Education
Letters
We need religion Sir: Roger Scruton (‘Sacred hunger’, 31 May) describes a reason, dare I say a ‘purpose’, for religion in…
A lesson in humility
I went to a meeting at Penguin earlier this week to discuss ‘publicity opportunities’ for my forthcoming book. Chance would…
Letters
Why girls do better Sir: Isabel Hardman notes that girls now outperform boys at every level in education (‘The descent…
The wisdom of clouds
Children can teach each other, believes Sugata Mitra — if you give them the internet, a big screen and a helpful granny on Skype
How the Delingpoles triumphed over the Vikings
Have you managed to book tickets to the Viking exhibition at the British Museum yet? If you haven’t, my advice…
The need to know
It’s scarcely possible to open a newspaper or magazine these days without reading an article about how the latest technological…
A dying language
Why I won’t let my children be taught French
Good teachers
Last week in The Spectator, Daisy Christodoulou argued that, contrary to current educational theory, children learned best via direct instruction…
Gove’s friends are out to get him
From the moment he took his job, Michael Gove knew that he would make energetic and determined enemies. The teachers’…
Meeting the monster
Michael Gove inspires irrational hatred among my fellow children’s authors. After interviewing him, I can finally see why
Teaching’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
Lessons in freedom
How politicians wreck education
Diary
São Paolo It was back in 2001 that my good friend Jim O’Neill of Goldman Sachs coined the acronym ‘Bric’,…
How to deal with the Blob
Michael Gove has been under fire this week for ‘sacking’ Sally Morgan as chair of Ofsted. You’d think he’d be…
Artist’s Notebook
We live by simple stories. X has a stroke. X recovers; or doesn’t. But we live inside more complicated stories.…
Super-heads will roll
The system of parachuting top teachers into failing schools seems to have been a recipe for corruption
Over Staffordshire hills in search of the beating heart of industrial England
‘If I can’t see a factory from up here,’ I mutter to myself, throwing the car round an uphill bend…
Hunt saboteurs
I love The Spectator’s Parliamentarian of the Year Awards. On the face of it, they’re a great advertisement for just…
Malala’s school wars
It’s not state education but private education she’s fighting for – so why doesn’t the media admit that?
The courage of her convictions
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…
Self-pity doesn’t pay
The ‘intern justice’ movement is preposterous – and damaging
Dear Mary
Q. My mainly male colleagues and I were happy to learn that an attractive young woman would be joining the…
