Teaching them a lesson

One of the pleasures of Christmas is the annual round-up of news from friends and contacts I don’t normally see. Each year I look forward to hearing from someone I still remember as a bright sixth-former, although that’s more than thirty years ago and she’s now an acting head. Her account of what she’s had to cope with over the last few months breaks my heart, but also raises my estimation of her still further. None of which will matter to Gavin Williamson, who thinks he’s been placed on this earth to tell the teachers where they go wrong, and to give them incomplete and bewildering instructions at very short notice.

When I was training to be a teacher - yes, OK, it was the sixties - there were these magical little books for 3/6, Education specials, about a whole series of important issues. One of them was about Antony Crosland and Edward Boyle, (Labour and Conservative) education ministers. They had their differences, but both of them saw it as their duty to tour the country, offering encouragement and congratulation to the teachers who were doing the actual work. Those were the days.