Education
How schools are captured by ideological institutions
This week, Nadeem Zahawi told teachers that they have ‘an important role in preparing children and young people for life…
Live and learn
German archaeologists have found ancient Egyptian tablets covered in repetitive writing exercises and ask — were they pupil punishments? But…
State schools and the rise of posh apprenticeships
Recently, a friend forwarded me a letter he’d received from his children’s school, an independent secondary in London, to mark…
We must never abandon children during lockdown again
Schools are far more than mere exam factories. Across the UK, teachers in 32,000 schools and colleges care for children…
High life
Gstaad Who was it who said good manners had gone the way of black and white TV? Actually it was…
The mind virus killing academia
We lost a giant last month with E.O. Wilson’s passing. A man who stood on Darwin’s shoulders, Wilson had that…
Masks in schools: how convincing is the government’s evidence?
Why has the government changed its mind and asked children to wear masks in school? When Plan B was announced…
Virtue signalling is really status signalling
A £19,000-a-year London day school was in the news this week because it has started instructing its pupils about ‘white…
America’s campus culture wars come for St Andrews
The University of St Andrews has been keen on American imports for some time. Americans make up 16 per cent…
Boris should keep copying Blair
Having written here at least once before that Boris Johnson is the heir to Blair, my first thought on the Prime…
How to burst the grade inflation bubble
The Tories regard a return to rigorously marked exams as one of their big achievements in education. In 2010, the…
The truth about Nick Gibb, history and ‘dead white men’
In 1983, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a great American sociologist and politician, wrote: ‘Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but…
The plot against religious education
Faith is not the declining force that some secularists believe or indeed desire it to be. Even here in the UK,…
Teach first
Aswitch of personnel at the Department of Health this week has brought a welcome change in the government’s tone. No…
Dartington, the utopian experiment
I spent last weekend in south Devon at Dartington, the former estate of Dorothy and Leonard Elmhirst, and now a…
Have we hit peak graduate?
The Tory party has turned sharply against the idea of ever larger numbers going to university. The reasons for this…
The state we’re in
As Britain starts its long Covid recovery, are deeper problems lurking beneath the surface? Matthew d’Ancona certainly thinks so, and…
Pimlico Academy and the politicisation of the playground
The strange tale of Pimlico Academy, the central London school roiled by ‘anti-racist’ protests, shows us that the culture war…
The writing’s on the wall
Towards the end of April, my mum sent me a letter. She doesn’t write as a rule — we speak…
Letters
Levelling up Sir: In making the case for social mobility, Lee Cain unwittingly endorses the classism he hopes to fight…
Left behind
Social mobility is more urgently needed than ever
The facts about race and education
Judging from the reaction to last week’s Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities report, you’d think it had been written…
How to kill the English language
Probably, most of you will have only the dimmest idea what a ‘fronted adverbial’ is. I used one in the…
Long-distance learning
Britain needs a Kiwi-style national correspondence school
Lessons learned
Anne Longfield, the Children’s Commissioner, on why schools must reopen
