Biggest laugh of the year

[alan refail]

I was amused yesterday to read the article on the front page of the Telegraph yesterday headlined Children must learn their times tables by age of nine on Coalition plans to "radically toughen up the National Curriculum".

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/89 ... -nine.html

Fair play: it would be a good idea, though I seem to recall that when I went into Miss Butterworth's class when I was six we started on a vigorous regime of table learning and spelling tests. Of course, some learnt and some didn't! The former went to the Grammar school, the latter to the Secondary Modern.

My real laugh came later in the article when I read this:
"A new-style English curriculum may also lead to the introduction of distinct lessons in grammar and more rigorous reading lists covering Homer, Sophocles and Shakespeare amid fears too many pupils are “limited to a diet of John Steinbeck”."

Grammar: fine! But Sophocles! Gawd 'elp us! Have these people actually read Sophocles? Plays about patricide and incest - and it's ancient Greek not English. And Homer; he's all about murder and warfare - and Greek into the bargain. Strange too how Steinbeck, one of the most gifted and most difficult American writers of the 20th century, is derided.

But I suppose education at Eton must be different from here in the real world

[peter]

If I was in charge of education I'd be more worried about the households that do not possess a even a single book and the children leaving school illiterate and innumerate.

[glallotments]

In primary I always taught tables and grammar - it's in the present National Curriculum. During the trendy period when we were told not to teach tables and spelling etc. I used to just stop any lessons where I taught those things whenever the inspector called! Ideas were forever going round and round with people thinking they had invented a new way - the best thing was to just keep your head down and get on with what you thought was right!

I was always of the opinion that getting children to enjoy reading anything was what we should aim for - even if that meant comics just to get them reeled in!

The pity came when the national Curriculum filled up the timetable and there was no room for cooking or the art and craft lessons that raised the self esteem of those children that were less able academically. Surely every child should learn to cook!

[jane E]

They are very out of date. I have not long retired from primary teaching and tables have been part of the maths curriculum for years. All my 9 year olds knew most of their tables - we spent a short amount of time on it almost every day. I made sure that ALL the children I taught knew 8x7 and 7x8 = 56 and NOT 54 as the Secretary of State of quite a few years ago answered a reporter. We did spelling groups and many pupils left school with spelling ages well beyond their age. Simple grammar is part of the English curriculum too and was taught. The problem was not with today's children but yesterday's children - ie. the teachers, who had not been taught grammar and had to learn it from scratch in order to teach it.

I have very little time for politicians who, having been to school, think they know all about educating children. I had a student once in my class who was fairly confident. She was handling the children well and managing some flow to her teaching, so I decided to put in another layer and asked her to incorporate more use of IT, which she did. I then asked her to be aware of the different types of learners (kinaesthetic, visual and aural) and to review her teaching methods to appeal to all these. At last I asked her what assessment methods she was using as she taught. She responded with " I was keeping 2 balls in the air and you threw me a third, then a fourth and now the fifth is going to bring them all crashing down!" A good teacher makes the whole process look effortless, but she is working constantly at many, many levels of multitasking. The children are wellbehaved and are learning. Put a less good teacher in there and you soon find out what the little horrors are really like!!

[alan refail]

No English teachers among us who've tried teaching Sophocles, then?

[Elaine]

I think it's downright criminal of parents who don't introduce their children to books from a very early age.
I read to my son almost from babyhood...I can still recite "Chicken Licken" and the like! My son is now 32 years old and is an avid reader...though he now has a Kindle. As he is in the RAF, and space in his room is not very generous,it's easier for him to use this gadget.
I declined when he asked if I would like one for Christmas..I love books and would sorely miss turning pages....not to mention hours of browsing in the book store/library.

[snooky]

When my children went to Infant school in the late-70's we,as parents,were actively discouraged from teaching them to read,write,tables etc.Needless to say we ignored this advice!!The reason given was that the school didn't want some children in advance of the less bright children.
The Headmaster of the Primary school insisted that all the children learned to write in the italic form and not the round,ruining many a child's handwriting.

[glallotments]

They weren't in my class then Snooky!

I was made to write in italic at primary school too - when I moved to secondary the teachers laughed and asked was I training to be a monk.

I had to create a new style for myself as I just couldn't write fast enough to take notes etc.