- The Guardian, Friday 9 May 2008
Generations of children have been let down by so-called progressive education policies which have taught skills and "empathy" instead of bodies of knowledge, the shadow education secretary, Michael Gove, said yesterday.
A Conservative government would reinstate traditional styles of fact-based lessons, he told teachers at a conference at Brighton College in Sussex yesterday.
Gove condemned "pupil-centred learning" theories that gained currency in the 1960s for "dethroning" the teacher. "This misplaced ideology has let down generations of children," he said. "It is an approach to education that has been called progressive, but in fact is anything but. It privileges temporary relevance over a permanent body of knowledge which should be passed on from generation to generation ... We need to tackle this misplaced ideology wherever it occurs."
Gove's speech yesterday echoes comments in a Guardian interview today, in which he claims the advent of progressive education had reactionary outcomes, and that "if you come from a poorer household where you don't have your own bedroom, where the only printed material is the Daily Star, then school is the only place you learn, and progressive methods let you down".
His comments set the Tory party on a collision course with teachers. The National Union of Teachers has long argued for a return to a more liberal style of education.
Christine Blower, acting general secretary of the NUT, said: "Gove's attack on child-centred learning is an absurd caricature of reality ... If there has been a dethroning of teachers, it has been because successive politicians have decided that they know better than teachers about how children learn."
The union debated a series of motions at its Easter conference this year which, it said, amounted to a return to a more liberal style of education. It opposes the introduction of a pre-school curriculum and the proliferation of testing in schools, which the NUT claims have squeezed out the opportunity for children to learn through play.
The head of Brighton College, Richard Cairns, told the conference he felt compelled to introduce a basic history course for 11- to 13-year-olds because so few had even a basic grasp of British history.
Gove said: "Part of the problem with the way the history curriculum has developed is that it doesn't give people a proper understanding of how this country has developed. I don't think there has been such an emphasis on narrative and causality because there has been too much emphasis on empathy and skills."
Schools minister Jim Knight claimed the Tories were "out of touch" with reality. "This artificial distinction between trendy teaching and learning dates, events and places bears no relation to what actually happens in today's classrooms," he said.
