Education
Sugata Mitra interview: ‘A reduction in resources can cause something nice to happen’
Children can teach each other, believes Sugata Mitra — if you give them the internet, a big screen and a helpful granny on Skype
For my family, the Vikings exhibition was about as much fun as being raped and pillaged
Have you managed to book tickets to the Viking exhibition at the British Museum yet? If you haven’t, my advice…
Knowing things isn’t ‘20th century’, Justin Webb. It’s the foundation of a successful life
It’s scarcely possible to open a newspaper or magazine these days without reading an article about how the latest technological…
Why I won’t let my children learn French
Why I won’t let my children be taught French
On teaching, St Jerome is with Daisy Christodoulou
Last week in The Spectator, Daisy Christodoulou argued that, contrary to current educational theory, children learned best via direct instruction…
Michael Gove, Boris Johnson and the return of Tory wars
From the moment he took his job, Michael Gove knew that he would make energetic and determined enemies. The teachers’…
I always defended Michael Gove. Then I met him
Michael Gove inspires irrational hatred among my fellow children’s authors. After interviewing him, I can finally see why
Teacher training’s war on science
There’s an increasing amount of evidence about how we learn. But you won’t hear about it at teacher training college
Schools need freeing from the right as well as the left
How politicians wreck education
Niall Ferguson’s diary: Brazil is overtaking us – but it no longer feels like that
São Paolo It was back in 2001 that my good friend Jim O’Neill of Goldman Sachs coined the acronym ‘Bric’,…
My battle with Michael Gove’s Blob
Michael Gove has been under fire this week for ‘sacking’ Sally Morgan as chair of Ofsted. You’d think he’d be…
Andrew Marr's notebook: Rescued by Jonathan Ross
We live by simple stories. X has a stroke. X recovers; or doesn’t. But we live inside more complicated stories.…
Super-heads are a super-huge mistake
The system of parachuting top teachers into failing schools seems to have been a recipe for corruption
Lord Bamford on why JCB is staying independent
‘If I can’t see a factory from up here,’ I mutter to myself, throwing the car round an uphill bend…
Toby Young: Tristram Hunt, the Spectator's 'Newcomer of the Year'?
I love The Spectator’s Parliamentarian of the Year Awards. On the face of it, they’re a great advertisement for just…
Malala for free schools
It’s not state education but private education she’s fighting for – so why doesn’t the media admit that?
Malala's voice is defiant — but how much can she change Pakistan?
In 2012 a Taleban gunman, infuriated by Malala Yousafzai’s frequent television appearances insisting that girls had a right to education,…
Why I want my schools to ban the burka (and the miniskirt)
For most people, the question of whether to ban the burka is a purely theoretical one. Not for me. As…
Why interns don’t deserve pay
The ‘intern justice’ movement is preposterous – and damaging
Dear Mary: How can I tell her that her table manners are disgusting?
Q. My mainly male colleagues and I were happy to learn that an attractive young woman would be joining the…
