Isn't it generally accepted that IQ as a measure of intelligence is fundamentally flawed? I'm sure I've read this in varius articles over the years. I think there are different types of intelligence that are generally recognised now. Apart from the obvious i.e. really not bright and ever so bright, intelligence is quite a difficult phenomenom with regards to defining it no? EDIT: I just googled. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/s...ligence-is-a-fallacy-study-finds-8425911.html
The thing about education is that everyone thinks they are an expert because they went to school (or have kids). Teaching is a science and an art that requires skills that the likes of Gove cannot imagine. In my last job, I was fortunate enough to see lots of teachers. I have seen some quite brilliant teachers working in impossible conditions. What they need like a hole in the head is an ideological twat like Gove ...!
I might be wrong but I thought IQ was set so that someone with average intelligence always had IQ of 100. And then moving one standard deviation away is a certain number of IQ points. So if people's IQ changes over time, someone with 100 IQ now would be different to 100 IQ 20 years ago. Clearly it's difficult to measure, favours some types of people over others, etc, so not that reliable. Just had a google. The Tottenham college is jointly backed by Spurs FC and Middlesex College, plus a few other sciency names. Saints are involved in City College and Solent Uni to some extent.
This just isn't true. Although much depends on what you mean by 'smarter'. Do you mean, knowledge or intelligence? Either way its not true. As Fran says, youngsters just have knowledge of different things. Compare what the 'average' person could do now if you took away computers, and compare that to the great bridge builders, engineers and philosophers of the Victorian age. No contest. Although, the people I am referring to could hardly be described a s average I suppose. Anyway, to say that standards of education have improved is beyond funny. I used to look a the school work my kids did at A level standard and, without exaggeration, it was what I was doing pre O level.
One very important question we seem to have overlooked is this. Who is the most intelligent, Cork or Wanyama? Please, just in case, no-one should actually try and answer this!
They join full time after their GCSEs if they're offered a contract. Before that they're allowed at least 1 possibly 2 days off school a week to train, as long as the school permits.
Its not just whether they are selective its about the kind of parents who make the effort and spend the money = higher gcse results. I find it hard to believe that simply teachers saying hello to children would have such an impact on truancy.
The thing that annoys me is there are some people who work hard and do well with Cs or whatever, but then they don't know common things like who the PM is and think China is a continent or something. I know someone who got Bs in English and Maths and she doesn't know who bloody Gandhi is! I think it should be compulsory to study either History or Geography. The Maths GCSE needs to be adjusted to include things such as banking and buying a house, etc, to equip people for the future.
Gove recently said that he wants there to be little difference between state schools and private schools. If there is little difference then parents won't spend thousands a year on the same education quality which they can get for free!
He also recently said he wanted all schools to be above average. This man is in charge of my education.
Genetically we are getting more intelligent with each generation. It's evolution. Though obviously the difference from one generation to the next is too small to be noticeable.
Not all academies have been for the better though. An academy where I live has just been placed under special measures, something that hadn't happened before it was an academy. Personally, I think the problem is that there is too much focus upon passing the exams, and not enough real-world knowledge. I always find it amusing when they say they have to make exams harder - all this accomplishes is that those failing under the current exams are going to be left even further behind, and teachers will adapt to teach the methods to passing the new exams within one or two years. I would like to see a compulsory finance course that would teach students about tax returns, budgets, basic adding/subtracting and such like, and do the same for other necessary life-skills.
Agree 100%. My Academy was a bit crap, they merged two schools together and for a short while had y7s and y8s on one site and the other three years on the other. They then put all students in the building which previously had y9, 10s and 11s until the new building was built, which was finished being built just after I'd left school. I'm not an expert on schools, but why were grammar schools mainly scrapped and were they any good?
Evolution works by the fittest surviving to breed. This may work in primitive societies with the smartest and the physically fittest surviving better, but this will not happen in the developed world. Due to a sense of humanity, the less intelligent and the less physically able are helped to survive and, if you look around you, you will see that more intelligent people who care about their children tend to have fewer children than those who regard raising children as requiring no effort on their part. Helping the less able may reflect well on us, but is evolutionary nonsensical.
Academies are NOT selective, so how are they picking better parents? The kids in Moss Side school had exactly the same parents as before. You might find it hard to believe but it came directly from the headteacher of that academy to my ear. Not "heard from a friend". He said that no-one had ever shown interest in whether the kids came before - they just used to pass on the register to the council truancy officer. Ideas don't have to be complex or expensive to work. Vin
I know lots of people who have shocking geography and think religions are countries, countries are continents, etc. Could teach students about climate change! I don't see why Drama and PE are compulsory subjects, loads of people fake a sick note for PE.
