I am sure that you know my view on the overpaid poltroons who run the teachers unions in the UK. This is not an attack on teachers but on the union leaders. Their willingness to go on strike and defend grade inflation/declining standards is appalling. But today we hit a new low with a demand from the head of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) that the National curriculum be ripped up and replaced by lessons in walking. Well the ALT is half right.
Of course I’d rip up the National Curriculum and replace it with demanding standards based on RRR, our nation’s history etc. But walking? Taking a quote from the Guardian newspaper, Martin Johnson the acting general secretary of the ALT says:
“There’s a lot to learn about how to walk. If you were going out for a Sunday afternoon stroll you might walk one way. If you’re trying to catch a train you might walk in another way and if you are doing a cliff walk you might walk in another way.
If you are carrying a pack, there’s a technique in that. We need a nation of people who understand their bodies and can use their bodies effectively.“
Are you in despair already? Well read on. I lift this passage from the Guardian in its entirety:
“
Mr Johnson said: “For the state to suggest that some knowledge should be privileged over other knowledge is a bit totalitarian in a 21st century environment.”
The union suggested that instead of the current national curriculum, which focuses on core subjects such as maths, English and science, teachers should have the freedom to adapt lessons to reflect a curriculum that concentrated on life skills.
The new curriculum could include lessons in physical co-ordination, personal skills, thinking skills and ethics, he suggested.”
I am almost speechless with rage. The ALT says it stands by Johnson’s remarks so he is not an isolated loony. He is a mainstream loony. I give up.
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