Primary education 'too narrow'

[Skandi]

Children in England are getting a primary education that is too narrow, because schools focus too much on maths and English, claims a major report.

The author of the Cambridge University report warns that too much emphasis on testing the basics could "impoverish" learning in areas such as the arts.

ok so far so good,


'Eight new domains'

The review suggests the primary curriculum should be "re-conceived" with 12 specific aims, which it arranges in three groups:

* The needs and capacities of the individual: wellbeing; engagement; empowerment; autonomy
* The individual in relation to others and the wider world: encouraging respect and reciprocity; promoting interdependence and sustainability; empowering local, national and global citizenship; celebrating culture and community
* Learning, knowing and doing: knowing, understanding, exploring and making sense; fostering skill; exciting the imagination; enacting dialogue.


Ah there we go, make the children good little drones. my faith in the world has been restored.
More (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7896751.stm)

[Beorn]

celebrating culture and community

Which one? The natives or the invaders?

[lei.talk]

to avoid your child becoming - in john dewey (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dewey)'s words -
"a malleable unit of the state",
there is an increasingly popular alternative (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeschooling#United_Kingdom). :lightbul:

imagine, spending more time with
and having more influence over the development of your child
than strangers:
government agents (in the class-room)
and actors (on the television).