In Defence of Private Tuition
“Private tuition can be harmful to the long-term academic prospects of children, a leading London headteacher warned today.” A recent article in the British press employed the usual tone of melodrama and foreboding that is standard for most reporting on educational issues, especially those which focus on parental anxiety and
On Opinions and Entitlement
In the weeks before same-sex marriage was recognised in England and Wales, I spotted a local man handing out leaflets on behalf of the “Coalition for Marriage” campaign. Aware that this group was leading a crusade against Equal Marriage, I initially hurried past him, reluctant to engage. But half way
Taking the Wonder Out of Science Education
A couple of years ago, the London Science Museum produced its own travelling act for children called “The Energy Show”. It was reported enthusiastically on the BBC, with loud film-clips of zany, steampunk characters shrieking and leaping about the stage, conjuring up the mandatory balls of flame and obligatory explosions
The Disinviting of Dawkins
In my first year as an undergraduate, I was aware of the fact that we had a neo-Nazi on campus. I never met him, indeed to my knowledge I never saw him, for this was 1992 – years prior to the phenomenon of social media, when a university campus could be
Herd Mentality
At primary school, I rarely played with other children. For me, playtime usually meant a walk around the edges of the playground, observing others and thinking to myself. There were lots of reasons why I found it difficult to connect with my childhood peers, none of them particularly interesting or
Schools proposing to audit pupils' characters should mind their own business
When did the world decide that the corporate model is the ideal template? The inexorable march towards business speak and a commercial style of operation appears to be infecting every aspect of our lives, from health care to education, from politics to the arts. Sometimes, it feels as if we’
Je suis George Lawlor
“At any given moment there is an orthodoxy, a body of ideas which it is assumed that all right-thinking people will accept without question. It is not exactly forbidden to say this, that or the other, but it is ‘not done’ to say it, just as in mid-Victorian times it
On Privilege and Being Human
Thinking itself is the privilege of being human. Our intellectual ascendency defined us as a species and is inextricably linked to our success and our ability to connect with one another. Everything that nature can bestow upon us in our human lifespan is also a privilege: intelligence, youth, a healthy
