National Primary Heads Southwest Region

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• National Primary Heads / Southwest Region
• Where should we go now? Never waste a good
  crisis!
• John Abbott
• President, The 21st Century Learning Initiative
• Supporting documentation for this discussion can
  be downloaded from
• Website www.21learn.org
• Email mail_at_21learn.org
• UK contacts jabbott_at_rmplc.co.uk
• Telephone [phone]
• Fax [phone]
• 5th June 2009
• Bindon House Hotel, nr Wellington, Somerset

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... Why is schooling split at the age of eleven,
and why is it that primary pupils generally enjoy
their education, but secondary pupils dont?...
Why, if the early years of education are so
important, are secondary schools better financed
than primary?... Why does England, a country so
dependent upon technology, have difficulties in
recruiting teachers of science?... If education
is so important why arent teachers held in
higher regard?... In a country with a
fully-funded public education system why, on
average, do some 7 of pupils attend independent
fee-paying schools?
Design Faults at the heart of English education
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... Why, given the significance in earlier
generations of adolescence as a proving ground
for adulthood, does modern society treat
adolescence as a problem, not as an
opportunity?... Why is the education system so
difficult to reform?... If one of the most
significant indicators of future success is the
quality of home life in the earliest years, why
are schools now expected to take on ever more of
what until recently were the responsibilities of
parents?... Why are those aspects of schooling
that children enjoy most called extra-curricular,
as if they dont matter so much and are only
informally offered?... Why are Steiner and
Montessori Schools so popular with professional
parents?... Why, in a largely secular country,
are Faith Schools generally so popular?... Why,
given the universal and evolutionary significance
of music, is the subject too often regarded in
England as essentially an extracurricular
activity?
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• If I can
• ask my own questions,
• try out my ideas,
• experience whats around me,
• share what I find
•  
• If I have
• plenty of time for
• my special pace,
• a nourishing space,
• things to transform

• If youll be
• my patient friend,
• trusted guide,
• fellow investigator,
• partner in learning
•  
• Then I will
• explore the world,
• discover my voice,
• and tell you what I know
• in a hundred languages.
• Pamela Hook

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Oh God, oh my God, how I suffered. What torments
and humiliations I experienced. I was told that
because I was a mere boy I had to obey my
teachers in everything. I was sent to school. I
did not understand what I was taught, and was
beaten for my ignorance. I never found out what
use my education was supposed to be.
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Half of the 5 year olds starting school lack the
speaking and listening skills needed to cope in
the classroom .... "A cultural change means that
parents no longer believed conversation was
essential to their children's development," said
Alan Wells, Director of the Basic Skills Agency.
Describing family communication as "the daily
grunt", Mr. Wells went on to say, "There is an
ethos (among parents) which says 'don't worry,
schools will do it all for you'".. The
Independent 4th March 2003
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Education is what remains when you have forgotten
everything you ever learnt in school
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Education is the ability to perceive the hidden
connections between phenomena. Vaclav Havel,
2000
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Tell me and I forget Show me, and I
remember Let me do and I understand. Chinese
Proverb
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I call a complete and generous education that
which equips a man to perform justly, skillfully
and magnanimously all the offices public and
private of peace and war. John Milton, 1644 as
quoted in The Child at School, J.H. Newsom, 1948
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How things have changed ? In our concentration
on academic performance we lose sight of our main
business of educating human personality. (TES
1959) ? All considerations of the curriculum
should consider how best to use subjects for the
purpose of education, rather than regarding
education as the bi-product of the efficient
teaching of subjects. (Sir Philip Morris,
1952) ? Until education is conceived as a whole
process in which mind, body and soul are jointly
guided towards maturity, a childs personality
will not necessarily be developed. (The Crowther
Report, 1959)
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• In 1962 it was claimed that seven questions had
  to be answered about a childs education
• How far has a child been unable to develop its
  own personality?
• Is our education an adequate preparation for
  becoming a good citizen?
• Is the present system of physical education
  satisfactory?
• What contribution can education make to the
  responsibilities in the home?
• How effective can the school leaver communicate?
• How skilful is a child when he leaves school?
• How well equipped is a child when he leaves
  school to become a self-supporting member of the
  community?
• Educating the Intelligent by Hutchinson and
  Young, 1962

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Recent Government Statistics The work of the
Department of Education and Employment fits with
a new economic imperative of supply-side
investment for public prosperity. (2001) The
goal is to improve the skills of Englands young
people to create a workforce of world-class
standard. (2008)
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Traditionally, education has often been likened
to a three-legged stool, which will always adjust
to the most uneven surface (unlike a four-legged
chair). The Home (Emotions) The Community
(Inspiration) The School (Intellectual) Progressi
vely, however, modern society had attempted to
define Education as Schooling and has defined
schools as having a similar three parts -
Academic, Socialisation, and Control
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• For further information
• Web www.21learn.org
• Email mail_at_21learn.org
• Website www.21learn.org
• Email mail_at_21learn.org
• UK contacts jabbott_at_rmplc.co.uk
• Telephone [phone]
• Fax [phone]