“You are a Spanish sailor about to embark in the Spanish Armada,” said the worksheet. “Draw an anti-English poster to show all the reasons why you are invading the country.”
It also asked for a “spider diagram of at least four reasons why Spain was angry enough with England to want to invade”.
Can you imagine the reverse happening in a Spanish school? Has sanity completely deserted our education system?
Has sanity completely deserted our education system?
ReplyDeleteIt went years ago.
Blimey, I again agree with anon: even I will concede that this is complete lunacy. BUT - at the risk of being attacked again - I remember when this idea of trying to make pupils "feel as the protagonists felt" was brought in regarding history teaching and ,pc though I was at the time [for the best of reasons, then, anon!] I could see the reason for it. Yet I always thought it was wrong because it resulted in students having NO KNOWLEDGE. History was not my specialism so I'd be interested to know what Gracchi thinks on this one. [Off to hide now.]
ReplyDeletetrackback! in my sidebar (check out the new digs)
ReplyDeleteOh dear!
ReplyDeleteMy partner's a teacher in primary school and gets very frustrated at how little input the teachers actually have in the classroom now.
The Govmnt. has passed down folders for every subject: what part of what subject should be taught and WHEN, and how. You have to fill in 3 bits of paper for each lesson- a daily plan, a weekly plan, a longer-term plan.
You have to 'list learning objectives' for every lesson, then fill in a sheet to say whether or not this was 'successful'.
You have to show on a planning form what you were going to teach, how you were going to teach it, what the 'objective' is, how does this link with other subjects, and then set out the same lesson three times - once for the brainiest kids, another for the average, another for the slower ones. And this is just for one lesson- imagine if you have 5 or 6 lessons a day.
It is all government driven and more and more paperwork is prescribed all the time.
This paperwork is checked by Ofsted so you have to keep it up to date. It takes hours. Then you have the marking, too. There are even guidelines given for what you can write in their books. One school he taught at was told not to write in red ink as it was threatening and upsetting so they all had to switch to green pens.
There is little time to find your own 'sources' and be creative. Therefore, government approved sources are published to buy at a price. These are copiable worksheets and lesson plans. I uldn't be surprised if the work you outline came from one of these publications. Some of them are appalling, even down to the grammer and spelling. I've even found spelling and grammer mistakes in an Ofsted report!
Early last year my partner had to quit work as he was so stressed out and tired. He had wanted to do extra time on teaching his 8 and 9 year olds how to use apostrophes correctly. He was told he couldn't spend more time on it as he had to stick to the plan.
Now he does supply work as there is less paperwork. But the experienced teachers are leaving....
Anywa, sorry to waffle on and on! Just wanted to say, I guess, that the paucity in our current education system is the result of micro-management from on high, and not so much the teachers...
Welshcakes - you and I as educators feel at one here. It was always good methodology to teach it well first then blend in the counterpoint to make the student analyse more.
ReplyDeleteDSo I realize this exercise was seized on and yet it was damned stupid in this heated climate for all that.
Helena - that's wonderful input thanks. I came out of the system at the point the NC was pushing the sciences and realizing it couldn't be done.
You by no means were waffling - I found it fascinating to be brought up to date on this.
Anon - yes.
Verlin - shall do.
I cannot imagine what sort of muddle-headed thinking goes on in the minds of liberal educators to the point that they would encourage this type of activity. It is one thing to list grievances by both sides. An American example would be to list why the South and the North fought the Civil war and how each looked at each other prior to the conflict.
ReplyDeleteIt is quite another thing to encourage children to assume the role of someone who hates their country.
People complain about youngsters hating their country, etc...
Now, with stories like this, we wonder why...
Good post !!