Product reviews for Think Before You Teach

I have just finished Martin Illingworth's excellent -˜Think Before You Teach'. If you are in education or thinking of entering it then IT IS A MUST READ! As a teacher it has made me want to return to school on Monday morning and tear down those metaphorical curtains and let the light in, release the data-monkey back in the wild and teach without fear. It has made me realise that English education needs fundamental change, that I want to be part of that change and I want that process to start now! Martin's book is warm and funny, yet it's also a very poignant assessment of the chaos that is the current English education system with Ofsted, academies, data, teaching training amongst many others coming under Martin's very clear, critical eye. He hones in on the highly politicised decisions that have taken education away from teaching and learning (surely its core purpose) in the shape of marketization, privatisation and caustic competition that has left English education on the verge of collapse. Martin is the type of educator that the profession needs more than ever yet people like him are sadly becoming rarer and rarer due to the atomisation of schools, ill-conceived teacher-training, the formulaic and restrictive nature of what constitutes -˜good teaching' and the fact that many good teachers are leaving the profession. This is a call to arms and Martin is at the forefront of the movement, for the sake of education join him.