A Little Learning: Broodings from the Back of the Class

by Libby Purves

This lively selection brings together journalist and broadcaster Libby Purves’ experiences as journalist, parent, governor and former pupil of half a dozen assorted schools from Bangkok to Tunbridge Wells, displaying her eclectic and provocative opinions and ideas on teaching and learning. This collection of the best of her writing in the Times Educational Supplement covers - sometimes thoughtfully, sometimes mockingly - everything from national policy to the eccentricities of headteachers and the limitations of IT. Education professionals over the years have received her outsider view with enthusiasm, laughter, inspiration and occasional fury. From ministerial madness to the pitfalls of uniform and the vagaries of teenagers, this book is dedicated to the amusement of a cadre of professionals Libby once planned to join, until she lost her nerve. It is dedicated, with thanks and admiration, to all teachers.

258 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 1, 2007

About the author

Libby Purves is a journalist and author who has been writing for The Times since 1982. A previous columnist of the year and author of 12 novels and non-fiction books, she was for 40 years a BBC Radio 4 broadcaster after becoming the Today programme’s first woman and youngest presenter.

Reviews

[Rose]

Selected quotes:

"Staggering into the staffroom with a skirtful of poster-paints and alien snot, the front-line guerilla swigs back her coffee, raids the school secretary's Jaffa Cakes, tips a pile of DFEE leaflets off the comfy chair, and reflects that, phew, so far all seems to be going OK with the 30 new moppets inherited from Year 1."

"Indeed, I once managed to flirt all evening with an Austrian postman, though it later turned out that he thought we were discussing Princess Diana."

"Don't get me wrong: I like schools...Even at their worst, they are usually better than watching MTV."

"Well, this is why one loves headmasters so much. At their best, they relieve their solid humdrum virtues with a rich vein of lunacy rarely achieved by headmistresses."