The Liberal Agenda: Invisible Intelligence – Why your child might not be failing. Book review 5 stars

As the NCEA changes are being pushed, NZ Education academic Professor Welby Ings releases his incredible book, Invisible Intelligence – Why your child might not be failing.

It is a must read for every Teacher, every Parent and every Principal over the summer.

Ings’ argument is that educational philosophies and pedagogy that prioritise time stressed testing of students for quick problem solving using a myopic focus on reading, writing and arithmetic is inadvertently failing many kids.

He makes a strong case for a far more nuanced and expanded public education system that serves all their interests rather than the very narrow focus we are seeing Erica Stanford attempt to implement with NCEA.

Ings’ makes the point that a public education system is there to serve the interests of all the students who go through it, not just those who can do well in time stressed testing for quick problem solving because that framework misses the vastness of human intelligence in all its forms.

Professor Ings also explores the importance of the relationship between student and teacher with a beauty and compassion that is genuinely moving. The Political Right look at Teachers as taxi drivers in a uber world and have convinced themselves we can replace them all with AI, but Ings’ argument about the importance of that relationship manages to roll much of that criticism back and I found the book to be one of the most optimistic and positive reads I’ve done this year.

I believe public eduction is one of the few silver bullets we have as a society and Professor Ings’ incredible book shows us how a different valued public education system could work and he does that with wit, intelligence and a deeply powerful conviction.

Professor Ings’ stands for an education system that enables critical thinking citizens who embody the agency a democracy promises, Erica Stanford stands for an education system that produces worker drones that Late Stage Capitalism demands.

If you want an opinion on public education, you have to read this book.

5 stars

📚 Welby Ings — Invisible Intelligence: Why your child might not be failing 
Buy the book (NZ):
• Otago University Press – publisher page
• Aotearoa Books
• The Women’s Bookshop (AKL)
• Fishpond (NZ)

Audiobook (live now):
• Google Play Books

Google Play:
• Kobo Audio
• hoopla (via NZ libraries)
• Storytel author page

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