Why Do I Need a Teacher When I’ve Got Google

century teacher
    Ian Gilbert
    LONDON AND NEW YORK

This edition published 2011
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
    Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
270 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016
    Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
    This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2010.

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    © 2011 Ian Gilbert
    All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
    British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
    Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Gilbert, Ian, 1965-
Why do I need a teacher when I've got Google? : the essential guide
to the big issues for every 21st century teacher / Ian Gilbert.
p. cm.
1. Teaching. 2. Education–Aims and objectives. 3. Current events. I.
Title.
LB1025.3.G443 2011
371.102–dc22
2010005917
    ISBN 0-203-84608-7 Master e-book ISBN
    ISBN 978-0-415-46831-2 (hbk)
    ISBN 978-0-415-46833-6 (pbk)
    ISBN 978-0-203-84608-7 (ebk)

To my parents – for being there through it all. Thank you.

Acknowledgements
    To all of my friends and colleagues at Independent Thinking Ltd, especially Julie Tribe for keeping things afloat when I was elsewhere and Andrew Curran who knew when to call and what to say, to Alison and the team at Routledge for being so understanding, to everyone at Crown House for all their support, to all the wonderful teachers and school leaders, the children, advisors and governors I have met over the many years through Independent Thinking, to all the people who have taken even one of my ideas and used it to make a difference and, most importantly, to my children who have watched me walk out of the door so often to do this job, a big heartfelt thank you. Even if I could have done it without you all there would have been no point.

Independent Thinking Ltd
    In 1994 I established Independent Thinking Ltd to ‘enrich children’s lives by changing the way they think – and so to change the world’.
    This loose affiliation of practising educational mavericks and reactionaries has grown into one of the UK’s most innovative and effective educational organizations, working across the UK with hundreds of thousands of teachers, children, parents and school leaders as well as in many countries across the world.
    As a result, my life has been enriched by some quite extraordinary people – colleagues and now friends whom I am proud to have with me under the Independent Thinking banner. I freely draw on their inspiring work and understandings in this book, especially Dr Andrew Curran, paediatric neuroscientist and consultant at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool.
    For more information about Independent Thinking Ltd and the growing range of Associates, resources, courses and books we offer please go to www.independentthinking.co.uk .

Preface
    The seven-lesson schoolteacher
    These are the things you pay me to teach. Make of them what you will.
    1. Confusion
    2. Class Position
    3. Indifference
    4. Emotional Dependency
    5. Intellectual Dependency
    6. Provisional Self esteem
    7. One Can’t Hide.
    (Gatto 1992)

Introduction
    This book is not designed to help you teach better. But it is intended to help you become a better teacher.
    It consists of a series of discrete chapters addressing what I consider to be some of the most important questions and controversies, insights and innovations in the world of education today. The sort of things that all teachers should know about but, for all sorts of reasons, so few do. You can read it cover to cover if you like or you can dip into it and learn about, reflect on, assimilate, experiment with or even reject what I am suggesting. It’s not a series of ‘cut out and do’ exercises, rather it is designed to make you think. And then do.
    Unlike my first book,
Essential Motivation in the Classroom
, I have tried to include wherever possible references and, appropriately, website links, for you to follow up what I am saying. Over the years I have