Friday 26 October 2012

Teachers - huh!?

Let me get this straight: stricter tests proposed for teachers mean that they'll catch out people who can't spell or add up?

And immediately, lefties are claiming that these illiterate, innumerate teachers will go work for academies or free schools?

Can I just point out that these illiterate and innumerate teachers, with degrees, are graduates of the supposedly better teaching system that all you lefties are defending?

Thank you.

7 comments:

microdave said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
microdave said...

The same illiterates who concoct a newspaper headline starting "twenty year sentance for drugs gang"

And yes, it was uncapitalised, in addition to the spelling mistake...

Gitane said...

Schooling is not education.Its about about getting the cheeeldren behaving to a confused and ever shifting set of rules and codes. I have worked with kids who were excluded from school that have amazing cognitive, maths, communication skills. They were often escorted by local cops who wink, wink , nudge, nudge said things like "she's as sharp as needles that one" or "don't play draughts for money with that little fucker, he'll have you". A simple problem of calculation that in a previous class with adults had me scribbling away on the flip chart was solved in minutes by the excluded kids I tutored. When I asked a teacher why X was excluded from school she said it was because he (at 12 years old) stood up in a Sexuality class and stated "I'm bi sexual"; this led to investigations by the school, social workers (with nothing to report) and finally exclusion. This was a a Cof E school. X is very bright and now very lost.

Jill said...

I would say (having two children towards the end of the school system) that the main problem with schools is poor teachers. The curricula are ok. Even the much-maligned exams aren't that bad when you look at them properly (although I'm not a fan of endless re-takes).

Whether this is because the ludicrously bureaucratic system has squeezed all the teaching out of the teachers or because mostly idiotic, box-ticking dullards go into teaching, I'm not sure. But I can count on one hand the number of inspirational, motivational and effective teachers my two children have had in 24 years of school between them.

Having said that, I don't think an English teacher's improved numeracy skills will be part of a solution.

Right problem. Wrong action.

Sackerson said...

@Jill: Your second para has more than a grain of truth in it, I can confirm (having been teaching, on and off, since 1975). Who in their right minds would take it on?

@Obo: Unusually for you, you're reading this naively. Look at the political contaxt. This is another cow-the-teachers "get your heads down" shot from a government in a hurry to change things so that they can show they've finally done something, after ywo years of twiddling their thumbs and Dave's faineant psudo-aspirational emotes on any topical issue (e.g. the EU).

Laura said...

Nowadays, many children meandering through middle school and high school don't even know the basics on surviving in society; and it's all because many teachers don't teach teach the way that they should. Not all are, I was fortunate enough to have dedicated, well-rounded teachers who made sure their students learned, understood the material being taught, and passed the class. All that is really taught now is discipline and rules that are ignored at home.

Bill d'Sarse said...

They don't even do the training they're currently suppose to do;

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/9658675/Teachers-caught-at-wedding-after-sending-children-home-for-staff-development.html


Cunts