Topic: Education today

[Al]

How are children these days supposed to learn proper English grammar when their own teachers (or indeed, wanna-be-teachers, but I digress) send a letter home with 5 mistakes in it? 2 spelling errors and 3 grammatical ones. I wanted to send it back with red pen on, but I was not allowed...

/rant

[devil girl]

oh dear dare i ask which school?

[Al]

oh dear dare i ask which school?

Bitham Brook.

[devil girl]

oh dear

[Debs]

aaahhhh   AL  youre a  man after my own step fathers heart ( write in red but i wasnt allowed )   my step dad used to go through my sons school books when he left bitham brook for john of gaunt in trow and he did mark all the mistakes AND the teachers spelling mistakes in a different colour pen.....
 the notes that used to come back on the same books were...please dont correct anything    or words to that effect....
 i know exactly what you mean..... when my kids were at bitham brook their spelling mistakes werent corrected nor grammer remarked upon either 


p.s  my spelling mistakes arent spelling mistakes just typing errors where my fingers try to keep up with my brain ( hard i know) and get muddled n confused all by themselves 

[Al]

Well, you see, spelling is not "important" at a young age in education, apparently...

[Sector9]

whilst we're on the subject of education...why was I taught at school how to sew and cook (two things that are pretty much common sense)...yet things like first aid, the economy, politics etc - none of these were brought up. I think there's too much focus on pointless crap and not enough focus on real life.

[Al]

whilst we're on the subject of education...why was I taught at school how to sew and cook (two things that are pretty much common sense)...yet things like first aid, the economy, politics etc - none of these were brought up. I think there's too much focus on pointless crap and not enough focus on real life.

There is to little taught of the fundamentals of anything. Its not until University that you actually learn more than "trust me on this bit". What we need are 12 hour school days, 6 days a week with shorter holidays so they can fit it all in

Back on the original topic, I apparently am not allowed to write to the Headmaster and suggest that the next teacher training day should be used to teach basic English...

[and yes, I am well aware I do not speak proper and my grammar is not tip-top, but I'm not teaching the next generation.]

[Rosebud]

In that case what i would do is copy the work and send it to ofsted, they surley have to take notice that the school is not teaching correctly

[Al]

In that case what i would do is copy the work and send it to ofsted, they surley have to take notice that the school is not teaching correctly

Rosebud - I have no problem with the Schools teaching, indeed I very much like the teachers I have meet. Its the National Curriculum I take issue with, which schools themselves have to follow through no fault of their own. Fixing my "issues" though would be, err, fun. I don't think my views would be at all popular

[cuthbert-murray]

it is utterly appaling that teachers are unable to spell or use their wisdom to know better than write anything which is not correct on any pupils text books and really i would pull the head teacher over on this matter, wether they liked it or not a school is there for educational needs of our young and the staff working within this system should be making sure all correspondence between them and the pupils is 100% correct.
furthermore speaking last summer to the last years students in matravers not one of them had heard of the industrial revolution, the spinning jenny , stephensons rocket etc, as the subject is not taught anymore BIZZARE the empire who invented the tv telephone electricity etc they are not taught the importance of the history of everything we use and live in todays world and how it came about, one lad thought tv came from taiwan i was impressed he even had heard of taiwain , and his face when i had told him it was john logie baird was a picture , as the inventor was a brittish person, how on earth are we to believe in the future of our childrens education when the world started to them with the EEC and Britains entry only on the history curriculum
that is only one subject how much more is lacking from the curiculum in the whole education process for todays kids

[Debs]

Well, you see, spelling is not "important" at a young age in education, apparently...

wasnt important at age 11 at john of gaunt either Al or matravers a year later 

if they arent corrected from the start then surely they will go on making the s ame mistakes throughout..... you cant tell someone that a word is ok when its spelt wrongly then a few years down the road start telling them its wrong and giving them bad marks for it.....
self esteem is what its trying to improve i guess...when i was working at the pre school we werent allowed to tell a child "that was wrong" or "youre first, youre second and youre thrid " ..it all had to be positive and not single out an particular child for praise    ( i think you should reward the good even if it is just with  praise, i dont believe in rewrding the bad at all  which certainly goes on)
how does a child learn to cope with being second or last or not being the best or perfect if they arent allowed to "be it"  life is full of knocks be they small or huge ones, the sooner you learn t o cope and deal with them the better off everyone will be... and if that starts with having your books marked and corrected with the spelling mistakes and grammar then so be it      my opinion obviously