I don’t know how many education academics it takes to change a light bulb, but if this article in the Guardian is anything to go by, it takes at least 14. Of course, most teachers are able to change a light bulb by themselves, as long as they have the required health and safety permit for using a ladder!

The article isn’t actually about light bulbs, though. It’s about a group of 14 leading education academics who – presumably after extensive research, pondering, and tea-drinking – came up with the revolutionary idea that political intervention in schools is ‘counterproductive and damaging’.

Now, education academics don’t change light bulbs themselves. They prefer telling other people how to do it then analysing the results from the safety of their university campuses. Sometimes, this results in great teaching advice. A lot of the time, though, it just results in fads that aren’t practical in a real classroom situation.

This time, however, I think they have done themselves proud and come up with a very sensible solution. Placing emphasis on the actual lightbulb-changers and letting them use their lightbulb-changing experience to change light bulbs effectively, without being micro-managed by a bunch of politicians who’ve never felt the hot glass of a freshly burnt-out bulb on their own fingers, is a great idea.

It’s such a great idea, in fact, that I’m surprised it hasn’t been thought of already. Hang on a minute… It has already been thought of – by just about every teacher in the country. When two people invent or discover the same thing in different places with no influence on each other, it might be considered independent invention.

However, when an entire profession comes up with the same idea, it’s just common sense. Why does this common sense have to reach the government in such a roundabout way? Why can’t they just go to a school and ask a teacher?

I’m not proposing that schools should be based entirely on suggestions from teachers, but when the feedback channels between teachers and those in charge become so convoluted and clogged up with paperwork that even simple, common sense needs to be delivered to them by education academics, it’s time for a change.

Maybe some of the changes suggested by these academics will be taken on board, maybe not. Either way, I applaud them for getting these ideas into the public eye. It’s just a shame that it needs to come from educational academics rather than directly from teachers in order to get any attention.

Today’s image is by Gabriel Del castillo.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 12th, 2010 at 7:47 am and is filed under Government, Newspapers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.