Thank God Gove has finally addressed the issue of the skimpy
school day. As he rightly points out, it
was tailored to suit the needs of previous generations who spent their holidays
threshing corn, gathering sheaves, and poking the village SEN kid with sharp
sticks. Gove is now looking to the East for clues on how to develop the talents
of the 21st century learner. He’s lifted his catchy new educational philosophy
directly from The Vapours’ 1980’s chart hit, “Turning Japanese,” a song with a reassuring
ding-dong-the-witch-was-in-charge-then provenance. In a nutshell, his theory is
that if we clap our kids in classroom leg irons for the same length of time as
their Asian counterparts, when we get to the Countdown numbers round they will
smash the opposition and dominate the world markets.
This is of course bollocks.
Anne Thrope (Ms) is a secondary teacher in the north of England.
