This is a wonderful read. First, the authors’ evocation of the pre-literate, fluid world of hundreds of languages co-existing in a limited area, such as Papua New Guinea. These are the languages which are endangered by the modern world.

Second, the authors pull no punches in describing economic reasons for the death of languages, namely colonialism by the European powers (and now the United States), which robs tribal peoples of their resources in the search for raw materials.

Third, they make an interesting case for bi-lingualism as a way of saving the hundreds of languages currently under threat, giving Denmark as an example. Here Danish remains the language of home and give s people their identity, but resources are poured into schools to make sure that Danes also have an excellent command of the world language, English.

The effect of the written language is mentioned, but it would be interesting to read more about the impact of literacy in saving endangered languages.

The Director of Imaginative MInds, Howard Sharron, republished in the last issue of Creative Teaching and Learning an article which I wrote for him in 2000.

He asked me to write an update to that article giving my views on why the Wigan Language Project, in spite of its proven success, failed to be more widely used. I enjoyed writing the article, especially putting the boot into a few of the chumps who blocked its dissemination. I have sent the article off to Howard and I hope it will appear in the next issue.

I tracked down the person at BCU responsible for the Aimhigher programme launched last month by the four universities in Birmingham. This is Mike Thompson of the Recruitmen Department.

He was kind enough to phone me back and gave me an account of the Aimhigher programme which ran from 2000. (I imagine the Widening Participation programme which used Breakthrough to Learning – and won the THES prize in 2007 – was funded from this source.) The funding has now been severely cut but BCU is continuing its programme of working in schools to encourage underprivileged pupils to enter Higher Education.

He was pleased to hear that Breakthrough to Learning will soon be freely available online and that the online course http://www.languageofideas for older students (16+), developed by BCU is already available.

I hope that a use for these materials will be found on the new programme.

“Some medieval farmers used to sprinkle ox blood on their fields at full moon, in the mistaken belief it increased soil fertility. What made them think it would work? If you had asked them they would have said, ‘Everyone does it!’ People often mistake common practice for best practice, and seem to prefer the comfort of the crowd to thinking for themselves using hard evidence.

Medicine was once the same: doctors bled patients suffering from anaemia, and administered bee stings to arthritic joints. Why? Because everyone else did, and all those doctors couldn’t be wrong – could they?

Medicine and agriculture are now both ‘evidence based’, and it is time for education to follow their example. It is no shame to follow them: it is easier to work out how a liver works or how a plant grows than how a person learns. But we do know a great deal about how people learn now, and we need to change our practice accordingly.”