Philip Pullman - The Writing Teacher, Your thoughts on his ideas |
 Mar 17 2008, 10:56 PM
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Waiting for Wednesdays  Posts: 9,150 Joined: 7:57am January 28, 2005 Location: Hiding from Hurricanes    |
I find that when I read a novel I truly enjoy, I get a greater understanding of the piece if I learn about the writer. I've loved looking over Philip Pullman's website. While browsing his site, I found a copy of a speech I'd read previously called The Isis Speech.
On April 1, 2003, he gave a wonderful speech about the education children in the areas of reading and writing. The Isis speech brings to light much of what many teachers feel is wrong about education. QUOTE I'm going to talk about culture this afternoon, in the widest sense; about education and the arts, especially literature. It's my contention that something has gone bad, something has gone wrong in the state of education, and that we can see this very clearly in the way schools deal with books, and reading, and writing – with everything that has to do with literature, and the making of it. When more and more good teachers are leaving the profession in disillusion and disappointment; when the most able undergraduates are taking one look at a career in teaching, and deciding that it offers no scope for their talents, and turning away to do something else; when school headships are proving harder and harder to fill – then we're doing something wrong. from the link above Pullman ends his speech with these 5 guidelines to improve writing education ... QUOTE So here are five steps we should take, starting right now. Do away with these incessant tests; they only tell you things you don't need to know, and make the children do things they don't need to do. Abolish the league tables, which are an abomination. Cut class sizes in every school in the country. No child should ever be in a class bigger than twenty. Make teaching a profession that the most gifted, the most imaginative, the most well-informed people will clamour to join; and make the job so rewarding that none of them will want to stop teaching until they drop. Make this the golden rule, the equivalent of the Hippocratic oath: Everything we ask a child to do should be worth doing. As a writing teacher I find Pullman's views refreshing. He puts into words how I've felt for many years, and I dare say many teachers and writers out there feel the same way. How do you feel about Pullman's ideas on education? Do you feel his 5 suggestions for all schools are good ones? In your opinion, would Pullman feel that the flourish of online chatrooms and forums such as this are greatly aiding a student's reading experience? How do you feel about Pullman's views on teaching children the joys of writing? -------------------- |
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