Education
White working-class boys are being left behind
This week marks the fifth anniversary of the publication of the report of Lord Sewell’s Commission on Racial and Ethnic…
The hidden truth about our failing universities
Is it worth going to university? Since 1999, when Tony Blair declared higher education the answer to all society’s problems,…
Screens in schools have been a catastrophic failure
About a decade ago, the people I dreaded meeting most at parties were the ed tech evangelists – men and…
Letters: There’s no defending Robert Maxwell
Bring back wisdom Sir: Douglas Murray is right that reducing the educational attainment of politicians is not the answer to…
Who has been removed from the line of succession?
Out of line Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor may be removed from the line of succession. When was the last time this happened?…
Adventures in the City of Light: Rousseau’s Lost Children, by Gavin McCrea, reviewed
An academic specialising in Jean-Jacques Rousseau slips back in time to 1777 to accompany his hero on long philosophical rambles around Paris
Mamdani’s People’s Republic of New York
Proudly displayed in the window of my local Barnes and Noble are copies of a children’s book called Zohran Walks New…
The Chinese takeover of Britain’s public schools
Roedean is now known as ‘Beijing High’. Cheltenham Ladies’ College is ‘Hong Kong College’. In the country’s most elite boarding…
The five Haldanean principles that could reshape Britain
If Reform get into government, there is one man they seem likely to turn to for guidance. He is an…
The joyless reading app being forced on my son
It was only recently that I fully appreciated how the books I read as a child formed me. A pregnant…
Labour’s next rebellion
When Bridget Phillipson arrived at the Department for Education, she knew which issue would define her tenure. Within days, she…
The catastrophic dumbing down of German education
German teachers are a privileged species. Most of us enjoy the status of a Beamter, a tenured civil servant. We…
The pedant’s progress through history
The pompous know-it-all despised by classical philosophers became a stock comic character of 16th-century theatre – and finally a bore to be pitied
In praise of learning German
The University of Nottingham, one of the most prestigious Russell Group universities, is preparing to close its languages department, as…
How to make universities appeal to the working class
‘Long Eaton is dying a death. I was born and bred here, so I’ve seen it go downhill quite quickly.…
The folly of psychology
A young Chinese girl, at school in an English-speaking country, approached me after I gave a talk at a conference…
The failure of Britain’s elite universities
Politicians, authors, priests and the occasional Spectator editor have all served as the Oxford Union’s president over its 200-year history.…
English schools are failing disadvantaged children
Education should be the great equaliser – the ladder with which all children, regardless of circumstances of birth, can improve…
We’re losing the ability to read
A recent American study, called ‘They Don’t Read Very Well’, analyses the reading comprehension abilities of English literature students at…
Lily Parr and the creepiness of AI resurrection
I’m not sure it’s possible to make a horror movie more sinister than the chirpy four-minute film on YouTube purporting…
Aristotle and the leisurely pursuit of education
Nearly six million people are on out-of-work benefits. It is claimed that, for most of those, going back to work…
What I learned from my meeting with the Education Secretary
Dear Secretary of State, thank you for meeting me and one of my deputies on Monday. You will have noticed…
What Bridget Phillipson has in common with Plato
One does not like to disagree with one’s editor, but while the image of Rome salting the earth of its…
The ‘shocking tactics’ of Kemi Badenoch
Whitehall is being swept by moral outrage. Ministers, in full This Is Spinal Tap mode, have turned their pious horror up…
Why homeschooling rates have doubled
Schools are a relatively new phenomena in human history. In Britain, they expanded in the 19th century and early 20th…
