Can you read this for me please?

[Exfarmer]

Back to the OP though , what is the answer to our appalling literacy levels.
Although it may be argued we should spend more on our education system, will it achieve anything. There is little doubt , during the Blair years when so much extra money was pushed into all the public services , especially schools, standards did not increase, but wages of teachers certainly did.
Looking at schooling in other parts of the world where standards are better, the main thing that stands out is that systems, money etc. play little part in this better achievement. The one big factor which probably applies to our private schools too, are far higher levels of behaviour and a corresponding reduction in disruption.
Teachers cannot teach if the classroom is in mayhem, a few children will still keep their heads down but the majority will fail to achieve their potential. If we want to raise our game we have to restore the power of teachers to control the classroom.
I saw how my son at a state school was not achieving anything, his teachers saying that he was just average and dont expect too much.
If he was average in that classroom , why are not the others all, in that top 1% of earners as he is today. I am sure,if some hear heard how much he earns they would be very jealous but he is proud of the tax he pays, it would certainly cover a fair few acres SFP

 

[Exfarmer]

all depends what currency you are counting in!

Does not matter, the pound in your pocket is worth less.

Seems to have done the dairy job a world of good, same production as last year yet 3p more than last year doing the same work , keeping out them cream imports , feed price about the same

Yes some industries will have temporary gains, but as their customers will have lessoney less cream will be sold and it becomes a vicious circle.
At the same time imports will cost more such as fertiliser, feed and especially those using foreign labour will have to pay more.
It was the never ending round in the 60's through the 90's deflating the pound to encourage exports and encourage imports, never did us a fat lot of good though

 

[RobFZS]

All part of evolution , especially when gov is cutting down on the amounts of phosphates etc we can use anyway, it's like we're stuck in a ditch scared of moving forward and innovating.


http://www.latimes.com/projects/la-fi-farm-mechanization/

 

[manhill]

The English were shocked to their core when (after being promised quick and easy victories by their leaders) they discovered that they were not as powerful or competent as they had been led to believe.

In the end it took three years, unprecedented brutality and ruthlessness against a civilian population, and an Army of 450,000 professional soldiers to defeat 35,000 Boer farmers.

It’s a national characteristic that the English prefer to do their soul-searching after taking poor decisions, rather than before. Put it down to over-confidence and ignorance, because I do.

Back then, the inevitable national enquiry (‘The Committee on Physical Deterioration‘ (est.1903)) subsequently discovered that keeping the working classes dirt-poor had the unintended consequence that, when you wanted them to fight, they were too rickety to do so. Notoriously, in some towns, as many as nine out of ten recruits for the British Army were rejected because they were so unfit.

If you ever wondered why and when free school meals were introduced, now you know: to improve the quality of recruits, ready for the next war.

A contemporary réprise of shock and humiliation now awaits the English when they discover that these days, when brain has replaced brawn as a nation’s dynamic, they are intellectually inferior. About 16% of adults are functionally illiterate, and OECD analysis reports British teenagers are the least literate, and least but one numerate, in the developed world.

Keeping the working classes ill-educated also has unintended consequences - the country proliferates low-skill jobs because that’s all many of our youngsters are good for - coolie labour.

I don’t know what the answer is this time, but I don’t think free school meals will do the trick.

Keeping the working classes ill-educated also has unintended consequences - the country proliferates low-skill jobs because that’s all many of our youngsters are good for - coolie labour.

Wouldn't even make decent coolies.

 

[baabaa]

Does not matter, the pound in your pocket is worth less.



Yes some industries will have temporary gains, but as their customers will have lessoney less cream will be sold and it becomes a vicious circle.
At the same time imports will cost more such as fertiliser, feed and especially those using foreign labour will have to pay more.
It was the never ending round in the 60's through the 90's deflating the pound to encourage exports and encourage imports, never did us a fat lot of good though

some look at things from the glass half empty perspective,
thankfully some are more positive.
a local metal basher is clearly more positive on a weak £

 

[Pond digger]

less folk then

Unfortunately, all politicians are too scared of the subject.

 

[Walterp]

so why are you not applauding the weak pound caused by brexit which has given our manufacturers a much needed kick up the .....

A country's currency, when it floats, is a verdict on its trading position - strong economies have strong currencies, weak economies have weak currencies.

The UK has had nearly a century to study the effects of Sterling devaluation, so that certain conclusions are indisputable:

1. exports do not increase significantly, for two reasons - (a) because costs rise due to the proportion of imported components (that have gone up, in Sterling terms) and (b) because of the tendency of UK exporters to raise Sterling-equivalent prices in order to capture windfall profits rather than increase output. The two points may, of course, be interrelated.

2. imports become more expensive, so that costs rise concomitantly.

3. strong currency areas such as Germany (during the DM era) and Japan provide a good counterpoint - when exports become more expensive in local currency terms, German and Japanese exporters tended not to raise prices but, instead, looked to cut costs and increase productivity.

4. devaluation also has the effect of rendering takeovers of domestic businesses cheaper for foreign competitors, which is one reason why UK industry has become significantly foreign-owned.

This explains why the positive effects of a Sterling devaluation tends to quickly 'fade', whilst the longer-term effects tend to be deleterious.

 

[Walterp]

Back to the OP though , what is the answer to our appalling literacy levels.
Although it may be argued we should spend more on our education system, will it achieve anything. There is little doubt , during the Blair years when so much extra money was pushed into all the public services , especially schools, standards did not increase, but wages of teachers certainly did.

May I suggest you reflect on the point you have advanced?

You explain that your son is a high earner, and then suggest that teachers have 'creamed-off' the increase in UK education spend.

In fact, teachers in England and Wales are very poorly-paid compared to most graduates (let alone your son) with a pay scale starting at £22,000 and topping at £32,000.

Add to that the fact that real-terms spending on education is slated to fall in the coming years, and it is easy to see that outcomes will continue to decline.

 

[CornishTone]

May I suggest you reflect on the point you have advanced?

You explain that your son is a high earner, and then suggest that teachers have 'creamed-off' the increase in UK education spend.

In fact, teachers in England and Wales are very poorly-paid compared to most graduates (let alone your son) with a pay scale starting at £22,000 and topping at £32,000.

Add to that the fact that real-terms spending on education is slated to fall in the coming years, and it is easy to see that outcomes will continue to decline.

Who would want to be a teacher in the UK? The fact that 60% leave within the first 5 years of their career should send alarm bells ringing in the corridors of our highly educated leaders.

Class sizes of 30+, teachers expected to parent as well as teach, no losing, no punitive punishment for blatant bad behaviour, little or no assistance for the more challenging/disruptive students, all abilities lumped in together and all expected to come out the other end at the same level, and when they're not all A* graduates the teacher gets hauled over the coals. All that for £22k? It's a race to mediocrity. No surprise it's a shambles really!

 

[Pond digger]

Poor parenting certainly isn't helping things.

 

[czechmate]

Who would want to be a teacher in the UK? The fact that 60% leave within the first 5 years of their career should send alarm bells ringing in the corridors of our highly educated leaders.

Class sizes of 30+, teachers expected to parent as well as teach, no losing, no punitive punishment for blatant bad behaviour, little or no assistance for the more challenging/disruptive students, all abilities lumped in together and all expected to come out the other end at the same level, and when they're not all A* graduates the teacher gets hauled over the coals. All that for £22k? It's a race to mediocrity. No surprise it's a shambles really!

Short weeks, long holidays, no week end work. It's a part time job for a full time wage. I always say, if I had my time over again I would be a teacher

 

[Muck Spreader]

Short weeks, long holidays, no week end work. It's a part time job for a full time wage. I always say, if I had my time over again I would be a teacher

Like a lot of jobs, teaching when done by a dedicated professional is extremely hard work plus long hours and should command salaries way in excess of current scales. However, their are also a fair number who do the absolute minimum, have zero interest in the children they are teaching a still expect a large salary. Teaching must remain a true vocation and not just a refuge for unemployable graduates.

 

[CornishTone]

Short weeks, long holidays, no week end work. It's a part time job for a full time wage. I always say, if I had my time over again I would be a teacher

Funny, everyone who isn't a teacher has the same argument.

In the UK my wife arrived at work at 8 and left at 6. When she got home she had an hour so of marking still to do. If she attempted to have a life outside of work, which we did, then it had to be done at the weekends.

Half terms were taken up preparing next terms work and writing reports for the powers that be or parents who were convinced their child was a genius, and had to be told as much lest they complain.

The longer holidays were the same but with a respite in the middle. I wouldn't do it and with would most of the nay Sayers on here I'll wager!

Again, if it's so cushy, why do 60% leave in the first 5 years?

 

[czechmate]

Funny, everyone who isn't a teacher has the same argument.

In the UK my wife arrived at work at 8 and left at 6. When she got home she had an hour so of marking still to do. If she attempted to have a life outside of work, which we did, then it had to be done at the weekends.

Half terms were taken up preparing next terms work and writing reports for the powers that be or parents who were convinced their child was a genius, and had to be told as much lest they complain.

The longer holidays were the same but with a respite in the middle. I wouldn't do it and with would most of the nay Sayers on here I'll wager!

Again, if it's so cushy, why do 60% leave in the first 5 years?

Well I'm not a teacher but I spent the first 24 years of my life living with one. But I suppose that was a while ago?

 

[Pond digger]

Short weeks, long holidays, no week end work. It's a part time job for a full time wage. I always say, if I had my time over again I would be a teacher

My daughter-in-law is a teacher, and I can assure you that's not the case. I don't know of any other profession, at that pay grade, where you're expected to take work home with you, and not get paid for it.

 

[Henarar]

Short weeks, long holidays, no week end work. It's a part time job for a full time wage. I always say, if I had my time over again I would be a teacher

well you would be fine now nobody is allowed to lose, first sign of that and you would be crying to go home

 

[czechmate]

My daughter-in-law is a teacher, and I can assure you that's not the case. I don't know of any other profession, at that pay grade, where you're expected to take work home with you, and not get paid for it.

Being a farmer?

 

[Old McDonald]

However, their are also a fair number who do the absolute minimum, have zero interest in the children they are teaching a still expect a large salary. Teaching must remain a true vocation and not just a refuge for unemployable graduates.

It has always been thus - in all walks of life. I noticed it in the late 1960s/early 70s. It seemed a fair number of left leaning blokes saw it as somewhat of a skive. I knew a few. Probably still the same.

 

[Old McDonald]

Well I'm not a teacher but I spent the first 24 years of my life living with one. But I suppose that was a while ago?

Surely you are not saying that your mother did a part-time job for a full salary and never took any work home with her?

I bet she would have boxed your ears for you if you had told her that.

 

[Billhook]

We seem to keep everything in our family, I suppose due to Parkinson's law "If you have a space, you will find something to fill it"

Here is my Gt Grandfather;s English Grammar paper "University of Cambridge" when he was at the Grammar School in King;s Lynn in December 1865. He was born in September 1852, so he was thirteen years old.

Part 1 Preliminary

1, Give the names of the parts of speech. What is a Pronoun? What is the particular use of a relative pronoun.

2. When is a noun in the nominative case absolute? Give a sentence containing an example of one.

3, Distinguish between transitive and intransitive verbs. Give two simple sentences, a transitive verb occurring in one and an intransitive one in the other.

4. Write down the past tense, present and past participles of the following verbs; scatter, swear, ride, mow, gallop, spin, trouble, profit, lose, toss, fly.

5. Parse the following sentence;

Your voiceless lips, O flowers, are living preachers.

There are another seven questions in part 2 but I am sure you have the general picture and there was another paper called "English Composition"

The Geography paper was interesting and my 20 year old God Daughter reading Geography at Exeter could not answer question 2

" In going from London to Newcastle by sea, what counties and what important towns and estuaries would you pass?"

She found question 7 a little easier

"Give a list of the principal coalfields in England and Wales" !

Yes I think Gt Grandfather would have thought that my education had been dumbed down.