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by: Melanie Phillips  List Price: $18.60 Price: $12.02 You Save: $6.58 (35%)Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Dewey Decimal Number: 370 EAN: 9780751522747 ISBN: 0751522740 Label: Time Warner Paperbacks Manufacturer: Time Warner Paperbacks Number Of Pages: 395 Publication Date: February 05, 1998 Publisher: Time Warner Paperbacks Studio: Time Warner Paperbacks Related Items:
Browse for similar items by category: Click to Display Editorial Review: Product Description: British Education is in a state of meltdown. Throughout the system, from nursery classes to degree courses, the relationship between teacher and pupil has been undermined, and the idea that children should be taught a body of rules at all, whether in maths or grammar, is now taboo in many schools. Systematic instruction has given way to approximations and guesswork. The result is a rising tide of illiteracy. Melanie Phillips' devastating book is the inside story of a social debacle. But the collapse of education is not viewed in isolation. At the heart of the problem lies cultural and moral relativism, the doctrine that no values can be judged to be any better or worse than any other. The primary effect, particularly in the last twenty years, is the collapse of the authority of the institutions. Melanie Phillips sounds a warning and offers a blueprint to restore authority and meaning to society. Average Rating:
 Rating:  - Nothing original under the sunMelanie Phillips is right about a lot of things: the culture of egalitarian equal outcomes of state education in Britain has blighted the lives of a generation, afflicting pupils of all abilities (undoubtedly - ever since Anthony Crossland declared he wanted to 'destroy ever f**king grammar school in England'). Family breakdown causes emotional disturbance in children and adults (er, with you there Mel). Pupils need to learn proper grammar usage in order to read and write and speak properly (of course). ... Read More Rating:  - Very one-sided but scores a lot of direct hitsThis trenchant 1996 polemic against the modern style of education in Britain is one of the most one-sided books I have ever read. But that does not mean it can be ignored. Obviously the detailed examples relate to Britain and not to other countries such as the USA. However, fashions in ideas, and teaching methods, can and do cross the Atlantic in both directions and the arguments debated in the book are likely to be relevant in many parts of the world. I have to start ... Read More Rating:  - Melanie Phillips Upsets BigotsShouldn't one actually say why, one thinks someone's book is "rubbish", rather than just "expressing one's sentiments. I have yet to read Melanie Phillips book but I did hear her interviewed on radio and she was rational, reasoned and fairminded in her criticisms of the abandonment of standards in contemporary schooling. I'd give Phillips and open minded read. Rating:  - What IS this woman talking about?More nonsense from Ms Phillips, who seems to like pontificating in ignorance. Perhaps it's because people buy her rubbish. Or at least people abroad do. In Britain, of course, we KNOW it bears no relation to reality. As for the other reviewers, well, Whitepride's very name says it all. Rating: - Deserves Greater Attention in the U.S.A.Melanie Phillips is an eloquent writer, one of the best essayists in Anglosphere journalism. In the U.K. she is truly the voice of one crying in the wilderness. She documents the bizarre dissolution of the British education system, to the point of utter collapse. Ms. Phillips explains that the teaching of English language skills has been virtually derailed in the U.K. Firstly, the idea that students should be required to actually learn the internal rules of a language has been absurdly politicized. ... Read More 
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