Education, Education, Education
I listened to BBC Scotland's Newsweek programme earlier today - with Derek Bateman.
One of his guests was Alex Wood - a retiring head teacher from Wester Hailes Education Centre in Edinburgh.
But in a previous life Alex was the famously left wing leader of Edinburgh City Council - which Labour finally managed to wrest from the control of the Tories - in the 1980s if I remember correctly.
Now Alex spoke passionately about education and teaching - which all good teachers do - and he also spoke disparagingly about COSLA - which most sensible people do these days.
Saying - in his own words - that COSLA has developed a 'bean counting' mentality towards education.
A mentality which could be interpreted in my view as - 'knowing the price of everything, but the value of nothing'.
I agreed with much of what Alex had to say - but what I can never understand about teaching is this:
How come with all these tick boxes and endless measurements - so many young people manage to progress right through primary school and then leave secondary school - without being able to read or write properly, or do even basic maths?
If the emphasis is on passing the relevant exam - and acquiring the relevant qualification or skill - why do such significant numbers continue to fail - year after year?
If anyone can explain that to me, I will gladly share their thoughts - anonymously or otherwise - on the blog site.
But as for me - I'm all blogged out for the day - see you tomorrow, hopefully.
One of his guests was Alex Wood - a retiring head teacher from Wester Hailes Education Centre in Edinburgh.
But in a previous life Alex was the famously left wing leader of Edinburgh City Council - which Labour finally managed to wrest from the control of the Tories - in the 1980s if I remember correctly.
Now Alex spoke passionately about education and teaching - which all good teachers do - and he also spoke disparagingly about COSLA - which most sensible people do these days.
Saying - in his own words - that COSLA has developed a 'bean counting' mentality towards education.
A mentality which could be interpreted in my view as - 'knowing the price of everything, but the value of nothing'.
I agreed with much of what Alex had to say - but what I can never understand about teaching is this:
How come with all these tick boxes and endless measurements - so many young people manage to progress right through primary school and then leave secondary school - without being able to read or write properly, or do even basic maths?
If the emphasis is on passing the relevant exam - and acquiring the relevant qualification or skill - why do such significant numbers continue to fail - year after year?
If anyone can explain that to me, I will gladly share their thoughts - anonymously or otherwise - on the blog site.
But as for me - I'm all blogged out for the day - see you tomorrow, hopefully.
