Creating a culture of speech in your classroom means having everyone doing it, not simply those that are willing – do not let students ‘hide’. Andrew Fitch, from the book: Trivium in Practice In a piece for the TES, Jonathan Simons, head of Education for Policy Exchange, wrote about the importance of debating: To debate, participants … More The Importance of Debate in Schools
My lesson plan for the teaching of Rhetoric continues to be used by many teachers and schools yet it is not the end of the story by any means. Once a student orator has got a handle on the basic outline of speech making you can begin to teach him or her about little tricks they can use … More Teaching The Trivium. Rhetoric A-Z: A
Remember that you are a human being with a soul and the divine gift of articulate speech: that your native language is the language of Shakespeare and Milton and the Bible; and don’t sit there crooning like a bilious pigeon. Henry Higgins to Eliza Doolittle. Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw. It is also the language of … More Voices Joined, Not Silenced.
Well, it’s finally available, the programme for this year’s Sunday Times Education Festival at Wellington College on 18th and 19th June has been released. Apparently this is the first draft and liable to change but like an early look at next year’s school timetable it brings a certain frisson of excitement with it. You can … More Education Festival Line Up
There is a perennial debate that goes on in education circles about what education is for, is it about education for its own sake or is it about creating a workforce? Is it about teaching the best that has been thought and said or is this impossible to ascertain because certain knowledge has been privileged … More What Do Posh Schools Teach Their Kids?
Not many teachers would want to wander into the staff room after a particularly robust seminar and be presented with a coffee cup full of steaming hot hemlock, ‘drink this you corruptor of youth!’ No, best to keep quiet in the classroom and not ask too many questions… But how wise are you? Admit it, you … More The Socratic Method, Teaching the Trivium: Dialectic
Although I don’t like to talk about it I’ve got a soft spot for Gradgrind. Not exactly a sympathetic character, I know, but let’s look beyond his, er, how shall we say… foibles… for a minute and look at his emphasis on Facts. “Fact, fact, fact!” repeated Thomas Gradgrind.” THOMAS GRADGRIND, sir. A man of realities. A … More Where Gradgrind Got It Right; Teaching the Trivium: On Grammar
The trivium is an excellent way to ensure progress in learning. We can see progress through the trivium in three stages: new knowledge followed by critique, ending in communication. In teaching terms this means firstly ensuring a body of knowledge is taught to students and that they understand the knowledge. Secondly the students build on that knowledge through … More Measuring Progress With The Trivium
An occasional look at how aspects of the trivium* may have contributed to the education of various people in various walks of life. What follows is highly selective, the material on which it is based will be open to a wide variety of interpretations and mine might be highly ‘trivial’. *I am using the trivium 21c interpretation of … More Schooling via the Trivium? Jony Ive
Michael Gove has deblobbed in Austria. Now, with evangelical zeal, and the rhetoric of social justice, he wants to irrigate the flabby educational colon of its sticky blob. This blob values Marxism, fights excellence and tries to prevent the poorest children from getting the education they need. In the same way as the Athenian State, which came to see … More The Battle of the Blob
Trivium 21c 