Perfect vacuum

Published on 07/12/2012 00:00

Graham Leicester wrote an 
article in your paper claiming that we need “butterfly thinking” (Perspective, 6 December).

Unfortunately, butterflies are not known for the profundity of their thoughts, and nor, it would seem, is Mr Leicester, whose article consists of nothing but to repeat 16 or 17 times over the claim that we need to “transform education”.

He does not say why, how, for what purpose, or in what way.

He utters not a single word about what these alleged “radical changes”, “skills for learning and life”, “transformative innovations”, “visionary, aspirational, inspirational, butterfly thinking”, “genuinely transformed practices”, “culture changes”, etc might actually be.

Instead, he repeats such phrases endlessly, over six columns. His article is a perfect vacuum.

There is no mention of any actual real skills, such as English, foreign languages, science, maths, history or geography. Just what on earth or in heaven is Graham Leicester on about? It’s all smoke and mirrors.

Graham Dunstan Martin

Mayfield Terrace

Edinburgh