In an interview for a BBC news item about phonics with Reeta Chakrabarti, Christine Richmond, from Cannon Lane First School, said that, ‘anything that comes into schools that is going to allow children who are not achieving to be picked up by schools has got to be a good thing.’ Now, it’s not that I… Continue reading Why are advocates of phonics so defensive?
Over the weekend I saw two sets of parents, both of which are highly educated and middle class and both of which have decided to pay for private tuition in numeracy and literacy for their children. When I asked them why, their reasons were almost identical: in terms of the children’s literacy, they were not… Continue reading Why Children Can’t Read
Many years ago I enjoyed very much watching Desmond Morris’, at the time, utterly captivating TV programme ‘Zoo Time‘, where he would get up to, amongst other things, all sorts of antics with a number of favourite chimpanzees. His books, The Naked Ape and Manwatching, were also great fun, if a little speculative in places.… Continue reading Desmond Morris on books v TV for toddlers