Ms Raccoon…and a conundrum.
Ms Raccoon has found that life is unaccountably grating on her recently.
To say nothing of aggravating people.
A change of scenery is the order of the day.
Accordingly she has fled the coop, and is unlikely to be back much before Thursday. Yes, she has had the wit to take Mr G with her; nothing like making your own tea in the morning to ruin a holiday. Besides, who would carry all the luggage if she didn’t?
The bar will remain open with an honesty box, you are encouraged to use it. If you wind up in the spam folder, tough. I’ll let you out Thursday. Try not putting so many links in your comment.
See if you can solve this conundrum whilst I am away….hosting the Olympics is supposed to improve our infrastructure, train our young to be world class athletes, and cheer everybody up.
Since this is now the third time Britain has hosted the Olympics, can you explain why the country is full of fat, miserable bastards, crawling along on overcrowded roads and trains?
August 10, 2012 at 11:28
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Mrs. Raccoon, Thank you for your graciousness in allowing my comments. I
appreciate that I am not your favourite person. If I could just say, any
comment with regard to certain accusations, made by people that I do not know
or care about, was more about asking for an explanation, than taking sides. I
do not identify as a Libertarian and quite honestly, the man sounds insane,
but when I enter your blog name into google, the issue is in my face.
I continue to have a problem with people who reside in France being so
vocal about English affairs and I don’t apologise for that. As for how much
the English should be more like the French….I don’t think so….
Some of the rudest people I have ever met are French. ( I have had much
more positive experiences with Germans, who are unfailingly polite and speak
English better than most of the natives.) Certainly in the south they are
stand-offish, snooty, and unfriendly in the extreme.
But anyway, you are where you are, and obviously enjoy living in France. I
just think comparisons between countries are meaningless. We should celebrate
our differences and embrace what we have in common.
So, having annoyed you (and the lovely Elena) even more I shall bid you Bon
Jour.
- August 10, 2012 at 14:16
- August 9, 2012 at 08:15
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For the record, I am a teacher, mildly dyslexic but then I teach
Mathematics, so poor spelling is embarrassing rather than critical. These days
‘spell check’ is my friend.
It feels rude to have a private conversation, slightly off-topic, but you
did ask so here goes.
What happened? IMO, a number of things occurred simultaneously. The
honourable teaching profession was down-graded and the very brightest were
steered into other fields where their talents reaped greater rewards and much
more respect. In particular, highly intelligent women, the back bone of the
primary system and in no small measure, the secondary level, were released
from their strait-jacket. Suddenly, they could be doctors, lawyers and the
like. And so they were lost.
It was around this time that the system was changing. The elitist Grammar
gave way to the forward looking, egalitarian Comprehensive. Fairness and
accessibility was the mantra of the state, while the private sector was
continuing to educate in a more formal, disciplined fashion. Mixed ability
teaching
was the order of the day. Cock-eyed grading systems were
introduced whereby pupils received grades for effort rather than achievement.
Standards declined and the race to the bottom was swift.
I moved from a depressed Northern town because I could not afford the
private alternatives, or at least I wasn’t prepared for the privations that
would be necessary to pay (even at subsidised rates) for my own children. The
school that they attended was a comprehensive but it was very tightly
streamed. The beauty of that is that if you’re hopeless at English like me,
you can still be in the top Maths and Physics group. Some people did not like
the way that the school was run, but the headteacher was a visionary and he
was never going to be swayed. The staff were committed and most of them were
available for extra-curricular activities. I suspect that they did not have
too much choice in the matter.
Sometimes I read the musings of Gildas the Monk and he makes me smile. And
I think I know where he went to school (St Bede’s? It cost nine grand these
days) and I admire his prose. It makes me think. Could he still do what he
did, today? From a Comprehensive school in Oldham, I doubt it. I’m sure he
would make it to a half-decent red-brick university though! No knocking it,
because that is my background.
You know what? Until we restore the status of teachers, when we insist upon
respect in the classroom, when illiterate teachers like me are confined to the
Maths department, then we have no chance. Our children deserve better.
Finally, while giving myself a pat on the back and an ego boost at the same
time, (oh joy!) I’ll share this with you. At a recent interview I was told
that ‘of course’ I had the job but why did I want it? That needs to change.
All those who trot out ‘those who can’t, teach’ line (almost without exception
screaming mediocrities) should be punched on the nose.
I have no illusions but I live in hope.
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August 9, 2012 at 10:02
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Thank you again, James. That was an excellent post, and answers my
question.
I had both a good English Teacher and a good Maths Teacher,
although I somewhat missed English Grammar, which I have since learned from
learning French. What a laugh that was.
But my son with The Geography
Degree has always had to use a spell checker, and I am sure he would have
failed without it. Even his Public School was too late to repair the damage,
but at least they taught him some common sense thinking. He actually got a
Two One in the end, so he obviously wasn’t stupid, as so many of his State
School Teachers tried to tell him, and me. That was part of my despair. They
very nearly wrote off a bright boy.
-
August 9, 2012 at 20:06
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You have summed up the situation admirably.
Sixty years ago, my father turned down the offer of a scientific research
post and took his first-class degree to teach in the state system; a grammar
school boy who won a state scholarship, he wanted to put back something to
repay what he had been given.
Over the next four decades, he watched in increasing horror as the
educational establishment crumbled around him. The progressives invaded
every aspect of his working life – “get rid of the dais in the lab – too
hierarchical”, “You must stop all experiments using naked flames” “Why does
your department employ fewer women than men?” – while he tried to carry on
doing what he did best; encouraging the high-flyers and motivating those who
found science difficult.
Eventually his health gave way and he retired, by which time the school
had appointed a needlework teacher as deputy head and abolished his
long-standing lunchtime science catch-up sessions; it was around this time
that I arrived at a prestigious teacher training college to do a PGCE, to be
met with the words “You Oxbridge types always think you know it all; we
don’t want your sort here”.
At least I’m glad I can say my father achieved what he set out to do;
after he died, my mother found dozens of members of the local community
approaching her to tell her how much they appreciated what he had done for
them and how much they owed to his encouragement and determination to see
them succeed.
-
August 10, 2012 at 20:51
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Miss Chips, my heart goes out to you. As the sixty-something product of
a working-class background and a boarding Grammar education, I, too,
despair.
And one of my pet idiosyncratic hates is that the ‘Destructive Left’
have hi-jacked the word ‘progressive’ as an epithet for their ilk.
They are most certainly not!
- August 8, 2012 at 08:26
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Elena, I’m a huge supporter of re-introducing the 11+ but you are one of
those who demonstrate it’s fallibility. The problem is that although some kids
who should have passed failed, others had an opportunity.
I went to a grammar school and I am not very bright. My children attended
some of the top state schools in the country and went on to Oxford and LSE.
So, of course I acknowledge the advantages of living in the right place.
Let me just say one thing . Your kids do know what you did.
-
August 8, 2012 at 17:28
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Thank you, James.
In think they have forgotten how terrifyingly
abysmal The State System was, but I haven’t. And I know that it was worth
every penny that it cost me.
But The State School System wasn’t abysmal
sixty years ago.
My Naval Air Mechanics Board Certificate is the only
qualification I have, and that wasn’t a lot of use in Civvy Street, but I
must have learned something to be able to pass Advanced Mathematics. So you
see, it can be done, even in Secondary Schools. But what went wrong? I
watched it collapse before my eyes, and quite frankly, I panicked, so I had
to do something.
-
August 7, 2012 at 14:18
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A conundrum upon which I pondered this very weekend. I shall ponder
further!
- August 7, 2012 at 10:38
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“Private Education” is producing too many good athletes & competent
sports (wo)men?
Perhaps it is time to appoint “Handicapper General Diana
Moon Glampers” – and ensure EVERYONE is equal?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrison_Bergeron
-
August 7, 2012 at 10:27
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Brian,
I am all for improving The State School Education System in any
way possible. I didn’t want to send my children away. But it isn’t just about
Sport at Public Schools, although certainly they do encourage Sport. It is
much more to do with being proud of your school, of good manners, and of
effort in all things. How many people these days are proud of their State
School? How many of them are expected to be well mannered? And how many kids
make a real effort? Perhaps they aren’t encouraged to do these things. But it
must be possible.
I remember a time when an effort was made to help working
class kids in The Public School System, but always far too few of them because
The Government didn’t want to pay.
I had a Secondary Education many years
ago because I failed my Eleven Plus, but at least I left school literate and
numerate, and then went on to pass a Royal Navy Air Mechanics Board, which
believe me, wasn’t easy in those days. I never felt like a failure, or cast
aside. There just weren’t enough Grammar School places for middle of the road
kids like me. Just one person in my class of 36 couldn’t read when she left
school. So it can be done, although I don’t know how. But I do know that kids
today need encouraging and praising when they do well, and I’m not seeing much
of that.
- August 6, 2012 at 22:14
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…………….Since this is now the third time Britain has hosted the Olympics, can
you explain why the country is full of fat, miserable bastards, crawling along
on overcrowded roads and trains?
Part of the problem is the cynical hypocrisy of a nanny government that
harps on continuously about obesity, – and then gets Coca Cola and Big Macs to
sponsor the Olympics!
Beggars belief!
The Olympics is NOT the answer for
anything in this nation, nor is MORE government.
-
August 6, 2012 at 19:38
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Enjoy the holls, Ms R.
Where do people think the Racoon Arms pic in the
masthead is situated ? My guess is Lincolnshire.
- August 6, 2012 at 17:41
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To confirm your observation, Marquise,
I learned as a young man that
active participation in sports led to an unacceptable spilling of, even
interruption in the consumption of, beer.
Apart from darts, snooker, and
bar billiards of course, where proper arrangements were made..
- August 6, 2012 at 12:12
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I’ve just come back from Yorkshire and since they are seventh in the medal
tables and getting ready to declare themselves an independent kingdom again,
they are happy. It’s most unusual for them – I don’t think I’ve ever seen them
exuberant before.
-
August 6, 2012 at 13:53
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Who knows where the real worth lurks? I was married for a boringly long
time to a Yorkshire Man. But I loved Mucky Hunslet. Such kind people the
women were. And I loved those back to back streets where everyone needed a
torch to find the ghastly communal lavatory in the middle of the night. Many
was the dustbins that I fell over. They were probably the last real people
that I ever met.
-
August 6, 2012 at 15:27
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You’re obviously forgetting that August day in 1977 when (Sir) Geoffrey
Boycott scored his hundredth first-class century in the Test Match at
Headingley………that being the only recorded occasion in the 20th century when
delight was perceivable amongt those who already know that it’s actually an
independent state but are keeping that little fact from the southerners in
case they stop sending all their lovely tax-money northwards.
- August 7, 2012 at 13:34
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The Brownlee lads from West Yorkshire – ex Bradford Grammar – have just
taken gold and bronze medals in the triathlon. ‘Appen Yorkshire will have
to mark this summer with a barbeque or summat.
-
August 7, 2012 at 16:42
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I reckon a barbecue would count as pretentious southern tosh. Maybe a
slice of roast ferret for starters, then a portion of whippet ‘n chips,
all washed down with a pint of lanolin-grease scraped from the crumbling
old worsted mills of Bradford. Aye lass, a feast fit for a king (and
even some speedy old boys of BGS).
And what’s all this nonsense about
‘summer’ ? There’s no summer in Yorkshire, it’s just winter-lite for a
few weeks, then back to the full-on thermals by September. They start up
the snow-ploughs in August in Queensbury, tha knoes.
-
August 6, 2012 at 10:37
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Interesting that most of Britain’s Competitors and Medal winners were
Public School educated, and please don’t get carried away with the idea that
all Public School children come from wealthy families because they don’t. I
beggared myself for ten years to do it. But certainly Public Schools seem to
get something right, even if only a bit of Elitism now and again. You might
think that The Government, whoever they might be, would learn something from
this. And it has been pointed out before at previous Olympics. So what does
Britain want? Knock The Public School System until we need it? Then go back to
knocking it again. I could go on for hours on this subject, but I don’t want
to bore you all.
-
August 6, 2012 at 11:59
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An interesting snippet of data is that every child privately educated
saves the nation at least £100,000 – that being the rough per-capita cost of
a full state school education. Multiply that by the numbers in private
education and it’s a staggering amount of money – probably the real reason
no leftie-leaning government has ever got near to eliminating it.
But
that won’t stop them kicking at it, but just not hard enough to have to pay
for the alternative. That’s realpolitik.
- August 6, 2012 at 13:35
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Don’t I ever know it. And it cost me not much short of that sum by
comparison, since it was thirty years ago. But I never minded about that.
There was nothing else to do if I was not prepared to allow my children to
fall into the trap of mediocrity. And I did have a choice. Buckle down,
deprive yourself of any waking pleasure, and get the rotten little sods
well educated. The funniest thing of all is that they, the rotten little
sods, have no real idea of what it was that I did.. But I don’t care about
that either. It was given for love, and that must have no gratitude,
otherwise it isn’t worth doing. And oh my goodness me, I did so miss the
the daily love and cuddles.
Me? I am probably one of the brightest
people that I know, but there you go. No half decent education for me. But
we all have to start somewhere.
Sorry, I went off on a kick about me for a minute, when it actually
isn’t about me, but this is what my Country did to me. It drove me to send
my much loved children away from home when it should have been possible
for them to be well educated within the bounds of their family. A half
decent education isn’t difficult. Public Schools do it all of the time.
And most of them care about what they are doing.
- August
6, 2012 at 17:47
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It’s certainly more than a simple cause-and-effect; on the one hand, a)
taking part in many of these sports is expensive ergo those taking
part are more likely to have had families able to afford school fees, and on
the other, b) the parents of Olympic competitors have generally made huge
sacrifices in time and money for their children and this may well include
scraping together the money for school fees, however difficult.
b) means that Moynihan’s assumption that sporting talent is evenly
distributed through the schooling system is fundamentally flawed; children
with exceptional talent may well be in the independent sector through the
many sports scholarships on offer, or because the family have raised the
money by whatever means they can find to give their gifted child access to
facilities and coaching unavailable in their neighbourhood.
- August 6,
2012 at 22:42
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Elena,
I had to win a scholarship for the independent school that my brother had
attended for free when it was a direct-grant grammar school. What I find
difficult to understand is how it is A Good Thing for elite sporty types to
be identified have extra funding and special separate training provided for
them but academically clever bods get nothing. Why not reintroduce
direct-grant grammar schools and assisted places to encourage social
mobility?
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August 7, 2012 at 08:52
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Far too sensible an idea, Brian.
I had the benefit of attending a
direct-grant grammar under the assisted-places scheme, along with many
other poor but bright kids – it transformed my life and
opportunities.
Sadly the state education ethos has become one of
levelling down, rather than giving a hand up, and is lubricated with
falsified performance data to make believe it’s working. Those observing
objectively the quality of its output know the truth.
It’s not the
kids’ fault, they are still the same mix of bright/average/thick as ever
they were – it’s not even the teachers’ fault, they will only ever teach
to the target – the ‘system’ has been perverted for a different agenda and
we will live with the dire consequences for generations.
- August 6,
2012 at 10:32
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Bon vacance!
- August 6, 2012 at 10:19
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It always seems to be the way that when we are told to do something that is
‘right’ someone else will come along afterwards and tell us that it was, in
fact, ‘wrong’.
So the Olympics is supposedly getting us all interested in sports and being
active. Next they will be telling us that actually we all did less activity
than usual and sat around for three weeks stuffing ourselves with fatty
foods!
- August 6, 2012 at 09:24
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“Since this is now the third time Britain has hosted the Olympics, can
you explain why the country is full of fat, miserable bastards, crawling along
on overcrowded roads and trains?”
The government default position is set to “lie”.
- August 6, 2012 at 09:19
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“full of fat, miserable bastards, crawling along on overcrowded roads and
trains?”
I object to that slur. I never go on the train.
- August 6, 2012 at 07:37
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I beg your pardon? Some of us are svelte, because we walk a lot and have to
squeeze into tight spaces on over-crowded public transport as we don’t drive
or have a car. We joyous ones, who are currently celebrating sporting success
and a reasonably-well organised global event in our city, are ignoring the
misery goats who infest the DT, DM and ConHome websites. I’m no fan of the
predictability of commentators on CiF, but at least they are expressing more
happiness than usual. Enjoy your holiday! Grumpiness will be resumed in short
notice, I’m sure (by nearly everybody – I’m just enjoying this brief respite
from doom).
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