Charles Clarke or Charles Windsor?

[slimjim]

Who is right on education? CW complains about a "child-centred system which admits no failure and tells people they can achieve greatness without putting in the necessary effort or having the natural abilities". CC says "To be quite frank I think he is very old-fashioned and out of time and he doesn't understand what is going on in the British education system".

[Oneeyedvic]

Charles Windsor every time - as I said in a previous thread - I have interviewed someone for a secretarial job who had an A in GCSE English and could not differentiate between 'they're', 'their' and 'there'.

 

Whilst I think I may be setting myself up here (people can say that I have made plenty of spelling mistakes on my AB questions and answers) I do feel that I would be a little more pedantic on a typing test for an interview.

 

School sports days which are non-competitive.......

 

....only in England (or maybe Britain - I am not sure)

[andy hughes]

They are both wrong. Charles W seems unable to assimilate the fact that he is hier to the throne by an accident of birth, and his succession is totally unconnected with any personal skills he may, or may not, possess. Chrales Clarke is one more of a suc cession of Education Ministers who have steadily dismantled the education system in the last fifty years, enforcing a culture of 'targets' at the expense of even basic three r's skills. Both are out of touch, ill-informed, ill-qualified, and fond of the sound of their own voices. At least Charles has no direct effect on children - apart from his own ... nuff said. 

[DickieD]

The only thing that is going on in British education is vast quantities of local taxpayers money vanishing with little to show for it. In my local Chinese takeaway I often see the Chinese counter lady filling in cheques for younger customers who can't spell words like 'forty' and 'December'.

Until quite recently I taught an engineering subject to young people, supposedly the brighter ones. Many seemed to have no concept of even basic arithmetic. In calculating the Safe Working Load of a hoist for lifting small aircraft components out came the calculators. The answers ranged from 10 kgs to 1000 tonnes, yet none could see that the item was hardly likely to weigh more than 500 kgs. I ended up re-teaching arithmetic. (As well as how to hold a pen properly).

We are told that one in four British adults is functionally illiterate. In the Czech Republic less than 1% of the population are illiterate. In the Far East you see kids doing their homework even whilst helping their parents run market stalls in the evening. They are almost born with the will to learn.

In the end it's all due to the teachers being hamstrung by human rights and not able to enforce any discipline. Thus the classes sink to the level of the greatest disrupter. The rise of welfarism also plays a part - 'why should I learn? I won't starve if I learn nothing at school.'

CW might have Edwardian views on education (as well as no designer stubble), but he's right. Unless we can turn back the clock and re-introduce Edwardian values, which seems unlikely, then Britain is finished.

[bernardo]

I agree with Prince Charles (not "Charles Windsor", as you called him).

[Oneeyedvic]

A paying attention notices that Bernaro doesnot agree with Charles Clarke - so probably not Labour then...........

[jenstar]

Ooooh, Bernardo got it wrong too! His proper title is "Charles, Prince of Wales" and not "Prince Charles".

[saffstar]

Shouldn't there be an HRH in front of that jenstar lol!

[CHOPS'R'US]

Just a thought really, but i think if they actually taught us how to live our lives and how to deal with finance etc at school as well as filling pupils with a majority of useless info that most will never use they may actually be able to look after themselves abit better. As a soceity we stick our noses up far too much at pupils who are illiterate fair enough if they don't give a toss and don't try i don't have ther time of day for them either but the these days we should be taught how to live for the first 7 years of our lives and how to play and simple things like sharing etc and the importance of communication. They teach these things but not to the extent that they really should. When i was a kid my sister and i used to be out and about all the time, OK there  were computer games about but we had better things to be doing that sitting round playing on that all day or watching TV. It is amazing how tihngs have changed even within the last 10 years. I think as whole we are very behind the times with education and teaching. My dad's best mate is a teacher and has been for 20 years he completely agrees with me and also stated that there is a huge rise in kids with emotional problems than there ever has been and family issues that affect and they act up at achool to get the attention they crave and lack getting at home! The whole system needs to sorted out big time as it is only going to get worse. As for the 2 Charles neither have a clue!!..................

[robbieh]

I think starting with changing the OFSTED inspections would be a good idea. Spontaneous tests would be much better than what they do. When i was at school, the teachers would plan the lessons for the inspections a long time before hand. Thus when the lessons inspections came round, the lessons were so well planned and the contents of the lesson was something that we knew like the back of our hands. Even the bad teachers looked good as a result. The teachers wouldn't be worrying for months in advance and the poorer quality teachers would be identified easier. Whilst there are a lot of kids out there who don;t deserve to be at school considering the way they behave, through personal experience, I can say that some of the teachers themselves need to retrain or change career paths. I also believe the reintroduction of Grammar Schools would help the better pupils too.