Archive for category Education
Are we nearly there yet?
Posted by Anastasia de Waal in Education on 14/03/2010
Meet eight-year-old Rosie: Rosie’s favourite subject at school is philosophy. Rosie enjoys starting the day with a series of ‘mind stretching games’. Rosie also finds the seven times table the hardest. In addition, Rosie struggles to write in full sentences, differentiate between ‘your’ and ‘you’re’ and rarely achieves above seven out of 10 in weekly spelling tests.
Rated PG
Posted by Anastasia de Waal in Education, Family, Marriage and the Culture on 07/03/2010
An infatuation with various teenage boy bands, combined with aspirations to become the next big concert pianist, made for a tricky case of parental censorship when I requested the score of the latest ‘Hanson’ album for my eleventh birthday.
First, the basics
Posted by Anastasia de Waal in Education, Family, Marriage and the Culture on 25/02/2010
Whilst it’s good news that in England and Wales teenage pregnancies have fallen, we still have a very high number. A key lesson from the Dutch, who have a very low teen pregnancy rate, is to make crystal clear the ins and outs of reproduction. Continue reading at Guardian CiF
Mum’s the word
Posted by Anastasia de Waal in Education, Family, Marriage and the Culture on 14/02/2010
It’s Sunday night, the kids are finally in bed and you’re curled up on the sofa—glass of chilled Chablis in one hand and a couple of fair-trade chocolate cookies in the other (you ate the rest whilst putting the finishing touches to Harry and Polly’s wheat-free packed lunches).
The recurring theme of the misunderstood child
Posted by Anastasia de Waal in Education on 05/02/2010
I don’t know whether the decision to subject literary genres routinely dismissed as unsophisticated to a scrutiny of sorts that will combine the sublime with the ridiculous is a) a timely and culturally constructive move or b) just the evolution of a school of thought preoccupied with ‘owning’ the child ostensibly in order to ‘control’ it.
At eight, the world should be your oyster
Posted by Anastasia de Waal in Education on 01/02/2010
I used to want to be an astronaut. I also, aged 10 and a half, thought very seriously for a whole afternoon about becoming a Bond girl. At other points in my primary school education I just wanted to get full marks in my spelling test.