Ten years ago this month, I started blogging. On the anniversary — 12 July — I will post that original piece on this Substack. However, in advance, I would like to share some of what I have learned in the intervening year. I will lead with a spoiler — I do not know for sure. Yet I can point to some promising places to look.
One of those is England. I was never a blogger when I lived in England. I first starting writing down my thoughts two years after moving to Australia. But anyone who is interested in education is interested in what is happening in England — whether its innovations excite or appall them. England has gone further down the road of an alternative model of schooling — Academies — than the U.S. has with Charter Schools. It has had a government during this period that has been broadly supportive of a knowledge-rich curriculum, explicit teaching and efforts to tackle the poor behaviour that blights so many classrooms and schools. In essence, it has been the world’s test-lab for a decisive turn away from the shinily impractical and romantic form of progressivist education promoted by those such as Andreas Schleicher and the OECD.
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