Covid-19

[trigger_andy]

1 hour ago, Youngstu said:

Having two kids (not) at school, one at primary and one at secondary I'm very well aware of what the home schooling system is like at the minute and having to spend half of the week helping them with their work to make sure that they do their best when I could be earning money or getting on top of work that has been missed over the last year, I'm quite clear about what's happening in a couple of schools at least. It's not ideal by any stretch of the imagination, but the students do have the opportunity to succeed and progress if they and their parents have the facilities, technology and ability to help them. The lack of social opportunities for those at home is rubbish but most schools now offer at least some zoom type sessions, some for all their lessons, some for some and some like my eldest's school for a tutor period once a week which he really enjoys (but wouldn't want all of his lessons like that like some other local schools are doing.

 

Exams have been a tried and tested method, yes one that successive governments feel the need to fiddle with, adjust and completely change on a regular basis, including coursework, not including it, including more or if and recently getting rid of it entirely. Arguably they are also grossly unfair for a lot of students who are judged entirely on their exam grades but excel in other areas of life but either struggle with the pressure of exams or struggle to display their abilities in those kinds of situations. The end of course exam based system also greatly favours children from stable families with the neccessary technology and space for them to study intensively at the end  of their courses. (greatly favouring wealthier families, helping further widen the gap between the haves and have nots).

 

Having a wife who is a teacher and several friends doing the same in different schools I do know hw they've been acting over these months, seeing the toll that is has taken on them, where they have more work that they would normally with few, if any of the positives that they would have when working in school. Having to learn entirely new ways of teaching and getting the information to the children, adapting it for those that can't access it, spending much of the day fielding problems from the children, setting work, assessing work is only the start of it. Then they're having to deal with unannounced changes from up on high, responding to a barrage of emails from children, parents and colleagues then having to deal with assorted parents who very kindly suggest that they do things in different ways because they think it would work best, or because they have a friend whose child is at a school where they do it like this and think it would be a better option for little Johnny. 

 

Regarding teacher's judgement and assessment of student's progress and abilities, for whatever reason you seem to think that they'll just pluck a grade out of the air depending on whether they like someone or not. From the teachers that I know and the systems that I have some understanding of I can assure you that wouldn't be the case, or even be possible as they have to present swathes of data and evidence to justify the decisions that they made (which were thrown up in the air when last summer the government decided to use an algorithm that took no account of the judgement that these professionals had made). 

 

Where children of front line workers (and those children classed as vulnerable) they are often in much smaller classes as would be expected where social distancing is supposed to being observed to a degree. However particularly in the case of secondary schools it is essentially babysitting with the kids sat in front of computers doing the same work as the kids at home, maybe with the added bonus of a daily PE lesson. For primary kids they are in classes interacting with one another which is great, although for many of the teachers they're trying to deal with those in front of them and the ones at home and still setting and delivering work for both lots. For most teachers this seems to have been the worst/hardest/most harrowing term ever with the sheer levels of work and lack of positives they've had to cope with. 

 

You've obviously got some clever and driven offspring there who have done amazingly to get where they are and until there is a complete system change regarding private education anybody coming from the state sector trying to get to top universities or study courses such as medicine will always be having to be extra good to even get an interview, let alone get a place. Until they change the whole application/interview process it will be dominated by the same sort of people. It has been improving but not fast enough. 

Well, its no surprises that we hold polar opposite opinions on this subject as we do on every other. But you do make some compelling arguments and there is points I had not fully considered.

 

I do feel you've intentionally avoided  my points regarding the Teachers Unions though and of course both our POV are entirely empirical and we're at completely different ends of our island and in two different countries. 

 

I know full well the efforts involved in getting a state school educated child the same chances as privately educated ones. But this further exasperates and compounds  what I feel is unduly harsh restrictions. I guess its another small example of how the rich will continue to get richer and the poor poorer in this pandemic and jo public lap it up whilst the rich laugh their arses off at us fighting one another. 

Edited February 13, 2021 by trigger_andy

[skyhuck]

15 minutes ago, trigger_andy said:

Well, its no surprises that we hold polar opposite opinions on this subject as we do on every other. But you do make some compelling arguments and there is points I had not fully considered.

 

I do feel you've intentionally avoided  my points regarding the Teachers Unions though and of course both our POV are entirely empirical and we're at completely different ends of our island and in two different countries. 

 

I know full well the efforts involved in getting a state school educated child the same chances as privately educated ones. But this is further exasperates and compounds  what I feel is unduly harsh restrictions. I guess its another small example of how the rich will continue to get richer and the poor poorer in this pandemic and jo public lap it up whilst the rich laugh their arses off at us fighting one another. 

Has your account been hacked?

[trigger_andy]

5 minutes ago, skyhuck said:

Has your account been hacked?

As much as I detest his general POV to the point it makes me deeply frustrated, I find his line of reasoning the epitome of everything that is wrong with the UK today and no doubt the feelings mutual.  But he does avoid the ad hominem though and that's something the vast majority of people here fall back to, including you and I. 

 

I tend to ignore the vast majority of his replies to me as there is simply no point in engaging someone who's views are as deeply entrenched as my own. But on this subject due to us both being parents I felt there would be at least a slither of common ground. And a slither it was.  

Edited February 13, 2021 by trigger_andy

[skyhuck]

1 minute ago, Scottish Cleaning Service said:

They did a study regarding state and public schooling. They were looking to see if one became richer than the other and there was no difference. Reason public school kids seem to do better is because of their DNA and their parents pushing them all the time. I have worked since I was 16 but my parents have always worked by running the hotel so its in my DNA. I worked on the oil rigs and the Toolpusher sent his boy to public school. Every month he would come on the rig moaning that his boy was doing terrible at school. I guess he just didn't have it but his father couldn't see it and because he had paid the money was expecting instant results.

Do you have a link to said study?

[trigger_andy]

Just now, Scottish Cleaning Service said:

They did a study regarding state and public schooling. They were looking to see if one became richer than the other and there was no difference. Reason public school kids seem to do better is because of their DNA and their parents pushing them all the time. I have worked since I was 16 but my parents have always worked by running the hotel so its in my DNA. I worked on the oil rigs and the Toolpusher sent his boy to public school. Every month he would come on the rig moaning that his boy was doing terrible at school. I guess he just didn't have it but his father couldn't see it and because he had paid the money was expecting instant results.

Ah the good old false equivalence fallacy. 

 

Id also be genuinely interested in said study and not relying on your dubious anecdote. I'll suspect whatever study you now quickly google search for will conveniently miss out the likes of Eaton, Harrow and Winchester, you know, the very Public Schools that Million and Billionaires send their children and Eaton where about 20 Prime ministers and a huge number of senior cabinet ministers attended. 

[kevinjohnsonmbe]

6 minutes ago, trigger_andy said:

Ah the good old false equivalence fallacy. 

 

Id also be genuinely interested in said study and not relying on your dubious anecdote. I'll suspect whatever study you now quickly google search for will conveniently miss out the likes of Eaton, Harrow and Winchester, you know, the very Public Schools that Million and Billionaires send their children and Eaton where about 20 Prime ministers and a huge number of senior cabinet ministers attended. 

I think you mean Eton Andy, not Eaton.  
 

Eaton was the next hamlet over from my childhood village of Appleton. 

No big posh-boys school in Eaton - just the nearby Comp Matthew Arnold school which spectacularly failed to prepare me for the big wide world 😂😂
 

 

[Richard 1234]

20 minutes ago, skyhuck said:

Do you have a link to said study?

Doubt it he’s probably made it up..........

[trigger_andy]

Just now, kevinjohnsonmbe said:

I think you mean Eton Andy, not Eaton.  
 

Eaton was the next hamlet over from my childhood village of Appleton. 

No big posh-boys school in Eaton - just the nearby Comp Matthew Arnold school which spectacularly failed to prepare me for the big wide world 😂😂
 

 

See? That proves my point.  I went to a state school so it explains why I’m thick as mince and not an millionaire. 😁

[trigger_andy]

1 minute ago, Richard 1234 said:

Doubt it he’s probably made it up..........

Like 99% of his other posts then? 

[Richard 1234]

Just now, trigger_andy said:

Like 99% of his other posts then? 

Probably.

in DNA I can’t see it myself. He’s talking about copying what you see in your parents. It doesn’t work really as there is plenty of people with morons as parents that do nicely for themselves and also loads (probably more) rich kids that are a complete waste of oxygen and drive their parents insane.