Student Riots

[Dustydog]

These children could be our future!

Children Writing About the Ocean...

1) - This is a picture of an octopus. It has eight testicles. (Kelly, age 6)

2) - Oysters' balls are called pearls. (Jerry, age 6)

3) - If you are surrounded by ocean, you are an island. If you don't have ocean all round you, you are incontinent.
(Mike, age 7)

4) - Sharks are ugly and mean, and have big teeth, just like Emily
Richardson. She's not my friend any more. (Kylie, age 6)

5) - A dolphin breaths through an ******* on the top of its head. (Billy, age 8)

6) My uncle goes out in his boat with 2 other men, a woman and pots. He comes back with crabs.
(Millie, age 6)

7) - When ships had sails, they used to use the trade winds to cross the ocean. Sometimes when the wind didn't blow the sailors would whistle to make the wind come. My brother said they would have been better off eating beans. (William, age 7)

8) - Mermaids live in the ocean. I like mermaids. They are beautiful and I like their shiny tails, but how on earth do mermaids get pregnant? Like, really? (Helen, age 8)

9) - I'm not going to write about the ocean. My baby brother is always crying, my Dad keeps yelling at my Mom, and my big sister has just got pregnant, so I can't think what to write. (Amy, age 6)

10) - Some fish are dangerous. Jellyfish can sting. Electric eels can give you a shock. They have to live in caves under the sea where I think they have to plug themselves in to chargers.
(Christopher, age 7)

11) - When you go swimming in the ocean, it is very cold, and it makes my willy small. (Kevin, age 6)

12) - Divers have to be safe when they go under the water. Divers can't go down alone, so they have to go down on each other. (Becky, age 8)

13) - On vacation my Mom went water skiing. She fell off when she was going very fast. She says she won't do it again because water fired right up her big fat ass. (Julie, age 7)

14) - The ocean is made up of water and fish. Why the fish don't drown I don't know. (Bobby, age 6)

15) - My dad was a sailor on the ocean. He knows all about the ocean. What he doesn't know is why he quit being a sailor and married my mom. (James, age 7)

If you didn't smile at one of these, you need to find a better sense of humor

 

[JonnyG]

Colin, loved your last reply,nice informative stuff. but you do know that today comprehensive schools do teach "O" and"A" levels? and many comprehensives appear high up in these so called performance charts? My own was De lisle RC comprehensive,now its a science college apparently.
I went there from aug 74 to jul 79 which means I started comp school 34 years ago, I never recall any of those things that you attribute to be the difference "11plus" off to grammar and "O" and "A" levels" in fact in the Loughborough Area where the school is it had a great reputation and did so even back then.

It was I who mention the top 10% although maybe i should have said top 10 to 20% max, and i actually meant this based on any typical class in any secondary school, where a class of 30 pupils would perhaps have maybe 6 odd going onto University, i did not mean toffs or anything to do with any perceived elitist class.merely a proportion as a whole

You see when I did my "O" levels, there was not a standard pass mark indeed a C grade could be got for a lowly 45% or it might be as high as 55% depending on how many passed and therefore how the authorities deemed its difficulty,or so I was told repeatedly by teachers, and this system also effected the "B" and "A" grades too.
I believe we do not have that type of system today and pass rates for the top three grades keep going up! even though we had the labour government being critical of a lack of basic 3 Rs reading writing rythmatic ,and this new government being critical of the marking system where proper accurate spelling plays no part in the marking of papers!!!Again something that it definitely did back then.

If you think i am being critical of the education system, then yes I am and that's because, I believe in a good standard of eduction should be available to everyone and should be taught to everyone.For me that means 5 to 16 year olds, not having to stay on till 18 or 23 or whatever for a good education,you should have reached that good standard of eduction by the time you were 16 odd years of age.
After this age [16] and depending on what you want to do with your future, then if further eduction is indeed needed fine,but I still say and suspect too many are going to University that really do not need to, and every year around the summer we get the reports of far too many graduates not being able to get jobs, or rather jobs more seemingly befitting there higher education.Is that not a waste too

 

[colin-yorkshire1]

Colin, loved your last reply,nice informative stuff. but you do know that today comprehensive schools do teach "O" and"A" levels? and many comprehensives appear high up in these so called performance charts? My own was De lisle RC comprehensive,now its a science college apparently.

hi
yes I did know that as all my kids went through the comprehensive system and to be honest I believe it was the best way in which it was posible to get the best out of the kids well mine anyway, the eldest allways had this knack of remembering long complicated words from prefixes if that is the right word like PVA and PNTSA and his maths "unlike me" was faultless so I suppose it was enevitable he would end up in the scientific community. my daughter on the other hand had the ability to absorb languages by the age of 13 could speak all of the major european ones. both of them got every encouragement to do well at school and was allowed to transfer some lessons to their favorite subjects and to drop others as exams came nearer. their ability to suceed was never in question such was the scope of the education they recieved. in comparison to the way I was taught at school it could not have been different and with the advances made since they were at school it is not suprising the amount of kids that go to uni immaterial of the courses they take.
it would not be appropriate however before leaving the subject without metioning the youngest he had no intention of doing the uni thing and was so bored of acedemic subjects his only interest was going out to work and having money in his pocket. unfortunatly we dont see very much of him now as he works on a oil rig and lives in aberdeen.
colin.

 

[colin(bridgend)]

Colin - just a quickie - you mentioned your daughter had the ability to be able to speak all the major European languages at the age of 13. Hope you have included Welsh in that catergory

 

[OmOnWeelz]

Since when was Welsh a major European Language?
Is Welsh taught in schools anywhere else in the world? I know there is a Welsh speaking community in Patagonia but even they learn Spanish at school. Dividing th UK Island with another language is madness, Welsh schools would do better concentrating on English and letting kids learn Welsh at home.

 

[colin-yorkshire1]

Colin - just a quickie - you mentioned your daughter had the ability to be able to speak all the major European languages at the age of 13. Hope you have included Welsh in that catergory

hi colin.
afraid not me old mate just the usual boring ones that are easy to learn

nice touch though. I will raise your point when she comes round for chritmas dinner.
colin

 

[JonnyG]

Since when was Welsh a major European Language?
Is Welsh taught in schools anywhere else in the world? I know there is a Welsh speaking community in Patagonia but even they learn Spanish at school. Dividing th UK Island with another language is madness, Welsh schools would do better concentrating on English and letting kids learn Welsh at home.

heritage is important, and keeping ones heritage is paramount, whilst it might be OK for kids to learn to speak a language at home, learning the grammar and reading and writing should be left to proper tutors.
Long may the welsh language be taught in Wales, as the united kingdom is made up of more than just England!

 

[OmOnWeelz]

Nothing against the Welsh keeping their laguage, use it and learn at home. It is never going to be a widely used language. Our friends two young grandchildren have been taken out of state school in Wales as to much importance was put on learning Welsh. The older one and some of her Welsh friends struggled with school work leading up to their exams as they were having to "waste time" with Welsh.
Teachers have to be able to speak Welsh so their teacher daughter is excluded from teaching in a Welsh School, she teaches English privately(earns a lot more) to help kids get on with the language that they will use mainly when they leave work..

 

[JonnyG]

"to help kids get on with the language that they will use mainly when they leave work.."
I do worry. Most western Europeans learn English and have a good grasp of it by the time they leave school, and it is taught in the classroom. I have meet Germans, and Italians who by the age of 14 had an excellent grasp of two languages at least and other school work did not seem to suffer!
Noticed also that when in Portmadog everybody I came across was speaking welsh, whilst working. OK so its not ever going to be a major language but that's not the point, what price do you put on a peoples heritage?