Author Topic: STUPIDITY  (Read 1447 times)

avalonmpk2

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STUPIDITY
« on: Feb 19, 2011, 11:37:45 AM »
Quote from BBC:

A number of made-up words such as "koob" or "zort" are to be included in the government's planned new reading test for six-year-olds in England.

I know we live in the age of coalition but . . . .
If the above quote is a result of a coalition of the Looney lefties and the Ridiculous Righties

The I'm all for going back to first past the post or as we call it here in Wiltshire The Big Fiddle

When I was six years old I was taught Kipling's IF

If only today's children were taught the basics of our language first (is that not what primary education is for).

I finished school at fourteen and knew far more of the basics than many of today's eighteen year olds.

Why oh why do we spend more money on teaching sex than we do on economics or self respect? Children seem to know more about condoms than they do about currency!
Stone walls do not a prison make nor iron bars a cage.
Richard Lovelace
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Chrisjay

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Re: STUPIDITY
« Reply #1 on: Feb 19, 2011, 11:50:59 AM »
How very true which is one reason why 18 - 24 year olds have the highest unemployment figures.

I cannot tell you the number of times I turned down applicants at my shop because they could not 'make' change and if our automated till broke down I would have expected them to do just that.

One of my Saturday girls who I adored was at university studying French and American Studies and she could not give change or add up without the till or a calculator.

I had work experience students who had not a brain cell between them.  One when asked to make coffee (everyone took it in turn) asked how much coffee and he was told a spoonfull, he used a table spoon and cold water.  When his mother picked him up as she did every day I told her he had learned a new skill - vacuuming - he had not a clue how and we laughed about having to teach him for years after except it really is not funny.  He wanted to be a nursery teacher so we got him to help demonstrate making a Birthday card (we were a craft shop) and a two year old could have done better.

Unfortunately though we have only ourselves to blame as it was the generation of the 60's who decided school should be a place of fun with no winners and education was actually a secondary concern to everything else in forming the young adult.
 

avalonmpk2

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Re: STUPIDITY
« Reply #2 on: Feb 19, 2011, 12:01:55 PM »
How would they cope with slide rules and log tables and pre metrication multiple bases?
The imperial system may have been complicated but it did not half gyrate the brain
Stone walls do not a prison make nor iron bars a cage.
Richard Lovelace
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Chrisjay

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Re: STUPIDITY
« Reply #3 on: Feb 19, 2011, 12:10:21 PM »
The answer is they don't which is why so many are unemployable. 

Another reason is employers do not feel it is worth paying the minimum wage for young people (£3.64 for those between 16 & 17 and £4.92 for 18 - 20 year olds) with no experience and I know, no job no experience, but does that mean an employer should spend time 'teaching' knowledge that should have been learned in school and paying for the privilege ???

Remember it is not just the minimum wage but the employers contribution to NI, additional insurance and all the other add on's you have employing staff.
 

avalonmpk2

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Re: STUPIDITY
« Reply #4 on: Feb 19, 2011, 01:22:01 PM »
Can't argue with that but money spent in the education system goes more on insurance - liability - third party - risk - litigation - pension - and cover on school outings than on the actual education of our Young people.
Oh and my pet hate: why do we not spend a similar enhanced some on the gifted children as we do on the unfortunate ? Are they not also special needs - talent must be supported.
Stone walls do not a prison make nor iron bars a cage.
Richard Lovelace
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Chrisjay

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Re: STUPIDITY
« Reply #5 on: Feb 19, 2011, 01:49:48 PM »
Our culture neither wants nor expects any bright students to succeed as to do so would highlight failure.  We long ago made success or winning in a school environment dirty words.

Whilst spending money on special needs vast amounts are wasted on the support culture and not enough on the practical skills that students need to not necessarily succeed but survive.

Forty years ago when my son was at school in Canada they introduced the 'core' curriculum and parents (including me) argued that the core would become the only and the other should subjects and could subjects would be left behind.
That is what has happened here instead of embracing education in its widest sense it has been narrowed to a few core subjects and within them a very narrow knowledge base.  i.e. History without Churchill, geography without breadth, maths without slide rules.

WE have failed the generations 20 years after our education as we allowed it to be changed and swallowed big classes and shortage of time by teachers as reasons for their incompetence and lack of their own knowledge in subjects they were supposed to be able to teach.

Ever wonder why China is forging ahead in the world? education, education, education coupled with discipline based on our system 30 years ago Chinese children are the most studient and well behaved children you could wish to meet.



 
 

avalonmpk2

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Re: STUPIDITY
« Reply #6 on: Feb 19, 2011, 02:10:16 PM »
When I was eleven years old I did not go to a Grammar or so called secondary modern School but was indeed privileged to go to a technical school - it was as though someone had designed a school just for me amazing: Maths was taught as separate units geometry, trig, mechanics and calculus. Science the same Biology, Physics , chemistry metalurgy, Practical subjects wood work, metal work both in sheet metal and Machine shop, also I did heraldry, masonry, brick work, Art one term of Latin and one term of French, Technical drawing,
English Language, My Favourite: English Lit (Billy Wagglestaff, Webster Sheridan Dickens Buchanan) Played Cricket, Rugby, Hockey, our instructors were school teachers, tech college lectures and disabled . We were taught to honour our armed forces our elders and respect those who gave their time some times without remuneration to our betterment I finished at 14 better equipped to the life that followed than does the majority to-days graduates. I'm not greedy I prefer honesty and integrity and health to wealth and freedom over socialism.
Stone walls do not a prison make nor iron bars a cage.
Richard Lovelace
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Chrisjay

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Re: STUPIDITY
« Reply #7 on: Feb 20, 2011, 12:07:17 PM »
Copied and pasted from Phyllis's new thread that I think she put in the wrong place as I am sure she meant (I hope she did) for it to follow on here :-\

I totally agree with everything said, I had to enrol my children in a London school in the middle to late 60's. I had taught all my children simple arithmetic and their ABC (not phonetically) and to read and write their own name (later even though their teachers did not ask I also made the children learn their times tables by rote in rhyme). I was always chided by the teaching staff for causing my children confusion as they were the experts and they knew how to 'teach'. Later I moved to Kent, all my children needed to attend classes designed to bring their reading skills up to scratch and my daughter had to have specialist teaching as she was dyslexic. The dyslexia I had flagged up with the London school and they had dismissed me as being unqualified to put the view forward, suggesting that she saw a Psychologist; my husband at the time vetoed this suggestion. Later I made sure my last son had all my attention I taught him to do all the things I could, not all was taken in by him, but he gained a good degree in English Literature, and can cook and clean with great attention is very employable, not being out of work throughout his University tenure, gaining full time employment with his university, he took a leap of faith and is now pursuing his dream to make films, this he is doing reasonably successfully in a small way, only time will tell if he is to make a complete success.
 

Chrisjay

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Re: STUPIDITY
« Reply #8 on: Feb 20, 2011, 12:18:48 PM »
My son was/is severely dyslexic (diagnosed at a time it was a 'middle class disease' for failing children) and school was a nightmare.  He learnt to write at home (I was a teacher then) and do his tables.  He hated school and told me when he was just seven years old he would kill himself if I sent him back to school. 
So I taught him at home for a year then sent him to the Dyslexia Institute which was a 50 mile drive there and return every day.  As I had nothing to do while he was there I decided to train to become a dyslexic teacher and did later travel all over the world with Kathleen Hickey who pioneered the multi sensory method of teaching dyslexic children.

My son eventually learnt to read at 11 and now is a prolific reader and a hopeless speller with and IQ of 158.  He has never been out of work and has been offered every job he was ever interviewed for.  (Applications were dictated to me and forms filled in by me) he has a photographic memory so even when using very technical computer equipment to work precision machinery he only ever needs to be shown once.  Nature often give other gifts to make up for the failed ones, look at downs syndrome children who are exceptionally loving.

Moral if children are properly nurtured from an early age and self esteem and respect instilled they can achieve anything.
 

phyllis

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Re: STUPIDITY
« Reply #9 on: Feb 20, 2011, 06:17:21 PM »
Thanks for moving my reply Chris,

I could not agree more with the nurturing sentiment.

I have watched too many young women having children, then spending as much time as they can keeping them at arm's length palming them off with whoever will take them.
Then later they find them being diagnosed with 'Attention Deficit Disorder' to me the only attention deficit is the lack of attention the little babies suffer from birth when these young mothers find the baby needs looking after.
This being my pet subject especially as I have watched many children over my lifetime being born just for the money they parents hope to get from us poor shmucks who pay taxes. Being sent to school in clothes still soaked from bed wetting, clothes designed for use in the summer, no proper shoes but lately this is not so prevalent, clothes are better, some even better than I could afford for my children though I got the best I could.
If children were valued for who they are from birth I am sure we would not have anywhere near as many social problems as we have now. Not saying there would not be some rotten eggs but there may be more actual real respect for others, not the kind they seem to believe they deserve from their peers.



Chrisjay

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Re: STUPIDITY
« Reply #10 on: Feb 20, 2011, 06:55:06 PM »
I so agree and as we as a society moved to mothers working and staying home became a dirty word it just got worse.  There is and always will be the 'production for profit' parents (I like that term) but even the government has almost made it mandatory for mothers no matter what circumstances whether is benefits or tax credits or anything else to go to work.
 

avalonmpk2

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Re: STUPIDITY
« Reply #11 on: Feb 21, 2011, 10:05:23 AM »
Children (your own that is) should be cherished not a means to get a council flat or a social symbol or because someone else has one.
I have three beautiful visions etched in my brain:
1. My wife on her father's arm litterally gliding down the Isle
2. My wife again  with small beads of perspiration on her forhead an hour after our first born
3. Similarly two years later but with our daughter
I hope I never lose these images
Stone walls do not a prison make nor iron bars a cage.
Richard Lovelace
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