Are you a 'progressive'?

Are you “a progressive”? Let’s hope not. I was one for yonks. Where did it get me? Nowhere. Genteel poverty at best. We don’t want that kind of thing, not in our modern classrooms. “Progressive” for politicians is only pejorative, like “liberal” for Tea Party Republicans. The subtext suggests a whiff of the permissive, the loony, the louche, the left, metrosexuality, Marxism, moisturiser – all concomitant on a general lack of rigour.

Right thinking types are keen to trot out this dog whistle word – like Nick Gibb, present Tory MP for Bognor Regis and former charted accountant and schools minister. Nick is not a man to allow a comprehensive inexperience of the classroom to obviate his copper bolt certainties. Only last week he opined that “progressive” can lead to “child-centred education”. Surely not a bad place to start? Apparently not. It can lead to “play-based” classrooms. Enjoyment. Creativity. He’s had an ample sufficiency of that kind of thing. He goes on. There’s only one thing worse than “progressive” teachers. What, pray?