Michael Gove decides to teach all British children himself..

[Germy Bugger]

Gove wants to get on the train I'm in. A 6/7 year old child has just asked his mum why he is being taught about other languages like French. The mothers reply.
"don't know, this is bloody England should be learning English."

[An Absent Humphrey]

This reminds me of a conversation I had a day or two back with one of the local tradesmen who'd come round to fix the boiler. We got into discussing Bill Gates, whose considerable fortune had recently been in the news.

'Lucky sod,' said the engineer.

'Ah,' I replied, 'faber est suae quisque fortunae,' I said, quoting from the classics.

'Eh?' he said.

'It's latin,' I told him. 'each man makes his own fortune.'

'We didn't do latin at my school,' he scowled.

'Oh, did you do Greek at yours then?' I asked.

I heard him mumbling something under his breath. Well, really!

[Duff]

I find myself in the unusual position of agreeing with Broney. While a labour government brought in the first comprehensive schools, it was demand from the middle classes that got rid of grammar schools, not the Left. Both the Cons and New Labour have to take their fair share of the blame for the piss poor managing of the British education system though.

[Ar-Pharazon]

Thank fuck Gove has limited effect on our school system.

His priorities seem so far up his own arse that this is the only reason them come out of his mouth

[Ace From Outer Space]

I don't know what all the fuss is about? As far as I'm concerned, Govey is more than welcome to teach the kids as many new and interesting ways to tell him how to go and fuck himself as he can. Fucking knock yourself out Michael! Then our nations children will be able to do what most of our adults do.

I don't know a single teacher who supports Gove.

[mcfonz]

To be quite honest, the past isn't the answer and the direction Gove is pushing the education system in isn't either.

The past required the 11+ system which fails on so many levels, and pigeon holed people into categories that impacted on the rest of their lives.

At this point, I couldn't give a flying fuck who fucked up the education system, if indeed it is that fucked up. What I don't like is some utter cunting prick who clearly hasn't got much of a clue, demoralising an already heavily under pressure system.

OFSTED have become ridiculously tight.

Example: The wife's school has had good inspection results for a couple of years now. The last one they had highlighted something to do with statistics three years ago . . . . and they were going to put them into special measures for it until she gave em two barrels.

OFSTED are not supposed to go into schools with a political outcome already in their heads. The data they were criticising was inspected twice before this inspection and deemed to be fine. This is all because of Gove.

The education system probably does need an overhaul. But the biggest issue for me is post 16 education. It's largely unregulated and therefore the quality at times is questionable. The lecturers for the degree I completed in Farnham were woeful. I spent two years effectively going over the GCSE,A-Level and Foundation level work I had spent the previous five years doing at school/college.

[Citizen Sade]

I'm sure Gove would appreciate your input on how to fix our broken system, mcfonz.

The past required the 11+ system which fails on so many levels, and pigeon holed people into categories that impacted on the rest of their lives.

Don't forget that it worked for many smart working class kids. From six old grammar school kids of my close acquaintance, all from very modest backgrounds, we ended up with a managing director, a partner in a civil engineering firm, a head mistress & a research chemist.

Do state schools achieve that level of social mobility these days? If not, what can be done to achieve similar outcomes for those who can't afford to go private?

[mcfonz]

What the 11+ doesn't address though, is the fact that people develop at different paces, some are at expected levels some aren't, some exceed them.

I'm sure there are many examples of how it worked, there are also a lot of examples of how it didn't work. When it comes to the young people I work with, all of them would most likely have failed the 11+ through no fault of their own, missing years of education due to the result of poor parenting, loss of some form or another (death/divorce etc) or just been out right abused.

I was a good couple of years behind at middle-school due to not being able to deal with my own parents divorce well. At high school, some of the teachers recognised I had ability, stuck me in the top set, sat me next to the most able kids in my year and got me to learn off them as well as the teachers. I was quickly up and running at a much higher level leading to me going on eventually, to a degree.

Through the old system I would have failed my 11+ and be shoe-horned and had my future life choices drastically reduced. In fact the choices that were open to me would not have been the same at all.

I do think everyone should be able to choose their own future as people do develop at different rates and some do not think about what they really want to be until high school age.

Gove is just a mega twat.

[Hermit]

That was the idea of abolishing the 11+ and going for the full comprehensive system. So that the less able kids would benefit from the smarter ones, but from my own personal experience, it just didn't work. The ones that pissed about in class and did fuck all tended to drag everyone else down with them and any decent teachers that existed usually gave up and became nothing more than workers in a factory school system, where kids were placed on one end of a conveyer belt, the same curriculum bottons pressed on each one, and then spat out at the other end when they turned 16.

The 11+ had it's many problems, true, but it was the only hope of self-improvement to those from poorer backgrounds. One of the many problems it had was that poor kids who did pass their 11+ and had a chance of going to grammar school still couldn't because they couldn't afford to. If problems like that were re-addressed and financial support given to these kids, then it would offer more the chance of improving their lives.

Then there's the 11+ itself. If it ever did come back, it would need to be closely regulated and changed. There would also have to be two versions of it. One for academical ability, and the other for practical.

But there probably needs to be a complete overhaul of the education system where all political parties and teachers get together and decide on one workable system. Such a system would then be set in stone and the only difference between the parties policy on it would be how much of the budget they were spending on it. But, sadly, the world just isn't that perfect, is it?

I also fully agree that Gove is a twat.

[mcfonz]

I have to admit my bias though. My mum is a teacher of 40ish years, my wife is a deputy head teacher and my sister is a course tutor at a local (literally in these parts, it specialises in horticulture and animal care etc) college.

My mum has worked mainly as a specialist tutor for the last decade after many years in the primary school system. She lost faith in it when in her words 'we were told not to teach anymore'. She felt a lot of tools and direction were taken away from teachers and schools in favour of a very streamlined 'fits all' system. To that extent she'd probably agree with you Hermitt.

We need the best of both and something new.

The problem with Gove is that he is fucking clueless - not unlike some of his colleagues really.