City academy proposal for school
Why is it that when a school fails to produce results the government thinks that the way to change it is to spend loads of money on it and rename it an Academy?
Many of these failing schools are in deprived areas and no matter how much money is spent on them their pupils will still be failing. Unfortunately schools have an extremely rigid set of rules as to what is taught and at what age it is taught (National Curriculum). Some children are unable to keep up with this so get left behind, then start truanting.
The education system needs a radical overhaul so that children are taught according to their ability, not age.
G'day Slim.
I agree with you mate, that they should start teaching kids as they are able to cope with the lessons being taught.
Often the move kids from grade one, up a grade each year irrespective of whether the kids ability is able and ready for it, this is surely a really bad example of the teaching methods being used.
I remember in my own schooling days [and it wasn't last year I admit], but in our class, coming from a small village. In the first year there were kids who weren't ready for school when the system said they had to go, so they didn't learn anything in the first year.They just moved into the next class with us whether they were ready or not. Their new teacher didn't have the time to try to bring them up to the rest of the classes standard so each year these same kids fell further and further behind, eventually getting an inferiority complex as they thought that they were slow learners. I rememberthe teachers standing at their desk saying:
Spelling to the left.
Writing to the right.
The usual kids would wander out for their six of the best for writing ,
then cross behind the teacher for their six of the best for spelling,
I was always to the right side of her table, with my best mate, who was the head masters son, we both were terrible writers.
we both made grammar school though, I always thought that Latin was the second subject they taught Doctors anyway, the first was always how to scribble intelligently so no-one could understand your scripts. lol
When it came to the eleven plus, or as in Scotland the "Qualifying Exam" to see your suitability for high school, most still were sent along just as before, this was never picked up until we went to Grammar school exams, [well these kids didn't even get a chance which would probably have made them feel worse anyway] So until high school they just stumbled along without proper education being offered to them. As it was a mining village most of them went into the pits, and led a very successful life until "Lord Keeling" [ I think that was his name] [my excuse is old age lol] decided to work his wonders on mining and railways, and the start of the end of the once mightiest Nation definitely was well on it's road to crumbling even further.
Education is a must but it must be done skillfully by well educated teachers who understand when kids and young adults are ready to move ahead, and it shouldn't be stigma to be held back a year as in our days, of slates to write on lol. This I think is one of the reasons that some kids go wrong, they are trying to cover up sometimes lack of education, which often means lesser job opportunities.
pingbosun.