The essay by Alex Standish "Geography used to be about maps" is one of the most thought-provoking. One quotation:
The elevation and conflation of the local and the global in the proposition 'Think Global, act local' is implicitly a rejection of the national sphere. It represents a denial of the political system through which citizens currently express their collective will via political representatives: the national will as sovereign power in the international sphere. Therefore not only is global citizenship disingenuous with regard to how the world currently operates (there is no world government, nor global body for citizens to hold to account), it is rejecting collective interest as a means through which politics is conducted while offering no democratic alternative.Later, he says,
Through the language of empowerment and identity formation, global citizenship education replaces the political process with a new moral code and encourages deference to higher authority rather than independent political thought.In "The New History Boys", Chris McGovern laments the rejection of narrative history in favour of teaching through perspectives so that students are not required to know what actually happened so much as to interpret an event (any event) through the "lens" of the experience of women, cultural diversity, the different beliefs of minorities, etc. In practice, as he points out,
"When children learn about Elizabeth I they are as likely to learn about how she dressed and went about her daily life as they are about what she did."I look forward to reading the essays about languages, maths and science. This is a book I would recommend to anyone who is interested in education in Britain today, especially parents. If they are aware of the gaps in their children's education, they will be able to gather resources and provide experiences that will go some way to making up the deficiency. As Chris McGovern points out,
"Currently, the custodians of our national identity are Blue Badge guides and the Beefeaters."
7 comments:
I knew about this corruption some time ago as the Campaign for real Education - charity - alerted me.
On my daughter's biology GCSE last year - one of the questions were, "Describe the benefits of cloning?" How disgraceful is that!!! There is an evil agenda clearly. Chavagnes - in France offer the old fashioned O Level - now called IGCSE - if things don't improve here my son will go abroad to be educated.
Dominie
The Times has an article about more of this nonsense:
STATE secondary schools are being told to ditch lessons in academic subjects and replace them with month-long projects on themes such as global warming.
The pressure to scrap the traditional timetable in favour of cross-curricular topics is coming from the government’s teaching advisers, the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA).
Dominie, the IGCSE are not the old O levels, which do still exist for overseas countries. In fact, Chavagnes does (or did) O Levels in some subjects. But before you send your son there ask to see the text books he will be using (at one time they didn't have any), and ask how many of the staff had experience of teaching groups of boys before teaching at Chavagnes. Also ask what activities are provided at the weekends, that might distract them from their iPods and laptops, (my son said there was nothing to do)and what educational visits they will make. (My son didn't even know there was a museum in the village dedicated to the Vendee uprising, whose generals are honoured in the school by naming the houses after them). Also ask if the staff think it important that boys keep in touch with their parents, and how they ensure that this contact is made(we very rarely heard from our son, except when he needed money). The spiritual formation given is excellent, however.
I realise that this is not really the subject of the post, but many parents, despairing of the education on offer in the UK, have parted with money to Chavagnes, only to be disappointed.
Much as parents can no longer trust RE teachers to pass on the faith, they should try from the earliest age possible to ensure their childrens' immunity to this rubbish.
For history, try Our Island Story or Scotland's Story for wee Scots like my two. You need to be careful with Marshall's telling of the so-called reformation, but the rest is OK.
Thanks for that info - will bear that all in mind. My baby is 6 months old so it may get better in time
I did infact ask the head of Chavagnes if he has read the corruption of the curiculum - I am waiting for an answer.
Dominie
Paulinus - I have "Our Island Story" and found not only the chapters on the reformation but anything remotely relating to our Catholic heritage an immense disappointment which for me spoiled a potentially excellent book.
It demonstrates the real need that there was for the work of Lingard. Nowadays, we seem to have lost any sense of that need because our schools go along with the National Curriculum and eschew narrative history entirely.
My Son has just made his GCSE 'Options'. When I read the brochure that he brought home from school (Haberdasher Aske Hatcham's; a very good school supposedly)I was apalled by the history syllabus. Absolute dumbed down nonsense.
I am not even sure (as a trained historian myself) that one could call "America - 1926 - 1950" as even 'history' as it is still too close to the events. Or "America 1958 - 1978 which is not a study of American history at all but of the civil rights and anti war movement. Quite a different politically correct kettle of fish.
Fortunately Liam wouldn't choose history, not from anything I discussed with him (hey, he is a teenage boy; I'm only his dad!) but because, as he said himself, "that is so boring, dad". And yes, it is.
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