Blog posts in June 2011 
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Healthy eating and education...
Wednesday 22 June 2011
Categories: Education, Health, Media Influence
Over the 30 years and more during which I have been a secondary school teacher and parent of two girls and two boys, I have seen a number of fads and fancies in nutritional advice and in the pattern of childhood eating. Having grown up myself in the days of a well-balanced midday school lunch, perhaps overcooked but nutritionally sound, I was surprised to find fairly early on in my teaching that a canteen junk food culture had taken over.
In the early 1970s, staff and children sat...
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Trailblazing at the New College of the Humanities
Wednesday 8 June 2011
Categories: Careers, Education, Higher Education
When Anthony Grayling spoke to the senior students at St Paul’s recently, offering them an effortless, witty, note-free guided tour of the history of Western philosophy in slightly under 35 minutes, it was clear that here was someone supremely in command of his subject. The rapt attention of his audience also reflected his instinctive gift for the kind of communication that works for intelligent 17-year-olds, albeit of the hands-free, information-rich generation, afloat on a largely...
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The problem isn't little girls, it's adult ones
Monday 6 June 2011
Categories: Growing up, Media Influence, Parenting, Role Models
Libby Purves’ response (The Times, 6.06.11) to the Mothers’ Union report on curbing the sexualisation of children hits the nail on the head.
This IS an issue for girls and their mothers, and for most, the measures in this government-commissioned report ARE like bolting the stable door after the horse is bolted. It’s almost impossible for girls – and little girls at that – not to be negatively preoccupied by self-image. They are surrounded by loud hailers proclaiming they must...