Where is it really going?

[VSC]

I wouldn't say your wife is doing a good or bad job, I don't know. Let me put it this way, if I worked for a factory and we kept producing dud parts, would I put my name to it? I'm sure your wife has come home and bent your ear a few times as to the standard of other teachers.

If I were a teacher and watching some of the rules that come down from on high, then I would have no option but to resign. By being part of this system (yes it comes from up high as well) they are in my opinion contributing to it's failure and maybe just as guilty by accepting their pieces of silver and teaching the curriculum that is nonsense.

Unfortunately a lot of good teachers have resigned and that just means that even more spaces are open to the new breed. It's a downwardly spiralling staircase at the moment.

I think you are right with regards that it should be illegal to teach something you are not qualified in. Just the same as brickies don't give lessons in plumbing.

Arh well, I can't see it changing for sometime to come.. bring back grammar schools and the old thing I was taught "It pays to be a winner".

So if the system isn't working abandon the system? That's a pretty extreme rationale.

The majority of teachers prefer to work within the system and do their utmost to do their job, educate children. The vast majority of teachers do care, and it is sad that good teachers are leaving.

That is why many teachers joined the strike - not to do with wages, but to protest about the changes proposed by Gove, though that of course wasn't mentioned in much of the media of course.

Grammar schools - god I hope not.

 

[DomainManagement]

yes

i just voted japan style economy . but for us good times

 

[aZooZa]

Grammar schools. Quality education by quality teachers. Those were the days when an 'O' level really meant something.

 

[GreyWing]

Grammar schools. Quality education by quality teachers. Those were the days when an 'O' level really meant something.

Margaret Thatcher, daughter of a shop keeper and John Major who was a bin man both went on to do the top jobs after going to grammar school.

For some reason socialists go on about getting rid of Grammar Schools and never having them back when it has helped so many kids from poverished backgrounds get out of the poverty they were born into. The toff's from Tory land must be loving the fact that it has gone, all of the cabinet bar 2 are from private education because their parents bought them a place. The Labour party is almost the same.

But why teach kids life is about winning and losing at 11 years old? Let them sit on the dole for 10 years with worthless qualifications and find out the hard way.

Written 10+ years ago by someone who seen it coming.. often attributed to Bill Gates but it wasn't.

http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/b/billgatesspeech.htm

Rule 8 says it all

RULE 8
Your school may have done away with winners and losers,
but life has not. In some schools they have abolished
failing grades and they'll give you as many times as
you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the
slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

 

[Edwin]

Margaret Thatcher, daughter of a shop keeper and John Major who was a bin man both went on to do the top jobs after going to grammar school.

For some reason socialists go on about getting rid of Grammar Schools and never having them back when it has helped so many kids from poverished backgrounds get out of the poverty they were born into. The toff's from Tory land must be loving the fact that it has gone, all of the cabinet bar 2 are from private education because their parents bought them a place. The Labour party is almost the same.

But why teach kids life is about winning and losing at 11 years old? Let them sit on the dole for 10 years with worthless qualifications and find out the hard way.

Written 10+ years ago by someone who seen it coming.. often attributed to Bill Gates but it wasn't.

http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/b/billgatesspeech.htm

Rule 8 says it all

RULE 8
Your school may have done away with winners and losers,
but life has not. In some schools they have abolished
failing grades and they'll give you as many times as
you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the
slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

Well said. The current school system is a bit like having a marathon where all the participants are carefully tied together at the waist first so that none will cross the finishing line ahead of others because that would be "unfair" on the slower runners. Of course, the net result is everyone then finishes at an average pace WAY off the speed that the fastest runners are capable of, while the slowest are left wildly out of breath and panting, and completely disillusioned with running. Meanwhile, in most other countries, the race is run as normal, and suddenly none of the British runners are in the winning pack whereas some certainly COULD be.

Like it or hate it, the real world is a meritocracy, so the sooner that the more capable (from all walks of life, this does not mean "the richest") are able to get access to an education that will push them to their limits, the better.

 

[VSC]

Grammar schools. Quality education by quality teachers. Those were the days when an 'O' level really meant something.

Limited education to limited people - Quality teachers? Exactly the same range of teachers as we have now - I should know as I went to a Grammar school also.

But - we've digressed. The point that i was making was that many of the issues with the education system now is the constant tinkering with it, the introduction of league tables which made schools a business, and the low regard society has for teachers.

 

[domainseller200]

Calm down ladies - THIS is all you need

 

[cc976a]

Once competition and the achievement of winning was ripped away from children they of course are not going to strive for better. This of course does not mimic the real world in the slightest. Children are being led up a garden path to failure.

I watched a school education documentary recently, and frankly couldn't believe what the pupils were allowed to get away with saying or doing, is this really the discipline in schools today??

Is this caused by meddling in the 'system' or fear of the PC brigade?

Is it any wonder we are rearing under-achievers where effort is gone and expectations someone is going to do - and give freely - everything to you has come from!

I feel for teachers. With all the crap they have been dished out, and the extra increase in pointless paperwork, must have beat many down.

What we teach, how we teach knowledge and how we teach children respect for each other - and creating that dynamic energy are essentially the backbone to the future. As always it always seems to be out of touch pen pushers with no grip on the realities of society who make the decisions - otherwise this would have worked long ago.

...and bringing back lessons teaching people how to speak correct English, and how to pronounce their words properly, wouldn't go a miss either!

 

[Edwin]

And there are bleating pressure groups left and right any time an attempt is made to introduce any kind of "achievement-based streaming" or "selectivity" into the education system.

For example "Education secretary faces new controversy over claims that private schools that switch sectors could choose pupils by ability." (shock, horror, swoon)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/dec/17/gove-private-school-academies-selection

It's weird, because in parallel to the "averaging down" of education you have a massive rise in "popularity contests" for so-called singers, dancers, talents, etc. - and nobody says "Hang on a minute, you should cancel X Factor - it's not fair because my kid can't hold a note."

 

[retired_member33]

Difficult to know which thread to post this in, given there are a couple going...

Some gems:



On what NOT? I'm getting *ucked sideways and backwards on all manner of non-elective but mandatory taxation - council tax where the lazy bastards can't be arsed to pick up my rubbish, or demand it's all separated out into coloured boxes...VAT, which is a tax at completely unacceptable level - all moodied up stealthily from - what - 8.5% over the years? Analyse the wording: "Value Added Tax". I could go on...

Please go on as the tax over here in the UK is still a joke compared to any other country in northern Europe..

Whats your so called "Value added tax" nowadays? It went up a bit but its not more then what other countries are paying...

 

[aZooZa]

The French invented it. Ask them.

 

[DomainManagement]

Just a Little bit more

1 our education system is not relevant , Therefore not making our kids skillful
and relevant to the outside world of work .

2 our system of politics is smoke and mirrors , they distract everyone
whilst stealing , from the public purse , and distributed to a chosen few


3 does it really need 80 plus lobbyist to each member of parliament , These
peoples admittedly are there to influence MP`s on behalf largely
of large companies , that want large profits , cash for questions etc etc

4 we are not lead from the front , its do as i say , not as i do

5 it would have been great if Tony Blair put as much effort into the
country earning revenue , as he did to start his new company and how
many tens of millions he has earned within a short space of time ?
and earned since being pm. Hmm Screws the country and its people
but it turns out tony is a business guy , but only when it benefits himself


no one has ran this country for decades that is truly interested in the
greater good of the country and its people,

we have been asset striped and plundered and there is not a lot left
that is Great about this Britain we live in


we need to do things that are relevant and positive towards our population

not this big pile of crap there have purposely left us holding

its time things were done, in the name of the greater good, and we put this
Great Britain back on the map but with no influence from the worst world
policemen we have every known, the united states of atrocities

 

[aZooZa]

@domainManagement:

This country sucks. As I read it, one can only achieve L4 if you can recite your 'times table; at 10x. What happened to 11X and 12x?

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-16186158

I was fortunate enough to go and board at a Public Prep (Caterham) and then Grammar. At 15, I was doing differential calculus. Where's that in the current GCSE scheme?

Looks like it's now currently part of a teacher's training degree.

I was also doing Latin unseen translations at 12. Not blowing my own trumpet, but what the hell is going on in this country?

I believe it's a serious generation gap. Apathy and ignorance abounds. The majority of parents of kids at this level know no better - I don't blame the kids at all.

 

[tifosi]

I got shown last years gsce maths paper by a Maths teacher friend a few months ago.

To say I was astonished was an understatement. Where's the complex geometry, differentiation and integration, imaginary numbers? Oh, that's not until last year at A'level if at all.

Dumbed down just wasn't in it... most of it was 3rd year level stuff. With a bit of a refresher I could have done the paper in 20mins!

One of the damn questions was telling the time on a clock and then calculating what time it would be if I went 10 miles at 50mph. Bloody 1st year stuff!

 

[aZooZa]

I got shown last years gsce maths paper by a Maths teacher friend a few months ago.

To say I was astonished was an understatement. Where's the complex geometry, differentiation and integration, imaginary numbers? Oh, that's not until last year at A'level if at all.

Dumbed down just wasn't in it... most of it was 3rd year level stuff. With a bit of a refresher I could have done the paper in 20mins!

One of the damn questions was telling the time on a clock and then calculating what time it. would be if I went 10 miles at 50mph. Bloody 1st year stuff!

Bloody crazy; if not extremely aggravating, because the 'dumbing down' effect resulted in a 'carte blanche' largesse beating policy in the 60's by in- and ex-Commonwealth governments for too long. It's too bad the Brits were advocates of corporal punishment ( I had my ass whipped until it bled at Prep) and we see the savagery in Singapore and Malaysia, where it's practised now as an art form. That needs to stop. Lively.

As a footnote, I went back to my 'Prep' when I was 18 and sorted it.

 

[Pred]

just to say my prediction isn't on the poll

 

[Edwin]

To say I was astonished was an understatement. Where's the complex geometry, differentiation and integration, imaginary numbers? Oh, that's not until last year at A'level if at all.

Dumbed down just wasn't in it... most of it was 3rd year level stuff. With a bit of a refresher I could have done the paper in 20mins!

One of the damn questions was telling the time on a clock and then calculating what time it would be if I went 10 miles at 50mph. Bloody 1st year stuff!

Yep. Here's an actual practice past paper from 2009. Staggeringly simple stuff, but at least the pictures are pretty

http://www.mathsmadeeasy.co.uk/GCSE...c/maths-foundation-non-calc-2009-practice.htm

For comparison, here's an O Level past paper from 2003
http://www.cambridgestudents.org.uk/subjectpages/maths/olevelmaths/ppOLevelMaths/4024_s03_qp_2.pdf

And here (poor quality scans, unfortunately) are maths papers from 1988 to 1995
http://www.scribd.com/doc/3169399/Math-Paper-2-19881995

It's like watching evolution playing out in reverse! At the current rate, exam papers are going to come with the note "pi = 3 (approx)" by 2020...

 

[tifosi]

I did mine in 82-84 so the can be found etched in stone at the local museum!

 

[philipp]

I got shown last years gsce maths paper by a Maths teacher friend a few months ago.

To say I was astonished was an understatement. Where's the complex geometry, differentiation and integration, imaginary numbers? Oh, that's not until last year at A'level if at all.

Differentiation and integration have never been GCSE maths topics; quadratic equations and matrices were about as hard as it got when I did mine more years ago than I care to recall

P.

 

[tifosi]

Differentiation and integration have never been GCSE maths topics; quadratic equations and matrices were about as hard as it got when I did mine more years ago than I care to recall

P.

Probably dropped when o'level became gcse. They were certainly in mine... matrices & vectors, brings back happy memories!

We seems to have gotten away from the topic of a fucked up economy. Or as Chris Rea would say... 'This ain't no technological breakdown, oh no, this is the road to hell...'