Headteacher Max Haimendorf, the first Teach First graduate to make it to headship, has travelled around the US and has imbibed much of the thinking of the charter school movement, and specifically of its Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP), where schools have long academic days, stern discipline, and high academic aspiration.
But as Mr Dion, a grey-haired and bespectacled former academic of stern intellect and zero charisma, thanked the 5,000 delegates in French and stilted English, many in the crowd were already wondering if the accolade was plausible.The long list of shortcomings cited by his detractors starts with Mr Dion's supposed unpopularity in his native Quebec.
As an academic, he was stern – particularly on bad writing and jargon, for which he had Orwellian distaste.
Among the stern nuns in musty black academic gowns he cut a swagger with his conquistador beard and love of history and debating.
He's stern with his good-natured, compliant academics: he doesn't want to hear about all six of Jane Austen's brothers, thank you.
I soon became aware of that when I entered his class in 1960, convinced at first that I was joining the stern and sheltered world of uptown academics, whether I liked it or not.
It was reasonable to point out that the methodology and conclusions of the survey have been fiercely challenged by Prof Richard Tol, a respected academic quoted extensively in the Stern Report.
A stern superego of rigorous taste, instilled by Guyton's academic training, keeps his art's apparent attitude distanced and cool.
He was not a stylistic innovator but a stern guardian of traditional values, and there is an aura of academic nostalgia about his work.
Schreier was born 32 years ago to Berkeley academics; he too is keen on hypothesis and observation, if not stern conclusions.
Lord Nicholas Stern, academic and economist at the London School of Economics and author of an influential report on the economics of climate change, had said on Friday, "the future is bright".
