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"Michael Gove: my revolution for culture in classroom" - ravings of a lunatic?

Last post 03/01/11 at 12:33 by seren_dipity, 204 replies
Post started by FolkFan on 28/12/10 at 18:36

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    Posted by: FolkFan 28/12/2010 at 18:36
    Joined on 06/07/2009
    Posts 2,790

    Gove has clearly gone bonkers, bit also shows a frightening ignorance...

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/8227535/Michael-Gove-my-revolution-for-culture-in-classroom.html

     For example peruse these quotes:

    "It's become fashionable over the Christmas holidays to refer to the Coalition as a Maoist enterprise"

    Really? Must have missed that on Today or PM...or

    "in education, where I am happy to confess I’d like us to implement a cultural revolution just like the one they’ve had in China"

    Now how many died during the Cultural Revolution? Opinions vary..perhaps 1 million, possibly 3 million...So who is Chairman Gove intending to bump off, I wonder... Or

    "I was in the Far East last month, to see what I could learn. In one Beijing school I was handed a thick book with screeds of Chinese characters and the odd paragraph in English. “Is this a textbook,” I asked? No, I was told, it was a compendium of research papers published in academic journals by people at the school. “Gosh,” I replied. “Your teachers must be well qualified if they are regularly publishing new work in university journals.”

    The papers were not, I was told, the professional work of the teachers. They were the homework of the pupils. And lest you think the example was a one-off, I had exactly the same experience in a Singapore school just two days later.

    Schools in the Far East are turning out students who are working at an altogether higher level than our own".

    Does he actually believe this? If he does I'd love to try to sell him something...or

    "Like Chairman Mao, we’ve embarked on a Long March to reform our education system".

     Is this a China fixation, or is he angling for a few more trips to the Far East paid for by you & me?

     

     

     

     

     

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    Posted by: MeanAverageJoe 28/12/2010 at 18:39
    Joined on 04/12/2008
    Posts 8,409

    FolkFan:

     For example peruse these quotes:

    "It's become fashionable over the Christmas holidays to refer to the Coalition as a Maoist enterprise"

    Really? Must have missed that on Today or PM...or

     

    If you missed it, it's here.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-12048836

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/dec/23/vince-cable-mao-coalition-marxist-capitalism

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    Posted by: Vimes 28/12/2010 at 18:47
    Joined on 12/12/2004
    Posts 64

    FolkFan:

    Gove has clearly gone bonkers, bit also shows a frightening ignorance...

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/8227535/Michael-Gove-my-revolution-for-culture-in-classroom.html

     For example peruse these quotes:

    "It's become fashionable over the Christmas holidays to refer to the Coalition as a Maoist enterprise"

    Really? Must have missed that on Today or PM...or

     

     

     

    Guess you did.  Grove is referring to Vince Cables widely reported views on the coalition

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    Posted by: sideshow 28/12/2010 at 19:00
    Joined on 11/06/2003
    Posts 63,057
    Stop talking about him. He is a total and utter clueless idiot who needs to spend time on a sink estate and then decide if a Chinese education is suitable for a child who's father is notable by his absence and mother is mostly stoned. I get really really frustrated by the idiot! Why couldn't we have David Laws? Cry!
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    Posted by: harsh-but-fair 28/12/2010 at 19:15
    Joined on 24/03/2006
    Posts 27,130

    FolkFan:

    "Like Chairman Mao, we’ve embarked on a Long March to reform our education system".

    It makes you wonder if the coalition is some sort of maoist organisation ....

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    Posted by: weebecka 28/12/2010 at 19:32
    Joined on 15/09/2010
    Posts 823

    FolkFan:
    in education, where I am happy to confess I’d like us to implement a cultural revolution just like the one they’ve had in China"
     

    Too late Mr Gove.  Up here in Cumbria we're ahead of the game.  Peter McGaw has been leading a cultural revolution on secondary education for the last 20 years.  

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    Posted by: bgy1mm 28/12/2010 at 19:36
    Joined on 10/12/2009
    Posts 1,936

    FolkFan:

    "I was in the Far East last month, to see what I could learn. In one Beijing school I was handed a thick book with screeds of Chinese characters and the odd paragraph in English. “Is this a textbook,” I asked? No, I was told, it was a compendium of research papers published in academic journals by people at the school. “Gosh,” I replied. “Your teachers must be well qualified if they are regularly publishing new work in university journals.”

    The papers were not, I was told, the professional work of the teachers. They were the homework of the pupils. And lest you think the example was a one-off, I had exactly the same experience in a Singapore school just two days later.

    Schools in the Far East are turning out students who are working at an altogether higher level than our own".

    Does he actually believe this? If he does I'd love to try to sell him something...or

    The journals aren't of the same quality as Nature. Probably mostly they publish work by older schoolchildren.

    It's not on the face of it a bad idea to have such journals, and they might improve Chinese science education to some extent. However they won't turn the average 18 year old into a professional research scientist. It's not as easy as that.

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    Posted by: weebecka 28/12/2010 at 19:37
    Joined on 15/09/2010
    Posts 823

    The systematic labelling of the intelligent teachers as being enemies of the state (not sufficiently reliable in understanding the perfect truth that 3 part lessons are the be-all-and-end-all etc.) and their subsequent persecution (capability, lack of promotion opportunities etc.) has been highly effective in improving education here.

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    Posted by: weebecka 28/12/2010 at 19:40
    Joined on 15/09/2010
    Posts 823

    In the Chinese cultural revolution people squirrelled all the precious artefacts off into the hills to keep them safe from systematic destruction.  We did a bit of that too.  Only don't tell Gove - he'll send out the red guard to hunt them down.

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    Posted by: florian gassmann 28/12/2010 at 19:42
    Joined on 12/04/2005
    Posts 1,895
    What can the ordinary citizen do when he or she perceives that a Secretary of State has totally lost his marbles?
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