Good Idea
The education secretary in the Westminster goverment - Michale Gove - has floated a wild idea - that every child in England and wales aged five or over should learn a foreign language.
On the eve of the Conservative conference in Manchester - Michael Gove told the Guardian that almost every other advanced country teaches a foreign language from that age.
So why shouldn't the UK set itself the same target?
Why not indeed.
Because the UK is well behind every other European country that I can think of - and speaking another language makes people just so much more employable.
Particularly if they want to travel and see a bit of the world.
I can hear the teaching unions getting their defences ready now - 101 reasons for pouring cold water on the subject - and making sure that nothing changes.
Not least because Michael Gove has opined that one of the problems to overcome is that children are not in school long enough during the day - or during the school year.
The unions will argue that it's impossbile to achieve without a 'zillion' extra teachers - and of course that the school day and school year should remain sacrosanct - and exactly as they are now.
Yet Michael Gove has pointed out that some schools in deprived areas are already teaching five-year-olds Spanish - and that should be possible to replicate this nationwide.
So let's hear more Mr Gove - examples of good practice and innovative thinking from other parts of the country.
Good ideas about teaching deserve the widest possible discussion - and not just amongst teachers - since their contribution to the debate is likely to revolve around the length of the school week - and how many weeks they teach in a school year.
On the eve of the Conservative conference in Manchester - Michael Gove told the Guardian that almost every other advanced country teaches a foreign language from that age.
So why shouldn't the UK set itself the same target?
Why not indeed.
Because the UK is well behind every other European country that I can think of - and speaking another language makes people just so much more employable.
Particularly if they want to travel and see a bit of the world.
I can hear the teaching unions getting their defences ready now - 101 reasons for pouring cold water on the subject - and making sure that nothing changes.
Not least because Michael Gove has opined that one of the problems to overcome is that children are not in school long enough during the day - or during the school year.
The unions will argue that it's impossbile to achieve without a 'zillion' extra teachers - and of course that the school day and school year should remain sacrosanct - and exactly as they are now.
Yet Michael Gove has pointed out that some schools in deprived areas are already teaching five-year-olds Spanish - and that should be possible to replicate this nationwide.
So let's hear more Mr Gove - examples of good practice and innovative thinking from other parts of the country.
Good ideas about teaching deserve the widest possible discussion - and not just amongst teachers - since their contribution to the debate is likely to revolve around the length of the school week - and how many weeks they teach in a school year.
