I am currently on holiday in France – a proper holiday, with sun (ish) and sand and no mother in law – so I have been a bit worried that I wouldn’t be able to find something educational to wow (hmm!) you all with in my blog. I only have dial up connection here (it is rather rural and extremely lovely in these parts) so the internet is of no use. The newspapers come a couple of days late and – horror of horrors – the only newspaper we can get is the Torygraph (and I haven’t had that inflicted on me since I left home twenty years ago). However, when I opened Saturday’s paper, it was “Education, Education, Education”. Oh no, that was the other guy – but, you know what I mean, there were lots of articles about the poor state of education these days.

My interest was most sparked by the furore over Marks and Spencer’s new Blazer for iPod. Apparently, the NASUWT is upset that this jacket will encourage children to break school rules and to listen to music in class. Frankly, this blazer is a ridiculous marketing ploy to part parents from their well earned money. I certainly wouldn’t buy it (but then, I wouldn’t buy a ten year old an iPod, but that’s another story). However, I don’t think that the NASUWT need worry too much for the following reasons;

1)    The said blazer costs about 30 pounds. If you go to Tesco, or any number of other stores, you can get most school uniform items for 50p or less.
2)    If lessons are interesting enough, children won’t want to listen to their iPods in class whether they are hidden in their lapels or not.
3)    The blazer is marketed to parents as eco-friendly (the fabric is made out of recycled plastic bottles). Sadly, only about 2% of our nation gives a damn about the environment.
4)    The blazer is marketed to teenagers as perfect “for music on the move”. We all know that teenagers don’t move before 2pm.
5)    99% of state schools don’t have blazers as part of their uniform. Of the remaining one percent, only 30% of the pupils actually bother to wear one. Only one in three of this 30% shop in M&S. I make that three children nationwide.
6)    Of those three children, probably only two will be interested in music. One of these two will be too scared to break the rules.

So, all the teachers need to do is to crack down on the one culprit and make an example of him/her.

I have been known to, once or twice, complain about the pressure put on children by too much testing. Principally, my moan is about the government's SATs and GCSE targets and the fact that even so-called vocational subjects have to have an A Level equivalent. I feel that these targets make teachers put too much emphasis on getting kids through to a particular level, rather than teaching them more important skills and subjects.

Then, yesterday, I went into town to look for some sticker books and dot-to-dots for my kids to take with them on holiday later in the week (we have a long car journey, so I want them to be busy). In W H Smiths. I stood for about five minutes in front of a wall of booklets, completely dumbfounded. The wall stretched about thirty meters, was about five shelves high and was crammed with A4 booklets aimed at helping your child read, write, add up, get through their SATs, GCSEs and A Levels. Amongst this mountain of revision booklets and teaching notes I couldn't see a simple dot-to-dot or colouring book for love nor money, so I made as sharp as sharp and exit as I could, resolving to buy some plain paper and some colouring pens.

There is obviously a HUGE market for such goods, so it would seem that the pressure is not just coming from the government, but also from parents. Frankly, I think that our target-driven education system has gone absolutely mad.

As a victim of the phonic ITA teaching at primary school, I still have difficulties spelling today. So I should, perhaps, be rejoicing at the news that a lecturer of Bucks New University is calling for lecturers and teachers to accept common misspellings. Somehow, however, I feel uncomfortable with it. Ken Smith, a criminology lecturer, remarks; “Instead of complaining about the state of the education system as we correct the same mistakes year after year, I've got a better idea. University teachers should simply accept as variant spellings those words our students most commonly misspell.”
Perhaps not a surprising comment from a University that has a web page called ‘Be Coz U Can’ to attract 16-19 year olds to join their educational establishment.
I simply do not feel comfortable with the arguement, sorry argument, of ‘they are going to do it anyway, so let’s just ignore it’. Should we do the same about drug taking and binge drinking? Oh, sorry, I forgot, we already do.
Mr Smith, may I suggest that you point your students in the direction of a very useful tool for those who find it hard to spell? A bit old fashioned, perhaps, but the dictionary has worked wonders for me.