Skip to main content
We need a class analysis of the control pedagogies now emerging in our schools
Award-winning teacher PHIL BEADLE argues that the way the most authoritarian moves in education, like the bizarre practice of ‘silent corridors,’ are mainly inflicted on working-class pupils has dark overtones of fascistic logic
Pedagogies that seek to control the way students sit and their right speak, and demand they move from classroom to classroom in total silence are prevalent — and increasingly, dissent against these methods is not tolerated.

I HAVE had the honour, in my 27 years of working in classrooms, of working in all sectors of education (except nursery for which I don’t have the skillset). I’ve worked in the independent sector in other countries and count senior figures in that sector as friends. They are unfailingly polite and are nice erudite people. I still think their schools should be dismantled, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have a friendly discussion.

What I have learnt in my time in that sector is that the children of the sometimes wealthy (not all are), are subject to schooling that is characterised by an enlightened liberalism, and their curriculum offer is filled with arts provision, replete with drama and music.

If you could put your political integrity to one side, you might want your children to experience such a curriculum. Generally, the teaching is a little less skilled, but there are some very well-educated people and charming people in the independent sector.

Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
Under Thatcher, the Education Reform Act of 1988 outlined wa
Opinion / 27 July 2024
27 July 2024
PHIL BEADLE traces the impact of marketisation on education, arguing that standardisation and efficiency-driven reforms have crushed creativity and critical thinking in the classroom
A member of staff at Maghaberry Prison
Features / 22 June 2023
22 June 2023
PHIL BEADLE speaks to former prisoners who found a new start in life thanks to an innovative programme in the prison gym
Similar stories
National Education Union leader Daniel Kebede
Features / 17 April 2025
17 April 2025

We face austerity, privatisation, and toxic influence. But we are growing, and cannot be beaten


Pupils in a classroom
Features / 22 March 2025
22 March 2025
MATT FLAMENCO warns of precarity of work, teacher shortages, demoralisation and curriculums filled with ‘corporate-speak’ as among the issues of concern to the education workforce today
Under Thatcher, the Education Reform Act of 1988 outlined wa
Opinion / 27 July 2024
27 July 2024
PHIL BEADLE traces the impact of marketisation on education, arguing that standardisation and efficiency-driven reforms have crushed creativity and critical thinking in the classroom
MESSAGE FOR LABOUR TOO: Members of the National Education Un
Opinion / 3 July 2024
3 July 2024
ROBERT POOLE dissects Labour’s plans around education