The Richard Gerver Blog

I am sat in the Marriott O’Hare Hotel about half a mie from the airport…this is my third day! I am luckier than many as I have a room and a seat on a possible flight home on Wednesday…the strange thing is that I have been away from my wife and kids for longer but because I have no real idea as to when this no fly thing is going to be lifted I miss them dreadfully. I am also devastated because I may miss my speech at the first of the RM Strategic conferences in Bristol on Thursday morning and to all at RM and at Speakers For Business, I am really sorry. I guess we all need to look up into the skies and blow! I am here because on Friday, I spoke in Cleveland at an event for High School teachers run by the Knowledge Works Foundation; it was a real privilege to meet so many people working so hard for the rights of underprivileged kids in Ohio. It was an amazingly positive event and not a cynic in sight! I met many amazing teachers, who had extraordinary stories to tell; apparently Ohio is the home of GLEE…well now I know why!

As part of the Government ‘wash up’ of bills before the election, the Rose Review proposals re. primary curriculum reform have been dropped…It is really important that schools don’t see this as a set back! They must continue to develop their curricula and the fantastic work that has been done to create dynamic and powerful learning designed to prepare our children for the 21st Century…As a profession, educators must seize the initiative created by the vacuum of an election campaign and demonstrate to all politicians, on all sides, that education, like medicine, needs to be developed outside of political intervention in order to ensure that children are educated for the future and not for the benefit of short term political opinion.