Comments on: We don’t need any lessons from Labour!

By: Nick

Nick — Wed, 04 May 2005 19:33:44 +0000

I only wish I could live a sheltered life!?

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By: Monkey

Monkey — Tue, 03 May 2005 14:35:55 +0000

“There can be few experiences more terrifying than to stand before a crowd of juveniles ”

You have lived a sheltered life ;-p

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By: Nick

Nick — Tue, 03 May 2005 11:50:32 +0000

Well the Daily Telegraph using Pink Floyd as a metaphor. I always thought they’d find Pink Floyd a little to..er..low brow.

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By: Zoe Bidgood

Zoe Bidgood — Sat, 30 Apr 2005 18:57:12 +0000

They can smell fear.

These are the types of teenagers that don’t have sufficient sense to realise that it’s in their own interest to turn up for their education.

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By: David Nicholls

David Nicholls — Sat, 30 Apr 2005 17:30:26 +0000

The reason why so many children are so ignorant
and bad-mannered is because so few are in a
two-parent family; therefore they receive far less
attention than they require.
Secondly, both Labour and the Conservative Party
have encouraged parents to work, so there is no
one to control the children for much of the time.
Thirdly, parts of Society, i.e., schools, are now,
increasingly, taking on the role of parents, e.g.,
providing all meals for the child, and almost
everything else bar his/hersleeping accommodation
- and yet schools obviously cannot be a viable
substitute for the parent.
This is part of the reason for why so many
children are NEETS and are caught up in ASBOs.
In sum, if parents thought less about getting the
latest car, having umpteen foreign holidays, and
buying the latest (and whiolly unnecessary)
gadgetry, e.g., mobile phones, for their
offspring, etc., etc., and spent more time with
their children, and took an active interest in
what they do, then perhaps the problems which
beset us would be far less in number and severity.

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By: Aaron Brown

Aaron Brown — Fri, 29 Apr 2005 20:01:38 +0000

Vanessa, what I meant was the ‘need to know’ things need to be taught differently, so that they are interesting and do motivate students.

Basically what Mark Gamon said in his comment. Although, I’d argue that the knowledge barely lasts 5 minutes beyond the lesson, let alone to the exam.

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By: Macarnie

Macarnie — Fri, 29 Apr 2005 18:43:17 +0000

Looking at Shakespear’s As you like it, and Jaques’ “The Seven Ages of Man” speech, it is clear that not much has changed since Bard penned that much quoted piece of wisdom. There was the schoolboy who went, “Creeping like snail unwillingly to school”, for example. It rings a bell in 2005 by all accounts( see truancy fidures.). One of your contributors said that teaching is the art of wakening interest in subject seen previously as “stick dry,” or words to that effect .I could not agree more, or as has been said by Boris, ” I could not disagree less.” Get the average child interested in a subject, and the seed is sown for life, even if different plants mature at different speeds. Respect, in both directions, is generally earned at an early stage, it cannot be demanded, if it is to be a genuine feeling. The averagely intelligent child is, by nature, curious about its surroundings, and if there is encouragement, the child is thirsty for knowledge, if served in the right cup, by a person of trust and mutual respect
At the risk of ridicule, if one were to look at the Stats .for pre WWII basic educational standards, there was Ca. 96% literacy at primary and secondary school levels. I doubt, if published figures are to be believed, that this figure will be equalled today. Progress indeed! Schoolteachers had a standing in society, as befits the mentors of our future administrators, managers and work force, as well as the armed services. There was an almost universal respect for the profession. Not today though, it seems that the only interest the Education Authority has in the educator, is the success they achieve in what seems to be randomly set, and apparently useless, targets. Lower the pass mark, get better results and then crow that the pass quota is filled. Bulldust. It is a fact that successive governments, since the enactment of the1944 Education Bill, have not taken into account, see the demise of the grammar school.
As different ships have different cap tallies, so, different children have different abilities. Despite the liberal cry, “Everyone is equal”, it is a fact of life that there are some more academically able than others, as are some more dextrously able than others. It is time that these basic biological and psychological facts were faced, and a proper streaming of those different talents and leanings introduced. There is, I know, some half hearted effort toward that direction being tried in some places, but it is patently not enough. This “One Size Fits All” experiment has, I contend , failed: let us tailor the cloth according to the requirement of the child , and perhaps there will be a return of a fruitful Teacher / Student relationship for all.

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By: Simon Holledge

Simon Holledge — Fri, 29 Apr 2005 16:12:31 +0000

Boris describes the situation well enough, but we need to consider as separate issues, (a) the lack of respect for, and interest in, education (a long term problem in England), (b) the failure of education to keep up with economic and technological change (i.e. the failure to modernize), (c) the failure of successive governments to reform the structure of examinations, and (d) the breakdown of discipline.

Indiscipline is perhaps more of a symptom – indicating that children have lost confidence in the system – than a disease. Stricter management may suppress it but the underlying would problems remain.

I’d speculate that many kids emerge from their schools years angrily aware that they have neither had a proper traditional education, nor have they acquired the kind of modern communication and technical skills to function successfully in the modern world.

Incidentally I’ve been trying to find out how many kids in Britain aged 16 and over have their own computers. Can anybody point me to some figures?

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By: Mark Gamon

Mark Gamon — Fri, 29 Apr 2005 16:08:07 +0000

Got to take issue with something there. Teaching shouldn’t be ‘things that are interesting’ or ‘things you need to know’ – teaching should be ‘making new things interesting’. Doesn’t matter whether it’s Dante or Eminem: a good teacher gives you a soupcon of passion for something that you carry in your head for the rest of your life. Not just to the end of the next exam.

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By: Vanessa

Vanessa — Fri, 29 Apr 2005 13:01:36 +0000

Aaron, I must object to the statement that what is teached today cannot interest or motivate today

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