Drug Education News

According to the Guardian the Conservatives’ education spokesman Michael Gove thinks skills based teaching is failing pupils.

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.”

The NUT’s acting General Secretary isn’t impressed:

“All children need both skills and knowledge - there is no contradiction,” adding: “Teachers will be appalled at Michael Gove’s failure to understand how children learn.”

Mr Gove needs to understand the benefits of personalised tuition for the children in the greatest need, said Ms Blower.

Mr Gove’s website doesn’t yet carry the speech so I’m unable to see how relevant it is to our subject area, but as I’m sure you’ll be aware our definition of drug education does include a belief that it ought to try to affect children and young people’s knowledge, skills and attitudes.