This won’t make sense to many of you – except Jam
I just received my phone call from a recent pupil of the secondary school I went to. They’re phoning round us all to keep us up to date and to ask for money for their new maths and science building. Yes – it does need replacing. The old one’s drafty. Especially when the windows are left open. With snow on the ground outside.
Apparently they’re also seeking to bring in some scientists and mathmos from outside to talk about their area of work. Because:
Recent pupil: “I don’t know about you, but I found the teaching was too tied to the syllabus. What did you find in your maths?”
Me: “Funny you should say that. Have you heard of Julian Bewick?”
Recent pupil: “Yes I have, the building’s being named after him.”
Me: “He was an old fashioned schoolmaster of the best kind. He believed in teaching us maths – then a couple of months before the exams he would check the syllabus to make sure we had been taught all we needed to know.”
Sounds to me like the answer to their problems of syllabus-bound teaching aren’t a new building named after Julian Bewick. They need Julian Bewick himself back! He only lives down the road.
Of course, the reason why maths teaching is becoming more and more bound by the syllabus is because we get more and more interim exams, more inspections, more paperwork, more structures to meet, etc. In short: The state is intervening more in education by the year such that school teachers are not trusted to be the ones who makes the judgement about what pupils need to learn.
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