A private letter sent by Prince Charles to then Labour education secretary Charles Clarke described how the heir to the throne challenged the “fashionable” view that teachers acted as “facilitators” to learning.
Writing to Mr Clarke in November 2004 about his Education Summer School, held in Buxton that June, he describes the impact of the schools, and his hopes that it “opens the way towards a creation of a teacher training institute”.
Prince Charles said: “My Summer Schools are also challenging the fashionable view that teachers should not impart bodies of knowledge, but should instead act as “facilitators” or “coaches”, a notion which I find difficult to understand, I admit.”
Prince Charles also describes himself as “perhaps… too dangerous to associate with”.
The publication of the letters comes after a lengthy legal battle.
First asked for in 2005 by the Guardian newspaper, today’s release of 27 letters across seven government departments, is the result of a Supreme Court judgement forcing their publication.
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