Totally agree. Things are different when you get out of the crammed cities where life slows down. I swear it's like the more people you cram into a space the more callous isolated and individual they become.
You have to worry for the next generation and the one beyond Human social interaction took a massive blow the day the SMS was invented. Since then we've seen a rapid erosion in vocal communication with the spread of the dreaded e-mail replacing the spoken word, and now mobile devices that entrap people into their virtual world even when within their own homes. An average family with teenage kids, even when all in the same room, can all be completely silent these days all cocooned with their ipads and smart phones engaging in whatever work or inane 'social' interatcion that they're engrossed in, and despite sharing a space can often not share a word.......where does it end???
Don't know about that Common Core rubbish but in England we teach partitioning at an early age. No need to draw anything. You simply partition numbers into Th, H, T, U. So 3257 is 3000, 200, 50, 7. I support this bcos it enables children to understand what each place value is in relation to the other in terms of size. This is also used in the first steps of addition and subtraction i.e. Th added to Th; H added to H; T added to T and so on. It's a fantastic way of embedding mental maths from an early age bcos it lends itself to it unlike the column/stacking method. HOWEVER in terms of written methods, the aim is to teach children the partitioning method for the reasons stated above, but then get them onto the column/stacking method soon after. Btw where a child has been taught a particular method at home, and it works, you have to be a complete fcking ****** as a teacher/school to tell the child not to use it. Whatever works for the child should be encouraged
Agree there, once the method is sound and gives the right answer it is fine. Our brains don't all work exactly the same way.
My son used to always get told off at primary school because his mental maths was so good he would work out the problems in his head, and add up, multiply and subtract the old fashioned way as I had shown him at home. The Headmistress called the wife and I in and told us he would never acheive anything if he did not do it her way. Very long winded like the video. He then made matters worse when there was a parent/ child maths event at the school and he put his hand up and pointed out she had made a mistake in a calculation she had done on the whiteboard when demonstrating to the parents how maths should be taught. She hated him, but could do nothing about it as I was Chair of Governors at the time. Once I resigned she made his last 6 months hell and gave him an awful report for his grammar school application, but they still took him as he came in the top 5% of the 500+ kids who applied. Met the two faced b***h about 3 yrs later and she asked how he was doing and whether he had coped with boarding at a grammar school. She expected me to say he had failed dismally, but he had taken it in his stride and came out with good A level results. I know I am an old codger, but why change what has worked for decades. Most people taught the "old way"up until the late sixties, when trendy teaching came in have a far better grasp of Maths and English than the current generation who have been messed up by trendy teaching methods. I can remember talking to an primary school teacher who actually believed that if you sat a child down with lots of books they would learn to read, she would not accept that children have to be taught the basics with phonetics, etc. Anyway rant over...........for now!
Whilst I agree with your sentiment regarding your son's experience, you have to appreciate the old fashioned way wont work for everyone. It's easy to lump everything as "new" or "trendy" and then dismiss it but while this Common Core stuff is rubbish, there is good reason to teach children the concept of number rather than learn all aspects of maths by rote. If you ask those in adult life why they're poor at maths, nearly all of those who hated it will say bcos of the way it was taught i.e. the rote system. Many who then go on to take adult classes and are introduced to more engaging fun maths learning, enjoy maths and become very good at it. In fact at any age, maths is one of those rare subjects (bcos of it's logic) that those who enjoy it usually excel at it. Btw regarding your son's experience, I am amazed that schools still try to force children to use their methods despite tge child being fluent in other, equally good methods. What a waste of your own time as a teacher and for the child I used to say to my kids, if you can show me your method works, yoy can use it. If you cant then you have to use mine. That actually excited them and encouraged them to have a love of learning for the subject. Also my friends and I actually enjoy when we make a mistake and the kids pick up on it. At least you can have a laugh about it. Seems to me the teachers at your son's school were a bunch of old prunes!
Nice anecdote . Just like to say though that teaching phonics when learning to read doesn't always work. Children learn to read in different ways. I know this from experience with primary school children but also from teaching our own how to read, they did it in different ways. The one who couldn't get the phonics actually excelled in reading and had finished the entire reading scheme by the end of the Infants!
I agree all children learn differently, but the problem with the Head in question was she could not accept this. As far as she was concerned it was her way or you were in trouble. I had difficulty keeping a straight face when she informed me that she was not happy with the gossip that she was having an affair with the school gardener. It turned out it was true and her nickname became "Lady Chatterley" amongst the parents.
Not saying I agree with schools because to be quite honest, I'm don't, they seem to do a lot of bullshit stuff. However, the methods schools use is suppose to help children in the longer term. I'm happy to say my kids don't use that cube, box, sheet, etc bullshit system. They're learning the old fashioned way; learning the basic numbers, then basic add and subtractions before learning their times tables. However, the letters and reading of words are taught differently. I know some of you will laugh because of the basic errors I make on here but I'm educated to a decent level yet I've not got a clue what they're on about with some of the stuff they're taught. I think they make it far too complicated at times. On a slightly different note (and at a slight risk of bringing racism into the discussion, please don't), I wasn't impressed to learn that my eldest is being taught about Muslim prayer techniques etc when looking at his books (they bring them home at the end of each academic year). I turned to my son and simply asked him who Jesus was; he didn't have a clue, not a ****ing dicky bird. I then asked him who Adam and Eve were, what Christmas and Easter meant and finally what heaven and hell was, the only one he could answer correctly (simplistically but that is expected) was the bit about Heaven and Hell which could be just about any religion (he may have even got that from TV!) I'm in no way religious myself so I'm not that bothered that he's not taught religion but I find it very sad that an English tradition as been killed off because of the country adapting to a multi-ethnic community. We no longer see the true school nativity, they no longer sing traditional songs in assembly etc. But what pisses me off is that we scrapped all our traditions but teach other ****ing religious stuff! IMO, that isn't right. Rant over but expecting a bit of a backlash.
In America they do some weird thing called "diagraming a sentence". I don't fully understand what the purpose is but they start drawing some weird tree stucture off the sentence and start drawing lines all over the place. For a long sentence this can take up a whole A4. Supposedly this is to help teach them the difference between a noun and a verb, etc. Seems a bizarrely complicated way to teach something quite basic. Thank goodness I never had to do that. I think teaching the common basics of all major religions is important. If you don't know your shiite [sorry]- how can you make an informed vote on who to elect based on foreign policy? Same time, understanding principles of xianity is important too. I don't know that singing hymns in school is appropriate nowadays though. (don't think they were when we were kids either tnt).
This is how they teach grammar in the US. please log in to view this image Kids draw these silly diagrams in order to learn the parts of a sentence rather than just be told what a noun is or a verb. This supposedly helps. please log in to view this image
G, it's what I hate about this nonsense RE as a subject in schools that are bent in one way...originally it was schools taught CofE (variant where you live) assembly had a prayer etc.. then theyd put them in a science class or history class and tell the kid they have to be objective or scientific. What you get is kids being withdrawn on parents say so, councils bending it to the area's predominant religion. The likes of us saying "so what is it?" Conflict! It should be: teach religion as a subject. All religions taught objectively, : what they are, good and bad, how they came about, impact on world... Let people who are religious teach their preferences in their version of Sunday school and at home. Best of both worlds.
i read the paper the other day gerrez and it had the headline 311 languages are in our schools now days, so it has got a lot worst than the nativity not being done anymore, we literally will feel like a foreigner in our own country before long as english is not even the first language in a lot of schools, disgraceful!! im not religious in any way, but my girls start bringing any form of religion home except christian, the schools will be told to **** off. i dont agree with religion being taught in schools any way, you want to learn that ****e fair enough your choice, but you go to church, might help stop so many being turned into ruddy wine bars and co-op, tescos etc as well lol.
With such a wide ethnic community, I don't think they should be teaching religion in schools at all. It should be kept outside of schools.
311...? Didn't even realise there were that many languages in the world Is it taking local lingo into account or something?
