Gove: Does he make everyone want to vomit?

[orangeandlemons]

That man. Ugh! He makes me feel sick. The trout pout, the hair, the smarm, th fucking zealot madman policies.

Words cannot express

Well he may not have film-star looks but he doesn't make me want to vomit. He generally seems to care about kids and state education. Given that he's a Tory Minister my lack of hatred's surprised me . The government as a whole on the other hand is another matter entirely..

Gove is a good man with a hard job to do. Education in this country is a shambles, hence our massive numbers of NEETs and employers preferring immigrants to school-leavers. For too long teachers have been allowed to rule the roost.

He is a monumental cock

I think he is trying his best in difficult times. I agree with mrpants. Most teachers are left wing anyway, so why would they agree with anything from a tory minister.

Ian Duncan Smith is giving him a run for his money atm

Gove is a fantastic Minister for Education.
He is one of the best and bravest people in politics.

Christine Blower is utterly loathsome and doesn't even understand the basic prionciples of evidence based practice in terms of how to teach reading.

Gove is a cunt, and I pretty much agree with everything in this article

Monbiot?
Enough said.

doesn't matter who it is, I agree with the sentiments.

As a rule I would say most teachers dislike the education secretary whatever the party. I have worked under both Labourand Tory governments. Blunkett was pretty well disliked IIRC.

However what sets Gove apart is his determination to drive all teachers good and bad out of teaching. Is this what he wants for the country? This is what he will get without a doubt. But....wait....of course......the parents can do it instead

Teachers have been allowed to run the show for too long?!!! Of course, silly me, it was teachers who wanted SATs and literacy hours, and successive governments moving the goalposts every five minutes and fiddling about with the exam system and expecting children to take exams every five minutes and adding more and more crap to the state education syllabus, to make up for children no longer being expected get any lessons in good citizenship from their own parents' example....

As for trying to get schools to run their own show, as if failing schools are the fault of the local authorities, that's just a way of ensuring that the postcode lottery becomes even more stressful. It will also be interesting to see how the government deals with state funded independent schools that actually do go belly up. What will happen to the state funded premises and children, then? Will successful schools be forced to step in to the breach and stretch themselves to breaking point? Or will extra money be pumped in to keeping the failed schools going, because nobody else knows what to do with all the kids??? State schools can no more disappear into the ether than big banks can be allowed to fail.

orangesandlemons Whilst of course parents can't do it themselves, the argument for getting a wider range of teachers is unanswerable.

One very important step: the PCGE should be recognised as the next-to-useless qualification it is. Gove's moves to cut PCGE funding is highly welcome in this context, but unfortunately it isn't as bold as his other reforms.

Many people from the worlds of business, or our Armed Forces, or from engineering, could make far better teachers than the unionised whining contingent.

Oh dear, I'm going to be swimming against the tide and my good friend headfairy here but I think Gove is one of the only good things about this government. I have grave misgivings about a lot of things occuring right now but the education reforms I support 100%. We seem to have ended up as a country in a place where both academia and industry are stating thats standards drop further each year, yet every year we go into this collective state of denial with another round of record exam passes. It's like parallel universes or something.

I also have a massive objection to this idea that failing schools can write off their failure with the line of "well, with our catchment what do you expect?" It's not fair on the poor kids stuck with crappy schools. Education is their only chance of raising themselves up and the system as it stands just slams the door in their face. Gove does actually seem to recognise that in contrast with just about every other Education secretary I can ever remember. I find it amazing that people who are on the left politically are so content to maintain the status quo that discriminates so strongly against exactly the very children that they claim to want to help.

Hey, I came from the world of business, and completely believe that ALL teachers should not undertake any entry to the classroom, unless they have spent at least 5 years outside education.

However to teach at secondary level, you do need an in-depth subject knowledge (particularly at A Level). Would these people from business, Armed Forces or engineering have that? They could teach business, or engineering maybe but what about English, History, Geography or whatever? Not sure how they could teach those. Actually engineering is quite an interesting one as Gove has practically sidelined D&T which covers engineering. Yet he wants student to receive a Victorian education, when engineering was at it's height in England.

What should take the place of the PGCE then? Or do people just walk in on the first day and say "Right let's get cracking"

Love the unionised whining contingent. Tee Hee, may stick it on staff room notice board

'I find it amazing that people who are on the left politically are so content to maintain the status quo that discriminates so strongly against exactly the very children that they claim to want to help.'
Beautifully put Was

So, you either have to like the status quo or agree with what Gove is doing? Since when?

I am actually that anyone at all rates him.

I even think there is Facebook club about how vile he is.

He is still an utter twat. Those lips........

Also, hope those industrialists and Armed Forces people have a good line in starters, plenaries and hinge questions, otherwise OFSTED won't be happy.

Because now we don't need a PGCE, they should know what these are by telepathy.

What are started, plenaries and hinge questions, and why do teachers need to know them?

Haha wasabs, I'm happy to throw my hands up and admit I don't know the first thing about the state of the education service, not having been involved with it for twenty years - that's all about to change though! No I mean I can't stand Gove, that horrible rubbery face, and in a very lazy way i tar all Tories with the same brush mist of the time. I'm sure many do, on both sides of the political spectrum.

I do agree with that article on the subject of independent schools though, I feel they contribute to the lack of social mobility in this country. I'm sure some clever folk will come along and tear my argument to shreds, but no one will ever be able to persuade me that elitism is preferable to a meritocracy. I've made my opposition to independent schools very clear on other threads.

What on earth has his looks got to do with anything?
Instead of moaning about the unfairness of private schools, it's time we started looking at what they do right and learning from them as opposed to having a big tantrum about their success and insisiting they shut up shop.

Better for everyone to be crap together eh?

I've quickly searched for those terms: they seem like more self-justifying "theory" dreamt up by PCGE-lecturing types to me.

And frankly, they represent concepts anyone half-decent can grasp in 5 minutes, including the time taken to cut through the ivory tower BS. Leaving "starter question" aside, they seem to be:

Plenary question - a question designed to reflect on the lesson/what has been learnt.
Hinge question - quick question (usually multiple choice) with several plausible alternatives to test understanding "efficiently".

Can I have my PGCE now?

Both seem like prescriptive poppycock to me. And not something that any teacher worthy of the name needs to be "taught".

Oh do lighten up moondog, I wasn't claiming any in depth political insight.

Though can I suggest one thing independent schools do well is have smaller class sizes, something current education funding seems unable to provide. Most of it I imagine boils down to money.

What private schools do right is give teachers enough time to do their jobs outside the classroom (planning, preparation and assessing) and class sizes half the size of ours because they have the money to do so. Not sure how looking at that will help most of our state schools as there is no money?!?

There is no proven link between size of class and education achievement.

Have you any idea how much money it costs to keep the present system afloat? For a start you have the parasitic 'Special Needs' industry that purports to exist to 'support' the supposed 20% of children with 'Special Needs'.

A judiciously placed FOI request is an illuminating act.