Common Ground, Contested Territory: Examining the Roles of English Language Teachers in Troubled Times Book

I found that this picked up in interest further into the book, with the sections on socialisation being more interesting.

However, it's clear that Furedi is speaking from the armchair. He doesn't seem to have, or to access, much direct knowledge of what's going on in schools. The book as a whole is theoretical, repetitive, and pretty dry.

He repeatedly criticises teachers for having difficulty handling violent young children or persistent low-level disruption. He believes that reflects teachers' weakness and inadequacy, because surely these are trivial and timeless problems that are easily resolved by any competent educator. I'd like him to give it a try: take some of the challenging classes I have, and see how easy you find it. If you're not willing to do that, take seriously the reports of people who do do it every day and know what they're talking about.