Politics

[ferrarilover]

Our VC is a woman and she is the most detestable, vile human being one could possibly hope to meet. Hitler has more fans at my local Synagogue than our VC does at U of P.

Matt.

[Gullscorer]

Excuse my ignorance Matt; what is 'VC' and 'U of P'..??

Ah, I just worked out 'Vice Chancellor'..!! :~D

And 'University'... of Polperro? Penarth..??

Surely not Portsmouth..?? =D

[ferrarilover]

I love that, posts which are like a stream of consciousness.

Polperro, actually...

Matt.

[Gullscorer]

MAD = Mutually Assured Destruction..

The U.S. has been shrinking the size of its nuclear arsenal for many years; it is currently comprised of long-range missiles aboard submarines, long-range bombers and ICBMs. As of 1 October 2013 the U.S. had 1688 deployed strategic nuclear warheads, which Washington is obliged to reduce to 1550 by 2018 under the New START treaty with Russia.

So that's all right then..

Madness..

[Gullscorer]

‘The best way to take control over a people and control them utterly is to take a little of their freedom of a time, to erode rights by a thousand tiny and almost imperceptible reductions. In this way the people will not see those rights and freedoms being removed until past the point at which these changes cannot be reversed.’
Adolph Hitler.

Hmm.. Does this scenario seem familiar...??

[Colorado Gull]

I would love to have a one on one debate with Michael Gove on school education, because he has absolutely no idea of what it is like to be a regular school kid. It physically angers me of what he says and does regarding standard schooling.

[AustrianAndyGull]

I would love to have a one on one debate with Michael Gove on school education, because he has absolutely no idea of what it is like to be a regular school kid. It physically angers me of what he says and does regarding standard schooling.

Totally agree. The bloke is out of his depth and a complete anus. Stealing money and wrecking kid's futures into the bargain. Not his own kids though.

[ferrarilover]

Have I missed something specific?

Matt.

[stevegull]

Nothing specific, Matt, but I too think Gove is fairly incompetent. Although I think most education secretaries are.

They always want to say they've revolutionised a system but to be honest there isn't a great deal wrong in our education system in my honest opinion. Changes should be made, yes, but does the system need turning on its head? No, absolutely not.

Gove is going for 'revolution' when 'evolution' is clearly the only way something as big as an education system can be reformed.

[AustrianAndyGull]

Nothing specific, Matt, but I too think Gove is fairly incompetent. Although I think most education secretaries are.

They always want to say they've revolutionised a system but to be honest there isn't a great deal wrong in our education system in my honest opinion. Changes should be made, yes, but does the system need turning on its head? No, absolutely not.

Gove is going for 'revolution' when 'evolution' is clearly the only way something as big as an education system can be reformed.

Has Alan Partridge just walked in?

[ferrarilover]

I see. We do need to move away from examinations though. They no longer represent any sort of way in which any meaningful employment actually works. I've seen barristers (juniors on the second row) discreetly using Google on a smart phone to look up cases. Solicitors no longer have shelves full of legal texts in their offices. Medical Doctors don't even need to have anywhere near the level of immediate knowledge they did 20 years ago.
Equally, fixed texts in English lessons are silly. I hate Shakespeare, detest it. I've tried reading some, but it's written in a language I don't speak and, in the main, his stories are incredibly **** ing boring. Dickens and Conan Doyle, even the James Bond novels would be vastly better options. There is plenty of modern writing which could happily be said to be equally as worthy as God-awful Shakespeare. Stephen King would be a simple example. Poetry is also a nonsense. It's like modern art, it's all, really, bollocks. Just an excuse for pretentious twats with lensless glasses and floppy hair to wax lyrical about Flow and Poise and Classicism.

Kids don't give a **** about "literature". You can take the most intelligent man on Earth and make him look a right moron if you force him to take an artifical interest in something. If kids (and adults alike) engage with material, then they recall it, they discuss it and they want to do well with it. Give the kids a choice of materials, let them choose their favourite from a list of reasonable titles and watch them excel.
Be honest, how often have you EVER been engaged in genial conversation about the sentence structure in A Midsomer Night's Dream? Never, I'll bet. Contrast this with the likelihood that you'll end up talking with someone about the latest 007 film and your mate asks "have you read the books?" Today's kids say no. Even if they were to find themselves in conversation about Old Will himself, they still wouldn't have anything meaningful to say because it's all such shit that none of it sticks.

Maths. Bollocks to all the nonsense, teach kids to **** ing add.
I'm in a Land Law lecture (try to contain yourselves) and my lecturer (who is a **** ing idiot) starts telling us all that we must count back 15 years from 2001, which means that we start in 1996. No one in a room of 60 law students moved. Not one raised a hand, not one spoke up. Until, inevitably, I called from the back row "why can't you add? 2001 minus 15 is 1986" adding "you **** ing moron" a little quieter.

Why don't we do real world things? Why don't we give kids a fictional job, with a fictional salary and make them budget for a month. They're told they have a salary of £18000. They have to go away and work out what they'll take home, they then need to find a house which fits into their budget. They need to decide whether to live in the city centre and save on commuting, or whether to pay less rent, but commute. They then have to budget for food, bills etc.
They can go to the pub and play darts and learn to do quick mental arithmetic that way and they can go to Tesco and work out the best bargains.

Education is supposed to prepare young people for life as independent adults, it doesn't do that, it prepares them for life which existed 50 years ago and that is why our next generation is partially full of morons with absolutely no hope whatsoever.

Matt.

Also, national service.

[AustrianAndyGull]

Perfect Matt.

Also confidence, assertiveness and communication. You can have all the education you want but if you struggle to deal with people on a day to day basis then you will suffer. A problem I have had for many years.

[Colorado Gull]

Performance related pay for teachers is ridiculous. Michael Gove and Tristram Hunt both believe in this, another point to make that Labour and the Tories are exactly the same.

[ferrarilover]

Perfect Matt.

Also confidence, assertiveness and communication. You can have all the education you want but if you struggle to deal with people on a day to day basis then you will suffer. A problem I have had for many years.

This is odd, you mention this from time to time, but on the occasions we've met, you've been perfectly personable.

Matt.

[AustrianAndyGull]

You get good at dealing with it Matt having had it for so many years. I guess you develop coping strategies but it's never truly calm inside. Wouldn't wish anxiety or social phobia on my worst enemy.

I suppose going to football has helped in a massive way confront fears and having to be surrounded by loads of people. I generally avoid crowds like the plague. Torquay are helping me in some weird way although in others like being sh*t at football they aren't.