Wednesday November 19 2008
Ron Moody as Fagin. Throughout history, Jews have had to contend with racist stereotyping. Photograph: Kobal
They're supposed to be among the best and the brightest of Britain's student population, but lately the Oxford University rugby boys can't seem to help making fools of themselves.
Last week it was Bring a Fit Jew night and yesterday we learned that some of the same partygoers had had a whale of a time earlier this year "blacking up" for a Safari Bop.
Tuesday November 18 2008
For many parents, the diagnosis is the start of a journey of discovery. Photograph: Corbis
It wasn't a belief that the parents of autistic children should be educational soldiers that inspired me to travel widely these past few years investigating this baffling childhood developmental disorder — although, as it turned out, this might just as well have been my original premise.
It was simply that autism, a profound neurological condition affecting as many as one in 150 children, had become a part of my own life. Five years ago, my son, Eliot, then three years old, was diagnosed with autism, and I figured I ought to use what journalistic skills I had to better understand my domestic situation by looking at autism in the wider world.
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The US higher education system outshines ours. Photograph: Bruno Vincent/Getty
Why are British universities so slow to change? For years, we have been promised reforms on degree classification, post-qualification admissions and the anomalous position of part-time students. Little has happened. Now comes a further raft of suggested reforms, published in a series of discussion papers last week as part of the government's "debate on the future of higher education". But is this just more prevarication?
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Wednesday November 12 2008
Vim and vitality could be drained with timetables and tests. Photograph: Getty Images
Although I like to think of our decision to home educate our almost-five-year-old daughter as a proactive one, inspired by the freedom and limitless potential that learning in a loving, nurturing and unrestrictive home environment can provide, if I'm honest it was more of a reactive decision against the things we feel are wrong with the mainstream school system.
I've blogged about these issues before, but basically it is the formal, prescribed, rigid, carrot-and-stick method of teaching, particularly at such a young age, that puts us off.
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Tuesday November 11 2008
Donald MacLeod's avatar, Jolly Emas (front row, second from left), attends the Education Without Boundaries conference
How will the global business of academic conferences be affected by the recession? It's a multimillion dollar question, worthy of a big conference in itself, hosted in some scenic city with good air connections.
On second thoughts, perhaps not, in the approaching era of what the vice-chancellor of Manchester University predicts will be "extraordinary stringency, tougher than anything universities have faced for the last quarter century".
Could Second Life be the answer, providing the sort of interaction essential to scholarship and research?
Friday November 7 2008
Are small children beyond control? Photograph: Christopher Thomond
Donald MacLeod wonders how being sent home is supposed to stop small children being naughty
Continue reading...Tuesday November 4 2008
Former Iranian interior minister Ali Kordan. Photograph: Mohammad abu Ghosh/AFP
Just how easy is it to get and get away with a fake degree?
For some, it is oh so simple. All too often, checking the legitimacy of qualifications seems to be treated as a non-essential administration task.
But Ali Kordan, Iran's interior minister, got his comeuppance today, when the country's parliament impeached him for "deception".
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Wednesday October 29 2008
Students outside the student accommodation at Nottingham Trent University. Photograph: David Sillitoe
Another year, another student finance system. The government has today announced, for one year only, a cut in grants for students. The hideously complicated student finance package has now just got even more complicated.
Initial predictions suggest that 10% of next year's intake are set to lose out next year as a result of this latest round of tinkering.
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Friday October 24 2008
How many academics will fancy doing a Paxman? Photograph: Murdo Macleod
Educators, are you ready? Hands on your buzzers. Here we go with our first starter for 10: Do television quiz-show formats offer a useful tool for teaching?
Anyone? Well, OK, it was a bit of a tricky one. But the correct answer is yes, or so says at least one international institution of higher education.
Thursday October 23 2008
A baby on a weighing scale. Photograph: Chris Carroll/Corbis
All children – from the age of five up – are going to have to learn about sex and relationships as part of the curriculum, much to the delight of sexual health charities and others.
Ministers are making personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) classes – which include sex and relationships education (SRE) – a statutory subject in all schools in England – and at all ages.
Tuesday October 21 2008
Graduates in silhouette. Photograph: Paul Barton/Corbis
Higher education, it seems, creates a buffer against the effects of dementia on the brain
Continue reading...Friday October 17 2008
Barack Obama speaks at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. Photograph: Chris Carlson/AP
A question. What adjective is most closely associated with Barack Obama on Google, and what epithet is linked with John McCain? Answers: "professorial" and "fighter-pilot", respectively.
This is what the 2008 gladiatorial combat has boiled down to: mortarboards versus flying helmets. Swots versus warriors.
Tuesday October 14 2008
Ed Balls. Photograph: Peter Macdiarmid
There's nothing like a crisis for concentrating ministers' minds and getting things done.
You might say that today's sudden announcement that key stage 3 Sats tests for 14-year-olds in England are being abolished was put out during the week when Gordon Brown was saving the banking system - I couldn't possibly comment.
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Friday October 10 2008
Autumn is no time to be stuck in a classroom. Photograph: Corbis
One month in and our world order hasn't collapsed. Our four-year-old daughter hasn't become shy and awkward and unable to do anything other than pull the legs off small insects. Although, of course, it is still early days.
After a month of home educating, the overriding sense is: "Have we started yet?" Admittedly, it has been an unusual month in our house, with my partner's sister and her two young daughters visiting from Kenya.
This has given my four-year-old and her younger sister ready-made playmates, and little time so far to fret about the pros and cons of home education.
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Thursday October 9 2008
Children's laureate Michael Rosen shares his poems with some young fans. Photograph: Rex
It's National Poetry Day and, while I don't usually hold much truck with "national days" that seem to pop up like molehills, this one is worthy of marking.
The theme this year is "work", rather than schools, but I thought I would start you off with one of my favourite school-related poems. It is written from a teacher's perspective, so it's close enough to the work theme. I hope it inspires you to add your own to the list.
