Ah, faith restored (see post below). Hattersley shows that outbreaks of reality in the Groan are rare birds, not products of Mondays.
Unfortunately his Today
defence of the academy system did not display that admirable quality.
There was, he said, a highly successful academy in Hackney. No doubt.
New buildings, superior facilities and extra staff on high salaries
ought to produce that result. Critics of academies have never suggested
that they would all, like Middlesbrough, become failing schools. But
their proponents have argued that, by their nature, they would succeed
where other secondary schools fail. An elementary acquaintance with
logic confirms that the existence of some academies that succeed does
not prove the whole system is a success. The argument is about the
academy system – which we have been assured, is the sovereign remedy to
under achievement. One success does not confirm that claim. But one
failure certainly disproves it.
No My Lord. Not even up to a point. Failure at an academy and success at another actually shows that the system, the basic idea, is working. The aim is that freed of minutely detailed centralised control, schools areable to experiment with different ways of doing things. That some will fail and others succeed is the very point of the matter, for only by such experiments can we actually find out what is a better way of doing things. Without such experimentation (note, not the academies themselves, but experimentation) we would never have found out that phonics is the way to teach reading.
I realise that the Tub O’ Lard doesn’t believe in markets but really, to be so obtuse is near insane.
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