News & Opinion - March 2010

Tim Turner of Hathersage-based Blue Deer, a property development company, is putting his money where his mouth is in setting up a brand new business.

Turner's unique idea is to set up a new floristry business in one of his unit's at the new retail development at 131 Chatsworth Road, Chesterfield, which his company developed.  He will be looking to recruit an experienced florist to run the business and then after 12 months, if the venture is a success, he will hand the keys over to the employee, who will take on the business.

In a deal that to some will appear to be too good to be true, the new employee will not have to put one penny of their own money into the company. Once they take on the business they will simply pay a slightly increased annual rental for Turner's company to recoup the set-up costs.

With the banks still allergic to lending money to new businesses, Turner's unique business model could well start to set the agenda for budding entrepreneurs who simply lack the cash to get a new business off the ground.

The new business is set to open early May.

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 As someone who grew up in the 1970s I was part of the generation of school children that were still being taught using a method that today is now considered quite unfashionable: learning by rote.

The broad definition is that it is learning without understanding, but that belittles the power of the technique.  We all essentially learn to speak by rote.  Our parents repeating words over and over again until they eventually become second nature.  In those households where parents don't speak to their children, it is now accepted, that they are at a disadvantage in the literacy stakes.

From the 1970s, however, new ideas were starting to filter into the classroom; educationalists (people often with little or no classroom experience) were starting to meddle in the curriculum and education itself became politicised.  Out went reptitive rote learning and in came group learning where children were encouraged to explore problems rather than simply learning facts, figures and dates.

But, and there is a "but", educational standards are falling with illiteracy and innumeracy on the increase, especially so it seems, for children from deprived backgrounds where there is little parental support once the child leaves the classroom. 

Rote learning might not be the most stimulating way to learn and should not be the only way our children are taught, but when I can remember with absolute clarity the table of French possessive adjectives (his, her, yours and so on) after 30 years then you cannot deny the power that this method has.  What if you don't want to speak French, isn't that learned information useless?  In my case it is very useful as I am picking up my French tuition, which I left behind at 13 (languages by then were not compulsory) and it certainly comes in handy as my boys are also learning French.

If we look at the broader issues, such as English and Maths -- the building blocks of all learning -- we need to get our children to know certain things without question: the way we spell, the way grammar works and the way to work out equations.  We can't let such important areas be left for children to explore at their leisure.

If we want to increase base levels of knowledge then we ignore rote learning at our collective peril.  We need to stop reducing learning to the lowest common denominator and stop worrying that our children might find something boring.  Some things are boring but essential, but until we stop pandering to childish whims we will see educational standards fall further.

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