Teaching
In defence of strict teachers
Labour have become alarmed by the strict, ‘cruel’ approach to discipline in schools and the rise in the number of…
‘I am haunted by waters’: Norman Maclean and his lyrical ‘little blue book’
The author of A River Runs Through It emerges as wiry, sardonic, compassionate and inspirational from Rebecca McCarthy’s trenchant memoir
In search of kindred spirits: An Absence of Cousins, by Lore Segal, reviewed
When Ilka Weisz, a young refugee from Vienna, accepts a teaching post in smalltown Connecticut, she struggles to make friends in the close-knit academic community
Literary charades
Blending fact and fiction, France combines a tale of antics on a creative writing course with episodes from her family life
Bernardine Evaristo sets a rousing example of ‘never giving up’
Bernardine Evaristo’s Manifesto — part instructional guide for artists, part call to arms for equality, part literary memoir —shimmers with…
The plot against religious education
Faith is not the declining force that some secularists believe or indeed desire it to be. Even here in the UK,…
Teaching unions shouldn't be defining 'transphobia'
A year of disrupted schooling means there are plenty of issues facing our schools right now. But delegates at last week’s…
Barack Obama will make you cringe: Renegades: Born in the USA reviewed
Barack Obama wants the world to know how much he loves singing. In his new podcast, which takes the form…
The law of acronyms
Teacher training is terrific fun. Oh yes, I am thoroughly enjoying myself on my evening course at Guildford College. Don’t…
… and an awesome beak
The Enigma of Kidson is a quintessentially Etonian book: narcissistic, complacent, a bit silly and ultimately beguiling. It is the…
To survive as a Tory teacher, you have to keep quiet
Surviving as a Tory teacher means keeping quiet
Some 2,000-year-old teaching tips for Oxford’s new vice-chancellor
Professor Louise Richardson, Oxford’s new vice-chancellor, is worried about a new government plan to judge teaching quality. Her reason is…
What I’ve learned helping to found a specialist free school
Lessons from the first year of our specialist maths school
Even the Chinese can’t teach British teenagers
Watching a group of unruly children make mincemeat out of a well-meaning teacher has become a television staple and Are…
Dear Mary: What to do when a dinner guest won’t turn and chat
Q. I felt uncomfortable during a dinner for 20 in a private house. The young man on my left had…
What are 16-year-olds supposed to learn by making posters?
My niece, Lara, 15, has a mind like a surgical blade. On any subject, from calculus to The X Factor,…
Spectator letters: A defence of nursing assistants, a mystery shotgun, and a response to Melanie Phillips
Poor treatment Sir: Jane Kelly’s article (‘No tea or sympathy’, 2 August) on the lack of empathy and emotional support…
Miriam Gross’s diary: As a qualified teacher, I say let in the ‘untrained’
I knew that the historian Sir Richard Evans was a rather abrasive and quarrelsome man, but I was staggered by…
Knowing things isn’t ‘20th century’, Justin Webb. It’s the foundation of a successful life
It’s scarcely possible to open a newspaper or magazine these days without reading an article about how the latest technological…
On teaching, St Jerome is with Daisy Christodoulou
Last week in The Spectator, Daisy Christodoulou argued that, contrary to current educational theory, children learned best via direct instruction…
Teacher training’s war on science
There’s an increasing amount of evidence about how we learn. But you won’t hear about it at teacher training college
Ian Buruma’s notebook: Teenagers discover Montaigne the blogger
Bard College in upstate New York, where I teach in the spring semester, is an interesting institution, once better known…
