Trivium 21c

Last year I ventured into the Agora, clutching a newly minted book and some ideas to share. I was terrified that I would be laughed at, ridiculed, dismissed or ignored. Extraordinarily, this did not occur and for that I am extremely grateful as I don’t know how I would have coped with an avalanche of negativity. I have had some rather wonderful reviews, which have quite taken me aback.

Writing of any sort whether it be a tweet, blog, article or book involves that moment when you set your crafted piece free and there is that anxious wait before you watch your manuscript float or sink without trace. The wait in the case of Trivium 21c, was quite nerve wracking as it took some time before it began to ride the waves, but this Christmas it started to sell well even reaching number one in the Kindle education chart for a few days.

There are many people to thank who helped me through the writing stage and I have been able to acknowledge them in the book itself but something I want to do here is acknowledge the wonderful support I have had from people since the book was published especially as this support has come from people across the spectrum of opinion in education. This is important to me. For all of you who have bothered to buy, tweet, blog, review my book, you who have ventured into the agora by my side, may I give you my heartfelt thanks, you have made a middle aged man very happy.

Thus endeth this blog because for those who don’t like self promotion it might be time to look away and move on to another stall or soapbox because here is a collection of the reviews for Trivium 21c, or at least the ones of which I am aware. I am very grateful for the time and thought people have put into these reviews, some of which I think are extraordinarily astute and even though there are some that I could find points with which to disagree, no matter, all have joined with me in a debate about the trivium and what education could or should be like. If I have missed any I would be grateful to be made aware of them so please add a link, even to more negative ones, as I think my hide is slightly tougher now…

Slightly…

Here are some reviews from my publisher’s website, some of which appeared in the book itself:

http://www.crownhouse.co.uk/review/reviews.php?product=810

A piece in the Independent by Tom Hodgkinson:

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/commentators/tom-hodgkinson-the-old-educational-ways-are-not-remotely-gradgrindian-9174998.html

Here are some blogs:

Into the ‘Trojan Horse’ row with trivium 21c:

http://cooperativelearning.info/2014/03/12/what-comes-out-of-the-trojan-horse/

and a role for Muslims in bring back the Trivium (mentioning Trivium 21c):

http://themuslimfaculty.org/student-centred-classroom

Here is one on the importance of debate:

http://jwpblog.wordpress.com/tag/trivium-21c/

Here is one talking about Trivium 21c in the context of Bloom’s Taxonomy and Lesson Objectives:

http://questionbeggar.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/learning-objectives-constraints-that.html

And one here from a Primary teacher:

http://whatonomy.wordpress.com/2014/02/01/an-educational-treatise-that-will-stand-the-test-of-time-trivium-21c-by-martin-robinson/

Mary Myatt:

http://marymyatt.com/blog/2013-08-19/not-trivial-martin-robinsons-trivium-21c

Bill Boyd:

http://literacyadviser.wordpress.com/tag/trivium/

Tim Taylor:

http://www.imaginative-inquiry.co.uk/2013/09/trivium-the-answer-to-the-purpose-of-education/ Tim also wrote a review in the January 2014 edition of Teach Primary Magazine, unfortunately this does not appear online

Tom Sherrington:

http://headguruteacher.com/2014/03/15/the-progressive-traditional-pedagogy-tree/

http://headguruteacher.com/2014/02/16/teaching-the-timeline-chronology-as-core-curriculum/

http://headguruteacher.com/2014/01/17/trivium-21st-c-could-this-be-the-answer/

Francis Gilbert:

http://www.localschoolsnetwork.org.uk/2013/06/is-this-the-educational-guru-both-left-and-right-should-be-listening-to/

A PDF from the Historical Association’s Teaching History Journal where Trivium featured in the regular ‘Mummy, Mummy’ piece on the back page:

http://www.history.org.uk/resources/secondary_resource_6984_171.html

From Teach Secondary Magazine:

http://www.teachsecondary.com/zipfiles/Book_reviews_2.6.pdf along side some ‘extracts’ from the book:

Click to access 2.6_Trivial_Pursuit_p.12.pdf

Tonia:

http://thesunnypatch.ca/2013/12/book-review-trivium-21c.html

Louisa Anderson:

http://louisasanderson.wordpress.com/2013/08/09/i-cant-go-back-to-yesterday-because-i-was-a-different-person-then-―-lewis-carroll-alice-in-wonderland/

and

http://louisasanderson.wordpress.com/2013/08/13/there-is-no-end-to-education-it-is-not-that-you-read-a-book-pass-an-examination-and-finish-with-education-the-whole-of-life-from-the-moment-you-are-born-to-the-moment-you-die-is-a-process-of-l/

and some blogs/pieces that were triggered by reading the book or refer to the book:

From Piers Young:

http://www.monkeymagic.net/2013/07/28/toffler-the-trivium-the-holy-trinity/

David Weston:

http://www.teacherdevelopmenttrust.org/why-evidence-will-never-overcome-disagreement-in-education/

Joe Kirby:

http://pragmaticreform.wordpress.com/2013/12/27/reclaiming-rhetoric/

Marc Sidwell:

http://www.cityam.com/article/greeks-have-something-teach-us-about-importance-being-idle

Tait Coles:

http://taitcoles.wordpress.com/2014/01/04/no-input-no-output/

James Tweed:

http://www.mycoracle.com/news/opinions/looking-freedom-we-found-slavery

Matt Bawden:

http://mattbawden.co.uk/

and:

http://blog.mattbawden.co.uk/blog/4303-trivium-21c-and-ginnis-and-guiness.aspx

Referring to reviews of Trivium 21c:

Jo Facer:

http://readingallthebooks.com/articles/2013/8/23/diary-of-an-english-teacher

Andy Warner:

http://andywarner78.wordpress.com/2014/01/18/the-tools-to-rule-the-trivium-the-liberal-arts-and-english/

@TheSecretDOS:

http://eltrantsreviewsreflections.wordpress.com/2014/03/07/exclusive-interview-with-thesecretdos/

Inverted doughnut!:

#Vis2040: The Inverted Doughnut Curriculum

Matt Bawden:

http://mattbawden.co.uk/

quoted in a dissertation for an MA:

‘Don’t be Afraid of Intellectuals’ On learning Leaders:

http://www.astd.org/Publications/Blogs/L-and-D-Blog/2014/05/Dont-Be-Afraid-of-Intellectuals

In Reading Lists:

Mark Anderson:

http://ictevangelist.com/reading-list-goodedureads/

David Didau:

http://www.learningspy.co.uk/recommended-reading/

Blessed Learners:

http://www.blessedlearners.com/back-to-the-classical-homeschooling-resources-and-education-methods-part-1/

I like this online and also very real bookshop:

http://idler.co.uk/product/books/book-trivium-21c/