RMT leader Eddie Dempsey's stark warning shook up a fringe meeting at the Scottish TUC
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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.
Incredibly, US Republican states are systematically dismantling child labour protections, with children transformed back into the cheap, disposable workers of the Dickens era, reports ANDREW MURRAY
KYRIL WHITTAKER looks at what guides Vietnam 50 years after reunification
Scotland’s rapidly growing support for Reform UK is the result of a profound crisis of trust in mainstream politics — one that progressives share, and must harness, writes DEREK THOMSON
COLL McCAIL rejects the Scottish Establishment’s attempt at an ‘elite lockout’ of Reform UK and says the unions should be wary of co-option by their class enemies in Holyrood just to keep one set of austerity-mongers in power instead of Reform UK
That Scotland was an active participant and beneficiary of colonialism and slavery is not a question of blame games and guilt peddling, but a crucial fact assessing the class nature of the questions of devolution and independence, writes VINCE MILLS
The devastating impact of austerity has left Scotland’s education system on its knees, argues ANDREA BRADLEY, urging politicians to show courage by increasing wealth taxation to fund our schools properly
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.
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