What has Michael Gove been up to while all around him schoolchildren magicked themselves into little monsters? Having set a rather poor example of how people ought to behave by yelling at Harriet Harman on Newsnight, he's gone on to point a finger at "a lack of school discipline".
He's told teachers they'll be getting new powers when they get back to school, including the right to search pupils for banned items and detain them without warning. The police, of course, already have such powers - and much good they've been to them. Teachers have long made it clear that they have no desire to be turned into police officers.
Amelia Gentleman's (@ameliagentleman) insightful piece looks at why disciplining children has become such a fraught issue. Veteran youth worker Clasford Stirling tells her:
"Bad behaviour and criminality has been glamorised on the streets. Teachers are scared to punish children. The modern child isn't frightened of their parents. They don't care if the police lock them up."
Education news from the Guardian
• A primary school assistant has pleaded guilty to being part of a mob that tried to loot an electrical store in London. Alexis Bailey, 31, who works at Stockwell primary school in south London, was arrested in Richer Sounds, Croydon, just after midnight on Monday.
• Taiwan is advising its 15,000 students in the UK to be vigilant and avoid areas of unrest, as the Malaysian student attacked in Barking speaks for the first time about his ordeal.
• Matt Damon (#mattdamon), lover of teachers, hater of standardised testing, should run for president, says Michael Moore.
• Look out for news of IGCSE results later today.
Education news from around the web
• The system for training teachers in England is wasteful, a report quoted by the BBC claims. A study by Buckingham University found just 27,976 of the 39,103 trainees who qualified in the summer of 2010 were in teaching posts in January 2011. Report co-author Alan Smithers (@profsmithers) says:
"It is no good having excellent entrants and outstanding inspection grades if the trainees do not go into teaching."
The Independent takes from the same report the news that thousands of trainee teachers in subjects suffering a shortage would be barred from the profession, under Gove's plan to remove government funding for anyone with less than a 2:2 degree who wants to train as a teacher. One in three modern language teachers would no longer receive funding for their training as a result.
The reports names Billericay Educational Consortium ahead of both Oxford and Cambridge as the best place to train as a teacher.
• The Telegraph reports that people who are bad at maths were probably born that way. A study by psychologists at John Hopkins University in Baltimore says when it comes to working with numbers, you either have it or you don't. The researchers also say numerical talent does not appear to be linked to all round intelligence.
• Hefce has announced an additional £1.2m to support the Routes into Languages initiative that aims to encourage more young people of all backgrounds to study languages at university.
• The THE reports that critics have labelled plans to hand greater power and responsibility to Hefce a "death warrant" for the self-regulation of higher education and could persuade universities to opt out of the state-funded system. Geoffrey Alderman from Buckingham University is quoted as saying:
"I do wonder if Oxford or Cambridge will say to the government in a year or so: 'We are very sorry, but we're not prepared to accept these new arrangements; we will do a deal with the banks.'"
• Jessica Shepherd (@jessshepherd1), our education correspondent, wonders what Cribsheet readers will think of a report by the National Union of Students that calls for science and maths courses to include discussion of gender and race issues. The THE reports that Usman Ali, vice-president of the NUS, says that if he had been taught that it was al-Hasan ibn al-Haytham who invented many foundations of science, including the mechanics of vision and perception, his "interest would definitely have been there". The report calls for diversity to be discussed in chemistry, electrical engineering and physics and says too many courses are designed for the "traditional student".
• The FT's education correspondent Chris Cook (@xtophercook) has written about what Croydon makes of the unrest it has experienced.
Tell the Guardian about your school's A-level and GCSE achievements
The Guardian would like to highlight your pupils' GCSE and A-level success this summer. We are asking schools to respond to a few quick questions about their pupils' results as soon as you receive them - on 18 August for A-levels and 25 August for GCSEs. Please take a note of the following web pages and return to them to fill in your results on those days:
We want to tell our readers how well your pupils have performed and are looking forward to mapping the success of young people across the country.
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20 September, London.
Using social media to enhance the student experience
As tuition fees rise, so too do student expectations. Social media is an effective, low-cost way to manage this challenge. This seminar will explore newly conceived best practice, techniques and strategy for all higher education staff: academic, communications, recruitment, marketing and strategy.
22 September, London.
Whether it's getting published, convincing an employer that you have transferable skills, or securing an academic post, you need to be fully prepared to achieve your goals. This course will help you identify career opportunities for those with research skills and specialist knowledge.
28 September, London.
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