If ever there was a good example of how it is not teachers who are to blame for what is taught (or not taught), here it is. This came to a mate the other day from a friend who is a very experienced early childhood teacher:
Some of the teachers here have been criticised for using the words ‘noun’ and ‘verb’ with the children, and we’ve been told that punctuation isn’t necessary. We’re very confused! Oh, and it’s not called ‘writing’ anymore, it’s ‘sentencing’.
And I thought the National Curriculum was a way of returning to a more sensible and rational pedagogy!
I think there is some very dodgy stuff going on in the Department of Education at the moment – well, more dodgy than usual.
I’ve heard lots of bad stories recently about the promotion system …
Is Minister for Education Jeremy Rockliff up to the job? Is he beingYes-Ministered by bureaucrats … ?
• Jean Walker in Comments: The really basic problem here is that people who are ambitious, but not necessarily bright, believe, like a religion, that new is better than old. That change of any kind is better than stasis. That the only way to prove your merit is to “embrace” change and denigrate anyone who thinks otherwise. That there is no other way to make yourself stand out from the lowly masses. And this fundamental religion is self-perpetuating.
