG. The system has to reflect the core aim “that EVERY pupil/student achieves their full potential”.

To achieve this “every student teacher has to achieve their full potential” and again the system of student teaching has to change to achieve this.

It would be difficult for the political left or right to argue against this. Obviously they would but this provides a further significant change to that part of the process. There is no place for politicisation in any area of education.

It would be difficult for the different religions to argue against this. Obviously they would but this provides a further significant change to that part of the process. There is no place for religion in any area of education.

This then would have an impact on the local council education department. The easiest way to achieve this is to reduce the size and influence of the local education department down to the lowest possible level to support schools.

In reducing the Education Department down to a much smaller size, significantly more resources could be provided directly to schools for schools to decide on what is best for their requirements. This would also require a different relationship with central government and the development of a much improved funding model used to invest in every individual pupil/student, student teacher, teacher and school.

A centralisation of teaching resources could then be developed and shared nationally to stop continual wheel re-invention and duplication whilst promoting best practice in line with the aim of every school and every teacher to ensure EVERY pupil/student achieves their full potential.

This would then require a different type of management to be introduced to schools. This along with other steps required to achieve the first five aims listed below will, be the subject of next weeks post and possible at least one further post to follow. Meantime please feel free to comment.

Identified aims –

• EVERY pupil/student should achieve their full potential;
• EVERY student teacher should achieve their full potential;
• There is NO PLACE for politicisation within education;
• There is No PLACE for religion in any area of education;
• REDUCE the size and influence of local education department to the lowest possible level required to support schools.

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Independent No Longer - The Decline And Fall Of Independent Education

A few months ago I published this post by Edward Spalton. This is a follow-up article from Stephen Beet and although it relates to the English public school system, much of it is relevant to Scotland.  This fellow blogger and myself have agreed to publish it.

          

Parents are paying thousands of pounds per annum in fees to secure an independent education for their children. But are they getting what they are paying for?  Stephen Beet taught for many years in English Preparatory Schools, but after becoming disillusioned by restrictive legislation, and political correctness left England to teach in Russia.

     The story of my career could have been lifted straight out of the pages of children’s literature. The headmaster, a kindly and eccentric man in his forties, owned the school outright.  Everyone was known either by his surname or a nickname and Matron’s word was law. Together, she and the head maintained a firm but fair discipline, and whilst corporal punishment was rarely used it was still generally believed that a boy needed the threat of a beating in order to ensure the emergence of a polite, well brought up, gentleman at the end of his school career. It really was the world of Jennings and Derbyshire, midnight feasts and hilarious anecdotes, all of which if written down would be dismissed as pure fiction.

     My first form of eighteen eight-year-olds was housed in a room lacking adequate heating, a watertight roof or any useful furniture other than the desks at which we sat. Every morning after PT, Chapel, breakfast and dorm inspection, lessons began with the repetition of Latin verbs, continuing with Arithmetic and English.  After an hour’s break, during which the boys, unsupervised by adults, ran clubs and societies, classes continued with History, Geography, Scripture and other subjects, all still unaffected by the recommendations of the Plowden Report which had already destroyed the finest state-education system in the world.  Desks faced the master, boys were tested every fortnight and order marks sent home twice per term.  Games were of such vital importance that those who fell short of the required standard were not allowed to appear for the school, but lined up on the touch-lines to cheer on the First Eleven.  Highly coveted team colours were awarded only to the best which were – “forty years on” -  still prized more highly than any MBE.

      House points were given and house points were taken away and sometimes if one boy offended all felt the consequences. Discipline was a ‘whole school’ affair; team spirit and competition the order of he day and ‘splitting’ or telling tales was unheard of. 

Lesson preparation took the form of notes in an exercise book, leaving ample time for careful marking.  Every mistake was noted and discussed with the boy in question and it was thus so that we managed to bring even the slowest boy up to the exacting levels required by the Common Entrance Board and the brightest to the heights of the Eton Scholarship. In short, parents were glad to fork out the fees because they could see that they were getting value for money.

     In History we began with the Romans and worked our way up through the gory and scheming Middle Ages until we reached the reign of Queen Anne.  When one compares this approach with today’s ‘topic-based’ Common Entrance Syllabus, which now slavishly follows the dictates of The National Curriculum with all its emphasis on source material and empathy with the past, one wonders what parents are paying for today. Traditional 35-minute teaching periods have now also largely been replaced by fewer 70-minute periods.  This is convenient for the teachers but not good for the boys: not only is intense concentration limited but also one can cover much more material in four single periods than in two doubles.

     Moving to another school in 1995 was a complete culture shock for me and I was immediately forced to make educational concessions, but I did manage to hold on to my black board and chalk. White boards and markers I found to be bad for handwriting and hard to see from the back of the room.  Unfortunately, I was compelled to plan lessons according to unsound National Curriculum guidelines, an educational straitjacket, laying down unnecessary structures.   Out went the traditional reading period, the exciting History lesson, and no longer was one able to devote a period to completing an essay or in exploring an English topic by improvisation.  So after many years of teaching in a school in which my classroom was referred to in jocular vein by the second master as ‘that little corner of Old England’ I realised that the time had come to leave before until I was forced out.  A position in Russia was a tempting prospect and one which has exceeded all expectations!

     It’s hard to pinpoint just when our blissful and truly ‘child-centred’ world of Jennings and Derbyshire came to an end, but the erosion began, I believe, in the late 1970’s when the threat of a future socialist government abolishing private education began to receded.  Complacency set in and with it entered a new generation of teachers.  Mainly state trained and indoctrinated, some were barely literate or numerate and as a result the teaching of the three R’s was particularly affected, creating tremendous learning difficulties in later years.  One needs only to study the Entrance and Scholarship papers sat until the early 1970’s for evidence of a serious decline thereafter.  Those responsible for the setting of standards, the Independent Association of Preparatory Schools (IAPS) now draws its influential committee mainly from trendy Oxford or London Prep schools and has succeeded in effecting root and branch change, bringing schools completely in line with every aspect of the state system. That an Independent Inspectorate now inspects schools further strengthens government control over the whole sector. What governments could not abolish by legislation they have now changed by stealth, and even those schools which had set their faces as stone against the changes have now been forced to capitulate. 

     The world of the English Prep Schools was, until the early 1990’s one necessarily set far apart from society.  Today teachers are responsible to a line manager, a senior management team, and there will be a governing body and an association of parents.  The headmaster, now merely an employee is completely at the beck and call of parents and governors.

      Social workers, with an anti-establishment agenda have right of entry into schools to meddle in affairs that should not concern them. Unnecessary health and safety regulations have forced some smaller schools to close. Petty rules govern the hours children may work, the number of beds that can be put into a dormitory, and no longer may older boys be placed in charge of younger.  All this has contributed to the very fabric of the public school system being systematically and deliberately destroyed, and it beggars belief that it could have been allowed to happen; in fact one may form no other opinion than it has come to pass as a result of the work of those propagating a dangerous political and feminist agenda.  Even that champion of ‘Children’s Rights’ and founder of ‘Childline’ Esther Rantzen writing in The Daily Mail recently expressed horror at the monster she had unleashed when she established the organisation.  Gone are the days when a schoolmaster was considered to be in loco parentis, and now accidents are not allowed to happen: someone has to take the blame for them!

    The children of tomorrow will either be so protected by their parents that they are not allowed to leave the house unaccompanied or they will be left roaming the streets with nothing to do.  Having never known the company or friendship of any adult other than their own family members, they will be utterly unprepared for life.  What a plot this would make for an apocryphal novel.

     While some traditional schools seem determined to continue, my old prep school is no more -- closed shortly after the admission of girls onto the grounds where mothers once feared to tread. The headmaster ended his career teaching in a state comprehensive and a posh ‘gels’ school has invaded the buildings.  It has a new roof, indoor swimming pool, carpeted dorms and a ‘state of the arts’ science block. The chapel has been deconsecrated and turned into a computer suite and the National Curriculum ‘plus’ is de rigueur.  The outside doors have locks and alarms and the latest security devices. There is not a spot of dirt or dry rot to be seen anywhere. But where are Jennings and Derbyshire?  Certainly not to be found within those hallowed portals!

       

Stephen R. Beet, October 2011

Editor's note: The links are mine.

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It's A Class Thing...

Contributed by tedioustantrums

The new “Free Schools” are up and running then and the next batch being discussed. That sounds like progress although only time will tell. There’s likely to be some fall-out and bad experiences but that happens with any new initiative. Just as long as no children are harmed during the making of the “Free Schools” programme.

To some however, children are going to be harmed regardless. They don’t see the “Free Schools” project positively at all. You may have heard them on TV, the radio or in newspapers? I’ve heard a few comments. “Divisive” seems to be a word that’s popular for the Local Authority Education backers. They also claim the new schools will be “elitist”. They are even trying to go on the offensive to make sure parents don’t send their children to “Free Schools”.

It’s to be expected.

We already have different types of education available for our children. There are lots of different Independent Schools and it’s “you pays your money and your makes your choice”. Why not?

Maybe some people have forgotten or perhaps choose to forget that we are still fairly free. We are still allowed to hold opinions and we can think for ourselves. We still have a reasonable amount of self-determination. People can decide, within certain limits, where their children go to school.

Perhaps those who favour Local Authority governed education should spend time trying to improve those schools performances? After all there’s always room for improvement. Onwards and upwards and all that. In an ideal world schools should be sharing best practice anyway, regardless of which sector, religion, fee paying etc. etc. that would be fine if this was just about what’s best for children.

Our children are our greatest asset and we owe them the opportunity to be the best they can be. Education is their best chance to start moving in the right direction. That won’t suit them all but the school system should be able to cater for all manner of differing abilities and have differing teaching techniques to cope with that.

Politics should have no place in schools. It’s such a pity that education has become such a hot potato for politicians.

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Bringing Together The Threads - Guest Post

I thought it might be the right time to bring at least two threads together, education and Scottish Independence. There is a genuine link in as much as some of my previous blogs have focussed on the apparent shortcomings of education and some others have lingered on the need to, at least, begin fleshing out how an independent Scotland might be.

A greatly improved education system should, surely, be a high priority, high want and high need objective (pre and post Scottish Independence). Are you listening and agreeing Alex?. To achieve this ALL politics need to be put to one side. Now at this point you’re thinking naive and utopian. You’re thinking politicians would never be able to achieve keeping politics out of this challenge. Well, maybe there is a way.

In order to create an education system, which is acceptable to pupils, educators, parents and taxpayers and which meets appropriate governance, a framework would need to be defined to work within.

Given the present situation, going down the “experimental” route seems to be the most likely way to proceed. So introducing a high level control to keep everyone on board and stop scope creep and, perhaps, restrict personal agendas being pursued. The control would be based on Referism. Involve as many people as want to be involved throughout the whole of Scotland and refer all decision away from centralised high-level authorities and direct them to the people of Scotland.

The following is an extract from an earlier blog article –

“Referism has been suggested as a potential way forward and why not? EUreferendum defines it as a “political philosophy, which states that, in the relationship between the British people and their governments, the people should be in control”. Dr.Richard North, through the EUreferendum blog, goes on to define further aspects of the term, which are based around the people taking part in yearly referendums to accept the budget on which all government activities are based.

On the face of it this seems like a reasonable and simple way forward. A simple mechanism, control the purse strings, control how much, where and when funds are spent. Politicians will, of course, take a different view. MPs have been voted for by the electorate to represent them, They are likely to cite “voter apathy”, a “lack of understanding by the voters” and any other number of views which in effect talk down the ability of the electorate to take on such responsibilities. The electorate can and does form opinions and can drive change although the present system is being manipulated to reduce the likelihood of that happening.

Referism could, perhaps, be extended to directly involve the electorate more often and on a larger number of issues. Technology exists today to ensure that greater communication can take place between Parliament and the electorate. It might be unwieldy to require all the electorate to participate all of the time however, and there’s also the spectre of 1984 examples, which are less than beneficial”.

So we have our high level control. Next, how do we identify and determine the elements required to meet the vision of a modern education system? Well…

Now at this point you’re thinking naive and utopian. Again. Yawn.

Last time I checked, quantum scientists had a theory that we live in a world, which has 14 dimensions, this is just a bit too many for us to make any real sense out of. However, we regularly manage quite nicely within 5 dimensions, which encompass –

Height

Width

Depth

Timing

Duration

This 5D-scoping environment provides the framing for topics, which have strategic importance. Now you’re thinking height? Width? Depth? What?

Well how high do you want to set your success parameters? How wide will the scope be? How much depth of detail will be required for the initial framing? What order will things be carried out? How long will it take? Simple really. The 5D-scoping environment would be applied to every question, statement and answer as a means of ensuring every possibility is evaluated to identify value.

So far so good. The next stage, following the creation of the framing or scoping, is actually starting to make things happen and for this, another 5D solution, the 5D Methodology would work pretty nicely. Surprisingly, it has five stages all of which start with “D”. How convenient.

Discover

Define

Design

Develop

Deliver

Discover what already exists, if anything.

Define what needs to be done.

Design the project plan (based on Prince2 governance).

Develop the project (using an appropriately customised version of Prince2).

Deliver the desired outcome as exactly as intended.

So where to start? What are the main priorities for a modern education system for Scotland post independence? What is the single most important aim?

What’s the first step?

Come on people. What do you think? Collaborate? Share ideas? Leave a comment with your priority for improved education.

petem13

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If You Live In The UK You'll Like This. Not A Lot But You Will Like It

A guest post by Petem130

Education, Education, Education

No academic versions of Phil and Kirstie here although, thinking about it that might be a great idea? I can see it now. Tonight’s show will feature Phil and Kirstie looking for the best possible school and education available for two twelve year olds… It could be fun you know, then again perhaps not.

Before going much further can I implore the non-Scots amongst you to please stick with this? Yes? Thanks.

We are all either in education, have been in education or are waiting to go into education, a no brainer really. We all have differing experiences of the education we got or are getting to some extent or of course, we may get. In Scotland there has long been a belief that our education system is one of the best in the world however, and unfortunately, that doesn’t seem likely to be the case at the moment. It hasn’t always been this way. We did have the best education system in the world but we have to look at history to find it.

The quality of Scottish education began to improve following the enactment of the Scottish parliament 1696 Act for Setting Schools. This required every parish in Scotland to supply a “house for a school” and a “salary for a teacher”. Within a generation nearly every parish had a permanent school with a regular teacher. Although teaching was elementary, most pupils learned to at least read and write and their education was provided free for the most part. By 1750 literacy levels in Scotland had risen to around 75%. Amazing! Incredible! Phenomenal! Scottish education was recognised as one of the best in the world. All the more impressive in that it took England until 1880 to achieve the same literacy level.

It’s obvious that if you can read you will want to have books. In fact, at that time, Scottish people of modest means had their own book collections and what they couldn’t afford was readily available at the local library, which again by 1750 every town of any size enjoyed. The list of “thinking” Scotsmen who owe their success to the improvements in literacy and education in general and then the Scottish Enlightenment in particular is long and contains some of the most distinguished minds in history.

Can we repeat this? Can we find a likely catalyst that could enable us to create a modern Scotland with an appropriately well educated population?

Perhaps Scottish Independence could provide a rare and unique opportunity? Perfect? Okay, maybe not perfect but it could be a potential focal point at least? Perhaps there’s no “could” about it and it has to be a significant prerequisite? Independence will bring a majority together and the time scale is long enough to allow the necessary strategic planning and development which, after all, will form the foundations of Scotland the New.

The present focus is, quite rightly, on winning independence but there is a significant amount of work required to win over the Scottish people. Financial powers, taxation levels, oil exploration and extraction, industrial and commercial development are all critical areas but are only a part of the strategies and policies which will be needed to share the vision of how Scotland will be post Westminster. This will require huge amounts of well thought out detail. Time, effort, innovation, intellect, pragmatism, appreciation of the differing needs of our geographical population? How long have we got? Well we know the answer to that. Four years probably with the fifth year being set aside for arguing the toss of achieving the separation with the EU and Westminster I’d suspect.

Now for those non-Scots who have stuck with this so far, here is the interesting part for you. This same opportunity is also going to be available to you whether you reside in England, Wales or Northern Ireland. The English population in particular must be really ticked off. As you know in Scotland the SNP have been able to get policies through which actually made and continue to make a difference to people's lives. Dave, on the other hand seems to be playing catch up in the rare moments when he’s not changing his mind. If I were English I would be ticked off.

So maybe the potential of a modern “Enlightenment” could be UK wide. Maybe it would be an ideal vehicle to drive a better economic future for everyone living in what used to be the UK. I'm certainly not suggesting we sit down and plan it with the other parts of the UK, that would defeat the purpose of independence but surely there would be ways we could work positively together? Surely it's better to have neighbours who create wealth and trading possibilities and who can take advantage of whatever Scotland can offer?

Maybe in the Scotland Office or St Andrews House or some other such place there's a detailed plan already worked out. All nice and detailed with diagrams and all the boxes ticked and the questions answered. That would be disappointing since we all want a say? But it could be a useful starting point. If there's nothing in existence at all then when do we start? Yes WE. You, me, the other visitors to this blog and all the other bloggers, voters, people in the street, politicians, business people.... and the temporarily unconvinced hangers on obviously!

Maybe we could once again have one of the best education systems in the world? Maybe educationalists from much richer and larger countries would visit to Scotland to find out how they could copy the techniques used in our schools, colleges and universities? Now that would be a fabulous recognition of success would it not?

We can do this. We can achieve this. And most of all we HAVE to do it for everyone’s sake.

Today is a good day to start so, as Mrs Merton used to say "let's have a heated debate”. Let's throw some ideas around. Blue sky thinking. Clean sheet. Maybe we should hold the puns tho!!!!!!

Petem

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A Response To 'Education and a blank sheet of paper'

This is a cross-post I wrote for the Idiot Husband who asked me if I would respond to this post at his place.  He's no idiot though and has wide experience in the world of education.


Thank you for the opportunity to respond to your post on 'Education and a blank sheet of paper'.  Although your post concentrates on older pupils, I'd like to go back to basics.  Please note I refer to schoolchildren as pupils not students. 

Firstly, we have to address why we have schools for education.  Why do most parents prefer to send their child(ren) to school rather than educate them at home?  I would suggest that many parents don't feel they have the skills to home education and because the taxpayer pays for the training of teachers - and their salaries - we consider them to be more skilled in imparting information to children.  But that isn't necessarily the case and, although the article is England-centred, there have been questions recently about the quality of the training of our Scottish teachers.

Schools were originally places for children to receive a formal education in academic subjects which are essential for them to enjoy a full life.  We have many children who are unable to read, write or calculate to an acceptable level yet they fail to understand anything less than a C in their Standard Grades is a fail and will not be an entry to the world of work.  Further education colleges more and more provide school-level subjects when they should be providing subjects not provided in a school environment.  Where has our formal system gone wrong?

Part of the problem is that slowly teachers have been expected to become both parent and teacher and that reduces teaching time. It's not a school teacher's job to be teaching young children issues which are firmly a parent's responsibility, although I would consider it part of their remit is to inform the pupil's home that there is a problem in a specific area.  Hence my suggestion that there should be some form of daily written communication between school and home.

Scotland is shortly to be introducing new National Qualifications.

Maybe your blank sheet of paper should have some writing petem.  How about 'This paper will be a daily record of your achievements while you are a pupil here and it will be shared by your parents/carer/teacher'.  As most children have access to a computer it would be a simple task for each school to set up an account for each pupil and to arrange for parents/carers to have a password.  Today's children would take this in their stride and the knowledge that their families were so constantly in touch with their teachers just may concentrate the mind a little more.

It would certainly qualify as part of your Positivism definition.

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Positivism

A guest post by petem130

With Referism we also need Positivism…

Being positive should be an imperative for us all.

The power of positive thinking.

Think yourself well!

Believe in yourself!!

Believe in your own strengths, capabilities and potential!!!

Easy to say but not so easy to do and even harder to deliver longer-term. Do pessimists outnumber optimists? As an optimist I have to believe that they don’t, but I wonder sometimes and when all is said and done pessimism and negativity have been drilled into us since we were very small children.

That’s a fairly harsh thing to say is it not? Well, I’m not suggesting that our parents are to blame, They should be, and are for the most part, our most vociferous supporters, although there are always exceptions unfortunately. So no it’s not parents.

It’s school.

Wow. Major accusation. Teachers are now mobilising to find out where I live and come and sort me out. How dare I say such a thing!!! Well, firstly I have friends who are teachers and I know the time, effort and care they put into their classes. Secondly it’s not really teachers either although again there are exceptions. Thirdly, I was a wean/bairn (choose depending on your East/West orientation) for a few years myself and I was no angel and only a very few of my classmates were.

Think back to when you first went to school. How was it for you? How long was it before you didn’t want to go back? How long before you started badmouthing education in general? How long before you and your friends bitched about school whenever you were there or whenever the subject came up?

Weeks or maybe months I’d guess. So say you start school aged 5 and then you leave at 18. That’s 13 years of serious learning to be negative. I’d suggest that after 13 years we all got the hang of it and in fact we would probably have managed a First BA Hons Degree if one had been available and we wouldn’t even have needed to study or read a book or go to a lecture. If only all subjects were so engrossing and easy to comprehend.

The peer system ensures that negativity is maintained. Did you stand there with your friends and wax lyrically about how wonderful school was and how you just couldn’t wait to get back there and get stuck in? No? I thought not.

Of course there’s always an exception. In India, for example it’s different. There’s not the same type of bitching. Education is a prize in itself. The names of students who win scholarships, prizes or any sort of educational recognition have their photograph in the local papers and are revered in their community. They may also be featured in the Indian version of Heat, appear on I’m a celebrity… or Big Brother. Okay the last bit isn’t true but you knew that. The Indian kids might, at times be negative, but not for long they need to be positive and reap the rewards of a good education.

I was involved in a school project for five years, which helped me better understand the dynamics of schooling. Students overcome the negativity but then peer pressure keeps them in it. I wondered how things could change. I didn’t come up with an answer. I did come up with a measurement however, which may be a useful indicator of educational success perhaps.

We would know that education was working and our children had bought in to it if we drove past a school before eight o’clock in the morning and there was a queue of students and teachers waiting to get in. They’d be waiting to get in because in the school they would have access to information, knowledge and resources. They would recognise the value of these and the value of making the most of the time in school to get as much out of it as possible.

So…

We have this unique opportunity in Scotland and a moment to begin to shape a new nation. I’d suggest that our new nation does not have to follow what’s happened in the past or even follow the examples of other countries, which we may or may not admire. Amongst other things I suggest we promote positivism and in particular, helping our children to remain be positive as they can be as they go through their education.

If we could deliver that I am certain we’d have an outcome, which would impact positively on the confidence of the entire population of Scotland the New!

Petem130

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The Education Debate

A guest post by Edward Spalton

After reading this article in the Spectator I was motivated to write this supplementary note.

In the late Eighties/early Nineties I was co-opted to a board of school governors as a representative of local business. It was the infants' school which my own children had attended. The long-serving head teacher was nearing retirement. She was rather old-fashioned, as were the school buildings. She confided to me that reading standards were falling although that information and the test results were then, if anything, more secret than the atomic bomb. 

As quite a high proportion of the children were entitled to free school meals, she got some extra money from the Local Education Authority  (LEA) to “enrich the curriculum”. When she had worked out what she wanted to do, she then had to get approval from the area office of the LEA. She had made a most imaginative use of the money – some real poetry books of a sort which could be appreciated by children, some classical music of an easily understood story-telling kind, some prints of suitable famous pictures with historical scenes and so on.  The official threw this back at her with contempt. “It is not your business to impose your culture on these children” she was told. She was still very upset when she told me this. 

When she asked what she was supposed to do, she was told that she should teach through the medium of situations with which the children were familiar. “Going to the fish and chip shop or taking out a video are cultural experiences” she was told. The children, I should add, were nearly all native-born British. I think there were two Chinese children in the school.

She retired with relief and a new head teacher had the job of introducing “Local Management of Schools” which actually involved very close control by the LEA.

We were supposed to produce our own “Curriculum Development Statement”. Suddenly a document of this name turned up amongst the voluminous papers which were written in a style and language quite alien to normal English, sometimes called “edu-jargon”. 

I asked who had produced the statement, as it certainly was not the board of governors. I was told that the LEA had provided it “to help us”. Amongst a great deal of meaningless verbiage was this remarkable statement:

“It is the policy of the school to make students responsible for their own learning”

I protested at this and said “The children are just too little to do your job”. They were 5  to 7 years old, for heaven's sake! Nobody even smiled and this solemn nonsense was voted through. I then discovered that nearly every school of every sort and age group in the county had voted for the same thing – and this was a new system, supposed to give the individual schools more control of their own affairs!

The children were asked to produce paintings of people at their work with short captions to explain each picture. Many of them were very good. One boy had painted a dramatic picture of a fireman putting out a fire. His caption had been corrected. “Fireman” was crossed out and the politically correct, non sexist term “Fire Fighter” replaced it but the mistakes in spelling and punctuation in the rest of the caption were uncorrected. When I pointed this out, I was told it would be “too discouraging” for the children to do this. “But how can they learn to do things right, if you don't tell them?” I asked.

Needless to say, I was not invited to remain on the board when the term of my co-option ended. 

I think that the cultural Marxists of the Frankfurt School have secured a near monopoly in much of state education. That is one reason why some teachers' unions are now going on strike when schools opt for the new government scheme which will make them independent of the Local Education Authorities. 

I was fortunately able to afford to take my children out of this atmosphere and place them in private education.

Edward Spalton
Editor's note: Although Edward writes from an English perspective I think it is of interest to those of us in Scotland.

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