Articles by John Abbott

A Review of Pandora’s Seed: The Unforeseen Cost of Civilisation, by Spencer Wells, and some cross-referencing to The Watchman’s Rattle: thinking Our Way Out of ... Read on

The publication of Diane Ravitch’s “The Death and Life of the Great American School System” might not immediately appeal to an English readership, but its ... Read on

Q and A from a public meeting held on 9th July, 2010, concerning St. Mark’s School in Larkhall.

Since the Public Meeting on the 9th July I have been asked many questions about the significance in the changes in the adolescent brain. I am now putting up four Papers on Adolescence from our archives

Stop the world, has been the age-long plea, I want to get off.

The Review of Secondary Schools made by BANES can easily remind the reader of the proverbial Irishman who, having been asked how to get to a particular location replied “Ah, if that’s where you want to get to, then I wouldn’t start from here!”

Being back in Manchester for the Iran Reunion stimulated many thoughts especially as I had been invited to address the Sixth Form of Withington Girls’ School. Withington has consistently achieved the best A-Level results for girls in this country…

It’s not simply on bad days that we feel we are running too fast; even when things are going well we just don’t have enough time to think.

“The biggest shake-up of education since the 1944 Education Act” proclaims the media while Mr Gove loses no opportunity to explain that this will revitalise the economy and strengthen individuals to accept greater responsibility for themselves. We live, he and the Prime Minister tell us in most difficult times.

Apprenticeship is back in the news. What England needs, Vince Cable the new Business Secretary said on The Today Programme, is many more apprentices… men and women whose studies combine the theoretical with the applied.