Why do I need a teacher when I’ve got Google? is just one of the challenging, controversial and thought-provoking questions Ian Gilbert poses in this urgent and invigorating book.

Questioning the unquestionable, this fully updated new edition will make you re-consider everything you thought you knew about teaching and learning, such as:



Are you simply preparing the next generation of unemployed accountants?
What do you do for the ‘sweetcorn kids’ who come out of the education system in pretty much the same state as when they went in?
What’s the real point of school?
Exams – So whose bright idea was that?
Why ‘EQ’ is fast becoming the new ‘IQ’
What will your school policy be on brain-enhancing technologies?
Which is the odd one out between a hamster and a caravan?

With his customary combination of hard-hitting truths, practical classroom ideas and irreverent sense of humour, Ian Gilbert takes the reader on a breathless rollercoaster ride through burning issues of the twenty-first century, considering everything from the threats facing the world and the challenge of the BRIC economies to the link between eugenics and the 11+.

As wide-ranging and exhaustively-researched as it is entertaining and accessible, this book is designed to challenge teachers and inform them – as well as encourage them – as they strive to design a twenty-first century learning experience that really does bring the best out of all young people. After all, the future of the world may just depend on it.