In 1914, Ernest Shackleton used the following advertisement to find a crew for an incredibly audacious journey – to conquer Antarctica:
‘Men wanted for hazardous journey. Low wages, bitter cold, long hours of complete darkness. Safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in event of success.’
It has been widely cited as an example of great leadership and determination to succeed, despite the odds stacked against him. Apparently, hundreds of men applied.
I recently returned from the SSAT conference with a renewed sense of determination to achieve victory over the conservative forces within education in the UK. By conservative I don’t mean the Tory party. I mean those who wish to preserve a Victorian approach to learning: sitting in rows of chairs, reciting Kings and Queens of England and ‘schooling’ children to pass pub quizzes. Michael Gove, the current Education Secretary, is the Champion of this approach.
The thing is, the Coalition Government is rapidly changing the landscape of ‘learning in the UK’. And for me it’s going in the wrong direction. It’s not progress – it’s regress. Messages coming from Gove are often contradictory and at times totally unsuitable to the context of the 21st Century.
If you are reading this I’m sure you will agree that such forces also exist within some schools across the country – that of preserving the existing status quo. Well let’s CHALLENGE it.
If Shackleton was to lead the #GoveArmy his advert may read:
‘People wanted for hazardous journey. Means working out of hours and battling against an all powerful Education Secretary. National success doubtful. A brave new world if victorious.’
To the reader and Comrades from my Personal Learning Network on Twitter – this is a call to arms: join the #GoveArmy. Who’s with me?
I'm in
I am in!
Count me in!
I am, however, out. Sorry
. The “Victorian” teaching method produced responsible and literate citizens. Education since then has produced illiterate yobs, GCSEs in fishing, behaviour gurus and uni students who can't read and write. Back to the old ways, go ahead, Gove!
Presumably these are the “responsible and literate citizens” who looted, landgrabbed and pillaged civilisations across the globe, while children slaved in the nailshops of the West Midlands, white slaves making chains for black slaves to wear, invented the concentration camp and then turned their backs on the bloodbaths that ensued when the “Empire” withdrew from India, Malaya, Aden, Cyprus – I could go on. Schools are not responsible for yobs, illiteracy, and so on – it's the politicians like Gove who turn education into a political football. I have yet to meet a teacher who deliberately sets out to turn youngsters into the sort of people you describe. Teachers are the finger in the dyke against a tide of social disconnection caused by a proliferation of choice and the cult of celebrity. I will support Gove when he puts the genie of 24/7 shopping/television/Internet back in the bottle, along with binge drinking, divorce and reality TV. If he can turn Sun readers into Guardian readers, he's a better man than I am. You need to wake up and smell the coffee. Hello – it's the 21st century.
I forgot to say – I'm in
John Connor eh? Me thinks this is not the first revolution you have been involved in? @old-school teacher – Dad get back to the country club. You retired years ago what!
[...] A Call to Arms #GoveArmy [...]
I highlighted your post in my Daily Digest of Education related blogs today as I thought other teachers would find it of interest. You can see it here: http://ow.ly/3l602
Fantastic post Jamie, thanks for the link. I am subscribed to your blog but that one seemed to have slipped me by.
“Regressed” is definitely the word. I have not been a teacher for that long (in the grand scheme of things) but from my limited perspective, education had certainly changed for the better since the days when I was a student myself, under the previous Tory government. To think that we could be head back towards the sort of education I had myself or worse is exceptionally worrying.
I'm a forward thinker. Backwards simply does not compute – literally!
Very good blog, it is the going back to the ‘old days’ that is going to alienate many children and create that lack of success that was the very essence of old style teaching. I’m in!
A good post, Jamie – if you remove the political hyperbole from Gove’s interviews and speeches and get down to the nub of what he is saying then it is clear that he has to either go or change his tack.
He talks about autonomy whilst making more public pronouncements on how teaching should take place than any other Ed Sec in my teaching career. We are seeing, in Primary, a deliberate dismantling of successful approaches based on dogma and the influence of commercial providers right in the core of Sanctuary Buildings.
As someone visiting schools across the country my gravest concern is the fact that Gove is affecting morale negatively in many staffrooms. If we are realistic then we have to admit that there are some Ed Secs whose influence is not widely recognised in all staff rooms but Gove has succeeded in making sure that his agenda is widely recognised and discussed by all staff. The problem is that his agenda is about refusing to recognise any merits in “modern teaching styles”, the benefits of ICT and his apparent determination to remove any evidence of changes made between 1997 and 2010 no matter how successful they were and irrespective of the fact that they were research based.