I really shouldn't read newspapers ever because it just enlightens me to the insanity of British politics and that almost always leads to me getting mad!! The STUPID Education Secretary Someone Gove is overhauling the high school curriculum to include more 'facts' because that's the stuff kids really need to know. This whole 'thematic' approach to history that the last government instigated is just silly and doesn't concentrate on the important things like facts. Never mind the fact that high school students for the most part get to uni with the bare minimum (if any at all) of critical thinking skills now - make them focus on regurgitating facts and they will be entirely useless!! Has this man never heard of Bloom's taxonomy of learning?? (which I wouldn't expect most people to have heard of unless they were being made to train as a teacher to work at Uni or - for example - were the minister responsible for EDUCATION policy!!) In that, recall and regurgitation of facts are very clearly identified as the lowest form of knowledge (although on the plus side, very easy to train students to pass exams with high rates thus lifting Britain's waning rankings in the world secondary education tables. Not that I'm a conspiracy theorist mind you. That would not be logical or based on facts). Stupid stupid man! AND he's getting rid of the citizenship classes that have been in place for the past 9 years because educating students to understand their political system is a waste of time and the curriculum "must not cover every conceivable area of human knowledge or endeavour and should not become a vehicle for imposing passing political fads". Yes, knowing and understanding politics is like, soooo 4 years ago. And hey, if we stop educating kids about politics, then they won't have the capacity to question dickheads like me properly when I do something stupid like turn the clocks back on education policy by 40 odd years!!!! GARRGGH.
(FYI: http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/jan/20/national-curriculum-review-facts-and-vital-knowledge
And: http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/jan/20/dont-scrap-citizenship-teachers-plead?intcmp=239
Ok. Rant over. Sorry if I bored you. I really must get a pet so I can rant to it and stop harassing actual people!
Anything you need to get off your chest reader(s)?
(FYI: http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/jan/20/national-curriculum-review-facts-and-vital-knowledge
And: http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/jan/20/dont-scrap-citizenship-teachers-plead?intcmp=239
Ok. Rant over. Sorry if I bored you. I really must get a pet so I can rant to it and stop harassing actual people!
Anything you need to get off your chest reader(s)?
Post-script: This debate was in reference to history and geography classes not science/maths/engineering where, understandably, the notion of rote learning facts and equations etc is obviously essential!
ReplyDeleteHaha, love the thoughtful post-rant postscript! You should send this (or maybe a slightly reworded version) in as a letter to the editor. Politics needs voices like yours...
ReplyDeleteIf I thought it would make a scrap of difference, I might. Sadly, though, this "coalition" (ha) government has proven itself over and over to be the least citizen-minded of any government I've seen (in my lifetime anyways. I suspect Thatcher was probably worse). There's really no point in even engaging with politics in the UK at the moment...and so I am left with no choice to impotently rant online...
ReplyDeleteHehee - you think it would need rewording to go public? Is it the repeated use of STUPID or the swearing that might not come across well you think? :-P