Gove on Question Time

[ipadquietly]

What a disappointment on so many levels:

1. The panel was totally ignorant about the details of the new curriculum, and, because of this, could only play lip service to Gove.
   
2. No-one in the audience made any points to challenge Gove. Indeed the only teacher to make a comment happened to work in an independent school which didn't have to follow the curriculum.
   
3. The challenges from the panel were anecdotal - Horowitz harping on about the parlous state of literacy; one of the women (?) harping on about being a school governor but seemingly knowing nothing about the new curriculum and the labour woman spouting anecdotes about her children (I mean.... politician on Question Time spouting anecdotes about her children ) with zero political argument.
   

It gave the slimy little toad a chance to speak crap and get an almost standing ovation.

I could have screamed.

[SchnitzelVonKrumm]

My children's primary school is vastly more rigorous and ambitious than anything I encountered in the 1970s.

[muminlondon]

Thanks for pointing that out - Geographical Association says:

'The GA supports the new focus on subject rigour, but we do not support a 'curriculum of compliance'. A curriculum that narrowly focuses on a set of given facts and expects children to passively absorb them is not what we want.'

[muminlondon]

Good old Michael Rosen asks the questions we would like Gove to answer

www.guardian.co.uk/education/2013/apr/01/michael-gove-rigour-knowledge-creativity

[ipadquietly]

I particularly like the paragraph on rigour.

However, I think MR has fallen into the trap of concentrating too much on 'creativity' being about the arts - poetry, dance, writing. IMVHO I think the curriculum running in many primary schools at the moment enables creativity throughout the curriculum - the children are being encouraged to think outside of the box and work together to grow their ideas, which are sometimes remarkable. In addition, they are learning the very important skills of making suggestions, debate, evaluation and compromise.

[Copthallresident]

ipad I have a background in strategic planning, have worked with company boards helping them develop strategy and the plans to implement it. You have to come up with all sorts of exercises to get these very bright people to lose their inhibitions and start thinking laterally in order to be creative and generate new ideas, and to make consensual decisions on implementation .

So somewhat sceptically I agreed with DDs Year 6 teacher that I would try the same sort of processes and techniques to facilitate them in taking on the leadership in developing the strategy for the school's fundraising initiative and plans for implementing them.

No need for exercises to get them to think creatively, as well as understand the risks and opportunities and come up with ultimately highly successful plans. They ended up working within charities to understand their needs and even, when world events moved on from what they had planned for, quickly adapting their plans to make a greater difference with their resources. If you could bottle that level of unguarded and uninhibited creative thinking, task focus and enthusiasm and spread it about UK PLC (or indeed the Education sector) the UK would be a lot more successful. Of course it was no surprise to their teacher who had fostered that confidence and creativity, but it would be well beyond the imagination of Gove as evidenced by his dredging up of sad old ideas.

[ipadquietly]

That sounds fantastic copthall. [bugrin]