Off: Right To Decide et. al.

[CWarburton at OAG.COM]

y'know, I thought this might stir things up (knowing Mr. Holmes as I do
;-{)> )
So I thought I'd have my 2p worth...
> ------------------------------
> From:    M Holmes <fofp at HOLYROOD.ED.AC.UK>
> Ted Jackson writes:
>
> > I suppose it's the lefties that are responsible for spying on
> > peoples reading habits here at my library, or the lefties who
> > were responsible for all those new video cameras at just about every
> > intersection.
>
> Certainly our lefties in the UK are rather keen on them. Blunkett has
> yet to suggest keeping recods of what we read, but it wouldn't be out of
> haracter for him. If you're sugesting hwever that I'm a fan of either
> Bush or Ashcroft then you're very much mistaken.

Wakey-wakey Mike, what on earth gives you the idea that Blunkett is a lefty
- OK, so he used to be the head-lad in the Socialist Republic of South
Yorkshire (that's Sheffield for you furriners!), but like so many of his
fellows in the Labour party (Straw, Blair, Clarke...) he's swung so hard
right it's a wonder he's not spinning with his guide dog orbiting on the end
of its lead!


> => > Now if you want to talk about loony, why not have a butchers at "No
> => > Child Left Behind," where children are mandated not to be sick
because
> => > perfect attendance is required to be in compliance... :-\

They have a similar kind of policy on my daughter's BTEC course - I
understand the sentiment but the way it's implemented is bonkers!

As for the standards in education issue - as somebody with two teenage kids,
I am left speechless by the low academic standards of todays exams, and at
the way that the drive to have "continuous improvement" means that we are
reaching a point where soon it will be almost impossible to differentiate
between students on the basis of their academic results.  We're already at a
point where GCSE (exams at 16) results are being taken into consideration by
some Unis, how long before they're looking at the age 12 & 14
assessments...madness - maybe it's time we went back to the old "shift the
bell curve method" that at least meant you could differentiate between the
members of a year group.  A teacher friend of mine commented that his
students were no longer interested in finding out how to derive a solution
to a problem, they just wanted to "know what the answer was" for the
purposes of the exam.  Bye-bye Socratic method!

> => Not what I said and I'm pro free speech for everyone from Stalinist
> => Communist right through to the National Front.

I'll (mostly) go along with that too; although some of these people may have
distasteful views, if they air them in public, you can argue against them,
and you know who the buggers are!
That said, during my time in Belgium, I was quite shocked at some of the
things that were said at dinner tables in ostensibly "polite company"!  It
was a reminder that cultural norms in one country can be way different to
another, even in Western Europe.

</rant>

ChrisW