A spokesperson for the Department of Education, Dr Ratko O'Malley, confirmed today that the DfE is to buy 800,000 copies of Gary Thomas's new OUP publication, Education: A Very Short Introduction, which was published last week. These will be distributed free, O'Malley said, to all teachers and teaching assistants in English schools, with spare copies going to teacher training programmes across the country for use in future years.
"This is a desperate catch-up", O'Malley said.
"We all know how completely useless the Training Agency is, and how their instrumental courses have de-skilled teachers over a generation, and we do intend to sack the lot of them at some point, and start again.
There was a time when all trainee teachers would learn about what's in this book, and hence all teachers would know something of the history of the development of the ideas underpinning what they do. Not any more though, and we're determined to change this.
Michael Gove's very keen, and we're all hoping that this will push our PISA scores through the roof."
Note for Editors:
Times Higher Education [THE] has carried an enthusiastic review of the book by Anthony Feiler. This began:
"In the opening lines of Education: A Very Short Introduction, Gary Thomas notes that few people know much about why schools function as they do today: about the intellectual ideas that have influenced their development; about the principal figures from history who have shaped how we teach; about the curriculum; and about the political and economic forces that have at times inflicted such corrosive damage on education. The book promises to throw light on these issues, and it does so in spades."
... and edded: "It’s a real gem of a book that pulls ideas together, that challenges and inspires – and that makes you laugh. Highly recommended."
DfE Press Release; 0830 Monday 1st April, 2013
Even April Fools’ Day tricks can turn out useful for more than a laugh! The link to the THS review led m e to the many pages of the book itself available on the ‘Look Inside ..’ facility on Amazon and thence to an order, as my peek at the contents and style justified the praise piled by the reviewer on yet another splendid contribution to the OUP series beloved of eclectic readers with small pockets (literally and metaphorically!). Thanks!