Teachers' pets

Today it was music. And citizenship. At the same time.

Last month it was RE. For Michael Gove it's history, and maybe geography too, though no-one is too sure about how the latter slipped in. Carol Vordaman has even popped back up waffling on about hers.

Yes, everyone has their pet subject, and everyone thinks that there's is the most important, the most undervalued, the most essential for curing all of society's myriad problems. Now that the mystical Ebacc has landed from the sky, everyone also thinks that their pet subject should be included as a compulsory subject.

As a computer scientist, mine is ICT. Not many people seem too fussed about ICT (except parents, but they don't matter nearly as much as Carol - she was on the telly!). It's clearly an important subject for the 21st century, and kids have got a much better chance of getting totally minted by coming up with a cunning e-business than they are becoming a professional footballer or even the next Carol.

But I seriously hope that ICT does not become one of the chosen few included in the Ebacc. Why?

1. Beyond being able to read, write and count properly, everything else we should or should not be teaching kids is very much in the eye of the beholder. I haven't made up my mind on foreign languages, and I'm even starting to wonder about science. I definitely think teaching kids citizenship is a pointless waste of time. I'm sure many citizenship teachers would say the same about ICT, and I'd agree with them. Why?

2. ICT courses are terrible. Some more than others, but none are currently worth making compulsory. The very nature of the subject means most courses are out of date in an instant. Writing a letter in Word is an important skill, but one most kids can pick up no problem when they get out into the world of work. Unless we get some courses that includes stuff like how to set up a web server with a MySQL database it's really not worth it.

3. The worst possible way to get the average teenager to do something is to tell them that they have to do it. (Myself, I have never managed to grow out of it. Give me an order, and I will probably say no. It's a reflex. I just don't like it.) We should really let them choose the majority of the subjects that they study for a variety of obvious reasons, not least of all that they are much more likely to pay attention when I try to teach them.

So the music and citizenship teachers can keep it. I don't want my subject to be any part of this Ebacc malarky - it will only end in tears anyway.

c