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Excellent interview. She is saying in a very erudite and passionate way what many have thought for years. I bow down to her being the contrarian of the year, I hope she sweeps the decade too.
Incredible woman. All power to her in her battle against the educational orthodoxy. It amazes me how anything she says can be deemed 'controversial'. I'm sure this is exactly what the vast majority of parents want for their children. Hope to visit her school soon. Thanks for the interview.
Maybe if you studied stories about the victims of narcissistic parents and psychological literature how strict parents damage the development of children, THEN you would understand why this woman is 'deemed controversial.' Or more accurately, feared for her damaging and outdated beliefs.
I read “To Miss With Love” some years ago . A turning point for me. My first glimpse of what is actually going on. If you haven’t already, read it. My wife entered teacher training in 1970 - when the rot was starting to set in. Appalled by what she found she walked out at the end of the first term.
My mother took teacher training in 1964, and says that the rot was already setting in back then - she was banned by one headmistress from mentioning Civil Defence in the classroom for example, because the head was a CND supporter.
This woman is incredible. If every state school in London had headteachers with similar views, the country would be in a much, much better state 20 years down the line.
I was going to make a similar suggestion. But sadly I feel that putting this dedicated, passionate and strong lady into the heart of the current political regime would slowly inflict on her the same cancer. Silenced and eliminated. Sometimes you can change things from the outside, and she does seem to be doing a damned fine job of it. To paraphrase Winston Smith from Orwell's 1984, "If there is any hope left, it's in the hands of the proles". WE are the proles, WE have to destroy the current political system. The alternative is, the current political system will continue to feed on us, and in turn destroy everything that makes us good. Unborn generations are depending on what we do now for their freedom.
Thank you Peter. Katherine is a force of nature. Glad she's on the right side. Anyone who admires Thomas Sowell gets my vote. I really do hope you can get him on to interview
Excellent interview, fantastic woman. Minister of Education right there. Please have her on again to share the progress of her school, its pupils and her staff. Very inspiring. We need to understand how this kind of model can inform development and replication more broadly.
Amazing! Why is she not minister of education? She actually believes that education is a civilizing influence and implies that our civilization is worth preserving! Miraculum miraculorum.
Wow! Love this woman. She shows the way out of the Leftist trap. Not only kids but adults could learn from her. I'd follow her on Twitter if I wasn't banned lol.
My wife and I went to a grotty secondary school in the 70's. It was opened in '68 by no less than the prime minister Harold Wilson. Many lessons came and went without anything being learnt. My wife left in '75 to live with her father and attended a Grammar school in County Durham which was the exact opposite to what she was accustomed to. She went from being a girly swot (trying to work in a noisy classroom) to being the classroom dunce! In the '80's the Grammar school was closed and reopened as a secondary school and became a notorious dump like so many others.
True. You can't get more b***ocks than that, can you. Then a further 2 hours to discuss it by the guardian loving caramel latte (with vegan milk) drinking teachers.
Actually, "feed forward" is a perfectly legitimate term. It comes from engineering control theory. It means passing a control signal from one process as an input to another. Which seems pretty consistent with how it was being used here.
I have some quick jobs that I need to do and then its coffee and the kids kicked outside. Possibly the UKs best teacher/headteacher right here. Thanks and looking forward to the next interview already.
I always enjoy watching Katharine ... The work of many teachers - left and right - are working to raise standards before and after 2010. Accountability often hinders innovation, although I accept that the white paper in 2010 provided more freedom to schools stuck in LEAs. Much discussion on neuroscience, knowledge and memory etc. are a healthy pedagogical discussion and it's good for us all to support all students and one another. p.s. having worked in inner-city London schools, Katharine is right to take a hard stance on supporting pupils from backgrounds where gangs and knives are day-to-day living. Teachers choose to work in these situations, and they should be supported.
Katherine, I love your passion, you are so right about the teaching profession.I taught in the London borough of Brent in the 1980's, during the start of PC orthodoxy. However, I was lucky to be with a good team of teachers and I did enjoy exploring the multicultural curriculum, one thing the borough often got right before that aspect of education became inflexible and condescending to the best of English culture.
1990 Essex. I was a beginning teacher in a nice comprehensive in one of the posher suburbs. Reports given to parents stated that grades given were A to E, But... teachers were not allowed to give a grade lower than a C in years 7 and 8. Neither pupils nor parents knew the truth. I left state schools in my second year as a teacher, in disgust and moved to an independent school. There I discovered what rich parents pay for: a traditional education where they are told the truth about their kids' performance. Teachers in state schools have been lying to parents for a long time.
The Bible says it is the responsibility of fathers (parents for the PC among you) to educate their children. In our society it is usually necessary to delegate that responsibility to others - the teachers in the schools. This does mean, however, that the parents continue to have the responsibility for their children’s education in that they MUST be fully informed of what is actually going on in the schools, and if this is not satisfactory, the teachers should be held to account. Too often, parents simply assume that school is as it was when they were at school, and they are unaware just how radically different education is today. I do not have children, neither do I have any background in education. I am just an ordinary citizen with common sense who is aware of what is going on, and for years I have been saying what Katharine Birbalsingh is saying in this interview. It is SO refreshing to hear this wonderful lady speaking such common sense! It is a tragedy beyond measure that truth, common sense and wisdom are now in such short supply in our modern society, that voices like this are at all remarkable. I just hope her ideas will spread, and that teacher training colleges will spring up, running on these lines, and that the damage that has been done to our children over the past few decades can be undone. However, I very much fear that the powers that shouldn’t be will clamp down on this, in order to maintain their agenda, which is the dumbing down of the masses. What has been happening to the children in the past few decades is abuse. They have been deprived of their right to a decent education, to be taught how to think critically and grow into mature, well-rounded adults. It is also depriving them of the innocence and joy of childhood. No wonder society is in such a mess. Years ago, people were taught HOW to think. Then they were taught WHAT to think. These days they are taught NOT to think. Oh, how desperately we need an army of Katherines to turn this criminal abuse around!!
more peace I think I know it because of talking to parents and teachers, and just keeping abreast of what is going on. I’ve been thinking about these issues for many years as I have watched society go downhill more and more with each successive year. I agree with you that tough love is the way. I believe the bright, smart, well-behaved children deserve better, and they are being penalised by the naughty ones taking up the time and attention of the teachers. I have the greatest sympathy for anyone with a real vocation for teaching these days, because they are hampered by the crazy system now in place, and they no longer have any “teeth” as far as discipline is concerned. I think morale is pretty low among true professionals because the system makes it well-nigh impossible to do their job. It appears to be the same across the board with vocational careers in the professions - I hear much the same from nurses and doctors in the NHS. When the professions are turned into businesses, and “personnel” are rebranded as “Human Resources,” the working day of the professional is now taken over with form filling and paperwork, and dealing with the frustration of ever-changing rules and systems in the workplace. It seems to me that the motivation of the powers that shouldn’t be, is to frustrate the professionals and make their job as difficult as possible. I feel very sorry indeed for anyone in the teaching profession with a real heart for children these days, and for anyone in the caring and health professions with a real heart for the suffering. The frustration must be overwhelming. The rot set in back in the 60s when education changed, and it was all about allowing children to express themselves and find their own way, and it all became very informal and they could more or less do what they liked. When those children grew up and became the next generation of parents and teachers, the damage had been done and the old skills were forgotten - apart from the Katherines of this world, of course! We sowed the wind, and reaped the whirlwind. It was inevitable, and absolutely predictable. Loony leftism. It simply does not work.
What amazing energy and drive: a hurricane in a dress! She certainly expressed the downside of the smartphone made available to children. I wish what she said here could be made more publicly available. I wonder though about the policy of open access of her school to visitors. Surely there are questions of security involved in this? How does she address this?
I could listen to Katherine all day, she always cheers me up and gives me hope for the future. I am an ex Teacher from industry and the RAF who taught from 1982 to 1995 and even though even with a great deal of undermining, objection and criticism by left wing teachers I still managed to reach DH status, achieved excellent exam results and good discipline from inner city kids. Unfortunately maybe being older than Katherine at the time, maybe a much more tougher time than she had or maybe even though considered a 'force of nature' simply did not have the zeal that Katherine has. I was eventually worn down, effectively set upon by management who encouraged a child to lie about me and forced me out. I did though, go on to do well in another career but I loved being a teacher and I believed if I had worked for Katherine would have stayed and possibly running a similar school as she does. She is absolutely correct that Teacher Training Colleges are a waste of time, stating how can children debate or valued opinions when they have no idea of what they are talking about and discipline is fundamental to ensure a child is in the right state of mind to be receptive to the transfer of knowledge. William Golding's 'Lord of the Flies' portrays this perfectly and it was my insistence I be allowed to read it and be discussed by my pastoral form group than other teachers (allowed to read Nelson Madela's biography) refuse to come into the staff room if I was there. With out exception and very much for the sake of this country which continues to decline thanks to our education systems creating the Adultchilds we now have, Katharine Birbalsingh needs to be made the Minister for Education with a portfolio to root out left wing extremism, to overhaul training colleges and bring back discipline as a major feature of our schools.
Practically the entire public sector in a nutshell.... "It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong." Thomas Sowell.
I am so pleased that I am not the only one who agrees with Thomas Sowell. The tragedy of my experience is that I used just that statement at a child protection conference, my wife and I were forced to attend, because of anonymous complaints made about our off script parenting style. The only thing I said differently was add ( like you ) after the word people, the vacant looks I got from these people will remain with me for a long time.
what a refreshing change, not just a lone voice teacher, but one who has set up a school with like minded people, to actually TEACH. talks a lot of sense. obviously highly motivated, she should as peter suggested, start a teaching college. with her enthusiasm, with more teaching truth sayers. britain as a whole could do with more of them. I applaud you Katharine.
I'm a freelance private tutor, and I work independently specifically because of the issues Katherine has described. Most schools are politically homogenous with weak people training weak kids. We need more strong people like Katherine in the education sector if we want to turn the tide. Great interview, great woman.
I've just fallen in love. Not with PW - that happened on episode 1. This lady is an excellent example of the sort of teacher that I wish was directing my son's education. And she's got cool hair.
Wow what an inspirational woman! Wish I had her as a teacher at school. She is totally right about attention spans and smartphones. I was an A* Eng Lit student at GCSE in 2007 and now I really struggle to get through a 300 page book and I am not even that addicted to my smartphone or social media so god knows what iot's like for kids who are nowadays :/
The idea that children are *independent beings* with needs appropriate to their age would challenge many. Science reveals that humans are born determined to become the best human they can be (Haidt, Sinek) and that resides entirely in the development of the mind with help from a capable body. All adults can do is get in the way if we don't take the birth of every child as precisely that challenge. Personally I believe the best teaching outcome will come from the concentrating on the four 'R's: Reading. Writing. Arithmetic. Reasoning. Ergo schools should ramp up those first three subjects to give them the tools for learning by themselves. Reasoning lessons can be provided by visitors from the real world demonstrating how those basic tools work in real life. Eg: Tearing down and rebuilding an engine will be an opportunity to include themes on history, pure Science, maths, business courage, metals, keeping records, mistakes, accuracy, genius, patents, endurance (mental), degradation and care, lifespans (materials), etc. The lesson being: Those people who engage with every facet of any object will derive the most benefit from their life. Further lessons can be derived from; other devices, operating elements of a business, professions, trades, creative pursuits. IOW provide the basics and inspire a purposeful, and respectful, life. To wit: We are here with what we have because of others who had exactly the same problems as us and used the power of a mind to benefit themselves and others. Very few will actually 'make a difference', the best most can hope for is to support them by understanding value. aka Team membership, a prerequisite for a full life in itself.
A friend of mine went into teaching roughly 20 years ago, after first having a career in the private sector as a project manager. She was astounded, and told me that basically the teachers were either openly communist, or didn't care one way or the other. A sad state of affairs no doubt.
Good day to you, teachers! I just wanted to drop a quick note here to discuss the issue of “devices.” I am so on board with your policy. I do not believe that smart phones or any other devices connected to the internet in general, mix well with education. I can admit that used properly, connection with the net can enhance all kinds of learning opportunities. But I’m a grown adult, capable of using this resource in the same way I would drive responsibly, drink moderately, and make dozens of hundreds of other well informed choices in my life. Not so with kids. The “addictive” part of this conversation is not out there. And it should be. If there were a blackout that lasted a week, with no access to an electrical grid whatsoever, it would be fascinating to weigh and measure the results, the impact on the “addicted.” But I will not preach to a choir here. We are all on the same page. There is one thing however, I would like to point out, if I may. Concerning the process of thinking analytically, and critically. When one has read thousands and thousands of books, and followed their narratives, and had their imagination engaged, and books in multiples discussing a topic or an issue, and when one follows them at no greater speed than the speed of reading - one learns a craft in life that I believe is destroyed by toxic devices. These devices kill memory work. Everything is “look it up.” Which appears on its face, to be a good thing. However. When one ponders a topic, an idea, an issue, and thinks critically and analytically about it, one sets off a constant train of dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of facts, figures, arguments, memories of lived experience, etc. Imagine if all, or almost all of them had to be looked up. Instead of a thought chain that begins and ends within 15-20 minutes, it would take several hours. “Memory” work is desirable for a reason. To open up a mind and engage it with itself, and with the processes of learned and understood information. Like a bricklayer building the bottom foundation. The rest of the building doesn’t go up, without it. I don’t know if I explained this concept well or not, but I think it is somewhere in the neighbourhood. And thanks for the tirade. It was positively one of the most delightful rants I've heard in a long time. You know, when I was a kid (age 3 to 16) I spent a lot of time out in the public domain, and off in natural habitats - and where I lived, actual wilderness was a 15-minute bike ride away. And during all those thousands of times through all those years, all senses were engaged. Sight, sound, smell, touch, and occasionally, even taste. That has all been reduced down to eyes glued to a tiny screen, and ears captured with headphones. Walking through life (your life) in someone else's movie. Your sense of the world is in there, in that artificial cyber world, whereas in the real world, the real world that contains a reality that won't ever go away, no matter what the device is or does.....and within that real world are millions of things that are not seen, heard, felt, not even noticed. What happens to a person who trades one for the other from the age of 2 to 20? What "lived" experience" do they actually possess? They have become trained seals, trained to ignore and discard reality - because it is not sensationalized enough, not enhanced or airbrushed, or prettified. Reality is not CGI. Rinse and repeat. And the real concentration, the real focus, the real attention span that real accomplishments in life often, if not always require - is missing. Today perhaps 10 or 20% of children avoid this dumbing down of themselves, as sensual and sentient human beings. The vast majority addicted to devices and allowed to be so - won't. So yes. If you truly care about children and their development, the damned things should require a licence, and be prohibited until a permissible age is reached. (And o lord, the hue and cry heard across the haunted land, in response to that one.)
Can you please come to my daughters school Katherine her school seems to have lost its way, infact as you said in the interview about schools not being accessible its true even the fields are fenced off unbelievable.
Can Farage get her on team? With Katherine talking education reform, the Brexit Party would take 10 Downing Street and perhaps Katherine could become the establishment instead of fighting it. Put the socialists, feminists and minority grievance activists back where they belong and where they most want to be. On the outside calling for revolution. We’ve let the revolutionaries run the show for nigh on 3 decades, it’s not been successful for anyone and being the establishment doesn’t suit their temperament. Katherine for Education minister, make the lefties the underdogs again.
I know of parents that purchased three iPhones one for each child at a thousand pounds each on credit! That is another huge problem nobody wants to talk about the mountainous personal debt crisis!
Stop teaching kids about sexual deviations, in fact, stop all sex education.Encourage reading instead of looking at phone screens.Discipline them, teach them to be responsible for their actions, self discipline and strengh.Stop sending in mental health workers, who teach self harm.Encourage spirituality, and compassion.Also, if they do wrong, appropiate punishnent.
i worked in a nursery and i never cared about ofsted, i would remove them from my room if they were rude or in the way, i never failed it once, i also scaried one out the room i was in by being over nice to them and jumping on them everytime they walked near, was a really fun way to deal with them as unless they are older they will run for the hills
Katharine has gone from Ms. Snuffy to a mumpsimus. She is spot-on when it comes to the importance of discipline in schools, though she is so obsessed with punishment that it is destroying the good she could otherwise achieve. The Michaela Community doesn't allow for dissenting voices, e.g., Michaela teachers MUST impose demerits and detentions for minor faults. She has little understanding of the difference between discipline and punishment. Those who aren't great at math by the end of Year 9 would be truly idiotic to look at a career option that requires mathematical excellence. No matter how hard some kids try, they will never excel at math or art or music, and they shouldn't be "hammered" for this. I love Shakespeare, I don't expect everyone to do so - societies don't work like that! There are mistakes in ITT, but it isn't ALL wrong. One of my former students was useless at math and English, he is now one of the finest athletes in the USA and making a fortune that I couldn't dream of. He is also a happy young man living out the destiny he carved for himself. I get the impression that the Michaela Way is obsessed with fault finding and drilling knowledge into young kids. Do the Michaela kids get punished if they are not grateful or happy enough? The kids at Michaela don't get anywhere near the freedom of speech she so passionately believes in for adults - though not stupid adults. She presumes too easily that she knows the right way to teach every child. BTW I probably despise the Leftish, progressive educational ideologies every bit as much as she does. I also believe that schools' greatest need is a sensible 'zero-tolerance whole-school' policy. If we did that, then expert teachers could teach again, though not necessarily the Michaela Way. BTW Peter barely said a word in this interview - he didn't get the chance. I haven't been there, but I imagine it would be like that at Michaela with most of the talk coming from the (mainly) young, know-it-all teachers. There are two things kids will never forgive you for 1) for not knowing far more than they know and 2) for acting like a know-it-all - leave the omniscience to God.
The education system has gone down hill, I agree knowledge and discipline is most important. With out discipline kids will have no respect for anything or anyone. History should be part of education. If they don’t want to be British then don’t live there. When you go to a country you adapt to their culture. You don’t force your culture on them. Upbringing has a lot to do with kids behaviour. I was taught respect and discipline from my parents. I got caned at School for spelling test and for talking in the class room. I agree with you I don’t have Twitter, it s for twits.
I agree with almost everything this lady said (unlike her, I don't think the state is necessary), but I wouldn't want to have to spend much time with her. Her rapid fire speech and the constant punctuation of sentences with "Right?" would drive me crazy. Peter could hardly get a word in edgeways to ask a question. However, we need many more teachers and headteachers with her attitude. If we had an education secretary with the same attitude, that would make a hell of a difference. All schools should be privatised. They should be sold to the teachers who work in them and the people who live nearby. They should not be sold to the pals of government ministers. Anyone who wants to open a school should be free to do so. Anyone, as long as they are not criminals, should be free to teach. Some of the best teachers are those who have real life experience rather than a certificate from a one year teacher training course. Those teachers and those schools that do a bad job would soon disappear because they would be responsible to teachers and parents, and parents would move their children very quickly to a better school. Schools would be able to expel disruptive children quickly. They would not have to put up with bad behaviour. They would be able to sack poor teachers quickly as well, something which seems almost impossible now. Schools and teachers would be free to try out innovative ideas. If the ideas were successful, they would quickly spread. Education would become much cheaper and better. Children would no longer be subject to state propaganda.
Not seen the vid but no surprise on heading of this vid, common sense really, discipline and knowledge I would say ... truthful, yep , stop the snowflakes
Ashamed of being British? Consult history. In 1940-1941, Britain was the only country (of the group of Allies) left, opposing the Third Reich. From whence came the Battle of Britain. The stiff upper lip. The stoic defiance in the face of what looked like certain doom. At that time. So some decades later, come the twenty-first century know-nothings who consider themselves, as a matter of course, gloriously free to disdain the very society that affords them the very freedom to express their disdain (with no negative repercussions whatsoever.) This is astonishingly twisted logic. Which happens to be completely divorced from life in the real world. But then - when education (indoctrination) teaches that reality can be manipulated as easily as the CGI found in the latest Hollywood thriller, that man plays god and all the attendant nonsense arising from such dogma, well, I'd say there could very well be some jolly ripe inclination toward shame all right - just of a different sort. Ponder this one. Were Britain itself, jolly old England, to be threatened by some fascist power now, would these sneering and snarling and insipid idiots who believe they stand on the "right side" of history step up to defend their homeland? I think they would not. They would however, expect others to step up and do the job for them. And they would be just as terrified if those stalwarts happened to fail at the job. Because then and only then, would they realize that their Fool's Paradise was about to become a living hell. Hypocritical cowards are antithetical to the health and well being of a nation. History was not invented to torture bored students (who indeed, have my most profound sympathy if imposed upon by 10th-rate teaching). It was invented, and is taught, in order to facilitate a deeper understanding of what actually happened, the nature of mistakes made, how to avoid and even prevent them from re-occurring, and to be able to adequately, if not accurately, ponder where we've been, where we are at now, and where we may possibly be going. Ripe stuff for a healthy and informed imagination. A side note: If Britain were to teach, train, prepare and credential some ten thousand or so Birbalsinghs per annum, within a decade or less, what she so inspiringly envisions that would not happen in her lifetime - would indeed, come to pass. This requires a political will, certainly. It also requires a sea-change not only in educational practice, but a concerted determination within the nation to do right by its children. Above all else, of the very many reasons that I admire Katharine's efforts and results - is the one for which I can well imagine she is least acknowledged. And that is the simple fact that it is so bloody obvious that she loves kids. That right there. This very attribute seems to have gotten lost in the wash, and is still so very necessary today. I am not surprised in the least that she can fight like a tiger for their right to learn. Bravo. It grieves me no end that I do not possess the means to hop a plane and visit Michaela. One of life's more joyful experiences, I'm sure.
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Love Ms Birbalsingh and her bravery. What a breath of fresh air!
What an inspirational woman! We need her clones in every school in the land :) Yet another great interview on this wonderful channel!
Excellent interview. She is saying in a very erudite and passionate way what many have thought for years. I bow down to her being the contrarian of the year, I hope she sweeps the decade too.
Incredible woman. All power to her in her battle against the educational orthodoxy. It amazes me how anything she says can be deemed 'controversial'. I'm sure this is exactly what the vast majority of parents want for their children. Hope to visit her school soon. Thanks for the interview.
Maybe if you studied stories about the victims of narcissistic parents and psychological literature how strict parents damage the development of children, THEN you would understand why this woman is 'deemed controversial.' Or more accurately, feared for her damaging and outdated beliefs.
Absolutely brilliant... what a great teacher!
I read “To Miss With Love” some years ago . A turning point for me. My first glimpse of what is actually going on. If you haven’t already, read it. My wife entered teacher training in 1970 - when the rot was starting to set in. Appalled by what she found she walked out at the end of the first term.
My mother took teacher training in 1964, and says that the rot was already setting in back then - she was banned by one headmistress from mentioning Civil Defence in the classroom for example, because the head was a CND supporter.
What a wonderful woman - messages!!
This woman is incredible. If every state school in London had headteachers with similar views, the country would be in a much, much better state 20 years down the line.
That's why the state schools would never have her. She embodies achievement.
Great Lady, if only she were our Minister of Education!
I was going to make a similar suggestion. But sadly I feel that putting this dedicated, passionate and strong lady into the heart of the current political regime would slowly inflict on her the same cancer. Silenced and eliminated. Sometimes you can change things from the outside, and she does seem to be doing a damned fine job of it.
To paraphrase Winston Smith from Orwell's 1984, "If there is any hope left, it's in the hands of the proles". WE are the proles, WE have to destroy the current political system. The alternative is, the current political system will continue to feed on us, and in turn destroy everything that makes us good. Unborn generations are depending on what we do now for their freedom.
Thank you Peter. Katherine is a force of nature. Glad she's on the right side. Anyone who admires Thomas Sowell gets my vote. I really do hope you can get him on to interview
Miss Snuffy's fantastic. Thank you for this interview.
We need this woman as Prime Minister ........the polar opposite to Dianne Abbott.....the arch exponent of untrustworthiness and victimhood
She and Diane Abbott are barely the same species. Can't get enough of Katherine's passion and common sense
This woman in definitely a force of nature.
Excellent interview, fantastic woman. Minister of Education right there. Please have her on again to share the progress of her school, its pupils and her staff. Very inspiring. We need to understand how this kind of model can inform development and replication more broadly.
We need more teachers like this! Less like Corbyn (And by Corbyn I mean bearded post modern types who hate ambition and achievement)
Amazing! Katharine, I am so proud of you. Brilliant!
Katharine, you are simply awesome. Hope lives!
Amazing! Why is she not minister of education? She actually believes that education is a civilizing influence and implies that our civilization is worth preserving! Miraculum miraculorum.
Wow! Love this woman. She shows the way out of the Leftist trap. Not only kids but adults could learn from her. I'd follow her on Twitter if I wasn't banned lol.
The world's most sensible headteacher.
An outstanding young lady. May you go from strength to strengh. Our country needs you Miss Snuffy!!
what a fantastic lady
wow that woman has some passion ,all power to her
My wife and I went to a grotty secondary school in the 70's. It was opened in '68 by no less than the prime minister Harold Wilson. Many lessons came and went without anything being learnt. My wife left in '75 to live with her father and attended a Grammar school in County Durham which was the exact opposite to what she was accustomed to. She went from being a girly swot (trying to work in a noisy classroom) to being the classroom dunce! In the '80's the Grammar school was closed and reopened as a secondary school and became a notorious dump like so many others.
"Feed forward" you can't make this stuff up.
The person who said it should have been "punched in the name of tolerance"
I'd love to feed my elbow forward into their face.
True. You can't get more b***ocks than that, can you. Then a further 2 hours to discuss it by the guardian loving caramel latte (with vegan milk) drinking teachers.
Actually, "feed forward" is a perfectly legitimate term. It comes from engineering control theory. It means passing a control signal from one process as an input to another. Which seems pretty consistent with how it was being used here.
I have some quick jobs that I need to do and then its coffee and the kids kicked outside.
Possibly the UKs best teacher/headteacher right here.
Thanks and looking forward to the next interview already.
What a great woman, wish my kids were at her school. This lady should be in charge of British schooling.
An exceptional mind in an age of mediocrity. Linking her into Quillette comments, immediately.
Remarkable woman, remarkable channel.
this teacher agrees
Superb. Need this kind of teaching in Norfolk.
What a fantastic teacher
Too much common sense for today's world I am afraid.
I always enjoy watching Katharine ... The work of many teachers - left and right - are working to raise standards before and after 2010. Accountability often hinders innovation, although I accept that the white paper in 2010 provided more freedom to schools stuck in LEAs. Much discussion on neuroscience, knowledge and memory etc. are a healthy pedagogical discussion and it's good for us all to support all students and one another.
p.s. having worked in inner-city London schools, Katharine is right to take a hard stance on supporting pupils from backgrounds where gangs and knives are day-to-day living. Teachers choose to work in these situations, and they should be supported.
What an admirable woman!
I love this lady.
Great woman. By God, can she talk.
This woman is brilliant
Wow! What an amazing woman! Wish she had been my teacher!!
Spot on!
Thank you, Ms Birbalsingh, you are truly a blessing!
Katherine, I love your passion, you are so right about the teaching profession.I taught in the London borough of Brent in the 1980's, during the start of PC orthodoxy. However, I was lucky to be with a good team of teachers and I did enjoy exploring the multicultural curriculum, one thing the borough often got right before that aspect of education became inflexible and condescending to the best of English culture.
Wow, she is quite something. Very impressed.
Children need love and boundaries or loving discipline.
We have the same exact issues in France it's crazy. I'am a teacher and I absolutely agree everything she said.
1990 Essex. I was a beginning teacher in a nice comprehensive in one of the posher suburbs. Reports given to parents stated that grades given were A to E, But... teachers were not allowed to give a grade lower than a C in years 7 and 8. Neither pupils nor parents knew the truth. I left state schools in my second year as a teacher, in disgust and moved to an independent school. There I discovered what rich parents pay for: a traditional education where they are told the truth about their kids' performance.
Teachers in state schools have been lying to parents for a long time.
This woman is fabulous. Christ what a live wire!
The Bible says it is the responsibility of fathers (parents for the PC among you) to educate their children. In our society it is usually necessary to delegate that responsibility to others - the teachers in the schools. This does mean, however, that the parents continue to have the responsibility for their children’s education in that they MUST be fully informed of what is actually going on in the schools, and if this is not satisfactory, the teachers should be held to account. Too often, parents simply assume that school is as it was when they were at school, and they are unaware just how radically different education is today.
I do not have children, neither do I have any background in education. I am just an ordinary citizen with common sense who is aware of what is going on, and for years I have been saying what Katharine Birbalsingh is saying in this interview. It is SO refreshing to hear this wonderful lady speaking such common sense! It is a tragedy beyond measure that truth, common sense and wisdom are now in such short supply in our modern society, that voices like this are at all remarkable. I just hope her ideas will spread, and that teacher training colleges will spring up, running on these lines, and that the damage that has been done to our children over the past few decades can be undone. However, I very much fear that the powers that shouldn’t be will clamp down on this, in order to maintain their agenda, which is the dumbing down of the masses.
What has been happening to the children in the past few decades is abuse. They have been deprived of their right to a decent education, to be taught how to think critically and grow into mature, well-rounded adults. It is also depriving them of the innocence and joy of childhood. No wonder society is in such a mess. Years ago, people were taught HOW to think. Then they were taught WHAT to think. These days they are taught NOT to think.
Oh, how desperately we need an army of Katherines to turn this criminal abuse around!!
more peace I think I know it because of talking to parents and teachers, and just keeping abreast of what is going on. I’ve been thinking about these issues for many years as I have watched society go downhill more and more with each successive year. I agree with you that tough love is the way. I believe the bright, smart, well-behaved children deserve better, and they are being penalised by the naughty ones taking up the time and attention of the teachers. I have the greatest sympathy for anyone with a real vocation for teaching these days, because they are hampered by the crazy system now in place, and they no longer have any “teeth” as far as discipline is concerned. I think morale is pretty low among true professionals because the system makes it well-nigh impossible to do their job. It appears to be the same across the board with vocational careers in the professions - I hear much the same from nurses and doctors in the NHS. When the professions are turned into businesses, and “personnel” are rebranded as “Human Resources,” the working day of the professional is now taken over with form filling and paperwork, and dealing with the frustration of ever-changing rules and systems in the workplace. It seems to me that the motivation of the powers that shouldn’t be, is to frustrate the professionals and make their job as difficult as possible. I feel very sorry indeed for anyone in the teaching profession with a real heart for children these days, and for anyone in the caring and health professions with a real heart for the suffering. The frustration must be overwhelming.
The rot set in back in the 60s when education changed, and it was all about allowing children to express themselves and find their own way, and it all became very informal and they could more or less do what they liked. When those children grew up and became the next generation of parents and teachers, the damage had been done and the old skills were forgotten - apart from the Katherines of this world, of course! We sowed the wind, and reaped the whirlwind. It was inevitable, and absolutely predictable. Loony leftism. It simply does not work.
This woman is so passionate.
I love her
We need more just like her. Where can we get them? Not from our present system!
I love this lady. And she mentions those great guys like Sruton and Sowell.
Fantastic video and outlook. The point about public sector, the drudgery and lack of accountability is spot on. It's the same in healthcare.
What amazing energy and drive: a hurricane in a dress! She certainly expressed the downside of the smartphone made available to children. I wish what she said here could be made more publicly available. I wonder though about the policy of open access of her school to visitors. Surely there are questions of security involved in this? How does she address this?
Telling the truth is really the only way to walk in this world with integrity. You will make a lot of enemies, though.
I could listen to Katherine all day, she always cheers me up and gives me hope for the future. I am an ex Teacher from industry and the RAF who taught from 1982 to 1995 and even though even with a great deal of undermining, objection and criticism by left wing teachers I still managed to reach DH status, achieved excellent exam results and good discipline from inner city kids. Unfortunately maybe being older than Katherine at the time, maybe a much more tougher time than she had or maybe even though considered a 'force of nature' simply did not have the zeal that Katherine has. I was eventually worn down, effectively set upon by management who encouraged a child to lie about me and forced me out. I did though, go on to do well in another career but I loved being a teacher and I believed if I had worked for Katherine would have stayed and possibly running a similar school as she does. She is absolutely correct that Teacher Training Colleges are a waste of time, stating how can children debate or valued opinions when they have no idea of what they are talking about and discipline is fundamental to ensure a child is in the right state of mind to be receptive to the transfer of knowledge. William Golding's 'Lord of the Flies' portrays this perfectly and it was my insistence I be allowed to read it and be discussed by my pastoral form group than other teachers (allowed to read Nelson Madela's biography) refuse to come into the staff room if I was there. With out exception and very much for the sake of this country which continues to decline thanks to our education systems creating the Adultchilds we now have, Katharine Birbalsingh needs to be made the Minister for Education with a portfolio to root out left wing extremism, to overhaul training colleges and bring back discipline as a major feature of our schools.
Katharine Birbalsingh is amazing, inspirational and let's just get back to the truth!
It sounds very creative what she's up to!
Practically the entire public sector in a nutshell....
"It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong."
Thomas Sowell.
I am so pleased that I am not the only one who agrees with Thomas Sowell.
The tragedy of my experience is that I used just that statement at a child protection conference, my wife and I were forced to attend, because of anonymous complaints made about our off script parenting style. The only thing I said differently was add ( like you ) after the word people, the vacant looks I got from these people will remain with me for a long time.
what a refreshing change, not just a lone voice teacher, but one who has set up a school with like minded people, to actually TEACH. talks a lot of sense. obviously highly motivated, she should as peter suggested, start a teaching college. with her enthusiasm, with more teaching truth sayers. britain as a whole could do with more of them. I applaud you Katharine.
I'm a freelance private tutor, and I work independently specifically because of the issues Katherine has described. Most schools are politically homogenous with weak people training weak kids. We need more strong people like Katherine in the education sector if we want to turn the tide. Great interview, great woman.
Pity all teachers aren't like her
lots have the same views but are tied to the rules and values of the school they work at.
I've just fallen in love. Not with PW - that happened on episode 1. This lady is an excellent example of the sort of teacher that I wish was directing my son's education. And she's got cool hair.
incredible passion - genuinely refreshing
Wow what an inspirational woman! Wish I had her as a teacher at school. She is totally right about attention spans and smartphones. I was an A* Eng Lit student at GCSE in 2007 and now I really struggle to get through a 300 page book and I am not even that addicted to my smartphone or social media so god knows what iot's like for kids who are nowadays :/
The idea that children are *independent beings* with needs appropriate to their age would challenge many. Science reveals that humans are born determined to become the best human they can be (Haidt, Sinek) and that resides entirely in the development of the mind with help from a capable body. All adults can do is get in the way if we don't take the birth of every child as precisely that challenge.
Personally I believe the best teaching outcome will come from the concentrating on the four 'R's: Reading. Writing. Arithmetic. Reasoning. Ergo schools should ramp up those first three subjects to give them the tools for learning by themselves. Reasoning lessons can be provided by visitors from the real world demonstrating how those basic tools work in real life. Eg: Tearing down and rebuilding an engine will be an opportunity to include themes on history, pure Science, maths, business courage, metals, keeping records, mistakes, accuracy, genius, patents, endurance (mental), degradation and care, lifespans (materials), etc. The lesson being: Those people who engage with every facet of any object will derive the most benefit from their life. Further lessons can be derived from; other devices, operating elements of a business, professions, trades, creative pursuits.
IOW provide the basics and inspire a purposeful, and respectful, life. To wit: We are here with what we have because of others who had exactly the same problems as us and used the power of a mind to benefit themselves and others. Very few will actually 'make a difference', the best most can hope for is to support them by understanding value. aka Team membership, a prerequisite for a full life in itself.
Children do not need a phone. They need a jolly good thrashing.
Yep. Brilliant. Well done.
A friend of mine went into teaching roughly 20 years ago, after first having a career in the private sector as a project manager. She was astounded, and told me that basically the teachers were either openly communist, or didn't care one way or the other. A sad state of affairs no doubt.
some people have this urgent need to come up with "new ideas" to justify their existence; Then they can calmly rest in peace.
Good day to you, teachers!
I just wanted to drop a quick note here to discuss the issue of “devices.” I am so on board with your policy.
I do not believe that smart phones or any other devices connected to the internet in general, mix well with education.
I can admit that used properly, connection with the net can enhance all kinds of learning opportunities.
But I’m a grown adult, capable of using this resource in the same way I would drive responsibly, drink moderately,
and make dozens of hundreds of other well informed choices in my life.
Not so with kids.
The “addictive” part of this conversation is not out there. And it should be.
If there were a blackout that lasted a week, with no access to an electrical grid whatsoever, it would be fascinating
to weigh and measure the results, the impact on the “addicted.”
But I will not preach to a choir here. We are all on the same page.
There is one thing however, I would like to point out, if I may.
Concerning the process of thinking analytically, and critically.
When one has read thousands and thousands of books, and followed their narratives, and had their imagination
engaged, and books in multiples discussing a topic or an issue, and when one follows them at no greater speed
than the speed of reading - one learns a craft in life that I believe is destroyed by toxic devices.
These devices kill memory work. Everything is “look it up.” Which appears on its face, to be a good thing. However.
When one ponders a topic, an idea, an issue, and thinks critically and analytically about it, one sets off a constant train
of dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of facts, figures, arguments, memories of lived experience, etc.
Imagine if all, or almost all of them had to be looked up.
Instead of a thought chain that begins and ends within 15-20 minutes, it would take several hours.
“Memory” work is desirable for a reason. To open up a mind and engage it with itself, and with the processes of
learned and understood information. Like a bricklayer building the bottom foundation.
The rest of the building doesn’t go up, without it.
I don’t know if I explained this concept well or not, but I think it is somewhere in the neighbourhood.
And thanks for the tirade. It was positively one of the most delightful rants I've heard in a long time.
You know, when I was a kid (age 3 to 16) I spent a lot of time out in the public domain, and off in natural habitats - and where I lived, actual wilderness was a 15-minute bike ride away.
And during all those thousands of times through all those years, all senses were engaged. Sight, sound, smell, touch, and occasionally, even taste.
That has all been reduced down to eyes glued to a tiny screen, and ears captured with headphones. Walking through life (your life) in someone else's movie.
Your sense of the world is in there, in that artificial cyber world, whereas in the real world, the real world that contains a reality that won't ever go away, no matter what the device is or does.....and within that real world are millions of things that are not seen, heard, felt, not even noticed.
What happens to a person who trades one for the other from the age of 2 to 20?
What "lived" experience" do they actually possess?
They have become trained seals, trained to ignore and discard reality - because it is not sensationalized enough, not enhanced or airbrushed, or prettified. Reality is not CGI. Rinse and repeat.
And the real concentration, the real focus, the real attention span that real accomplishments in life often, if not always require - is missing.
Today perhaps 10 or 20% of children avoid this dumbing down of themselves, as sensual and sentient human beings.
The vast majority addicted to devices and allowed to be so - won't.
So yes. If you truly care about children and their development, the damned things should require a licence, and be prohibited until a permissible age is reached.
(And o lord, the hue and cry heard across the haunted land, in response to that one.)
Zeal and fury are rewarded with victory.
Excellent ideas and informative interview. I only wish she would stop shouting. I guess dealing with kids all day will make that your normal speech.
Can you please come to my daughters school Katherine her school seems to have lost its way, infact as you said in the interview about schools not being accessible its true even the fields are fenced off unbelievable.
Can Farage get her on team? With Katherine talking education reform, the Brexit Party would take 10 Downing Street and perhaps Katherine could become the establishment instead of fighting it. Put the socialists, feminists and minority grievance activists back where they belong and where they most want to be. On the outside calling for revolution. We’ve let the revolutionaries run the show for nigh on 3 decades, it’s not been successful for anyone and being the establishment doesn’t suit their temperament.
Katherine for Education minister, make the lefties the underdogs again.
I know of parents that purchased three iPhones one for each child at a thousand pounds each on credit! That is another huge problem nobody wants to talk about the mountainous personal debt crisis!
Stop teaching kids about sexual deviations, in fact, stop all sex education.Encourage reading instead of looking at phone screens.Discipline them, teach them to be responsible for their actions, self discipline and strengh.Stop sending in mental health workers, who teach self harm.Encourage spirituality, and compassion.Also, if they do wrong, appropiate punishnent.
Many of the so called parents are not fit to bring up children.
The idea that she’s considered a contrarian says everything about the educational establishment.
i worked in a nursery and i never cared about ofsted, i would remove them from my room if they were rude or in the way, i never failed it once, i also scaried one out the room i was in by being over nice to them and jumping on them everytime they walked near, was a really fun way to deal with them as unless they are older they will run for the hills
Confident and attractive.
Superb
Where does her energy come from?
Katharine has gone from Ms. Snuffy to a mumpsimus. She is spot-on when it comes to the importance of discipline in schools, though she is so obsessed with punishment that it is destroying the good she could otherwise achieve. The Michaela Community doesn't allow for dissenting voices, e.g., Michaela teachers MUST impose demerits and detentions for minor faults. She has little understanding of the difference between discipline and punishment. Those who aren't great at math by the end of Year 9 would be truly idiotic to look at a career option that requires mathematical excellence. No matter how hard some kids try, they will never excel at math or art or music, and they shouldn't be "hammered" for this. I love Shakespeare, I don't expect everyone to do so - societies don't work like that!
There are mistakes in ITT, but it isn't ALL wrong. One of my former students was useless at math and English, he is now one of the finest athletes in the USA and making a fortune that I couldn't dream of. He is also a happy young man living out the destiny he carved for himself. I get the impression that the Michaela Way is obsessed with fault finding and drilling knowledge into young kids. Do the Michaela kids get punished if they are not grateful or happy enough? The kids at Michaela don't get anywhere near the freedom of speech she so passionately believes in for adults - though not stupid adults. She presumes too easily that she knows the right way to teach every child. BTW I probably despise the Leftish, progressive educational ideologies every bit as much as she does. I also believe that schools' greatest need is a sensible 'zero-tolerance whole-school' policy. If we did that, then expert teachers could teach again, though not necessarily the Michaela Way. BTW Peter barely said a word in this interview - he didn't get the chance. I haven't been there, but I imagine it would be like that at Michaela with most of the talk coming from the (mainly) young, know-it-all teachers. There are two things kids will never forgive you for 1) for not knowing far more than they know and 2) for acting like a know-it-all - leave the omniscience to God.
"12 y.o. can't be creative because they don't know too much." Obviously she never heard of Billie Eilish
I've just watched Billie Ellish. Catherine definitely has a point.
+amen amen!
The education system has gone down hill, I agree knowledge and discipline is most important. With out discipline kids will have no respect for anything or anyone. History should be part of education. If they don’t want to be British then don’t live there. When you go to a country you adapt to their culture. You don’t force your culture on them. Upbringing has a lot to do with kids behaviour. I was taught respect and discipline from my parents. I got caned at School for spelling test and for talking in the class room. I agree with you I don’t have Twitter, it s for twits.
I agree with almost everything this lady said (unlike her, I don't think the state is necessary), but I wouldn't want to have to spend much time with her. Her rapid fire speech and the constant punctuation of sentences with "Right?" would drive me crazy. Peter could hardly get a word in edgeways to ask a question.
However, we need many more teachers and headteachers with her attitude. If we had an education secretary with the same attitude, that would make a hell of a difference.
All schools should be privatised. They should be sold to the teachers who work in them and the people who live nearby. They should not be sold to the pals of government ministers.
Anyone who wants to open a school should be free to do so.
Anyone, as long as they are not criminals, should be free to teach. Some of the best teachers are those who have real life experience rather than a certificate from a one year teacher training course.
Those teachers and those schools that do a bad job would soon disappear because they would be responsible to teachers and parents, and parents would move their children very quickly to a better school.
Schools would be able to expel disruptive children quickly. They would not have to put up with bad behaviour.
They would be able to sack poor teachers quickly as well, something which seems almost impossible now.
Schools and teachers would be free to try out innovative ideas. If the ideas were successful, they would quickly spread.
Education would become much cheaper and better.
Children would no longer be subject to state propaganda.
May isn't a contrarian by any quantifiable metrics that I can think of, she and her party are leaning too far towards the "social justice" left.
Response to the title - So do adults!!
Envy resentment and bitterness towards far better people creates monsters.
Not seen the vid but no surprise on heading of this vid, common sense really, discipline and knowledge I would say ... truthful, yep , stop the snowflakes
I think contrarians tell the truth too.
Force. Of . Nature
Katherine is the right sort of megomaniac 😜
People who want chaos and confusion only push the politics of envy.
Probably should have had a spliff before the interview.
Wasn't it Christopher Hitchens who coined the word 'contrarian'?
A dream wife/partner , mother
Boudicca is reborn, brainjuicers beware!
Ashamed of being British?
Consult history.
In 1940-1941, Britain was the only country (of the group of Allies) left, opposing the Third Reich. From whence came the Battle of Britain. The stiff upper lip. The stoic defiance in the face of what looked like certain doom. At that time.
So some decades later, come the twenty-first century know-nothings who consider themselves, as a matter of course, gloriously free to disdain the very society that affords them the very freedom to express their disdain (with no negative repercussions whatsoever.)
This is astonishingly twisted logic. Which happens to be completely divorced from life in the real world.
But then - when education (indoctrination) teaches that reality can be manipulated as easily as the CGI found in the latest Hollywood thriller, that man plays god and all the attendant nonsense arising from such dogma, well, I'd say there could very well be some jolly ripe inclination toward shame all right - just of a different sort.
Ponder this one. Were Britain itself, jolly old England, to be threatened by some fascist power now, would these sneering and snarling and insipid idiots who believe they stand on the "right side" of history step up to defend their homeland?
I think they would not. They would however, expect others to step up and do the job for them. And they would be just as terrified if those stalwarts happened to fail at the job. Because then and only then, would they realize that their Fool's Paradise was about to become a living hell. Hypocritical cowards are antithetical to the health and well being of a nation.
History was not invented to torture bored students (who indeed, have my most profound sympathy if imposed upon by 10th-rate teaching).
It was invented, and is taught, in order to facilitate a deeper understanding of what actually happened, the nature of mistakes made, how to avoid and even prevent them from re-occurring, and to be able to adequately, if not accurately, ponder where we've been, where we are at now, and where we may possibly be going. Ripe stuff for a healthy and informed imagination.
A side note: If Britain were to teach, train, prepare and credential some ten thousand or so Birbalsinghs per annum, within a decade or less, what she so inspiringly envisions that would not happen in her lifetime - would indeed, come to pass.
This requires a political will, certainly. It also requires a sea-change not only in educational practice, but a concerted determination within the nation to do right by its children.
Above all else, of the very many reasons that I admire Katharine's efforts and results - is the one for which I can well imagine she is least acknowledged. And that is the simple fact that it is so bloody obvious that she loves kids. That right there. This very attribute seems to have gotten lost in the wash, and is still so very necessary today. I am not surprised in the least that she can fight like a tiger for their right to learn. Bravo.
It grieves me no end that I do not possess the means to hop a plane and visit Michaela. One of life's more joyful experiences, I'm sure.