The Necessity of Doubt

Thank goodness for teachers!

Three Cheers for Teachers Everywhere!

Wise words for the Youth of Today

Meet your new teacher, Miss Anne Droid

School pupils are to be taught by the world's first robot teacher in one of the most radical uses so far of android technology.

The device, created by scientists after 15 years of research, is being trialled at a primary school in Tokyo. Named Saya, she can speak different languages, carry out roll calls, set tasks and make facial expressions – including anger – thanks to 18 motors hidden behind her latex face.

The humanoid was originally developed to replace a variety of workers, including secretaries, in a bid to allow firms to cut costs while still retaining some kind of human interaction. Her creator, science professor Hiroshi Kobayashi at the University of Tokyo, had been working on a robot for 15 years. She is the latest example of robots spreading to every aspect of life in Japan. They already guide traffic, attempt to lure university graduates to sign up to courses and one is even being developed to provide company to Alzheimer's sufferers.

The Japanese government has said that by 2015 it wants a robot in every home and is pouring $35 million (£23 million) into robotic intelligence to make it happen. The push is because of Japan's ageing population – in seven years one in four Japanese will be over 65 – which means the workforce is declining, pushing up wage costs for businesses and making recruitment difficult.

Now surely it can't be only me who finds the idea of a robot teacher getting angry unnerving...

Punished over push-ups

I read today that a schoolteacher has been suspended after making his pupils do push-ups as a punishment for arriving late to class.

This, naturally, raises all sorts of issues and you can read more about them here. H0wever, two things interested me in particular about this story.

1) Different punishments for latecomers had been discussed by the whole class and that it was the pupils who had suggested push-ups.

2) This all happened at Derby Moor Community Sports College.

So kids who go to sports college are discouraged from taking part in extra physical activities are they? Have the people involved in this teacher's suspension forgotten the old adage, 'a healthy body, a healthy mind'?

Academy: A modern school where football is taught. - Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914) - The Devil's Dictionary, 1911

Dungeons and Dragons and Key Stage 3 Maths

It sounds like the start of a bad joke doesn't it?

'I say, I say, I say. What do the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons and Key Stage 3 Maths have in common?'

But it's not. It is, in fact, all to do with one teacher's attempts to involve his pupils in the demands of the modern Mathematics curriculum.

I immediately latched onto this article from the TES due to my long-held interest in fantasy gaming (in one of my many authorial guises I write Fighting Fantasy gamebooks and wargaming novels) and it makes for intriguing reading.

My one concern regarding such an approach is that having got hooked on role-playing games, how do you then get your mind out of the dungeon and back into the classroom. And that's just from the teacher's perspective!

SATs - Stress About Tests

A little controversy for a Tuesday night.

According to last week's TES, an online survey has revealed that many parents believe SATs cause too much stress in children and that they also have little or no confidence in the abilities of their children’s teachers.

Now - putting the SATs thing to one side for a moment - as a teacher and the parent of a child at school, I immediately feel very defensive about such a finding. But the fact remains that many parents do perceive teachers in this way, which is as much a damning comment about the image of education in this country as it is about any particular teacher's ability to do the job.

And certainly exams will always bring with them a certain amount of anxiety but the important thing is to learn to manage this stress. I suspect that some of those parents who think that SATs are too stressful for children are also the ones worrying about how their children will fair and so impose their own anxieties onto their children, making the whole thing a self-fulfilling prophecy.

To read more about this topic click here. To find a simple solution to exam stress, click here, and take with a warm drink at bedtime.

Match Wits with your 11 year-old self

As has been reported elsewhere, Match Wits with the Kids is not the only book out at the moment that reminds parents of what they once knew. But now a new book of exam questions taken from the old-style 11-plus exam has begged the seemingly perennial question - are exams getting easier?

You can read more about The Eleven-Plus Book: Genuine Exam Questions From Yesteryear here, and try out a some of the questions from the test for yourself here. Do you think exams are getting easier? Do you think that teachers should make a return to the teaching methods they used when you were at school? Let us know how you get on and have your say on the matter here.

Fun Learning

Part of the appeal of Match Wits with the Kids is that it promotes learning as a fun experience to be enjoyed by all.

Well how about this example of fun learning, as proposed by the rather appropriately named Mr Rolls, and witnessed recently on a school trip to Kew Gardens?



I don't know which part I found more amusing; the actual rolling down the hill or the laborious preparations beforehand.

But that's what I call fun learning!