tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8565737623121795004.post376154544806569430..comments2023-11-29T13:13:23.022+00:00Comments on newgate news: Three unmentionable pachyderms - or why children failMacheathhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04451439759398780345noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8565737623121795004.post-2066779394705036582010-09-08T08:54:33.753+01:002010-09-08T08:54:33.753+01:00Demetrius, for decades now, teachers have been tol...Demetrius, for decades now, teachers have been told not to correct pupils' grammar, or to influence their vocabulary, as this might be patronising or - worse - racist.<br /><br />The result? Compared to their counterparts in, say, India or Africa, British children interviewed on television are models of sullen inarticulacy. A recent documentary on teenage mothers even saw fit to include subtitles even though the subjects were all English.<br /><br />JuliaM, indeed; sadly the ivory-tower educational theorists never dirty their hands with actual classroom teaching (beyond visits to hand-picked pupils with class teachers in attendance) so they'll never know.<br /><br />They're onto a winner - if all children achieve the same, the theory was right; if they don't, there were environmental factors at work.Macheathhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04451439759398780345noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8565737623121795004.post-18229550925748592672010-09-08T05:34:57.212+01:002010-09-08T05:34:57.212+01:00"Current orthodoxy is that all 'learners&...<i>"Current orthodoxy is that all 'learners'* are born equal, with the same capacity for achievement..."</i><br /><br />The triumph of hope over experience...JuliaMhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07844126589712842477noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8565737623121795004.post-34430896808697322012010-09-07T15:05:42.506+01:002010-09-07T15:05:42.506+01:00At the risk of sounding philosophical the crux of ...At the risk of sounding philosophical the crux of the issue could be language. In my view for much of the population in the last couple of generations or so, there has been a distinct deterioration. The structure, the vocabulary and the ability to cope with conceptual matters all seem to have been lost for many youngsters.Demetriushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17198549581667363991noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8565737623121795004.post-14278059377640031442010-09-07T13:15:05.471+01:002010-09-07T13:15:05.471+01:00So who is "learning" from whom here?
BI...<i>So who is "learning" from whom here?</i><br /><br />BIIK*.<br /><br />Which is, delightfully, the reply of my son's (excellent) teacher to any question about school policy - the good ones are still out there, but most of them have defected <i>en masse</i> to the private sector, as the state apparatchiks hounded out the giftedly sarcastic, the bangs-and-smoke scientists and any Oxbridge graduate unwise enough to venture into the staffroom of an 11-16 comp.<br /><br />And reading <a href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article7034975.ece" rel="nofollow">this</a> from Harriet Sergeant, one can see why:<br /><br /><i>'They viewed inculcating attributes such as lucidity, spelling, grammar, punctuality and manners as “patronising”. They feared anything that smacked of the didactic. “I am not a teacher. I am a facilitator,” said one teacher primly. The head of another school insisted she was a “head learner” rather than a headmistress. </i><br /><br />*B*ggered if I knowMacheathhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04451439759398780345noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8565737623121795004.post-81181622068687047162010-09-07T11:32:18.610+01:002010-09-07T11:32:18.610+01:00I will admit to never being likely to win the worl...<i> I will admit to never being likely to win the world English grammar awards, </i><br /><br />Or the spelling whilst typing one either.Furor Teutonicushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13856575077967523322noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8565737623121795004.post-66110615610322411982010-09-07T11:31:29.014+01:002010-09-07T11:31:29.014+01:00designate themselves 'facilitators and learner...<i> designate themselves 'facilitators and learners', and school heads to adopt the title 'Head Learner'.</i><br /><br />So who is "laerning" from whom here?<br /><br />I will admit to never being likely to win the world English grammar awards, but something just seems grammatically WRONG with that.....????Furor Teutonicushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13856575077967523322noreply@blogger.com