AIBU to think that Toby Young is...

[LatteLady]

a total twerp? Honestly, what sort of response did he expect when he suggested that Yr 9 late readers should be reading Alice in Wonderland aloud rather than a novel which had captured their imagination and kept a group of 20+ focused and engaged?

What is so sad is that he will not listen to people's views unless they totally chime with his! Aaaaaaaaaargh!

In what parallel universe did this happen then?

Yep, YANBU. He is, of course, an expert on education .

Free schools, what a load of crap.

I haven't watched the programme yet (taped it to enjoy at leisure) but someone was saying that he has committed to his school opening next September and they don't even have a site yet - is this true?

I don't know about him being a twerp, I think he is one of those people who was very bright at school 30 years ago and doesn't really get that schools and society have changed since and that people who weren't as gifted or motivated as him need, perhaps, a different approach. My mother is always going on about how I was in a class of 44 when I was at primary school "and it did you no harm" but fails to address that tonnes of people in that class fell behind because there was so little attention paid. It's that whole "I'm a success because of" rather than despite of what happened to me attitude to life.

YANBU

Force feed them classics and eventually they will come to appreciate. Okaaaaay.

No prizes for guessing what kind of parent child his free school is hoping to select attract.

I've read his book. YABU, he is not a total twerp, the phrase you are looking for is smug-faced cockhead.

But... serious point. If you just let children read things that engage and interest them, the danger is that they are never exposed to other types of literature or different styles of language. Sometimes being made made to read a challenging piece of text at school is a total drag but at other times - especially if you have a good teacher to explain it - it's like turning on a lightbulb.

I've worked with him....say no more. But then again, I think the classics are rejected for no other reason than because they are 'old'. I think children should be challenged and dragged out of their comfort zone.

noblegiraffe -

that programme was utterly bizarre. when they turned up in their boden finery to the council estate park to talk to the commoners 25% entry for rif raff, the other 75% his mates a lottery.

Just watched the programme, don't know any back story. Yes he was wrong about the Alice in Wonderland thing and he will need to really take on board what he is told by the senior teachers he is bringing onto his steering committee but someone will have to explain to me what is so wrong with committed and driven parents (who don't HAVE to be middle class to be this) getting actively involved in trying to create a school that their kids can go to where they WILL mix with other social groups and study a curriculum that hasn't been messed with every 5 minutes since 1988 and has to change according to the latest wheeze by Westminster bods who also aren't educational experts. If they genuinely feel that the state schools in their area are not up to it, they would send their kids private and perpetuate the divide even more.

Oh Tobias. What were you thinking? Appealing to those council estate folk on TV in such a patronising manner - lets face it, you're never gonna get them to put their names down now are you? Grand plan almost complete then!

Didn't see it but I thought he did have a site. At least that is what he wrote months ago. A building that was a former school. Can't remember the details.

The problem with teaching is that everyone thinks they can do it.

I was so cheered to see that group sitting in a circle reading and seeming to be engaged with the text.

I don't know how he could criticise them for not reading decking Alice in Wonderland. There is better classic literature which would engage that group- am thinking Lord of the Flies, Macbeth, Kes ( am not a teacher )

Yes, us teachers only ever read Viz and watch Eastenders with the kids these days.

I have very happy memories of my English lessons at my bog-standard comp.

But I don't remember everyone reading aloud. Just the same few were always nominated and the rest sat in bored silence.

we quite enjoyed our english teacher reading the wife of bath to us with modern english translation. quoniam anyone?

Mollie - he thought he'd found a site - the former King Fahad Academy for Girls, but got no response whatsoever from the Saudis. At the end of the programme, he did say he had found another site, but didn't say where it was, for fear of those opposed to his school whipping up local opposition.

Don't get it....King Fayed Academy is still open, how could he have thought he could take over their buildings?
Unless this was another of his barking delusions.

I remember that the previous site was nowhere near where he lived (I recall it was something like 6 miles away) so I thought there might be interesting catchment area issues - he'd be setting up a school that wouldn't actually take his children.

The old KF site in South Ealing.

It was three miles from his house, iirc Mollie.

I think he's a twerp too. That school will have too many chiefs and could well fail as a result. If he ever finds a site, that is.

This article in the Evening Standard made me howl with laughter when I read it in the summer. Poncetastic doesn't begin to describe it