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Tony Little was The Head Master of Eton for 13 years. One of the most progressive and imaginative people in British education today he has hitherto kept a low profile. This book, published to coincide with his retirement, sets out his educational fundamentals.
There is a crisis in the British education system. Year on year GCSE and A Level pupils post better exam results, with more students achieving top grades. Yet business leaders and employers complain bitterly that our schools are not producing people fit for purpose. Far from being locked in an ivory tower, a bastion of privilege, Mr Little has used his time as a teacher and headmaster to get to grips with fundamental questions concerning education. He wants to produce people fit to work in the modern world. How do children absorb information? What kind of people does society need? What is education for? Not only is the author one of the great reforming headmasters of our time but he has planted Academies in the East end of London, founded a state boarding school near Windsor and yet is a passionate advocate of single-sex schools.
This book is not a textbook for colleges of education - it is a book to enlighten the teaching profession and just as much for anxious parents. The book is simply arranged under topics such as authority, expectations, progress, self-confidence, sex, crises and creativity.
Tony Little thinks it is time to ask some fundamental questions and to make brave decisions about how we make our schools and our schoolchildren fit for purpose.