Educating Ruby: What Our Children Really Need to Learn

by Guy Claxton, Bill Lucas

With forewords by Professor Tanya Byron and Octavius Black, Educating What Our Children Really Need To Learn is a powerful call to action by acclaimed thought-leaders Guy Claxton and Bill Lucas. It is for everyone who cares about education in an uncertain world and explains how teachers, parents and grandparents can cultivate confidence, curiosity, collaboration, communication, creativity, commitment and craftsmanship in children, at the same time as helping them to do well in public examinations. Educating Ruby shows, unequivocally, that schools can get the right results in the right way, so that the Rubys of tomorrow will emerge from their time at school able to talk with honest pleasure and reflective optimism about their schooling. Featuring the views of schoolchildren, parents, educators and employers and drawing on Guy Claxton and Bill Lucas' years of experience in education, including their work with Building Learning Power and the Expansive Education Network, this powerful new book is sure to provoke thinking and debate. Just as Willy Russell's Educating Rita helped us rethink university, the authors of Educating Ruby invite fresh scrutiny of our schools.

Genres: Education, Nonfiction, Teaching, Parenting

224 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 7, 2015

About the author

Guy Claxton is Emeritus Professor of the Learning Sciences at the University of Winchester. His many publications include Hare Brain, Tortoise Mind: Why Intelligence Increases When You Think Less. He lives in the UK.

Reviews

[Alex · Rating 2 out of 5]

Despite being a firm supporter and advocate for the principles discussed in this book I was severely disappointed. From two well known academics I expected sensible justified writing. Instead I got a prejudiced and bigoted opinion piece. The text swung from being down-right patronising and insulting to the thousands who work hard every day in schools, to suggestions that were unbelievably out of touch with reality. It was a shame really as I think their fundamental message is absolutely spot on, but the tone and polemic of the book was so far off the mark it simply detracts from what they're trying to accomplish.
Significantly disappointed.

[Emil Gigov · Rating 3 out of 5]

I heard about this book from several sources and was intrigued to read it. However, I found it disappointing. Many of the ideas are not new, a large part is dedicated to criticising the current system and its defenders and the language is quite irritating at times. What the book doesn’t even touch on is the key issue that teachers as a whole are reluctant to change, are not good learners themselves and prefer not to be challenged. I’m not saying all are like that, but a sizeable majority and this makes any change very hard to implement.

[Doog · Rating 2 out of 5]

The authors have said all these things before and have written about those ideas in a far more interesting manner in the past. Miss this book and read something from their back catalogue. Disappointing and that is coming from someone who agrees with many of the things they say.

[Jackie Becher · Rating 3 out of 5]

A basic introduction to 21st and inquiry based learning.

A good overview with student comments through out about why our education system needs to change.

[Ivan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm sure this book resonates with many people but here in Australia, as someone with a few years doing primary teaching, I just found it rather irritating. Perhaps in Britain the schools are absolutely filled with unhappy children with clinical anxiety, depression and self-harm issues, but I don't think it's fair to paint our schools like that. I'm 100% not disputing that these are real issues and are found in young children and adolescents, but I'm not convinced our school system here creates massive, widespread problems like these.

I'll admit I only read half the book, the library wanted it back and I didn't really want to finish it. An example of one thing that got up my nose was a section on "Trads" vs "Mods". The Trads only value Maths and English, while the Mods have a much more nuanced view of the world. The Trads put down anything that isn't classical, while the Mods understand that children also need to learn resilience and social skills. And then they decide that Trads like to create straw men arguments to discount Mods! Talk about pot calling the kettle black! They claim Trads don't like to actually visit schools because what they find doesn't match with their thinking. At that point I lost interest in this diatribe.

I grant you, if you attended a school with a very old school way of looking at education, and you were more of an artist than a mathematician, you may read this book and "yes, that's exactly right!" but this view of the world was not my experience in school as a student or a teacher. The book tries to paint everything as black and white, which I thought really undercut their own argument.

[Lesley-Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this book and the questions it raised.

[Maggie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found the book an interesting overview of many of their past work and ideas which stimulated me to revisit much of the research and read 'Building Learning Power'. As an educationalist I found that the book was aimed much more at parents or a more 'generally interested' audience rather than teachers as many of the ideas were familiar. However it was a good and readable overview and I particularly found the links after each chapter useful for additional research and thinking. Helpful in understanding the power of being allowed to learn from mistakes- the media perception of 'banning rubbers in the classroom' is all explained. Thank you

[A · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book but wanted to shout at it at the same time.
So many things ring true and make sense, just a shame that those in power are less than willing (or so it seems) to even entertain the ideas in this book.

I would say it is a perfect book for parents and does have many references to further reading, which is something that left me a bit hanging at times as I would have liked more information there and then, but ultimately, that is not what the book is about.

[Lynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lots of ideas I have been toying with for a while explained simply and lots of food for thought with regards to school policy, teaching and learning styles and commentary on teaching children to be people, with values and skills. Well worth a read for parents or teachers.

[Rachel Burton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Whether you are a teacher or not, a parent or not, everyone should read this. Amongst many other things it made me realise why I was considered dumb at school even though I'm not and why we need to open up other ways of learning.

[Juliette Philogene · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book. I had lost faith into teaching and its system, whether education had the right motive and current purpose. This book has given me resources to go on about researching the developments in education around the UK and other parts of the world, and it has inspired me in my teaching.