So why become a teacher?

Armstrong and Miller have some common reasons...

Think on these as the long summer holidays, for children and teachers, start.

Should the teachers strike have no implications?

Iain Duncan Smith MP (@IDS_MP) tweeted at 8:55 AM on Thu, Oct 17, 2013:
Hey Teacher! leave them kids alone. #OurDay http://t.co/x7PJnWWY5B
(https://twitter.com/IDS_MP/status/390747956468789248)

Censoring history lessons to stop Muslim children being offended

To the schools who hold back on the teaching about the holocaust in case learning of the deaths of millions of Jews offends Muslim pupils or their parents, we can now add this news:

'Out of consideration for immigrants of Turkish background teachers in a Vienna elementary school have been advised to no longer cover the topic in their teaching. Whoever does not comply is threatened with being transferred, reports the newspaper Krone. After all the Turks could feel insulted when they are reminded of their defeats. The Turkish wars are of major significance for Austrian history, however. Vienna alone twice faced major Turkish sieges - and beat back the attackers both times. Parents are angry about the initiative of the Vienna headmasters; even the Krone speaks of a "falsification of history".'

You didn't know about the Turkish Islamic invasions of Austria? Not been taught about in British or American schools? Google it and do look at 1529 and 1683. So you know about the Crusades and how evil they were but not that the Crusades were a response to Islam's takeover of the Holy Land and have never learnt about the Islamic invasions of Europe; why do you think that might be?

Woman behind street parties to 'celebrate' death of Margaret Thatcher named - Telegraph

'Blythe is a drama teacher with a workshop company that visits secondary schools. She specialises in "facilitating workshops for young, excluded and potentially criminalised individuals and uses drama techniques she has developed to explore resolution of conflict and oppression," according to the company's website.'

More here http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/margaret-thatcher/9984646/Woman-behind-street-parties-to-celebrate-death-of-Margaret-Thatcher-named.html

Our children's education is in safe hands...

The Guardian

The Guardian just don't get it...

'Farage's own views, if more widely known, might repel some voters. He writes in his autobiography that "20% of the UK's teachers should be sacked because they are useless functionaries. Parents, teachers and politicians have cowered away from their responsibilities." '

Only The Guardian and teaching unions and their political fellow travellers would dispute that there are a large number of useless teachers.
http://m.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/mar/01/tories-ukip-harm-sdp-labour

Education, education, education - improvements in standards were not real!

I am not shocked to learn that the latest OECD Economic Survey of the UK is not convinced about the veracity of the UK's alleged incredible rise educational standards under the last Labour government. Here's some of their comments:

'Despite sharply rising school spending per pupil during the last ten years, improvements in schooling outcomes have been limited in the United Kingdom.'

Limited improvements but Labour have boasted for years about how education standards have improved under their increased 'investment'.

That's subjective but exam standards really rose under the Labour government, didn't they:

'Official test scores and grades in England show systematically and significantly better performance than international and independent tests … The measures used by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) … show significant increases in quality over time, while the measures based on cognitive tests not used for grading show declines or minimal improvements.'

How can that be? Surely the last Labour government and the teaching unions would not have conspired to artificially boost exam result, would they?

'The share of A–level entries awarded grade A has risen continuously for 18 years... independent surveys of cognitive skills do not support this development.'

This is shocking news and a damning indictment of the last Labour government, although to be fair the OECD do also say that 'The share of A–level entries awarded grade A has risen continuously for 18 years and has roughly trebled since 1980'

So educational standards have not risen and pupils are not any better taught or more intelligent than they were in the 1980s. So when teachers and government ministers said that any questioning of exam standards was disrespectful to hard working pupils, they were hiding the truth; shocking.

I turned to the BBC, after all they have an education news section on their website expecting to find an angry piece decrying the lies that they and we had been fed by the last Labour government. Imagine my surprise when as at 8pm on Thursday 17 March I can find not a word about the OECD report; are they trying to hide the truth from the British public?

Here are the screen dumps to show that the BBC are not reporting this relevant news story...

Why is subject knowledge “elitist”?

The way that the last Labour government failed the youth of this country by dumbing down education and the standard of exams was a disgrace and Tony 'education, education & education' Blair should be ashamed of himself; however he's probbaly too busy counting his money. I was interested to read in The Telegraph the reactions of at least one teaching union:

'They insisted that a renewed focus on detailed subject knowledge was “elitist” and would alienate thousands of children, particularly those from the poorest backgrounds.'

Why is focussing on detailed subject knowledge 'elitist' in a bad way? 'Elitist' in that the better pupils will do better at school, yes, but that is a good thing. 'Elitist' in that only the rich will do well at school, no. Intelligence and hard work is not a class or wealth issue, it is partly genetic, partly environmental and largely application based. The 'all must have prizes' attitude of the left-wing teachers unions, educational establishment and last Labour government has reduced standards in our schools and left many businesses reeling at the lack of knowledge and skills possessed by school leavers. Dumbing down educational standards in an attempt to make the less able feel better about themselves at the expense of the better able is a crime and the current educational system, which prioritises politically correct teaching methods over the accumulation of hard knowledge, is leaving British pupils lagging behind those in other countries and thus damaging this country's prospects.

The ninety-sixth weekly "No shit Sherlock" award

This weeks award goes to Ofsted for reporting (per the BBC that 'Thousands of pupils in England are being wrongly labelled as having special needs when all they require is better teaching'.

"No shit, Sherlock"

And in case you are wondering why schools might artificially boost the numbers of 'special needs' pupils, the answer is simple - MONEY.