Education Abroad: Raging Against Reform

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Reaction to the essays was loud and expected. The Times Literary Supplement accused the authors of "prejudices that verged on the hysterical." The Manchester Guardian called them a "tightly knit bunch of righties." Many indignant teachers pointed to a 1967 government report showing that over the past two decades, eleven-year-olds have increased the rate at which they learn to read by more than 24%. Meanwhile, a new stress on writing and new math has livened up teaching throughout the country. The loudest reaction, perhaps, came from Education Secretary Edward Short who declared: "The publication of the Black Paper was one of the blackest days for education in the last 100 years."