The first time I ever got paid for writing something was in 1985. I’d forgotten about it until yesterday when I found myself in a dusty corner of Manchester University library faced with a long shelf containing bound volumes of The Times Educational Supplement from the sixties to the nineties. I remembered writing a piece… Continue reading The Tie That Binds
A.C. Grayling’s pieces on moral dilemmas in The Guardian (later collected into various books) always impressed me. Witty, erudite, elegant, they anatomised the modern ethical landscape, and presented solutions that were often informed by references to classical literature. Grayling has had his detractors as a so-called media don, but it always seemed to me that… Continue reading Feet of Clay (2)
Is writing an email to Radio 4 the modern equivalent of an outraged of Tunbridge Wells-type letter to the Maily Torygraph? Possibly. I was moved to fire off an email yesterday whilst listening to the Saturday Live programme, usually with the delightful Fi Glover, but this week presented by the creepy Rev. Richard Coles(he always… Continue reading Rap it up
In 1973, when I went to university as an undergraduate, there were no open days. You were invited for interview, and maybe someone would show you round. Or not. Certainly, no parents would go, and anyone of my generation would have been mortified to be accompanied by parents on this very adult enterprise. Not so… Continue reading End of civilisation as we know it
You would think I might get these all right. No, I got 6 / 7. I even got the question on To Kill a Bleeding Mockingbird right. What I got wrong is the question on The Charge of the Light Brigade, where I was invited to declare why Tennyson had used certain verbs. All the… Continue reading Volleying and thundering
In the brave new world of education, a “voluntary” contribution to the cost of a child’s education is actually compulsory. Sample:It read like a letter from a debt-collector. “Our accounts indicate you have not made a contribution,” it stated. “Our records indicate you have not contacted us.” In fact, it was a letter from a… Continue reading Voluntary = Compulsory
I was so annoyed about this article by Simon Heffer that I posted a lengthy, and not entirely coherent reply. Gratifying to see that even Telegraph readers can see, for the most part, what nonsense this is. I wrote the following, but it’s worth checking the link to see the comments of others. Somehow, I… Continue reading Telegraph hack knows nothing about education shock
I was sent some publicity material by the academic jobs website jobs.ac.uk. One of the items is a calendar, on which is printed a series of patronising “tips”- sample tip for writing CVs: “Don’t use meaningless introductions”. Doh! THAT’s why I never got that vice-chancellor’s job!My favourites, though have to be the number 1 and… Continue reading Really Top Tips
This is a really funny, but also profound piece of thinking that makes some crucial points about the nature of education and creativity.
BBC NEWS | Education | Schools ‘avoid Holocaust lessons’Who do they think they’d offend? The local Nazi children?