Health: Britain on the Couch - in a Perfect School, This Is What Children Would Learn

James, Oliver, The Independent (London, England)

LET'S PLAY Fantasy Education Secretaries: you are transmogrified into the Education Secretary David Blunkett and Tony gives you a bank cheque to create the perfect education system, starting from scratch. What existing subject areas, values and teaching methods will you reproduce, and what will be your new ones?

Perhaps you are happy with the current emphasis on exam results as the sole criterion for success, and applaud taking this to the beginning of formal education. You may even endorse "baseline assessments" for all five-year-olds, as Blunkett recently did - but why stop there? Why not begin after birth, with nationwide assessments of neonatal capacities, and annual …

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Publication information: Article title: Health: Britain on the Couch - in a Perfect School, This Is What Children Would Learn. Contributors: James, Oliver - Author. Newspaper title: The Independent (London, England). Publication date: September 29, 1998. Page number: 13. © 2009 The Independent - London. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All Rights Reserved.

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