I doubt any French minister would have
faced criticism for advocating the teaching of French Literature in French schools, and children are presumably free to
follow Professor Sutherland's guide to American writers in their free time, if
they so wish; but then the English have long grovelled to the US, supposing
that we share identical cultures and societies.
John Russ
Derby
Gove faces criticism for absolutely anything he does because there's a silly group of Leftists who have decided to make him into a bogeyman- the Evil 1950's Headmaster bringing back the cane, ordering kids to sit in rows. learn by rote, recite ancient poems and celebrate slavery and the British Empire.
ReplyDeleteAs Peter Hitchens has long said, it suits both Michael Gove and his enemies to portray him as the Bogeyman enemy of the Left- wing teachers unions.
In reality, the radical Left remains very much in charge of our education system and teacher training colleges and Gove hasn't the power to do the good things he'd like to do.
He can't drive up standards, bring back discipline, rote learning and proper British history without also abandoning the egalitarian one-size-fits-all comprehensive experiment.
Graham Savage, grandfather of comprehensive schools, always admitted they would lower educational standards and reduce discipline. That, he said, was a price worth paying for their true purpose; to abolish the class system and make us all equal.
Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah.
ReplyDeleteNo surprise this letter was in the Guardian, other than the Morning Star and maybe the Mirror Group ones the only paper that would print it. Patriotic views like this are held by Mail and Telegraph readers but would never be allowed into print.
ReplyDeleteQuite.
ReplyDeleteGove is, bluntly, a gobsh*te. He is a fraud. He never actually does any of the things that he says that he is going to do, and he usually knows that he could not do them even if he wanted to.
Anon 15:21.
ReplyDeleteRe Michael Gove/To Kill A Mockingbird.
You wouldn't read patriotic views like the below anywhere but the Mail and Telegraph.
From journalists, that is, rather than from one reader.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2640031/A-N-WILSON-What-Dickens-wrong-teaching-children-love-ENGLISH-novels.html