International Countdown Legend, general Maths Boffin & The woman who thinks that the above look is acceptable “Red-Carpet” wear for a woman knocking 50, has been putting that famous IQ (which is almost as high as the hemline on that dress), to excellent use over the past 2 years it would seem.
The thinking man’s totty and the face of a million debt settlement agencies, has carried out an in depth study of our education system, focusing specifically on math’s, and has produced a candid list of recommendations.
These include;
· All learners continuing to study maths “in some form” until the age of 18
· For maths lessons at age 14 to be broken down further. To be made more practical and to meet modern needs more
· To include bill payment, mobile phone tariffs, day to day maths.
I have to say a huge bravo to Ms Vorderman. Yes, the report was commissioned by our present Government at a time when they were in opposition and so wasn’t an undertaking that the MILF felt driven to crusade for… she was asked to do it.
This fact does not however, in my eyes, weaken the study.
She was an inspired choice for the role and I my only hope is that the bureaucrat’s that instructed the study’s go-ahead now listen to the findings and take action.
It has long been my belief that the educational system in this country in its present state meets the need of only a few of those that pass through it.
I have always had an interest in education and more importantly “learning”, as a process…
This was only heightened by undertaking my Certificate or Education course at university, on the long and at times harsh road to teaching.
Gratuitous Shot of the day I graduated…
During the course and the research and personal development that it caused, I developed my own ideas, a set of personal teaching principles & theories of education that led to a more fully informed approach to the need for more “Individualized” teaching & learning in our schools and our society.
To break away from the current strategy of “this is what you must learn…” to the more holistic approach of “show me what you want to learn…”
In my own experience in the classroom, this approach served me well, with the students at least. Make the learner feel that they are in control of their own path and they feel much more ownership of that path and therefore more inclined to work at it and develop it. It is THEIRS!
There is, in my opinion, a problem with supply & demand in our schools. If Lord Sugar was involved in our education system at its present productivity it would have been fired long ago.
The National Curriculum supplies one thing. The modern generation of learner’s needs are quite another.
We have to take partial blame for this. The learner that passes through our schools in today’s age is a far cry from the one that passed through it even 20 years ago.
The age of the individual, the age of self expression is upon us. (Led most fabulously by the likes of Gaga, That Minaj thing, Jessie J. etc) The world is now at the touch of a mobile phone button or a website link. Our children have a clearer idea of self identity at a much younger age.
This must be addressed and factored into the approach that we have to learning and what we allow our generation of developing minds to focus upon. With the National Curriculum a dead dog in the water, we are letting our young minds focus on the plastic, throw away world of Jeremy Kyle, Katie Price and The Only Way Is Essex..A HIDEOUS prospect in the eyes of any rational person.
Maybe if our young minds felt that they mattered. Felt that they had been identified with or listened too. They wouldn’t feel the need to be burning our cities in the atrocious manner that they have in the past few days.
This is in no way to condone the actions of these Vigilantes. The opportunity for protest that is honest and is duly recognized has passed. Now the protests of a fractured few have been hijacked and the message has become a different one. One that is not tolerable any longer. This is now about chaos and self gain. The looting has spread to other cities around the country and the thoughts on the minds of these guerillas are only material gain and personal satisfaction.
So, as our country’s already stretched and tired resources are further drained by a spreading infestation of senselessness and greed as the ensuing disorder grows…
Someone. Somewhere. Surely has some questions to address…
TheArtfulBlogger
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