Men more suited to science
- More men than women have the mental ability to excel in science,” said Mrs MK McQuillan, president of the Association for Science Education. “I do not believe, as Women’s Lib seem to, that were it not for early training and conditioning, the women’s population would have the same distribution of mental characteristics as the men’s.” Men had a more “natural inclination towards the ... mental processes involved in science”, but that did not mean “anyone should be allowed to get away with the general statement that women are no good at science”.
Research by teachers key to change
- A London conference has discussed the feasibility of teachers doing educational research instead of relying on professional researchers. Organisers said research had very little effect on what happens in the classroom and mostly served the the status quo.
Call for TV education channel
- The National Secular Society wants a fourth TV channel devoted to education, paid for by the Department for Education. It should be free from ratings pressures and devoted to an expanded OU and schools broadcasts. A booklet congratulates the BBC on sex education programmes for 8-9s, which it “pursued despite the protests of the prudes”.
Discipline and long hair ‘irrelevant’
- Long hair, smoking, uniforms and discipline are irrelevant when pupils decide whether to stay at school or move to FE colleges, Fred Flower, principal of Kingsway College, told the NUT national conference. If schools were liberalised, smoking permitted, and uniforms ditched, the exodus would continue. The real factors were freedom of choice in the curriculum and the right to be treated as mature human beings.
Teachers stay in Uganda
- Despite an uneasy political situation and the British government opting not to continue supplementing salaries when contracts expire, only a few of the 600 British teachers in Uganda have returned home. All are in secondaries. The primaries are run by Ugandans. In November, there were 100 British university lecturers in Uganda.
