There must be more than just this briefest post at some point, but here is the current link (how long will an I-player link work?) to Michael Morpurgo’s inspirational Dimbleby lecture and here is the link to Morpurgo’s own website and text.
I notice that the harder-lined chatterers are already out with comments like “He is a well intentioned, but clueless person. He has a big old fashioned left wing heart, good at bleating, but short on analysis.” I disagree: we are not dealing here with “wrong but romantic versus right but replusive” but with a whole set of practices and assumptions that ultimately defeat the work educators try and do. I write this because the points he brought in – the power of books to transform understanding, school starting age, the complexities of discussing oppression, life-chances and school experiences – all made rather a clever argument for the right of children to be able to access a well-thought-out and effective educational experience.
And if there was the occasional bleat, I’m afraid I prefer it to to a snarl.
nicktomjoe 