Knowledge moves on
From Jonathan Osborne Sir: As amusing as your article Dumbing down: the proof' (27 November) may be, it panders to prejudice and undermines its own argument. All this 1898 test really proves is that society has moved on, something which should not he surprising to any historical observer, given the enormous transformations that have occurred in the past 100 years. What we now value as knowledge is not what we valued as knowledge then. The ability to translate Latin into English, identify genitive plurals, multiply pounds, shillings and pence or manipulate fractions are simply not skills that are regarded as of sufficient worth to spend large amounts of formal educational time developing. It is this that makes all comparisons of standards impossible over time.
Jonathan Osborne
Chair of science education, King's College, London SE I
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