16 October 2009

On knowing best

The substance of this is not my main territory, but the process interests me.

The Cambridge Review of Primary Education has just been published. "The most comprehensive enquiry into English primary education for 40 years" (i.e. since Plowden). It took three years, involved 28 major surveys and 31 interim reports and runs to 608 pages. It's not an op-ed piece in a newspaper.

The Department for Curtains and Soft Furnishings (DCSF) rejected it out of hand on the day of publication. Oh, and so did the Tories. There's no point in saying anything more, is there?

2 comments:

  1. John G9:43 am

    Hi James
    I haven't read the report, but was interested in the headlines it sparked regarding the age at which children should start formal education. We've just been to a series of talks at our Rudolf Steiner school, and thay have advocated and practiced the very same delay that everyone is getting so exercised about for years. Maybe it just takes time for the rest of the world to catch up!

    John G

    Napier
    New Zealand

    ReplyDelete
  2. OTOH, Steiner schools teach that the heart is not responsible for the circulation of the blood, so maybe Steiner only had one good idea.

    ReplyDelete

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