Bookbound

31st January 1997, 12:00am

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Bookbound

https://www.tes.com/magazine/archive/bookbound
As one of those teachers John Stannard has met - orbited might be a better description - on a national literacy training course (TES, January 17), I think he is making a plausible claim when he says there is no hidden agenda behind the project.

Certainly not, that is, for teachers with a modicum of perspicacity; we see any agenda all too clearly.

There are, however, teachers who do not possess this modicum and for them, and perhaps for John Stannard too, the agenda behind the project is hidden.

Such teachers are regarded as technicians and treated accordingly (attend an NLP training course and you’ll see what I mean).

For these teachers, the NLP is like being bound in a straitjacket that allows them the freedom to flap their hands busily and then praises them on the autonomy of their movement.

Those of us who have as yet avoided such constrictions, who still believe teaching is a creative enterprise (though no less rigorous for that), will never be charmed into thinking such movement constitutes anything but technician status.

JOHN STRINGER Stepping Stones Chyngton Road Seaford, East Sussex

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