General discussion about the latest news (not search related)

[Mr Gray]

Each year the intake was around 200 new students, but what has that got to do with the price of chips?

Do you understand words like elective, optional and mandatory?  If so, why are you churning out dross?

My Latin class was perhaps 25 to 30 pupils.  It was still the only one for my year.

How many times?

So not everyone... Those that were illiterate... Took Latin... So your Latin master had nothing to worry about

[Venturi Swirl]

Davel is proposing that everyone in my year was forced to take Latin, when I have repeatedly made clear this was not the case.

It wasn’t a question.

[Mr Gray]

On one reading of that 3 A's today could be seen as equal to 3 C's in your time. In other words A Levels are not as valuable as they used to be.

That's your interpretation and opinion... Not mine

Mine is that it is a sign that education is not dumbed down... We are still producing probably more professionals... So sil is wrong on that count too

[Mr Gray]

Davel is proposing that everyone in my year was forced to take Latin, when I have repeatedly made clear this was not the case.

I've never said anyone was forced to

[ShiningInLuz]

So not everyone... Those that were illiterate... Took Latin... So your Latin master had nothing to worry about

You might like to retype your response, because it is meaningless.   

[ShiningInLuz]

I've never said anyone was forced to

100 students in a year = 100 students in Latin?

Of course you did!   

[Mr Gray]

100 students in a year = 100 students in Latin?

Of course you did!   

Cite for the word forced.... You need to read my posts precisely... Not add your own words and interpretations to them... And then imagine that's what I have said..

[Mr Gray]

You might like to retype your response, because it is meaningless.   

Meaningless to you... Not to others

[Mr Gray]

We are now firmly in the good old days.

When I was at secondary school it was forced to switch from selective, based on scholastic ability, to comprehensive, so everyone had identical access.

Our Latin teacher was distraught.  How was she supposed to teach Latin, when a fair chunk of the new intake could not read or write English?

A couple of years on and one of those cheeky chappies burned down the school gym in a deliberate act of arson.  Fortunately, the gym was separate from the other school buildings.

Did your Latin teacher not realise Latin was elective and he would not have to teach it to everyone

[Venturi Swirl]

In my school (posh boarding school) you were either bright and did Latin or dim and did DS.  I had to do Latin but would have gained so many more life skills from DS, so I feel I was somewhat disadvantaged by my high intelligence.

[Erngath]

In my school (posh boarding school) you were either bright and did Latin or dim and did DS.  I had to do Latin but would have gained so many more life skills from DS, so I feel I was somewhat disadvantaged by my high intelligence.

I'm dim.
What's DS.
Domestic Science?

[Venturi Swirl]

I'm dim.
What's DS.
Domestic Science?

Yes.  Cooking and that.  The girls who did DS were always very popular on a Friday afternoon as they usually had made something quite tasty that they were willing to share, and which always knocked spots off school teas which were inadequate and vile.

[Erngath]

I have no idea what the current primary system is like, so i'm not going to debate that.

My own experience at primary school was no streaming.  Classes simply weren't big enough to support such a notion.

I remember one occasion when the teacher hoiked myself and one other boy up to the front of the class to have a long-division race on the blackboard.

My parents were working class with little formal education.  We were never well-off, but we never went short.

My opponent came from a very large family that could only be described as dirt poor.  He would often turn up dressed like a Charles Dickens ragamuffin.  I don't know whether he got enough to eat.

He struggled academically, quite possibly due to his adverse family situation.

The long-division race began.  I won, but only by a nose.

The teacher must have twigged that though this boy struggled with other areas of his schooling, he had a natural affinity for long division, of all things.  She had given him his chance to shine.

I have a very good idea of the Primary Education System from the 1950's to the present and there is no doubt in my mind that it is vastly superior now.

[Venturi Swirl]

I have a very good idea of the Primary Education System from the 1950's to the present and there is no doubt in my mind that it is vastly superior now.

Undoubtedly true, and teachers are no longer allowed to beat kids with sticks either which is a marked improvement. 

[ShiningInLuz]

Did your Latin teacher not realise Latin was elective and he would not have to teach it to everyone

Our Latin teacher was a she, though that is not important.

She was obliged to attempt to teach Latin to everyone who elected to take it.

That's the whole point of her original comment.

You appear to enjoy going round in circles.