I recently read a book originally published in 1967:
Dixon, John (1975). Growth through English Set in the Perspective of the
Seventies (3rd ed.). Yorkshire, UK: National Association for the Teaching
of English.
Dixon argues in favor of a "personal growth" English curriculum and against
the prevalent "skills" and "cultural heritage" curricula of the 1960s. A
timely quote in the context of the current discussion: when culture
undergoes rapid change, "there is a tendency to panic, to define an
external curriculum--a system into which teacher and pupil must
fit--instead of helping teachers, in departments and larger groups, to
define for themselves the order and sequence that underlies their best
work" (p. 84).
Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose.
At 10:30 AM 6/14/01 +0100, you wrote:
>helena writes:
> >Dear xmca people:
> >
> >Yes, Paul Vallas, Superintendent of Chicago school, quit. So did the head
> >of
> >the Board of Education, Chico. But it wasn't just because the test
> >scores were
> >drooping. It was because there was organized resistance to the
> >implementation
> >of the education plan of which the test scores were the publicity vehicle.
> >Another activity system expanding, you might say.
>
>Correspondents esleshere may (or may not) like to know that in England and
>Wales there are league tables of the whole of the country's schools based
>on test scores at 7, 11, 14 and 16. There is also a layer of assessment at
>5 now. The only difference a change of government in 1997 made was to
>include an element of "added-value" over and above the previous score.
>
>Above and beyond this there are also league tables of university
>performance in teaching, research and grant capture, although some of
>these are composite tables calculated by newspapers.
>
>There is some good news in this. Schools that spend more on students do
>better than schools that don't! However British children are undoubtedly
>the most examined in the world, and this year we have introduced yet
>another one!
>
>
>for some further information try this URL and search for Schools on dec
>7th 2000.
>http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/
>
>Martin
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