This short monograph was written by Neil Richards, a Trustee of the 21st Century Learning Initiative in response to the publication of Tony Little’s book, An Intelligent Person’s Guide to Education.
Battling for the Soul of Education
Moving beyond school reform to educational transformation:
The findings and recommendations of 3 decades of synthesis
Download from battlingforthesoulofeducation.org
Seeing Clearly “Education is the ability to perceive the hidden connections between phenomena,” wrote Vaclav Havel the President of the Czech Republic, a man once derided and imprisoned for his political beliefs, a courageous man, and one of the deepest thinkers of our time. You have to think very carefully about that statement. It is […]
Failure of leadership William Hogarth’s set of four satirical cartoons, Canvassing for Votes, published in 1758, showed prospective parliamentary candidates pouring beer down the throats of their constituents in the expectation of buying their votes. We smile tolerantly at such stupidity, and reassure ourselves that nothing so stupid could happen nowadays, thanks to the rules […]
Who learns from whom? The Chief Rabbi hit the headlines earlier this month when he accused Europeans of caring more about shopping than spirituality, and being too selfish to accept the responsibility of becoming parents. “Parenthood involves massive sacrifices; money, attention, time and emotional energy (and in today’s European materialistic society) there is no room […]
Going on with your own education Whether Ed Balls at the Labour Party Conference, calling for greater parental support to improve the behaviour of young people was doing this as a political strategy to attract voters or not, is largely immaterial, for the reality on the ground is often dreadful. The behaviour of young people […]
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Sometimes it takes far too long for me to pick up a gem. The gem that struck me so strongly last evening was contained in an email sent by a friend of an “Obituary” notice that it seems first appeared in The New York Times in 2007 and has subsequently been reprinted in very many […]
It is said that there is really nothing new in the world, and that which comes around once will inevitably come around again. Most of us can testify to the truth of this. But even I was brought up short by a letter in today’s Post from the Department of Children, Schools and Families informing […]
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Good evening. It is both an honour and a pleasure to be invited to give this lecture. I do so with some trepidation. I know I am easily carried away with my enthusiasm! Some years ago my wife and I were on a Sunday afternoon walk with our three sons. Our youngest, Tom, who was […]
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