In article , Stan The Man
writes
In article , mich
wrote:

"Stan The Man" wrote in message
...


Kay wrote:

Secondly, in what way are standards declining? My children are learning
things that I didn't learn till much later in life.

This must be a rhetorical question since you seem, below, to accept
that there has been a dumbing down of educational standards.

No, it is not a rhetorical question. Where have I accepted that there is
a dumbing down? None of what you have quoted below was written by me.

Maybe they do learn things about modern life that I wasn't taught. But
they learn less of English and mathematics than in my day. I have often
been shocked to see the uncorrected errors in my children's homework
after marking. Punctuation, grammar, mental arithmetic and more are way
too far down the list of teaching priorities nowadays.

OK if you want someone to balme for this - dont blame the poor teacher who
stands in front of a class every day being called a c***, a t***** a p***
artist, a s*** , a w***** and suffers all kinds of verbal and physical abuse
as well as threats - blame the national curriculum, blame the fact we ( yes
I am a teacher and have taught in classrooms) have no means of sanction
over the childrens behaviour, and most of all blame INCLUSION ( putting SEN
and EBD kids into ordinary classrooms). This is robbing your children of the
attention and the lessons they need. Whilst a teacher is dealing with a
disruptive, statemented EBD child who really shouldnt be in school, she or
he cannot help your kid.

I don't blame teachers exclusively. The whole system of state education
has gone rotten since I left school in 1966. In those days I was afraid
of being caned (or strapped, in Scotland) by the headmaster; and beaten
by my father. And afraid of failing. So I mostly behaved. We didn't
have to rely on PTAs for text books and we didn't need huge student
loans in order to get a degree. We even had sports fields. Exam
questions, at every age, were much more demanding than they are now and
marking was definitely less generous.

Also blame the dumbing own of educational standards on the same thing. The
system you understand and was educated in was one of meritocracy,
sponsorship and eliteism ( if you were not good enough you would fail the
exam) now we have a mass education system where everything is certificated
and children are not expected to fail anything. if all they can do is write
their name at the top of a bit of paper , we have to certificate it as a
bloody achievement ( for some it is).

Universities now have special needs depts to support students with poor
literacy and numeracy skills. 20 years ago they would not have been in
university , let alone taking nad being awarded degrees.

That is a politcal decision, not an educational one.

And bad politics surely fails to create the environment to attract good
people to the teaching profession. My father got such immense
satisfaction from his students' A level grades: I simply can't believe
that the same levels of achievement and job satisfaction are possible
today.

rant over.

Methinks we're way off topic by now - although my father was a botanist.

Simon

--
Kay Easton

Edward's earthworm page:
http://www.scarboro.demon.co.uk/edward/index.htm