Simple recipe that will bring success to education system

AFTER reading the column by Father Neil McNicholas that was headlined “It’s time we retraced our steps in education” (Yorkshire Post, August 3), I got to think about what I have come to believe about education.

I was at school myself for 12 years from 1935 to 1947. I was a teacher for 42 years – 30 of them as a head teacher. During my career I took three university courses of advanced study in the theory and practice of education and in psychology so my opinions ought to count for something.

After thinking about it all 
day I have decided that some 
of the things I believe are as follows:

Just about everything that is said about education is a “hurrah” statement. Examples are: “Children will rise to the levels of teachers’ expectations”, “the tried and proven phonics method of teaching reading is the best”, “head teachers must provide strong leadership and set firm boundaries with regard to discipline”, “head teachers must create an atmosphere in which children and teachers can bloom”. Such statements make me laugh.

The idea that a particular type of school (comprehensive, grammar, academy or even private) will, by itself, lead to improved standards is wishful thinking.

The claim that smaller class sizes would lead to improved standards is simply not true.

Not one piece of research in education or psychology has ever lead to any improvement in the way children are taught. People just choose to believe in any research which suits their political or social ideology or which might help them to get promotion.

I do not believe that poverty, by itself, prevents children from achieving their full potential. Many other factors are involved. My pals and I came from extremely poor backgrounds but we all got to university or achieved other kinds of success. And this was despite of the fact that all our teachers did was write notes on the blackboard for us to copy down.

I have definitely come to believe that the old board schools (the buildings as well as the teaching which went on in them) which were established after Forster’s Education Act of 1870 and which ran until the early 1930s were the best schools we ever had.

Finally, I have come to believe that the best way to train professional people (such as doctors, teachers and engineers) is by the apprenticeship system: learning on the job in other words.

Schools should concentrate on teaching literary skills, PE, and the creative arts (cookery, drama, ballroom dancing, music, poetry, sewing, art and craft).