15 Years (and more) of Blogging
January 2, 2022Back in October, I reached the 15th anniversary of this blog (if not this particular address for it). Unfortunately, I’d got out of the blogging habit before then and didn’t really notice. As well as my usual tendency to forget about blogging for months at a time., there’s probably been a decline in teacher blogging in general which has made it seem less important than, say, tweeting about education. This is probably a shame; Twitter gets repetitive and you end up engaging with the least thoughtful responses to anything you say. So I am intending, once again, to get back to regular blogging.
Until I do though, here’s a quick reminder of what I posted about in my 15th year of blogging.
Exclusions
- The latest Guardian article on exclusions
- Another myth about exclusions
- When “Antiracists” don’t care about racism and how it affects the debate about exclusions
- How misleading was today’s Guardian article on exclusions?
Books
- Book Review: Running The Room by Tom Bennett
- Book Review: Why Teach? by Ben Newmark
- Book Review: The Truth About Teaching by Greg Ashman
- Book Review: The researchED Guide to Explicit and Direct Instruction. Edited by Adam Boxer
- Book Review: The Great Exception By Ian Stock
Sexual Assault in Schools
- Are campaigners against exclusions willing to tolerate sexual assault in schools?
- Guest Post: Sexual assault, or why my school will never really be “good”.
Fads
Some of that already seems to be out of date. Compared with a year ago, I’m seeing far fewer people promoting strange ideas about attachment and far more people aware that so-called “Anti-Racism” training is often indoctrination and activism.
Exclusions, however, remain acutely contentious. The media, politicians and educationalists seem desperate to blame schools for social problems. Worse, many think the answer is to force a return to the 00s when a failure to exclude made schools dangerous places and whistleblowers like Angela Mason and Alex Doran were being banned from teaching for exposing what was going on. We shall see whether this continues. I hope the media will become bored with non-teachers claiming young drug dealers and sex offenders can be rendered harmless by progressive teaching methods, SEND interventions and being allowed to get way with it.
As ever, thanks to Gwen for her support with everything, particularly with the blog.
Scenes From The Battleground 
I too have noticed the decline in teacher blogging (not least my own – though due to very specific circumstances…) But I suspect we may be reaching a more sustainable position. Back then, the advent of teacher blogging burst a dam of pent up comment, feeling and even resentment, which has probably now flushed itself through. Not least, your contributions probably stimulated and fuelled it, and your own lesser activity probably also has had an equal impact. None of which is to diminish either your own role, or that of blogging in general. There is still much that needs to be talked about. One point of repeated surprise to me is the large number of teachers I encounter who have still never heard of edu-blogging. Maybe this is the next mountain to climb? ATB.
Hi Andrew, What you say about blogging certainly resonates with me. After being inspired by you to fight the good fight for high-quality phonics teaching, I’ve been blogging for about thirteen years and it does take quite an effort sometimes to sustain.
So, it’s great to see that you’re back in business and I’m sure we all look forward to reading your thoughts.
Best wishes for the new year. John