Time Travel and Education

It was the thought having to send our children to pre-prison in Islington, that prompted our move to Lewes .My eldest son,( how I love to write that …) , is coming up to “Reception”, so recently I got an opportunity to see a school in action .On open day ,we followed the headmaster , peering around doors like curious Alice , armed with offsted data, and trying not to stick our hands up to speak..
This is the school, we hope fils Newmania will attend .

Much had changed ,shorter periods of concentration , the use of computer aids to teaching , less formality and …bum bum baaaaa , the use of the legendary Phonics . Now bear with me because I am coming back to this by a circuitous route ....but prepare for a lurch

I have just watched the last of that rare thing ,a Television programme I do not detest .In fact I loved

“ Victorian Farm ".There was the dreaded reality element ,in that the protagonists lived the life of Victorian farmers, but it was not silly or overwrought.It had the solidity of real research . The participants actually possessed relevant qualifications and glowed with delight at experiencing their subject made flesh corn and pig. Just for once , people on the box were not saying, “Like me like me” ,they were saying ,“Isn’t this absolutely fascinating” , .It was
.The nobility of the heavy horses and the timelessness of the harvest where there; but also the whirl of change that swept the Victorians countryside into the 20th century . Such beautiful details .The strange formality of farm work in in bowler hats waistcoats, the practised arm of the wheelwright and basket maker, and then the food . This was the province of my new heroine ,Ruth Goodman . She of jams breads , puddings , straw hats , beekeeping ,and every kind of period craft , gave you the historical context ,but more than this , almost the smell and taste of other lives .

So getting back to the school , if you look out at the media sea , a gathering storm approaches for the teaching profession .A review of our £500,000,000 literacy programme concluded standards had hardly improved since the 50s .England has slithered from 3rd to 15th place but £186 billion extra has been spent that we would still have in our empty coffers if was had spent at 97 levels We have seen the headlines, and we know the fat years are gone .Even if the economy picks up in 2010 it cannot help us now .We have to cut services and increase taxes . I anticipate that eyes will turn with increasing malevolence on the featherbedded over paid ultra funded failure that is much of our educational system . Like a true Conservative I fear that in our reforming zeal we will throw the baby out with the bath water
Looking at good modern school in action you could see that while we have lost discipline and competition we have gained imagination , involvement, and much good practice if it was only applied .

Take history .There is growing frustration that children emerge knowing what it feels like to be a 14th century minstrel ,but with no clear idea that King John predated Queen Elizabeth 1 . I understand the fury with much of the Teaching college junk but not all.Perhaps we need to rebalance but lets not give up on the taste and smell of the past. Lets find time for projects on, how it felt to be press ganged in Portsmouth one foggy night and wake up in the British Navy , let them make their own Legionnaire’s uniforms and shiver in Romans shsips as they nosed up the Thames , into new savage forests . Let them discover what it was like to work on a Victorian Farm......Thanks to Ruth and the chaps for letting the adults play too.