In any discussion about education, schools and teachers it is helpful to set out what one understands by these terms. These are my descriptions that are elaborated at www.tinyurl.com/notacuide
EDUCATION
#Education is the totality of learning from birth to death. #trustteachers www.tinyurl.com/notacuide
#Education, first, should include the experience and nurture of personal and social development towards worthwhile living.
#Education, second, should provide abundant opportunities for the acquisition and discovery of worthwhile culture.
#Education, third, should develop worthwhile survival skills for a warming, resource depleted, chaotic, angry world.
It follows from these ‘skeleton’ statements that educational debate should focus on what is ‘worthwhile’.
SCHOOLS
#Schools should be about young people living, and learning to live, worthwhile and fulfilled lives.
#Schools: Learning how to relate to others peacefully and with mutual respect
#Schools: Learning the skills of reading, writing, speaking, listening, thinking and mathematical skills
#Schools: Learning how to develop their natural talents for creative art: writing, drawing, painting, dancing, making music
#Schools: Beginning to learn of the cultural wealth that they can spend their lives exploring …
#Schools: … such as science, history, geography, literature, philosophy, art, music, languages and much else
#Schools: Hopefully learning to be moral citizens with ethical standards.
#Schools: Finding how to collaborate and when to compete, when to be tolerant, when to be assertive and when to stand up for their rights.
#Schools: Learning how to go on learning for the rest of their lives – and to expect to find the pleasure of it.
In all this schools should be joyful places, preparing young people for the good life.
TEACHERS
#Teachers help nurture the personal and social development of the young and help them acquire survival skills
#Teachers transmit knowledge, train in skills, and promote worthwhile values as part of young people’s moral and cognitive development
#Teachers should be warm-hearted professional firebrands, inspiring the young: as W B Yeats said, lighting fires not filling buckets
#Teachers are NOT technicians in pupil factories with government manual, regular inspection and pupil testing to ensure efficiency
It follows that teachers need to be well educated, professionally trained and strongly committed people who are trusted by society
THE WATERSHED OF AGE ELEVEN
#Primary_education: one class teacher for most of the work of a year is best for young children to support personal development.
#Secondary_education: subject teachers for most of the work is best for older children to enable depth of study
If follows that primary and secondary education are fundamentally different and should be treated separately.
* Crossword solvers wil recognise the anagrams. Symbolically NOTACUIDE and UNOTADICE represent the way that education is being distorted. It is a parody of Tony Blair's "education, education, education".
LINKS TO OTHER TWEETS
Tweets One: THE EXCELLENCE OF OUR SCHOOLS #content_42240406
Tweets Three: THE POLITICAL CORROSION OF EDUCATION #content_42240699
Tweets Four: EDUCATIONAL IDEOLOGY OF MICHAEL GOVE #content_42240751
Tweets Five: CHALLENGES TO MICHAEL GOVE #content_42241446
Tweets Six: IF … BUT SINCE NOT … TIME TO GO! #content_42241478
This page was posted on 3 August 2013