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well done charlie from Lewes !

On 12 Jan 2011 at 11:26pm Brixtonbelle wrote:

Charlie from Lewes - who is he ? - takes on Michael Gove on 5Live. He deserves a herogramme !
A great exchange and Gove shows his slimy politicians way by not answering Charlie's questions and deliberately misinterpreting the answers.
Listen here hxxp://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00d7gfn
Seems Gove is not popular - Standard diary reports someone walking up to him in a bookshop and calling him a 'w@nker' to his face. Twice.

On 13 Jan 2011 at 12:13am wallander wrote:

Charlie just sounded like an incoherent hippy to me. Britain is falling behind in education and science is one area where we need to improve. English,Maths,Science and Engineering and modern languages are hard for many of us but that is no reason to neglect them.

On 13 Jan 2011 at 8:10am banjulali wrote:

to be honest i think they both came across lacking credibility. of course maths, science and languages are far more valuable and important to master that art and music. charlie comes across as a bit of a middle class twerp and gove a pompous and objectionable bafoon!
not much hope for the country

On 13 Jan 2011 at 9:25am Betting man wrote:

If he came across as a middle class twerp then ten pounds says it was Charlie Dobres, one of the media darlings who "runs" Lewes New School and part of the team that took over the football club. He's a nice enough guy but his ideas often aren't too relevant in the real world. I think he has something to do with those Transition Town idiots too but I might be wrong about that.

On 13 Jan 2011 at 11:56am MC wrote:

I thought the points Charlie made were quite valid (middle class twerp or not). I think he said:

1) That government ought to trust schools and teachers to decide what's best for the children they are educating and not micro-manage education in the way that they are attempting to do.
2) That kids ought to be helped to blossom and their natural talents and inclinations encouraged rather than force-feeding them *all* with the same small proscribed portfolio of subjects. He made the point that Mozart was hopeless at maths.

The odious Michael Gove deliberately misrepresented Charlie's comments when he said at the end of the interview "the last caller thought that education should be left entirely to chance". It was obvious to anyone who listened that Charlie was not saying that.

I find it hard to believe that anyone could think that Gove, a man who has no experience of state education, (and who has hardly even mixed with your average non-privileged human beings), was a member of The exclusive rich-boy Bullingdon Club and who was educated exclusively at very expensive private establishments could have any idea at all how to run our education system. Sheer madness. He needs to go.

On 13 Jan 2011 at 2:18pm wallander wrote:

In fact Gove started in a state school and won a free scholarship to a highly regarded independent school. From there he won a place at Oxford. He is not from an especially wealthy background. He is an example of the meritocratic rise of highly industrious individuals. Educational romanticism is the main reason Britain has slipped so far in the world rankings for childrens achievement. The truth is highly productive and educated children are just as creative as those of hippy parents who are obsessed with their childrens self-esteem.
"Don't ruin your childrens lives by making them easy"

On 13 Jan 2011 at 3:05pm MC wrote:

I stand very corrected. Should check my facts before mouthing off.

On 13 Jan 2011 at 5:28pm rosebud wrote:

I heard the "discussion" live and have to admit that I relished hearing the "patronising" tory minister squirming so readily . It seemed to me that he had no answers to the pertinent points made by Charlie, deliberately misinterpreting virtually everything he said. And I thought everything he said was fairly straightforward, The educational backgrounds of the "interlocutors" is irrelevant. The fact is that Michael Gove is an idiot who was seriously discomfited by the occasion and should have learnt a lesson from history- never argue with a member of the public,in public ,who is more passionate/ intelligent than you. Look how Thatcher, Blair and Brown came a cropper ! This to me is on a par and we should applaud Charlie and give him an encore.