This definitely remains the biggest school related story just now, with this other horror, also related to the French headscarf ban in schools, not far behind.
But in some ways I found this story to be the most interesting educational titbit in the mainstream media recently.
I have been banging on about educational globalisation here for months. So I am not a bit surprised to see the kind of people whose reaction to any problem is to try to ban it, trying to ban the importing of teachers by rich countries from poor countries, regardless of all the longer term benefits that might result from such a migration.
A clampdown on the poaching of teachers from developing countries to plug recruitment gaps in British schools was agreed yesterday by the government.Education ministers of 23 Commonwealth states signed up to a package of measures designed to tackle the plundering of teaching expertise by the UK and other states. The poaching has put at risk flagging international efforts to achieve universal primary education within a decade.
This sounds like a classic case of scapegoating to me. They were never going to achieve universal primary education within a decade, and this sets in motion the process of explaining why it isn't their fault but is someone else's.
Instead of moaning about "poaching", why don't these places try to get this thing organised as a valuable export industry? How about some kind of transfer fee system, or something similar. Don't ban it guys. Profit from it. If you are so good at training internationally desirable teachers, be proud, and get rich from it.
Category: Economics of education • Teacher training
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New light on dyslexia, from Yahoo!:
Westerners shudder at the idea of reading even the most basic street signs and instructions in Chinese, a language with 6,000 characters to memorize to be considered fluent.A new set of brain images shows why: Reading English-style alphabets and Chinese characters use very different parts of the brain.
The results also suggest that Chinese schoolchildren with reading problems misfire in a different brain region than the one used in reading alphabet-based languages like English. This demonstrates that the learning disorder dyslexia is not the same in every culture and does not have a universal biological cause, researchers said.
Interesting.
This looks like being another spur to literacy. Learn to read so that you can read Wolf Brother by Michelle Paver.
Lesson: there's money in children's books.
After my long break I had to think quite hard about how to put pictures up.
Another lesson: you forget knowledge you don't keep using.
Yes, here I am, back at the chalk face, as promised, just like lots of others.
I had in mind to do a piece about the cruelty of the English weather, which has just turned good after several weeks of wetness, but instead I resume with a link to a count your blessings story, this time about a bunch of school kids in southern Russia who have been kidnapped by an armed gang of (presumably – unless they're disgruntled alumni) Chechen anti-government fighters/terrorists/bandits/freedom fighters/whatevers. They are threatening a kill ratio of fifty kids for every hostage holder killed by the forces of law and order.
Kind of puts in perspective stories like this about the maternal agonies of the first day of school for your kid. Or for that matter stories like the recently media-dominant claim that A-levels are now too easy. (Here is a link to Chris Woodhead saying just this several years ago. He's one of many.)
The blogging pause has been a success. I wouldn't say I am now gung-ho with edublogthusiasm. But I was getting rather blogged out when I stopped, and was neglecting fundamental organisational tasks which I am now tackling better. It was all a good experience, both the regular blogging and the break from it, and a tiny taste of what being a regular teacher must be like and of why teachers need holidays too. Even if their kids don't get kidnapped by terrorists.
As of now, the rule will be: something (however feeble) every week day, and maybe other stuff on Saturdays and Sundays, depending on my mood and thought processes.
However, and it may be a big however, I am still having mysterious internet connection problems. (Fifteen minutes ago I was in despair about even being able to put this posting up.) So although the plan is normal service, service may actually be somewhat abnormal for a while yet.
Good luck in and best wishes for the coming academic year to all of my readers for whom such wishes make any sense.
