Phonics arises once more.
I am less concerned with the differences between Conservative ("traditional", chalk and flying blackboard dusters) and ZaNu-Labour ("discovery", "all shall have prizes", reading should be a joy") education policy and more with what is right and what works.
If Conservatives are pursuing synthetic phonics because it is "traditional", there is a danger thatn they are doing the right thing for the wrong reasons and they will fail. If the policy is not supported by principle, the morons at the DfES will not have to suffer the ignominy of seeing their cherished dogma challenged by irrefutable evidence.
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4 comments:
I imagine that Conservatives pursue traditional teaching methods because they think that they are what work.
Also, isn't what we are talking about here a long-running policy of teaching children to read using what was basically synthetic phonics, that was replaced by ideologues with new ideas that haven't worked? I understand the NLS was introduced without a pilot scheme or supporting studies.
lucraft,
Welcome to Infinitives Unsplit.
" I imagine that Conservatives pursue traditional teaching methods because they think that they are what work."
I would rather hope that that is indeed the case. The problem is that this is not necessarily clear.
"Also, isn't what we are talking about here a long-running policy of teaching children to read using what was basically synthetic phonics, that was replaced by ideologues with new ideas that haven't worked? I understand the NLS was introduced without a pilot scheme or supporting studies."
Also agreed.
To be fair to DC, Nick Gibb did a sterling job on the Today programme (see my earlier report here. It's just that DC is getting a reputation as being completely principle-lite: there does not appear to be an underlying philosophy that drives the whole thing. I blame the meeja.
Oh well, as long as the poor wee buggers aren't set to compulsory Latin (the abolition of which was probably the one unambiguous improvement in schooling in my lifetime) or doing quite so many of Mr Euclid's Theorems as we had to.
Mo, Mas, bloody Mat.
P-G, the evidence has always been irrefutable and that hasnt stopped the educrats there or here from inflicting their theories on an unsuspecting populace. You might as well try to convince a Gore Democrat that Al did in fact lose the 2000 election than convince these people that their pet theories are hogwash bound in codwallop covered with poppycock and lightly seasoned with balderdash. And Happy New Year to you and yours.
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