Description: Sally Tomlinson traces our trajectory from the ignorance of the early twentieth century to the dangers that current educational approaches pose for our future citizens.
Brief description:
Sally Tomlinson is Emeritus Professor at Goldsmiths University and an Honorary Fellow in the Education Department at Oxford University. She has held professorial chairs at the universities of Lancaster and Swansea. Her most recent books are Rule Britannia: Brexit and the End of Empire (with Danny Dorling) (2019) and Education and Race from Empire to Brexit (2019).
Review Quotes: "The provision of maintained - 'state' - education has improved dramatically since the 1942 Beveridge Report. But it remains a policy landscape riven with strong opinion, prejudice and ideology. Some of those nostrums seem to stem from the personal but universal experience of school (and can consequently manifest sweet or sour nostalgia), some of them indicate a complete absence of reality or recognition of changing needs, some are really useful. The competing views of educational theorists, teachers, parents, along with the wider societal and political concerns (or lack of them) about meaningful quality, equity or equality of opportunity are difficult to navigate. It's perhaps no surprise, therefore, that successive governments, despite countless Education Acts, have yet to slay and banish the Giant of Ignorance. Sally Tomlinson is a passionate defender and upholder of educational and teaching standards and her journey through Britain's chequered postwar history of education provision draws on her long, broad and unrivalled experience of the sector. She throws into stark relief the challenges which teachers continue to face as they are confronted by the giddying sets of policy initiatives and frameworks. Too often, the 'changers' deny the resources necessary to implement the changes. Even more frequently, they put what should be diagnostic tools of testing, targets and reporting in place of infant and adolescent well-being and motivation as well as the learning and application of knowledge and experience. 'Knowledge is power' we are told, but regrettably, ignorance is not without influence either. That's why Professor Tomlinson's assault on the Giant should be made mandatory reading for all policymakers who truly want to topple the tyrant."--Lord Kinnock, former Leader of the Labour Party