ABSTRACT

This lively selection brings together journalist and broadcaster Libby Purves’ experiences as journalist, parent, governor and former pupil of half a dozen assorted schools from Bangkok to Tunbridge Wells, displaying her eclectic and provocative opinions and ideas on teaching and learning. This collection of the best of her writing in the Times Educational Supplement covers - sometimes thoughtfully, sometimes mockingly - everything from national policy to the eccentricities of headteachers and the limitations of IT.

Education professionals over the years have received her outsider view with enthusiasm, laughter, inspiration and occasional fury. From ministerial madness to the pitfalls of uniform and the vagaries of teenagers, this book is dedicated to the amusement of a cadre of professionals Libby once planned to join, until she lost her nerve. It is dedicated, with thanks and admiration, to all teachers.

chapter |4 pages

Introduction

chapter |3 pages

Like a red rag

chapter |2 pages

In praise of The Beano

chapter |2 pages

Lessons for leaders

chapter |3 pages

Shocked by staff rooms

chapter |2 pages

Correction!

chapter |2 pages

Teachers are tribes too

chapter |2 pages

Homework fails the test

chapter |3 pages

Freddie hates nice Miss Horrid

chapter |2 pages

Sitting at the back, with raffia

chapter |2 pages

Thoughts for worms on the turn

chapter |2 pages

Oh Sir, you are a card

chapter |2 pages

Unforgettable

chapter |2 pages

Just another page in the cat-tray

chapter |2 pages

A new regime

chapter |2 pages

Big Brother Miss

chapter |2 pages

Bring in the handymen

chapter |4 pages

Ahead by a sweaty foot

chapter |1 pages

Do ya think I’m sexy?

chapter |3 pages

Get dressed for battle

chapter |2 pages

Odes to chalk and chickens

chapter |2 pages

Everybody’s doing it except us

chapter |3 pages

Grown-ups’ rules . . . ok!

chapter |3 pages

Farewell, my innocent love

chapter |2 pages

A kick in the pants

chapter |2 pages

Please sir, are you gay?

chapter |1 pages

Curriculum, curricula. . . .

chapter |2 pages

My essay’s in cyberspace, miss

chapter |2 pages

Hysteria and cakes

chapter |3 pages

Broad and unbalanced

chapter |3 pages

How not to go to university

chapter |2 pages

The bell won’t ring on Friday

chapter |2 pages

Top marks for sale

chapter |3 pages

Becky’s ad break

chapter |2 pages

Don’t be a Jubilee sourpuss

chapter |2 pages

Browned off

chapter |3 pages

A floating fantasy

chapter |2 pages

In praise of clockwork

chapter |2 pages

Don’t be the best

chapter |2 pages

Release your hidden Miss Jones

chapter |2 pages

Essays-r-us

chapter |3 pages

Old enough to know better

chapter |1 pages

Mens sana in corpore sano

chapter |2 pages

Much virtue in a jumper

chapter |2 pages

Locker-room scandal

chapter |2 pages

We are the losers

chapter |3 pages

Why winners need the rest of us

chapter |3 pages

Teenage inscrutability

chapter |2 pages

Fat is fine

chapter |3 pages

Motivation and the mottled thigh

chapter |3 pages

Media messages

chapter |2 pages

The UNI image

chapter |2 pages

The monster spoke

chapter |3 pages

The humiliation game

chapter |2 pages

Something in the disinfectant

chapter |2 pages

Dumbing up

chapter |2 pages

Let Bridget be a lesson to you

chapter 1950|2 pages

was hell – official

chapter |2 pages

Child labour no fairytale

chapter |2 pages

Word on The Street

chapter |2 pages

Sassy Fanny

chapter |1 pages

Ministerial madnesses

chapter |2 pages

All going on a summer holiday

chapter |2 pages

Hogwarts’ horrors

chapter |3 pages

Tories on the turn

chapter |2 pages

An ideal infant

chapter I|2 pages

’ma celebrity, get me a child

chapter |2 pages

Creative about crime

chapter |1 pages

Inspiration

chapter |3 pages

A Schools’ best friend

chapter |2 pages

The barmy babes

chapter |3 pages

St. Crookbacks

chapter |2 pages

The Pedants’ Revolt

chapter |2 pages

Down on the farm

chapter |2 pages

Groundhog days

chapter |2 pages

Ars Longa

chapter |3 pages

Engage brain and gossip

chapter |2 pages

Clothes remaketh man

chapter |2 pages

Still crazy for plays

chapter |2 pages

Right on, Cinders

chapter |3 pages

Sing a song of citizenship

chapter |2 pages

But can you bury a dead sheep?

chapter |2 pages

Work ethic

chapter |2 pages

Fuel for school

chapter |2 pages

Triumph of the teenager

chapter |2 pages

Not in front of the men . . .

chapter |2 pages

Fake work

chapter |2 pages

Parlez-vous?

chapter |3 pages

Right angle on salvation

chapter |1 pages

Times of transition

chapter |2 pages

All things end

chapter |2 pages

Prize day torment

chapter |3 pages

A revisionist view

chapter |2 pages

Waiting for Magwitch

chapter |2 pages

A cure for heartache

chapter |1 pages

University blues

chapter |2 pages

Puppets find new master

chapter |3 pages

Nobody likes a smart-arse

chapter |2 pages

Several degrees below par

chapter |2 pages

Hurrah for the Hildabeestes

chapter |2 pages

University rage

chapter |2 pages

Topping up teenage misery

chapter |2 pages

Virgin on the ridiculous

chapter |2 pages

Lessons in failure

chapter |1 pages

The wilder shores

chapter |3 pages

Scooter panic

chapter |2 pages

Justice shines on Summerhill

chapter |3 pages

Our schools are no refuge

chapter |2 pages

Put them in overalls

chapter |2 pages

Go to school or your mum gets it

chapter |2 pages

Blame the parents

chapter |2 pages

Empty nest? Grab a bottle!