Academy of Ideas

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe PRIVATE EDUCATION: PUBLIC HARM? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2013/session_detail/7872 The place of independent schools in Britain’s education landscape has never been so intensely debated. According to Martin Stephen, former high master of St Paul’s...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe ONE TO ONE TUTION IN THE DOCK? THE CRISIS IN MUSIC SCHOOLS http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2013/session_detail/7867 Over recent months, the actions of predatory adults and their often appalling effects on children and young people have hit the headlines...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe THE ART OF BIOGRAPHY http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2013/session_detail/7887 Should biographers aim to give us a warts and all account of their subjects’ private lives, or can there be justification for leaving some secrets in the past? Is there a need...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe NUMBER CRUNCHING AND ETHICS IN THE ERA OF BIG DATA http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2013/session_detail/7901 Big Data is the big idea of the moment. According to IBM, we’re creating 2.5 quintillion bytes of data every day, with over 90% of the world’s da...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe GRAPHIC NOVELS: LITERATURE FOR THE 21ST CENTURY? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2013/session_detail/7888 With the shortlisting of two ‘graphic novels’ (one of which won) in this year’s Costa Book Awards, many commentators are claiming the ‘comics’ genr...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe HOT OFF THE PRESS - ECONOMIC MIGRANTS: WHAT PRICE FOR A BETTER LIFE? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2013/session_detail/8726 With the accession of Romania and Bulgaria to the EU, much has been made of the possible economic and social effects of thousan...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe BALLOON DEBATE: WHAT'S THE BEST POEM EVER? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2014/session_detail/8955 To see a World in a Grain of Sand/And a Heaven in a Wild Flower/Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand/And Eternity in an hour (Auguries of Innocence) Wi...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe BUSKING - THE CASH BETWEEN LIBERTY AND NOISE POLLUTION http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2014/session_detail/9007 Buskers have long been part of street life, and busking has traditionally been a way young and emerging musicians tried out material and even...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe HOT OFF THE PRESS - AFTER THE SCOTTISH REFERENDUM: WHAT NEXT FOR THE UNION? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2014/session_detail/9147 While the ‘No’ vote in September’s referendum on independence for Scotland left the United Kingdom formally intact, the...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe OPERA: ARE WE ALL INVITED? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2014/session_detail/9083 Despite the economic crisis, art in Greece is booming. By 2015, new museums and cultural organisations are scheduled to open their doors to the public, many of them priv...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe D'YA GET ME? DOES PROPER ENGLISH MATTER? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2014/session_detail/9001 Like all languages, English is spoken in a variety of registers in different contexts – and as a global language with a wide range of influences, there are...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe ME, MY SELFIE & I: NARCISSISM OR EMPOWERMENT? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2014/session_detail/8982 The development and widespread adoption of camera phones has led to an explosion of imagery online. But while great claims are made for citizen journa...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe YOUNG ARAB VOICES: HAS THE ARAB SPRING MADE US MORE POWERFUL? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2014/session_detail/9008 Almost four years on from the start of the Arab Spring, it seems that there are still many obstacles in the way of the open, democrati...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe WHO GIVES A DAMN ABOUT 'STUDENT SATISFACTION'? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2014/session_detail/8974 Ten years of surveys of students’ satisfaction show hundreds of thousands of students in the UK are entirely satisfied with their courses. Overall sa...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe ARE WE ALL VULNERABLE NOW? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2014/session_detail/8989 In official terms, ‘the vulnerable’ used to be narrowly defined by the 1995 Care Commission report as referring to people in extreme circumstances, like the homeless, or...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe FROM AMAZON TO EBOOKS: ARE LIBRARIES OUTDATED? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2014/session_detail/8979 In a world of Kindles and free downloads, do we really need physical places to house books? Last November, children’s favourite Terry Deary controver...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe LEARN LATIN IN 30 MINUTES http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2014/session_detail/9093 What you are going to get in the space of half an hour is in fact two things. First: a summary, with proofs, of the reasons that, for many centuries in the past, Latin wa...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe CULTURAL REGENERATION OR GENTRIFICATION? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2014/session_detail/9437 Cultural policy is seen as essential in helping to regenerate previously unfashionable areas of east London and right across the capital. Every neighbourho...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe KINDERGARTEN CULTURE: WHY DOES GOVERNMENT TREATMENT US LIKE CHILDREN? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2014/session_detail/9004 In the past, government may have intervened frequently in the economy, but our private lives were our own to live as we saw fi...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe WHAT MAKES A GREAT SPORTING LEADER? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2014/session_detail/8993 With the England cricket team experiencing a turbulent tour of Australia, culminating in a humiliating whitewash, and the problems of succession currently engul...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe FROM MAGNA CARTA TO ECHR: DO WE NEED A BRITISH BILL OF RIGHTS? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2014/session_detail/9045 Next year marks 800 years since the signing of Magna Carta. While the build-up to its anniversary has been dominated by arguments abo...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe THE FGM CONTROVERSY http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2014/session_detail/8927 Over the past year, female genital mutilation (FGM) has rarely been out of the headlines, from Channel 4’s Cruel Cut video, to high-profile campaigns by the Evening Standard an...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe HOT OFF THE PRESS - ISIS: DAMNED IF WE DO, DAMNED IF WE DON'T http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2014/session_detail/9149 On the 26 September, Parliament voted overwhelmingly in support of the UK joining the US and other allies, including Saudi Arabia and...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe HELL IS OTHER PEOPLE? MODERN MISANTHROPY http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2014/session_detail/9000 Just what is it about other people that makes us so angry? We seem to hear endlessly about road rage, online video rants, twitch-hunts and Twitter storms....

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe BELGIUM'S 'RIGHT TO DIE' FOR CHILDREN: A SLIPPERY SLOPE? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2014/session_detail/8999 This year, the Belgian government legalised euthanasia for minors with incurable diseases in a move described by one senior politician as ‘...