[Doofy]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/5263812.stm

One third of employers have to give their staff remedial lessons in basic English and maths, a survey suggests.

Originally Posted by Tony Blair, 1997

Education, education, education.

[Spliffdaddy]

Good thing their primary language isn't English.

..oh wait


Anyhow, the same is true here in the US. I'm smarter than pretty much everyone else, mostly because I can read and write, add and subtract.

[Kerrigan]

oy u is lyin

[Chuckit]

no u

[Naplander]

State education has gone to ****.

Chav kids all learn to speak from their role models on shows like Little Britain, and all want to be gangsters or rock stars when they leave school.

Innit?

[moodymonster]

education now focuses on passing exams, not learning. It is our obsession with league tables - the performance related pay for teachers - schools getting a larger budget based on exam results. The whole process has become politicised - the childrens' education is a very distant second.

[vexborg]

Originally Posted by Naplander

State education has gone to ****.

Chav kids all learn to speak from their role models on shows like Little Britain, and all want to be gangsters or rock stars when they leave school.

Innit?

Correct, something which really pisses me off, if when adults (at least by age, not by mind) writes official letters and emails using "text speak".

My collegue (female, 23 years old) wrote a letter for her collegues and the management, using "u" instead of "you", and "4" instead of "for"!

How hard can it be to write properly, it's not like you are paying per letter in internal emails, is it?

[moodymonster]

I send emails using text speak - it's quicker, especially if emailing back and forth quickly.

[Peter]

Originally Posted by moodymonster

I send emails using text speak - it's quicker, especially if emailing back and forth quickly.

no it isnt, not really.
If you send texts using text speak you're pretty dumb. If you send emails using text speak well ...
Thank AIM and myspace for this generation ... oh wait my generation. How embarassing.

[Uncle Skeleton]

Originally Posted by vexborg

My collegue (female, 23 years old) wrote a letter for her collegues and the management, using "u" instead of "you", and "4" instead of "for"!

How hard can it be to write properly, it's not like you are paying per letter in internal emails, is it?

Is "collegue" the scottish way of spelling colleague? If not your post is quite funny.

[Chuckit]

It's funny that he missed the A key once while making a post on a message board?

[vexborg]

Originally Posted by Uncle Skeleton

Is "collegue" the scottish way of spelling colleague? If not your post is quite funny.

Well, I'm not a native English speaker.

[Uncle Skeleton]

Well, he did it 2 out of 2 times, in a post asking "how hard can it be to write properly?" It's funny, deal with it.

[Troll]

Originally Posted by Naplander

Innit?

Aie. Me awl wunts to be par of de wes side mussiff.

In my experience though, the desire to be a gangsta, prangsta wif a tuned up Nissan Sentra, is not particular to the UK. Anyone see Kevin Federline at the Teen awards?

[bowwowman]

Originally Posted by Troll

Anyone see Kevin Federline at the Teen awards?

yep, just what we need.......

ANOTHER no talent pre-adolescent-beebopin-crakhead-enhanced-jigaboo-sh*t-4-brains wannabe

and people wonder whats wrong with our world today .

[Oisín]

Originally Posted by Uncle Skeleton

Well, he did it 2 out of 2 times, in a post asking "how hard can it be to write properly?" It's funny, deal with it.

Big difference between purposefully writing ‘text-speak’ and not being a perfect speller.

Making a few spelling errors here and there in your e-mails doesn’t make you look intentionally stupid (especially not when you’re not a native speaker of the language—the a in ‘colleague’ doesn’t even have any reason for existing to begin with!), as long as they’re personal mails. If you’re writing mails to an entire organisation, you might consider getting someone to proofread them first. Still, even then, a few typos or spelling errors will only make you look a bad speller, not intentionally stupid.

writin lettaz like dis not carin bout spelin puntcuatian or any kinda style + usin all kindsa wierd symbols n #s 2 reprazent lettaz wen ur at work, however, will.

[nath]

Originally Posted by Doofy

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/5263812.stm

Interesting.

However your point appears to be somewhat undermined by the fact that anyone currently in full-time employment would have spent the formative years of their education - those dealing with the basic skills described - under a Tory government.



NEXT!

[davesimondotcom]

Originally Posted by bowwowman

yep, just what we need.......

ANOTHER no talent pre-adolescent-beebopin-crakhead-enhanced-jigaboo-sh*t-4-brains wannabe

and people wonder whats wrong with our world today .

True dat. Finnah drive me crazy.



So, saying "u" instead of "you" and "4" instead of "for" is called "text speak" now? I thought it was "Prince speak."

[Dork.]

I don't think you get how things work at MacNN, Doofy. You're supposed to bash the U.S., and then wait for one of the usual suspects to come along and start bashing your country.

Bashing your own country just takes all the fun out of it for the rest of us.

[moodymonster]

it's because we, as English, are so relaxed in our own innate superiority that we are entirely comfortable pointing out our own shortcomings.

[bowwowman]

Originally Posted by moodymonster

it's because we, as English, are so relaxed in our own innate superiority that we are entirely comfortable pointing out our own shortcomings.

I guess you learned that next week, huh....
back when English folk had no clue who they were or what they were doing here on this planet.

If you are completely comfortable pointing out your own shortcomings, then you will be inherently inferior to Mr. Federline, when the time comes

[Uncle Skeleton]

Originally Posted by Oisín

Big difference between purposefully writing ‘text-speak’ and not being a perfect speller.

Making a few spelling errors here and there in your e-mails doesn’t make you look intentionally stupid (especially not when you’re not a native speaker of the language—the a in ‘colleague’ doesn’t even have any reason for existing to begin with!), as long as they’re personal mails. If you’re writing mails to an entire organisation, you might consider getting someone to proofread them first. Still, even then, a few typos or spelling errors will only make you look a bad speller, not intentionally stupid.

writin lettaz like dis not carin bout spelin puntcuatian or any kinda style + usin all kindsa wierd symbols n #s 2 reprazent lettaz wen ur at work, however, will.

I didn't say they were the same thing, but when it's time to get on your high horse about how other people are too casual in their writing, it might be prudent to use the built-in spell checker, lest your reprimand come out unintentionally ironic.

[Dakar]

Originally Posted by davesimondotcom

True dat. Finnah drive me crazy.



So, saying "u" instead of "you" and "4" instead of "for" is called "text speak" now? I thought it was "Prince speak."

U 4got 1 key element.

[Doofy]

Originally Posted by nath

Interesting.

However your point appears to be somewhat undermined by the fact that anyone currently in full-time employment would have spent the formative years of their education - those dealing with the basic skills described - under a Tory government.

And Labour councils (and thus education boards) working against that Tory government.

I noticed the rot starting about '92 ish. The system changed from "money for each student starting the course" to "money for each student passing the course" - it became almost impossible for me to fail anyone.

Still, the Tories didn't bang on about "education, education, education", did they? And while Labour have had the chance to fix things, the rot has accelerated.

[nath]

Originally Posted by Doofy

And Labour councils (and thus education boards) working against that Tory government.

That's a fallacy, then as now. Central government removed the ability of LEAs to make significant changes to spending decisions a long time ago.

Originally Posted by Doofy

Labour have had the chance to fix things, the rot has accelerated.

Actually that's wrong. It's slowed substantially, particularly in the most impoverished areas such as the one in which my wife teaches.

[Doofy]

Originally Posted by nath

Actually that's wrong. It's slowed substantially, particularly in the most impoverished areas such as the one in which my wife teaches.

Right, so the BBC article is BS then.

[nath]

Originally Posted by Doofy

Right, so the BBC article is BS then.

Not at all, it's probably quite accurate.

The government introduced extra literacy and numeracy classes for primary school pupils in the late 1990s.

Mr Knight said these would improve the performance of the next generation of workers and that GCSEs were being updated to include grammar tests and focus on the basics.

I agree with the report, just not your selective reading of it.

A child starting primary school in 'the late 1990s' (let's say 1998) will enter the workforce in 2010.

We had a Tory government for 20 years. Any deficiencies in the educational standard of the current workforce are largely down to them.

Indeed, it would appear that your own mathematical education under a Tory government left a lot to be desired!

[n8236]

Who needs school when you have Fox News.

[Doofy]

Originally Posted by nath

Not at all, it's probably quite accurate.



I agree with the report, just not your selective reading of it.

A child starting primary school in 'the late 1990s' (let's say 1998) will enter the workforce in 2010.

We had a Tory government for 20 years. Any deficiencies in the educational standard of the current workforce are largely down to them.

Indeed, it would appear that your own mathematical education under a Tory government left a lot to be desired!

So, the school-leavers entering the workforce right now who need to be given remedial education by the employers haven't spent the last nine years of their education under a Labour government?

[nath]

Originally Posted by Doofy

So, the school-leavers entering the workforce right now who need to be given remedial education by the employers haven't spent the last nine years of their education under a Labour government?

Of course. But the last nine years of education are not the most important ones when it come to basic english and mathematical skills. That's the entire point of the article quoted in your OP!!

[Doofy]

Originally Posted by nath

Of course. But the last nine years of education are not the most important ones when it come to basic english and mathematical skills.

All of the years of education are important when it comes to basic maths and English if the student doesn't have a grasp of them.

[Wiskedjak]

Originally Posted by Kerrigan

oy u is lyin

Are you suggesting Spliffdaddy can't read or write?

[moodymonster]

I wuz edukated under both konservativ an labur

i fink teh teacher iz wot maters most

juz that now, the gubment iz fiddlin wiv the teachers an how they teach.

in my expirnence if the kidz wont 2 lern, them wil, on wayt or ofer.

also they are being taught to pass exams - but in some respects that's how it's always been but now even moreso. And if the cirriculum is focussed on proving that kids have learnt, rather than actually teaching them, then how are the children supposed to learn. It's not so much about teaching, but proving that teaching has happened.

But, there are still good teachers out there that do the job despite the prevailing political attitudes. And there are bad teachers... and there are bad kids. Schools in my area have their own police officers and metal detectors. So maybe the problem doesn't lie with the education system...

[Spliffdaddy]

Originally Posted by Wiskedjak

Are you suggesting Spliffdaddy can't read or write?

Although it's hard to tell nowadays, I was a regional spelling bee winner - and some of my technical essays are used to teach current university students in the exciting field of thermodynamics & high-specific-heatloads in semiconductors.



And I was stoned every minute I was writing that stuff.

[bowwowman]

Originally Posted by Spliffdaddy

Although it's hard to tell nowadays, I was a regional spelling bee winner - and some of my technical essays are used to teach current university students in the exciting field of thermodynamics & high-specific-heatloads in semiconductors.

And I was stoned every minute I was writing that stuff.

IIRC, most people who work or teach in those fields were born stoned
so whats your point ?????

[Spliffdaddy]

Some people would say I could have done a better job of writing that stuff if I wasn't stoned.

I insist that I could never had written it at all if I wasn't stoned.