Daniel Pennac, who is a well-known writer in France, was a total failure at school up to the age of fourteen. In the first part of this book he describes his despair, both in vivid anecdotes and general comment. “My God,” he says at one point, “the loneliness of the dunce, ashamed of never being able to do what you are supposed to be doing.” He became an insolent class clown, a vandal and a thief.
His insolence was to some extent justified by the mockery of some of his teachers, but…
It is obvious that our physical skills decline with age, and although it is an unpopular idea, there is incontrovertible evidence that our intellects also begin to become less alert, flexible and reliable after the age of about twenty-five. Although there is no reason to suppose that our moral sensitivity should be exempt from this general decline, the notion that children might be morally superior to their elders arouses an indignation that is sometimes close to fury.
Memories…
Let me describe the satisfying joyful way of life which is non-coercive parenting.
I grew up in the 50s and 60s. My parents were not typical of the time. I have no idea why not, it was just the way they were. My mother only recently in fact said to me, “We never thought of ‘bringing up’ we were just people living together and doing what we could”. They never smacked us, never made us eat or wear anything we didn’t like. I never went to the dentist until I chose to age 13. I…
If you thought the campaign to regulate home education had disintegrated, think again. On 16 June, Ofsted, the education inspection agency, called for compulsory registration, and a compulsory annual home visit, with discussions with children, without their parents present.
This is a list of six things I have learnt since leaving the world of conventional education.
1. Children want to learn. The children who came to Jürg Jegge, the [author of] Stupidity is Learnable, were desperate to learn, but had accepted their teachers’ view that they couldn’t. The street children who come to Butterflies, [a street school in Delhi] are so eager to learn that they are prepared to face the likelihood of being beaten or going hungry in order to attend lessons. Even the…
Controversial plans to radically expand military cadet corps in English state secondary schools are being pushed forward by Ed Balls, the Children’s Secretary, apparently backed by No 10. The plans were the idea of Quentin Davies, a Labour MP who defected from the Tories last year, and come on the back of a government-commissioned review of “civil and military relations”.
Learning military drill and shooting are two of the core elements of the cadet programme. But anti-gun…
When my son was coming up to school age, a friend introduced me to John Holt's book Teach Your Own, which I liked very much. I wouldn't have had the courage to home educate if it wasn't for the fact that my son also taught himself to read without help from me. (I'd started teaching him, and he said: Eugh
Play therapy has a role to play in preventing children from growing up violent. The child-led method which we teach at the charity Carefree Kids in east London enables children to express themselves freely - hate, anger and all - in our belief that discharged emotions are less dangerous than emotions which have had to be suppressed.
We therefore provide a gun, handcuffs, swords, a large inflatable “person” (bobo), police hat, and other things to beat up and to bash with. We provide…
A plaudit for this book calls it “proof that you don't have to stop rockin' once you become a parent”.
Having never started rockin', I'm perhaps not the intended audience but found it an interesting addition to the panoply of parenting books I've read over the past four years. The book started life as columns for US zine Maximum Rock and Roll, on the theme of “punk parent[ing]”, and much of the content reflects this origin.
There is some useful stuff here, not covered in other…
School Students Against War (SSAW) has been campaigning against the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan since the inspiring two-million strong demonstrations and student walkouts in 2003.
In that time we, young people all under the age of 19, have organised many successful anti- war actions, public meetings, demonstrations and events, as well as ensuring a vibrant, strong school student presence at every major demonstration.
Child soldiersSSAW's recent campaign against…
Worlds Apart is a comparison of the dual worlds of formal and non-formal (or democratic) education. As the publisher's name implies, the book is written by a supporter of free education but it cannot be accused of being overly partisan in its approach. It seeks, rather, to cut through prejudice on both sides and to provide information through the words of the schools and the pupils themselves. It would be fair to say that positive and negative aspects come out of both accounts although the…
In October 2005, the Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) relaunched its University Clean Investment campaign with the revelation that nearly half of all UK universities invest in the arms trade.
Using the newly introduced Freedom of Information Act, we discovered that these 67 universities held shares in one or more of the largest six UK-based arms exporting PLCs. The trade in weapons fuels conflict, undermines development and, as a whole, receives #890 million each year from the UK…
Education for peace is being talked about in Scotland again. There has been a debate in the parliament on the topic and there is now a cross-party group on a Culture of Peace.
Shortly a study done by Arthur Romano of Bradford University will map what is being done around the country . In respect of mediation and conflict resolution there has been a lot of activity for some years now, both in schools and communities. Among many examples there is an established project in Inver-clyde…
Five students and one graduate are facing “aggravated trespass” charges after taking part in a demonstration outside the Lancaster University's “George Fox” building in September 2004 during a convention attended by BAE Systems and other defence technology groups. Although the police did not intervene at the time, six months later they decided to bring charges against the group, possibly at the request of the university. The six are due for trial in September.
I've never reviewed a book before after reading just the introduction. However, I fully recommend this book on the basis of its impact on the person who now has my copy, my partner Yolanda. She teaches 12-14-year-olds in one of those schools that everybody knows is simply not coping - failing its pupils educationally, but also not coping with all the social problems dumped on it in its massified urban environment.
The day after I showed her the book, Yolanda suggested that she do a…
