As someone trying to set up a school, I’ve been doing a bit of research into different pedagogic philosophies. What’s the most effective way to teach child-ren, particularly if they’re not that interested to begin with? Should we embrace an old-fashioned approach, with masters standing in front of blackboards reciting Latin verbs? Or a ‘personalised learning programme’ in which children acquire ‘skills’?
People on both sides of the argument can point to successful examples. For instance, Maple Walk in Harlesden, one of the schools set up by Civitas, is conservative with a small ‘c’, favouring traditional pedagogy, and has proved a huge success. Kunskapsskolan, by contrast, the most prominent of the Swedish ‘free school’ companies, believes in tailoring the curriculum to suit the child and boasts results that are 15 per cent higher than the Swedish average. Until recently, I was inclined towards the Maple Walk philosophy, but the experience of trying to help my four-year-old son learn how to read has given me pause for thought. Ludo is being taught using a method called ‘synthetic phonics’, a traditional, back-to-basics technique that all primary schools have been forced to adopt since 2006. My six-year-old daughter responded well to this approach, but Ludo is struggling.
He has particular difficulty with irregular or ‘tricky’ words like ‘was’, ‘have’ and ‘the’. He will sound out the individual letters and puzzle away at them for a good five minutes before he recognises the word in question. Then he’ll turn the page, encounter the same word again and start the whole process anew, as if seeing it for the first time. ‘But Ludo,’ I’ll protest, ‘we just had this word.’ I’ll then turn to the previous page and point it out. His response is to stare at it with bafflement for a few seconds and then start sounding out the letters again: ‘Ttt… hhh… eee…’ If Terry Pratchett is serious about assisted suicide, he should volunteer to read with Ludo.
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