You may or may not agree with Rupert Murdoch's view of the Luddites, but sympathy for them shouldn't stop us from aiming to be the masters of technology rather than the slaves - because that's the choice we have.

Murdoch argues that the person to take us into the future must be flexible and resilient in the face of change. It's a position we have advocated for a long time. As soon as we stop coping with change, we drift off into a backwater - which may be OK in its own way, if it's your choice.

We have always argued that it's healthy to face life as it comes, learn what you need as you go, and ride the wave, directing it where you can. Not to get so comfortable that you can't bear anything to change!

Murdoch argues that we must educate our children if they are to succeed in the coming world, and that the absolute minimum acceptable should be the 3 'R's. We don't buy that! Conventional learning theory states that children will perform on a 'bell curve', some out to the right, the 'top students', some to the left, the 'low-achieving students', and most in the middle, doing OK. This is a nonsense. Of course, any school and most teachers can assure you that it is their experience, so it must be true.

What the bell curve actually measures is: the 'top teaching methodology for some students', the 'low-achieving teaching methodology for some students' and the average methodology for most students (in the middle).

What I state here comes from Accelerated Learning, as espoused by Colin Rose in the UK and Howard Gardner at Harvard, and many others, including Tony Buzan and Edward De Bono and, of course, Leaderskill Group. The teaching of children should actually aim to achieve a 'step function' - it looks like a step, not a bell - where all children succeed (and succeed very well) and none are left behind, because every child is addressed in the way that catches their individual passion for learning - a natural part of everyone's make-up, often obliterated by conventional schooling.

As to the 3 'Rs', they are taken in the child's stride because they are necessary to the pursuit of learning, and easy enough to pick up once the child has the motivation and the context for learning them. The 3 'Rs' are just a small step in the path to lifelong learning and achievement.

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