• Home
  • About
  • Blog
  • Contact

Nancy Bailey's Education Website

Revive, Rally and Recover Public Schools

  • Activism
    • Anti-Charter Schools
    • Anti-Common Core State Standards
    • Anti-Corporatization of Schools
    • Anti-High-Stakes Testing
    • State Action Groups
    • School Buildings
  • School Curriculum
    • General Education
    • Educators
    • Parents
    • Reading
    • Writing
    • Math
    • Science
    • Social Studies
    • The Arts
    • Technology
    • Behavior
    • Diversity
    • English Language Learners
    • Special Education
      • Autism
      • Emotional and Behavioral Disabilities
      • Learning Disabilities
      • Developmental Disabilities
      • Gifted
      • Other
    • Early Childhood Education
    • Elementary School
    • Middle School
    • High School
    • Student Careers
  • Other Countries
    • England
    • Finland
    • Australia
    • New Zealand
    • Canada

Learning Matters: The Truth about Our Schools—In England and the U.S.

October 6, 2015 By Nancy Bailey 6 Comments

School privatization is happening around the world. It should come as no surprise that many countries have the same draconian reforms foisted on their public schools like the U.S. I find it interesting to learn how other countries run their schools and the similarities and differences between their systems and ours.

Learning Matters: The Truth About Our Schools is by Roger Titcombe, who frequently posts about education issues in England on the respected Local Schools Network (LSN). While some language differences exist with terms, it is easy to see the likenesses in our systems.

Their Academies are like our charter schools, and when reading about them it is a bit uncanny to see the similarities. Roger writes:

Academies are independent schools and despite being paid for by the taxpayer the sponsors have had complete power to dictate how and what pupils learn. Much bizarre and educationally doubtful experimentation was taking place based on the whims and prejudices of sponsors, ranging from the evangelical presentation of religious mythology as historical truth and the discrediting of science, to a belief in the need to rigorously train all pupils in the practices and ethics of free market capitalism so as to properly prepare them for employment. One Academy installed a “call centre” so that “pupils’ aspirations could be raised” by training for this type of work. P. 61. If you want to read up on call centres HERE.

In the book, Roger starts out by writing about the “media and public perception” about the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). When he and a professional statistician looked at the schools with the most improvement they found a link to poverty. Poor children in England don’t do as well on the tests as their wealthy counterparts. Sound familiar?

Roger tackles I.Q. in an interesting light, sorting the good from bad. This is risky writing. How many of us are eager to touch this topic, even though psychological testing in most public schools still considers I.Q. testing for special education placements? We don’t talk about it for fear of being seen as supporting what many of us see as the troubled thinking of Charles Murray in The Bell Curve. But we should. There’s a vivid debate here, and Roger charges into it head on whether you agree with him or not. I like that kind of writing and see it as authentic.

A nice and different feature in Roger’s book is that he interjects the story of his life and how he came to be an educator and write the book. It is interesting to hear individual stories that help you understand the personal side of an individual. It can help us understand the “why” of the story and it can actually be of value in understanding how good teaching evolves.

Think about how different this human touch is from today’s Common Core push to drop personal student narrative from English classes. Writing defines students and adults and it should not be set aside as unimportant which Common Core seems to do. In Learning Matters, it is easy to understand Roger’s passion for schools and the students they serve when you hear about his upbringing and what he learned that gets him to where he is today.

He also speaks about others who influence his thinking. Some of his analogies are fascinating.

One of my favorites is when he mentions Richard Feynman, “one of the most brilliant theoretical physicists and original thinkers,” and cleverly, I think, he ties Feynman’s scientific curiosity to early childhood development.

Feynman had many talents including a great disregard for pomposity in all its forms He enjoyed the friendship of people from all walks of life. Should the “pleasure of finding things out” be confined to the minds of Nobel Prize winners? I am sure it must not. I am equally certain that it is a universal human characteristic to take deep pleasure in gaining understanding and intellectual development from the application of curiosity. Watching my pre-school grandchildren conducting an enthusiastic bug-hunt in the garden convinces me that such curiosity is not only an innate characteristic of the human species, but is also too precious to be dulled or squandered in an education system driven by the testing needed to provide school performance data that drives false ‘choice’ in a marketised education system. p. 64.

There is much more. The book is not big and it is not expensive, but it is packed with valuable information that will enlighten and impress.

Learning Matters is a great book to add to your collection of books about public schools and the quest to make education meaningful for all children—no matter where they live.

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Common Core, education reform, England, Learning Matters: The Truth About Our Schools, narrative writing, Roger Titcombe, U.S. Charter Schools

Comments

  1. Leah K Stewart says

    October 6, 2015 at 8:44 am

    Just bought my copy 😀 Thanks for this review Nancy. I’ll pick up my book from the UK when I’m there in November. Can’t wait to read it!

    Reply
    • Nancy Bailey says

      October 6, 2015 at 12:33 pm

      Great! Hi Leah!

      Reply
  2. Roger Titcombe says

    October 6, 2015 at 8:53 am

    Thank you for this Nancy.

    The education debate in the UK has just been greatly enlivened by the election of Jeremy Corbyn as the new leader of the Labour Party. For the first time for many years the public discourse that assumes that markets and competition between schools raise educational standards is being challenged by a major established political party. Labour and Conservative in the the UK are roughly equivalent to your Democrats and Republicans.

    As you say, the parallels are great and we all gain from learning from them. Best wishes to all of you in the US that are resisting the marketisation of your school system.

    Reply
    • Nancy Bailey says

      October 6, 2015 at 12:34 pm

      You’re welcome, Roger! Sorry for the delay! I’m glad that you have some push-back there.

      Reply
  3. Roger Titcombe says

    October 6, 2015 at 9:05 am

    You can find ‘Learning Matters’ here

    http://www.amazon.com/Learning-Matters-Mr-Roger-Titcombe/dp/149921300X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1444140098&sr=8-1&keywords=roger+titcombe+learning+matters

    It is supported by my website here

    https://rogertitcombelearningmatters.wordpress.com/

    Reply
    • Nancy Bailey says

      October 6, 2015 at 12:34 pm

      Thank you for also mentioning your website Roger and the link to your book.

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Follow me!

Enter your email address to subscribe to my blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

My Books

front cover

NEW BOOK!
An education glossary with an attitude.

Buy Now

front cover

Do we really want an America where we no longer own our public schools?

Buy Now

front cover

This book says “no” to the reforms that fail, and challenges Americans to address the real student needs that will fix public schools and make America strong.

Buy Now

Connect With Me!

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Nancy E. BaileyFollow

Nancy E. Bailey
Retweet on TwitterNancy E. Bailey Retweeted
POTUSPresident Biden@POTUS·
18h

Workers in Alabama – and all across America – are voting on whether to organize a union in their workplace. It’s a vitally important choice – one that should be made without intimidation or threats by employers.

Every worker should have a free and fair choice to join a union.

Reply on Twitter 1366191901196644354Retweet on Twitter 136619190119664435411812Like on Twitter 136619190119664435454220Twitter 1366191901196644354
NancyEBailey1Nancy E. Bailey@NancyEBailey1·
28 Feb

Teachers care about safety, and they have their reasons...
https://nancyebailey.com/2021/02/28/why-teachers-might-still-not-believe-its-safe-to-return-to-in-person-school/

Reply on Twitter 1366030320584323079Retweet on Twitter 13660303205843230794Like on Twitter 13660303205843230797Twitter 1366030320584323079
Retweet on TwitterNancy E. Bailey Retweeted
NancyEBailey1Nancy E. Bailey@NancyEBailey1·
27 Feb

@CNN Maybe those who write the CDC recommendations should visit schools, talk with teachers, & collect data about the reality of window openings in old schools. Just a suggestion. @CDCgov @CDCDirector

Reply on Twitter 1365796435963375619Retweet on Twitter 136579643596337561921Like on Twitter 136579643596337561981Twitter 1365796435963375619
Retweet on TwitterNancy E. Bailey Retweeted
tulticanThomas Ultican@tultican·
25 Feb

Is EdTrust Behind High-Stakes Testing During This Pandemic? - Is acting Ed Secretary Ian Rosenblum
signaling Race to the Top 2 or will the genuine public education people in the department exert a positive influence? https://go.shr.lc/2ZNPjGh via @shareaholic

Reply on Twitter 1365080070239309824Retweet on Twitter 13650800702393098244Like on Twitter 13650800702393098243Twitter 1365080070239309824
Retweet on TwitterNancy E. Bailey Retweeted
tulticanThomas Ultican@tultican·
26 Feb

Nancy Bailey: Is EdTrust Behind the Renewal of Standardized Testing? https://dianeravitch.net/2021/02/26/nancy-bailey-is-edtrust-behind-the-renewal-of-standardized-testing/ via @dianeravitch

Reply on Twitter 1365399285039206401Retweet on Twitter 13653992850392064011Like on Twitter 13653992850392064012Twitter 1365399285039206401
Load More...

Archives

Tag Cloud

Arne Duncan Autism Betsy DeVos Bill Gates charter schools class size Common Core Common Core covid-19 Digital Learning dyslexia early childhood education Education Secretary Betsy DeVos Florida high-stakes testing inclusion kindergarten learning disabilities Online Learning parents Personalized Learning phonics preschool private schools privatization public schools reading recess retention School Choice school libraries School Privatization school reform Social Emotional Learning special education students Students with Disabilities Teacher Preparation teachers Teach for America teaching Technology testing the arts vouchers

Copyright © 2021 Nancy E. Bailey · Website powered by Standing Pine Media.