Things Learned Today!

[Mike]

That is frustrating!

I learned that scientists are currently close to blocking a chemical that is vital to the growth of many cancers. This may be able to used preventively to keep people healthy and cancer free!

[Andy]

I learnt today that ''Education For Leisure'' has been officially dropped from the AQA Anthology and that apparently new ones are being printed. I haven't got a picture of the actual page of the Anthology that the poem is on but just let me say that the poem is on the left hand side whilst a huge bread knife about 1/2 a page big is on the right. Not the most intelligent thing to do I suppose. Anyway, here is the article and poem...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/200 ... es.english

There is some information on here about it and all the other poems and stories in the Anthology. You have to go about 2/3rds of the way down this page to find it.
http://www.universalteacher.org.uk/anth ... nduffy.htm

As you can see from this, it doesn't exactly promote gang violence and I think it is an over the top reaction (It has been in the Anthology for the last 8 years I think). There are other Duffy poems in this Anthology and I think they could have just informed schools that there is another set poem instead of this one and published some material/cribsheets/revision guides on it regarding the types of themes that questions could be centred on. After all, it is highly unlikely that 75% of schools have begun teaching the English Lit syllabus yet.

To put this into further context there are about 80 pages in this Anthology and each school received one per child for its Year 11 course during the Summer. That is a lot of wasted paper and that really irritates me because I honestly don't think, by the way it is taught, that any child would think about killing someone as they are told roughly what it is about before they begin to look at it under guided observation.

[mr_e]

Read that yesterday (see the sig) and was pretty much dumbfounded. However, which fecking idiots decided to put a huge picture of a bread knife on the opposite page to it? I'll bet that was what got it banned in the end.

"The second, made in the summer by an exams officer, was then taken up by an MP.

The most recent complaint was made by Lutterworth grammar school's exams invigilator, Pat Schofield, who welcomed the board's decision and said: "I think it is absolutely horrendous - what sort of message is that to give to kids who are reading it as part of their GCSE syllabus?" "

This proves that MPs willl take on any old shite if a constituent complains enough, and that invigilators should shut the feck up and stop inflicting their dubious logic on children. So... three complaints (only two about the knife) have got a poem wiped from the syllabus and wasted a load of trees. What kind of message is that sending to kids, Pat? That we can ignore worse violence in the classics and pick on modern poets instead? That a vocal minority of retards can influence exam board policy? There isn't even any description of knife violence in the fecking poem.

I have never been so tempted to email a school...

[Andy]

I brought this point up with my group today and they are an average bunch of kids - middle ability, varying home backgrounds, ethnic minorities, etc - none of them said ''yes'' when I asked them would the poem make them want to do anything violent. In fact, they all laughed and told me that this woman was ''mental'', ''off her head'' and ''well thick''. They then said that they had seen much worse on telly and it never affects them, even Ross Kemp on Gangs and we then debated how political correctness had gone mad. It seems that they feel the same as we did when we were this age, that the majority of people are out of touch with them and completely misunderstand them.

I will end my point by saying this - In less than 12 months every single kid in Year 11 turns 16 and is then seen to be legally old enough to look after themselves should they wish to. In under 3 years they are legally able to vote, drink, drive, smoke, have kids, own a home, etc. Why then do all these middle-class do-good-ers treat them all like immature children when in reality the vast majority are extremely mature individuals.

By the way John, don't write into schools because an exam invigilator is employed externally during the Summer months and is often employed through the local council (well, ours are to avoid any potential cheating). This ''Pat'' is probably some old fart who can't hold down a regular job and has a grudge against all children. Believe me, the way some of them speak to our kids is appalling.

[Mike]

I learned that when a mac is out of action (due to decorating) going back to the old windows laptop is frustrating. 40 minutes I have spent on this computer trying to watch ITV catchup. Okay so some of this time was spent with the hundreds (slight exaggeration) of updates, reinstalls required of browsers, etc blah. If this does not work soon will go and plug to mac in and try it on a sensible computer. Here is a run down of some problems.

In internet explorer (which uses flash player 9) it stops working after about 4-5 minutes just showing disjointed images of the programme despite the audio running in true time.

In Safari (having being forced to install Microsoft Silvershite) it crashes after the first advert.

In Firefox three we will find out in a moment but I don't hold out much hope.

[mr_e]

The likelihood that some guy who doesn't even teach may have been responsible for this makes it all the more galling. Good to learn your kids have their heads screwed on right though!

Mike, one of my pet hates has to be the audio-playing-but-no-freakin'-picture issue. I assume it's to do with some horrible programming. Even more annoying is the BBC iPlayer that insists on reloading the entire damn thing when you drag the slider back if you miss something. May be due to the way Firefox caches things? Better get that decorating done pronto!

[Mike]

Things learned today mark II. Dismantling and reassembling a computer is faster than using Windows ZZZZZZZP.

[Claire]

In response to Andy's thoughts re: Education for Leisure, we were a little puzzled at my school too on Monday. Surely, if the problem of knife crime is to be tackled then a poem that provides a forum for discussion could actually be a good thing??? Salome stays on the key poem list which is about John the Baptist being murdered, Hitcher stays on, which is about this guy who gets nutted and thrown out of a moving car, left for dead. And....Andy join me on this one...DO NOT even get me started on Anne Hathaway. Google it. Read it. Then tell me how you think you'd start teaching something so "erotic" to a bunch of 16 year olds...

[mr_e]

Aha, that is brilliant. Nice poem (not in the "selected poems" anthology I have of her work, unfortunately), but wouldn't want to teach it to hormonal kids. Or any kids for that matter. Good luck with that one.

[Andy]

And....Andy join me on this one...DO NOT even get me started on Anne Hathaway. Google it. Read it. Then tell me how you think you'd start teaching something so "erotic" to a bunch of 16 year olds...

It is virtually impossible, you have to have a lot of patience, the ability to laugh even though it is not funny and yet still retain a firm grip of discipline to stop them openly talking about sex. To be honest, it was mainly the reason why I switched to Heaney and Clarke. They are less interesting and go on about politics, nature and parent/child relationships but there is hardly anything that can be twisted to sex - they do find a few though trust me. It comes to something when my snigger at the line ''I rise in the dawn, and I kneel and blow'' from The Song Of The Old Mother in the pre-1914 section (This is after I've explained what it is about so stop laughing gentlemen).

Mind you, the short stories can be misconstrued and are a bit racy in parts - mine were convinced that Nick and Bill were having an affair after we had read The End of Something by Hemingway and this took up 3/4s of their test essays a week before the exam. Thank goodness that question didn't come up! There is also something weird about the grandfathers' actions, especially in Flight, that bloke is just not right in the head. Looking at my group this year, I think it would mash their brains to pulp so I'm doing either Lord of the Flies or Kes.

[stimpsonslostson]

the AA have the worst hold music I've ever heard!
It sounds like a 3year old attempting to play a concerto on the piano. BLOODY TERRIBLE. They've got the volume wrong too- its LOUD and distorts in your earpiece.
AAAARRRGGGHHH!

p

[BarcelonAl]

I've just sat through the same piece of 'music' and totally agree with Phil's comments, except that it sounds like a 3 year old attempting to play a concerto on an 80s Casio keyboard...with some of the keys missing!

No stars for that I'm afraid!

[stimpsonslostson]

another random useless factoid learned today.
Ramadan doesn't apply if you're female and its your time of the month.
I spotted a colleague eating a sandwich and asked "Isn't it ramadan now?" to be told "I'm exempt coz I'm on my period."

Things you wish you'd never asked...

[mr_e]

She's only exempt for the days she's on her period, and is supposed to make them up before the next Ramadan comes around. May vary depending on the particular sect. There's some other exemptions, like the insane (!), the ill, elderly, and pre-pubescent children.

Today I learned that fidgeting is essential... when you're at risk of falling asleep in a training session.

[liz.brownlloyd]

In one way it makes sense - if you are having a period and not eating for a large chunk of the day, it could make you feint.

However I also believe that it is because women are seen as 'dirty' when they are having their period... I wonder whether your allowed to have sex whilst its Ramadan???