I would just like to say that I am watching two chimpanzees having a discussion about improving access to education. Overall, I think that's a good thing.
I'm a thoroughly modern monkey.
Yer a teacher? Not like my old teachers who used to use the cane on the palms of yer hands till they bled...yer one the cool modern teachers yes?
I'd take issue with describing myself as "cool" - as far as my elder kids are concerned, I'm possibly the most embarrassing thing there could ever possibly be.
I'm not working in the system in the British Isles, although I'm qualified to. My experience as a student was rather mixed - a lot of the teachers I had didn't know what to do with me. I got very lucky though. My dad was left-handed, and actually caught the very-end of being punished for it. That's something I never had to deal with.
The kicker for me is that my kids are going through an education system even more focused on obedience and conformity than the one I went through - my rather strict school seems positively
Bohemian in comparison. Yay Japan! My kids will bloody well know how to read and write, but there's a vanishingly small chance they'll get the opportunity to be creative in what they do in school.
