As a sequel to the recent BBC2 experiment Are Our Kids Tough Enough? Chinese school, the Institute of Education has caused something of a flutter by conducting independent research which shows that a group of British pupils taught maths and science in the traditional way outperformed their peers by 10% (Report, 13 August). AP Herbert, famous novelist, playwright and law reform activist, memorably described himself as having been “self-educated at Eton and King’s”. The Chinese teachers who participated in BBC2’s documentary might be forgiven for thinking that nothing has changed, given our predilection for trendy methods whereby the teacher “facilitates” the learning of UK wunderkind.
Those at the chalkface despair of the endless cosmetic rebranding and psychobabble which ignores one simple truth: namely that our children are being consistently short-changed by a reluctance to enforce strong discipline, respect for teachers and a solid work ethic, as well as by overvaluing open-ended learning at the expense of traditional whole-class methods. Neil Strowger, headteacher of the school where the experiment took place, suggested that Chinese methods were tantamount to prison. Such reasoning is back to front. As Victor Hugo put it: “He who opens a school door closes a prison.” I’m willing to bet that his ideal school was closer to the Chinese than the British model.
Dr Catherine Moloney
Liverpool
More educartion letters, on children’s well-being and Nicky Morgan’s book-reading scheme, at gu.com/letters
