C.E. Jottings

They just turned up and did it all differently.

They just turned up and did it all differently. They introduced practices that were laughed at. They were radical. They challenged every assumption. They sought marginal gains. And they were vindicated. No. Not yet conductive education but Team Sky in the Tour de France and especially the Team Sky General Manager Sir David John "Dave" Brailsford, CBE. "They did not just turn up and adopt the status quo in road cycling; they transformed the culture. "They brought in warm-downs after... Read more →

Schools Minister announces review of assessment of pupils "with lower abilities"

A Department for Education press release yesterday (13th July) reported a "new review into how to assess accurately pupils with lower attainment". The purpose of the review is so that parents better know how their children are progressing at school and schools "can be given appropriate credit for the work they do to support their pupils". According to the press release, only heads and teachers are mentioned as being consulted by the review body. In passing, I notice that under... Read more →

Finding the language to communicate conductive education as a system of teaching and learning

In its assertion that it is a system of teaching and learning, Conductive Education sets out its distinctiveness. This simple assertion, however, finds difficulty in escaping the medical discourse and “interventions” in which motor dysfunctions, typically cerebral palsy, are first diagnosed and then “treatments” recommended. A recent article "Lively Minds" by Lilian G Katz, Professor of Early Childhood Education may offer some help in the language we use to talk about conductive education with other education colleagues and to re-assure... Read more →

"Language which dehumanises leads to abuse of human rights" Jenny Morris on Twitter

For my first blog post after another period of silence, I am republishing with her permission an entire posting by Jenny Morris "Language and the small places of human rights". The posting is nothing to do with conductive education as such, as Jenny suggested I might point out. However, in writing about language and human rights, Jenny deals with issues which - and I hope you will agree - should concern us all. The subject line of my posting today... Read more →