100 Pure Thoughts: Cultivating Purity One Thought at a Time

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The book includes brief sidebars from parents of adult children and adult children themselves with their own stories. Within days, children I didn’t teach were greeting me politely; classes at first a little wild soon accustomed themselves to my preference for silence and made ridiculously good progress, and I was even beginning to enjoy the challenge of teaching, for the first time, out of my specialism.

The triumph of progressive, child-centred education and all the follies associated with it had led me to despair that our inner-city children would ever be able to obtain the knowledge that they need for a successful and socially integrated life.Its obsession with detail, consistency, civility and high standards is a landmark for any other school that thinks it already does these things. This book confronts these kinds of claims with an insightful blend of evidence and personal testimony that is as compelling as it is heart-warming.

At least half of them have already started to put their arms through their coat sleeves surreptitiously. The book captures the impassioned commitment of the staff, some of the challenges, plenty of the remarkable successes and lots of the practical details. Known as a man who maintains a constant positive outlook in spite of circumstances, Osteen has described this message as a core theme of his ministry. They provide further clarity for subject leads in knowing that everyone in their department is on the same page, and are helpful for senior leaders to have more detailed knowledge of what exactly is being taught.What also emerges from the teachers at Michaela is a profound devotion to the children in their charge.

Once you experience the empowerment of starting your day with Him, you will never want to begin your day without Him. Many people run into multiple problems owing to their failure to manage their finances in a way that works for them. It was very reassuring to see that other people had behaviour problems, that not everything was okay all the time.The Deputy Head in Charge of Discipline is reluctant to enforce it as he thinks it’s a good idea to allow the pupils to ‘express themselves in a way that reflects their different outlooks and cultures. I was horrified to see the extent to which I had relied upon group work, philosophy circles and multimedia to engage pupils. Perhaps some of your friends lead you into sin, or maybe there’s a place you know that is just plain bad for your soul.

The level of violence in our schools is frightening, both in its frequency and its severity, and is getting worse on both counts. Much of what Wilson said concerned combating sexism and labeling of “troubled” boys, and made a lot of sense. Noting that only a barely believable 4% of the teaching profession is male and under 30 (and the majority of those in secondary schools), Wilson remarked that we cannot wait for male teachers to join en masse and lead by example. Nonetheless, when completing a unit we do sometimes give pupils an assessment to see what they can do.This collection of essays provides some fascinating insights into the Michaela world and what can be achieved with leadership, determination, and a willingness to challenge the status quo. If the ideas work, and it is a big if, predicated on massive amounts of work and effort, when the school is to scale, it could be the exemplar that moves leaders in education around the country to change what and how children are taught, and to avoid teacher burnout on a massive scale. Wilson began by noting that Scandinavia is the only place in the developed world where boys achieve on a par with girls, which is of course shocking.