GOVE'S GLOVES ARE OFF

This slow-drying polish is a drag!

I'm offended by political jokes.  Too often they get elected.

Clearly, one of Gove's biggest handicaps is his face. But leaving that aside, there are other drawbacks in the self-justifying, lamentations about teaching and learning he espouses.  His attempts to abase the public with his shibboleths about the state education system and how it can by some mysterious, osmotic process engorge with a glut of  best practice pirated from the private education sector manifest as politically sinister and pragmatically unsound.

Michael Russell MSP

In his diatribe against the state of education in England (we have our own Michael Russell MSP as Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning), just who he was directing his slew of information to is unclear.  Was he, in his own mind, standing up in front of his stupefacted audience consisting of journalists and other unidentified listeners orating his ideas with the aim to convince? A small patter of applause at the end of the speech revealed that he did have a few supporters there; or were they praising his stamina for having stood so long in front of the class regaling them with his intentions to destroy further the morale of a whipped and scorned profession?  

But the muted response from the bent-eared majority said it all.  

Here is an intelligent  man who seems to want to leave a legacy of being the revolutionary ameliorator of an inadequately-suited-unfit-for-the-second-decade of-the-century education system apprising the public how to fix the system  (Jim's not around now to do it for him).  

Who did he consult apart from advisers? And has he dredged the river of opinions and advice from educators and parents? (For educators read teachers at the chalk face, not the 'innovators' of an ever-changing educational keep-them-in-a-job- format.)

Certainly, there is a lot to digest in the speech.  He wanders down Radical Road with many a convoluted turn and twist.

When considered, some of his proposals at face value seem sound, until you try to figure out just how they're going to be developed and applied.  Getting a handle on discipline in school is certainly a noble idea. But applying sanctions opens up a whole Pandora's box of rights and cul-de-sacs, not least the onerous task of getting the parents of dysfunctional children on board. The fact is, a significant number of parents are ferile and their progeny are bereft of a moral code by which to live.  How do you tell a parent that the picking up of litter around a playground is a just punishment for some misdemeanor in the classroom? 

C'mon you guys. I only asked you to pick up litter.

Gove also wants to have the power of the teachers and head to extend beyond the gates of the playground.  Eh!  Just don't see that happening when sometimes whole areas resemble a war zone with parents committed to complex family relationships are ready to rip out the jugular of a neighbour over some trivial, social infringment of jungle law.

But then, he left out one of the most important pivotal conditions for providing a first class education in all state schools - the provision of having a fully qualified teacher in all classrooms throughout the country.

I find Gove a rather strange man with a lot to say and a strong predilection for his own ideas to be implemented.  But his ideas are idealistic and now the wait for the unions to make their usual bleating protests without, at the end of the session, very little being avoided in the path of Gove's steamroller approach evidenced in his seemingly fervid agenda to draw public and political attention away from the recent accusation that he's firing and hiring to suit the covert ambitions of the Tories.

[The full text of his speech is in The Spectator.]

Special Education

At the fag end of my time in teaching I find myself as a substitute teacher at Pilrig Special School in Edinburgh. Quite the other end of the spectrum from mainstream education. For the first time, the priority is education rather than discipline. The latter is now by the way and such a minor part of the whole process that I can now focus on the children and the barriers they face. Of course, the levels of education are very low (but the strategies used to teach them are no less challenging than in mainstream) with few children able to express themselves. But they show respect, something I'm not used to. And bejeez, they respond to encouragement. A little bit of praise goes a long way.Yes, it's interesting. There are so many different levels of difficulty. But I've always thought that every child has special educational needs anyway. With 10 max in a class, I'm at last able to reach the less able, and they are really less able.