Just a short one for the end of the working day. It seems as though there is a shortage of Physics teachers in the country. I wonder why this is exactly...hmmmm. It couldn't possibly be to do with the fact that this country keeps cutting funding to the bloody subject is it?

Maybe this is what Harriet Harman's bill will really be for, to ensure that we can avoid the looming crunch on science ability in this country by filling up physics teachers jobs with sub-par English teachers, drama students and corner shop owners!

Unfortunately the bill I have previously asked people to support didn't get a simple hearing on Friday as the timings involved meant that the debate has been delayed. This isn't a bad thing of course, it just means a bit of a wait for the verdict from the MPs interested, the debate continues on the 14th (this coming Friday). So, of course, I urge people to continue to support this trial especially given that we can see from Hansard just how a minority of people seem to be opposed to any positive move for utterly petty reasoning.

Trips to Auschwitz, they can form an important part of a child's education about history and also about the danger of politics gone bad. Plans are that the government will fund children to visit these places more, but the Tories are calling such a policy a gimmick. And you know what, they're right.

The facts are simple. There are over 750 thousand students at A-Level age, and around 27% of children live in poverty. The government is funding the trips to the tune of £4.65mil over three years, or rather £1.55mil a year. Trips to Auschwitz cost £350, so this money essentially pays for around 4,500 students a year to go and see the camp, this is roughly 0.6% of all sixth form students.

This policy IS a gimmick...

Politalks 4 is now up! This week we look at terrorism and how torture fits in with that particular problem, in particular George Bush's views on waterboarding. There is also a look at interesting ideas such as soldiers becoming teachers and frankly bizarre educational policy. The big stuff is at the end though, where we let those of you out of the loop know who the sexiest MP of them all is, afraid we have no news on what they'll be wearing to the ball. Video below, transcript even further down, right at the bottom we even have a roundup of the links we took in to consideration when making this

Not work safe unless you have headphones, enjoy!

What else can we make our kids do? We've already made it so that being out at night is probably a no-no with mosquito devices and police actively infringing on their liberties, we keep them in school until 18 and if not school then "learning a trade". We already have a culture of "you can't do that" with them and now we're moving fast in to interfering with just how they're educated as well. Quite aside from the genuinely positive move of cookery lessons (as long as they're state funded) we now have the government wanting kids to have a whole day of every week dedicated to "Culture".

Dave Hill, over at his blog, has written a very insightful piece that delves into the heart of the ambiguity over what we define as "patriotism". Stemming from the news that academics suggest we start taking a critical approach to the subject when taught in History lessons. The idea is, simply, that you have to show that Britains past is at times morally corrupt and therefore why simply teaching kids to "love Britain" is wrong. Dave ends his very personal thoughts by suggesting that because there is a complexity in the debate that it should be discussed at schools. I don't disagree, but I don't think that is where the academics are really coming from.

Once upon a time I was in secondary school and had to do cookery lessons with everyone else as part of a revolving door scheme of design and technology work. This meant that cooking was only taught for a fraction of the year but it was potentially valuable experience. I say potentially because my cookery lessons did nothing to teach me the very basics of what I needed to get along with ingredients in my own home. A few years later I went to university and had a trial by fire in truly learning how to cook. I feel that this is the reality for many going through "food technology" lessons, so I have to welcome the news today about cookery being made compulsory with mixed emotions

The move is a great start, and I'm happy that we're moving in the right direction, but it's not enough and it's coming about too late in the day to do this in any half measures (excuse the pun). We need independently devised menu's that are flexible to the cultural needs of individual schools, we need the funding to let those menu's, independently assessed to be the best broad learning for a child, be taught properly, and we need to stop perpetuating myths about the cost of food because of a standard line on "means testing". More importantly, with a lack of teachers trained to deliver this course, we need this kind of thinking realised quicker.