Can we teach students how to disagree agreeably?

What is the state of our nation (UK) and how does this impact our schools and colleges?

Is our national/international situation so fraught and anxiety inducing that young people are over-anxious? Is this made worse by socail media and the us vs them that seems to be dominating a lot of the online space?

Are schools suitably ‘dialogic’ are we able to develop schools where dialectic and discussion is the centrepiece - teaching them how to take their place in ‘The Great Conversation of Humankind’?

Is there hope? How can schools help young people to see the humanity in each other, even those with whom you vehemently disagree?

What is the point of school? Is it changing? Should we focus on academic education or vocational? Are either right for the age of AI? Does creativity and play have a part to play or are we just in the business of filling up memories with Shakespeare and Algebra?

All this and more in this episode! Listen on your favourite platform or watch here.

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Is AI dumbing us down? Are schools in danger of making kids 'stupider'?

Should we make schools gymnasia of the mind?

Will an education for leisure replace an education for work?

All this and more in this episode!

Some links to material discussed:

Do our brains need knowledge in the age of AI? https://arxiv.org/pdf/2506.11015

Scott Alexander's Misleading Victory: https://garymarcus.substack.com/p/scott-alexanders-misleading-victory?r=18455&utm_medium=ios&triedRedirect=true

Your Brain on Chat GPT: https://daviddidau.substack.com/p/the-cost-of-borrowed-thought

TikTok and AI are Junk Food: https://archive.is/20250512191652/https://www.thetimes.com/comment/columnists/article/tiktok-and-ai-are-junk-food-start-dieting-m7pbtcpdv#selection-1385.0-1519.694

Are We Living in a Stupidogenic Society? https://substack.nomoremarking.com/p/are-we-living-in-a-stupidogenic-society

Flynn Effect and its Reversal: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6042097/

Reevaluating the Flynn Effect: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160289625000121

Will AI Make You Stupid? - https://archive.is/20250826084540/https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2025/07/16/will-ai-make-you-stupid#selection-1105.0-1367.47

Conscientiousness is crashing, neuroticism is soaring, young people are far less agreeable and far more introverted - what have we done to our kids?

David and Martin discuss this and more - is our on-screen and social media culture to blame? What can schools do, if anything? Does 'project based learning' have a role?

Article by John Burn Murdoch can be accessed here: https://www.ft.com/content/5cd77ef0-b546-4105-8946-36db3f84dc43

His thread on Twitter/X can be accessed here: https://x.com/jburnmurdoch/status/1953811277463122162

Is Dead Poets Society a great film?

Does it have any lessons for contemporary teaching?

Is Romanticism a bad influence on schooling?

ALSO: Why not sponsor David on his half marathon for Cancer Research? https://fundraise.cancerresearchuk.org/page/davids-giving-page-28674978

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If there is no free will who would ever discipline a child? It's not their fault!

In this week's cornucopia of delights we look into Free Will and the implications of the science and the philosophy - do we have free will or not?

We put Descartes before the Hume. Dennett and Searle, you name it we name drop it. We can't help ourselves!

Some links to articles mentioned: https://powerfulknowledge.substack.com/p/how-should-we-think-about-the-engagement

https://schoolsweek.co.uk/curriculum-labour-is-on-the-right-path-but-its-a-tightrope/

https://daviddidau.substack.com/p/what-do-you-mean-by-engagement?selection=8e3325ff-837e-40fd-becb-cc379a5e3fb3

Fiona Millar was quoted from the RSA Journal Issue 2, 2025

In this episode, we take apart the myth that schools can paper over the cracks of a society in crisis with mindfulness sessions, gratitude journals and breathing techniques.

We look at what the data really tells us: a fifth of children now meet the threshold for a probable mental disorder. Over a third of 17 to 19-year-old girls are struggling. Services are overwhelmed. Yet instead of fixing what’s broken, we offer sticking plasters and tell young people to breathe through the damage.

We explore why wellbeing initiatives often individualise failure, how schools risk medicalising ordinary distress, and what we should be doing instead.

If you’re tired of seeing schools made responsible for society’s failings, this one’s for you.

Links Below:

NHS Digital (2023) — Mental Health of Children and Young People in England:

https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/mental-health-of-children-and-young-people-in-england/2023-wave-4-follow-up#:~:text=Key%20Facts,36.9%25%20compared%20with%207.6%25

Mind — Facts and figures about young people and mental health: https://www.mind.org.uk/about-us/our-strategy/doing-more-for-young-people/facts-and-figures-about-young-people-and-mental-health/

Health Foundation — Understanding the crisis in young people’s mental health: https://www.health.org.uk/features-and-opinion/blogs/understanding-the-crisis-in-young-people-s-mental-health

House of Commons Library — Children and young people’s mental health services:

https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-7749/