Ot Rant

[spg]

Is it me or is it getting dumbed down.

Eldest daughter (13) asked for help with Her home work btw she is in the top flight maths group way above the rest so they say.

 

Create a formula based on white squares surrounded by red squares ie 1 white is surrround by 8 red 2 white 10 red 3 white 12 red and so on.

 

Now tbh without being big headed it's so simple to me / not being a maths teacher I had trouble explianing it to her .

 

So after about 3/4s of an hour managed to get Her to understand for every 1 extra white square theres extra 2 reds, But when it came to the +6 bit no chance.

 

Also when it came to putting the equation in terms of x, y and c's I may as well have been speaking alien.

 

Is it me or they teaching to the level of the the dumbest to make the statistics look good.

 

On the bright side She can spell.

 

Rant over

 

Steve

[Knock-on]

I think that basic Algebra is about getting people to understand how formulas work rather that solve mathamatical problems.

 

If the child can visualise that a total increses by 2 if you add a extra block and then associate this with a formula then you're getting the concept accross.

 

Think about when they first learned to read. "The Cat sat in the Hat" might not have been the longest words in your childs vocabulary but they needed to know the basics first.

 

There might be a lesson there for Hoodie builders about doing the basics well if you want a successful build. Now, where is the Flux Capacitor

[Guest peter2b2002]

when I took my exams they looked at the results and if the exam seemed easy ( lots got 80-90% correct) they moved the pass mark up so only those over 75% got a A grade , if it was hard (60-70% )they moved the A grade down so those who 65%got an A grade ,now it seems any one getting 25% gets an "a" grade

peter2b

[Bob Tucker]

I've always thought the point of exams was simply to grade those taking them.

 

It'd be far more palatable to have six (or so) grades, instead of a black & white pass/fail.

I just don't see the point of giving 95% of the people sitting exams a pass.

 

Obviously not a view held by current politicians or educationalists.

 

Bob (2 "O" levels......and a budgerigar!)

[spg]

Can't help but think that the brighter kids are being deliberatly held back abit to make the rest look smarter.

 

Mind you most of her science lessons last year involved watching CSI investigates.

 

No wonder the countrys going to pot.

 

Steve

[Guest The Modfather]

Did someone mention Pot? We'll have none of that 'ere sonny

 

I left skool with 5 CSE's as I had already passed my entrants exam into the Royal Navy, so I had no need in doing O's and A's. My step son is in his last year of school and his exams are approaching fast. Does he revise? Nope, the next level on Call of Duty is more important to him. I have had enough of telling him to revise, so what did he do last Saturday? Up at 8am, straight on the Xbox, apparently does 1 hour of revision, before going back on line. The missus moans at me for keeping on at him, but for some reason he fails to see the importance.

I think the kids of today do have an easier life and expect more to be done for them, as everything is made easier for them to achieve as you say, example; the exam results. However, I feel that this gives a false sense of security, as when they get out to the big world, they are going to be so shocked that they now have to do everything, and no other bugger will do it for them.

 

Welcome to the party, pal

 

Anyone want a step son? Doesn't wash up, hoover, clean, help mum in any way shape or form, but is amazingly good on Xbox..........

[fry61]

What's Xbox & what happened to calculus?? that's what my "O" levels finished on--- make him get a paper round or some such job, they all need to earn some of what they spaend so easily; old *art going back to the garage now,but still muttering.

[tendoshingan]

Being a teacher in a college, I can speak from experience.

Sorry for this rant but I just have to.

The grades are a complete joke and the academic structure is a joke.

It is not the students' fault nor, for that matter, the teachers. It is the stupid way that the targets are passed down and the curriculum changed to accommodate better results.

In the old days (I was the last of the breed to do "O" levels) the results were given on a normal scale. So your exams were adjusted to give a certain percentage of A's, a certain percentage of B's, and so on with almost everyone having to pass the lower pass mark. This method is still done with accountancy exams and university exams.

Now however, there is so much coursework that exam results are almost redundant.

I was a reader in a maths GCSE and several of the questions I felt embarrassed to ask the student!

Such as: here is a line, using a ruler measure it.

or: here is a train timetable, what time does the 3.30 arrive from London?

what time does the train arriving at Waterloo at 12.00 leave Reading.

I am even teaching on courses that any monkey could be trained to do. Whereas they used to be regarded as quite skillful, the BTEC national diploma in engineering is now ridiculed. Universities are now saying that they do not accept this on its own for entry. The students have to have an extra A level, even though it is supposed to be worth 3 A levels.

Regarding BTEC, I constantly get e-mails from them telling me to enrol my students on their online courses so that they can pass BTEC Dplomas. Or they can buy the official books for the course that are published by Pearson Group (who happen to own BTEC) talk about conflict of interest.

I even offered the car maintenance teachers my Rover V8 for the students to use and I was told that the car mechanics course does not involve working on the engine!!!

 

My biggest irritation is the whole A* debacle.

This to me is just a version of Spinal Taps "but it goes to 11" and annoys the hell out of me whenever I hear that someone has A* grades. Just click here for a laugh

 

Not wishing to sound elitist but as for the governments want of 50% of school leavers going to University, the only way this should happen is if, of those 50%, 10% are employed as admin staff, and 10% are employed as cleaners.

Academia is a skill, the same as being a timeserved mechanic/plumber/electrician or being a professional sportsperson. As soon as the government realise that then we would be a lot better off.

 

I for one would love to kick a ball like John Terry (and earn his money) but sadly I am lacking that skill (and interest).

Right rant over hopefully I won't kill one of my students this afternoon.

[Guest John Walton]

Being a teacher in a college, I can speak from experience.

Sorry for this rant but I just have to.

The grades are a complete joke and the academic structure is a joke.

It is not the students' fault nor, for that matter, the teachers. It is the stupid way that the targets are passed down and the curriculum changed to accommodate better results.

In the old days (I was the last of the breed to do "O" levels) the results were given on a normal scale. So your exams were adjusted to give a certain percentage of A's, a certain percentage of B's, and so on with almost everyone having to pass the lower pass mark. This method is still done with accountancy exams and university exams.

Now however, there is so much coursework that exam results are almost redundant.

I was a reader in a maths GCSE and several of the questions I felt embarrassed to ask the student!

Such as: here is a line, using a ruler measure it.

or: here is a train timetable, what time does the 3.30 arrive from London?

what time does the train arriving at Waterloo at 12.00 leave Reading.

I am even teaching on courses that any monkey could be trained to do. Whereas they used to be regarded as quite skillful, the BTEC national diploma in engineering is now ridiculed. Universities are now saying that they do not accept this on its own for entry. The students have to have an extra A level, even though it is supposed to be worth 3 A levels.

Regarding BTEC, I constantly get e-mails from them telling me to enrol my students on their online courses so that they can pass BTEC Dplomas. Or they can buy the official books for the course that are published by Pearson Group (who happen to own BTEC) talk about conflict of interest.

I even offered the car maintenance teachers my Rover V8 for the students to use and I was told that the car mechanics course does not involve working on the engine!!!

 

My biggest irritation is the whole A* debacle.

This to me is just a version of Spinal Taps "but it goes to 11" and annoys the hell out of me whenever I hear that someone has A* grades. Just click here for a laugh

 

Not wishing to sound elitist but as for the governments want of 50% of school leavers going to University, the only way this should happen is if, of those 50%, 10% are employed as admin staff, and 10% are employed as cleaners.

Academia is a skill, the same as being a timeserved mechanic/plumber/electrician or being a professional sportsperson. As soon as the government realise that then we would be a lot better off.

 

I for one would love to kick a ball like John Terry (and earn his money) but sadly I am lacking that skill (and interest).

Right rant over hopefully I won't kill one of my students this afternoon.

 

Johns Wife here - He's given me his kind permission to reply,

 

I completly agree wth the education standards going to the wall. I had studied for two years nurseing and had been told the qualification was high enough for medical school entrance but found out in the second year that the nurseing diploma was'nt even equivelent to A level standard, So left in the second year to pursue a path of graduate entrance and took and Hons degree - now this is where it gets interesting, the Hons degree is being taught at a regional college so knowing I had to take A levels as well (at the same time) I applied for Maths, Chem and Biology. The Regional college then removed the A level programme as "It only produced C grade students which were not worth as much money as BTEC students or vocational students" Half the college is now for Hairdressing, Nairl Art and Beauty, Students who before had not done well in their GCSE's could previously have re-sat them at the college bu they also withdrew these courses as the vocational ones would produce more sucessfull results thus the college would go up the league table and secure more funding.

Ive had to now do a BSc with the OU as well as the BA Hons as the only equivelent A level standard courses within 60 miles of us are distance learning OU modules, as are the four GCSE highers Ive had to re-take as well because all the bloomin colleges are removeing the courses for vocational one's. - Talk about dumming down the nation, if we gave people a chance to learn they would, but finding the courses requires Poirot to detect them in the first place.

I now find im heading into teaching instead of med school - what am I letting my self in for ????????

[philshelton]

my eldest is in line for A** in facebook and msn messenger an can type so fast but I can't read it dont know what language it is.

[Guest Bob's Babe]

Easy solution to the x/box, msn, facebook problems......

 

Explain that they need a job to pay rent if they are staying at home after 16, or good grades to get in college, where parental support can be stretched..... if they don't get this and aren't willing to put in the work then take the plug off the ex/box and comptuer....or if you are technical put passwords on them so they can't get in.

 

All kids need boundaries, these work with kids from 5 to 18, you find out what pains them the most and then make them work for it or lose it.

 

It may sound like nagging and tough love, but ask yourself if you want your kids to have a chance to succeed, if you do, then you have to be tough, you are the adult and so you are in charge.

 

At the school I work at (primary so no equations in maths) so many parents say they can't stop there 8/10/11 year from going out to play, or being on the computer, it makes me laugh.....They just have to be firm, take the flack and pain that they are going to get for being tough and deal with it. I've told so many parents to stop letting the 9/10 year old out of the house, turn their tv off and sit them down till they do some work, but they don't want the hassle and ear ache they will get for trying this.

 

 

Sorry, rant over,

 

SUE

 

PS: on the maths being taught, I can add that at Primary we cover stuff that I wasn't taught till senior school, though not many of the kids are working at the top level

my 15 year old has learnt stuff at an earlier age than I learnt it consistantly through school, but she is very bright

 

From the kids I teach, we get many more than half that are below the standards they are expected to be at their age.....but they don't care because most of their parents don't care....not a great supportive estate really.

[Guest benham]

but found out in the second year that the nurseing diploma was'nt even equivelent to A level standard, So left in the second year to pursue a path of graduate entrance and took and Hons degree - now this is where it

 

That I'm afraid isn't true, both the DipHE and BSc in nursing are to "level four" standard, which is well above A-level standard.

 

Regards,

Andy

[spg]

I'm glad Im not on my own, Apprently there now taught a understanding of maths in preferance to mathmatical methods. What ever that means.

Anyone know a decent tutor in South Manchester ??

 

Cheers

 

Steve

[Knock-on]

My 11 year old got a 6c in a Maths test today.

 

Now, I can't even work out if that's good or bad so standards must be going up.

 

(He was chuffed though )

[Guest Bob's Babe]

In the tests at the end of year 6 (aged 10-11) the national average is a level 4B, if they get a level 5 in year 6 this is good, they don't usually do work that would allow

them to be graded above a basic 5, usually a 5C until they get to senior school.

 

In year 7 (aged 11-12) they are aiming to go up to level 5 as a national average so hitting a 6C in this year group is also good,

especially if doing it this early in the school year.

 

The national average at the end of year 9 (aged 13-14) , before they start on the GCSE stuff, is a level 6B, though our smarty pants eldest child hit an 8C

 

Hope this helps

 

SUE