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What the f*** is wrong with society? where did it go wrong and how do we fix it?

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There's no going back with society as it is now.

Speaking as someone who was only allowed my first mobile phone at 16, in my line of work I've seen more than one infant who could operate a tablet much more effectively than walk. For me that sums it up.

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Lots of very interesting posts here. 

Society in this country was killed by the Thatcher Government. It has never recovered and probably never will. 

I've travelled extensively over the last few years and other countries in Europe just aren't like the UK. People still care about where they live. Coming back to the UK is quite depressing. It is a sh*thole compared to the rest of Europe. At the very least we could stop throwing rubbish in the street. 

I agree totally. The idea that everyone in this country or even the world, has the opportunity to get off their backside, become an entrepreneur and be financially what is considered a success or even someone to be revered, is just typical propaganda by those whose success is guaranteed by accident of birth.

Of course there are many self made people. And some do come from a difficult childhood but the majority come from a position of privilege. And today even many of Momentum come from similar backgrounds.

Despite her mantra of people being free from government interference, her policies, with safety of North Sea oil and gas, allowed her government to create the dependent society we have today. You don't understand became her watchword and people believed it. Buy your council house, shares in Telecom etc, and you can be like the wealthy.

Within a short time, many had sold on the council homes, sold their shares in Telecom and now believe they are something special. The Tories made me what I am.

But by creating a low wage economy and taking away price controls and spending controls, all she did was boost the economy for those others were aspiring to be.

Her belief that any industrial problems were solely the Unions fault has led to the decline in Industry in this nation. By letting incompetent management and greedy shareholders loose in a market economy has left this nation covered in retail parks and leisure centres rather than factories.

 

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Progressive teaching methods have played a huge part in what's wrong with society today and a conservative approach would help fix it -- Conservative teacher Katharine Birbalsingh is proof of that.

For those that don't know, she's Headmistress at a school in one of the roughest, most deprived, ethnically diverse parts of Britain -- Despite that the following superb results:

https://twitter.com/hashtag/MichaelaResults?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc^tfw

birbalsingh-640x480.png

Katharine, is a black conservative who doesn’t believe in playing the race card or identity politics and her success boils down to discipline; dedicated, enthusiastic, teacher-led classes; hard work from the children; traditional, rote-learning methods including times tables, grammar, and regular tests, strict marking, and no “all shall have prizes” rewards just for turning up.

Anyone in the UK of sound mind would naturally hail this success, but no --- No prizes for guessing who's spitting blood 👇

 

Someone needs to educate this headteacher that for kids life is much more than bloody discipline and GCSE
You only have youth once.
Say no to educational robots.
This school will always be oddball.
It will never catch on.

    — Gavin Singh (@GovinderSingh20) August 23, 2019  🤪

 

One would think Lefties would be ecstatic that kids from largely working-class, migration-background families garnered some of the best results in the country, but again, no - No, because according to the Lefty the results were achieved using the wrong kind of methods -- not the 'child-centered', supposedly creativity-nurturing, discipline-lite laissez-faire approach as recommended by the Leftist educational establishment.

When you visit Katharine Birbalsingh's school, you have lunch with the children. Before they sit down, the children all have to declaim in unison one of the old-fashioned, uplifting poems they have to learn — Kipling’s If;  Invictus by William Ernest Henley; etc. Then, as they wolf down their food (there isn’t space for all the children to eat at once, so lunch has to be conducted in two very swift sittings), they engage their visitors in conversation.

These are children in their early teens, often from the kinds of backgrounds where their peers are either knifing one another or buried in Fortnite. But very much unlike their peers, they do not communicate in grunts and they look you in the eye.

I was very impressed by Michaela, its headmistress Katharine Birbalsingh, its dedicated teachers, and its extraordinary kids. Their success doesn’t surprise me at all but I’m glad they’ve had it because they totally deserve it.

Let me tell you the most impressive thing of all I found at Michaela: when we talked about Brexit, half the kids on my table made an intelligent case for it. Can you imagine that happening anywhere else in the brainwashed, left-indoctrinated state sector?

The Left hates Michaela because it’s an indictment of all the “progressive” values which have failed kids in Britain, the U.S. and elsewhere for decades. Michaela is a shaming reminder of how good state schools could be if teachers pulled their socks up, stopped blaming their pupils’ failures on inadequate funding or ethnicity, and got on with the job of actually teaching 👨‍🎓👩‍🎓👍

~ Delingpole

 

Edited by Jools

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Took your advice Jools from the other thread - The Michaela school is famous across the education world but mainly through a swathe of controversial measures - didn't remember the head's name but the minute I read your opening sentences then I knew you were talking about the Michaela school.

Amazing set of results there - thanks for sharing, I hadn't seen that.... it may well start to shape the education conversation if that's repeated next year. Not to say it's the only way to skin a cat, Finland has a totally different set up and by far the best education system in the world. They focus on collaborative learning, and cross-curricular topics. 

I actually almost applied for a job at a school in Birmingham that is imitating the Michaela set up - it's just opening this year. I didn't in the end because having to be in school for 7.30 for "family breakfast" would have meant I didn't actually see my own family and there were other bits that just weren't conducive to family life as I have a two year old and would have had to commute about 40 mins (out of traffic 40 mins, much longer with traffic) up busy motorways to get there.

There's lots of question marks for me about the methods of Michaela, the results are inarguable and it seems to me the pupils get a great depth of curriculum, but some of it just doesn't sit right - they don't do art, DT, IT etc - I wonder whether the depth comes at a cost of the breadth and whether you can really say children are educated, or whether it is merely an exam factory. It's difficult to say without having seen it first hand. 

I will say that Birbalsingh must be an extraordinary leader - whether her methods are right or not, to achieve that level of consistency across a school is unprecedented and I'm sure most heads will tell you that consistency is one of the biggest hurdles in leading any school.

One point of query - you say strict marking, but my understanding is there is no marking there because Birbalsingh (rightly) sees it as an inefficient waste of time exercise. It's widely known that it is the least effective form of feedback and incredibly time-consuming. Ofsted don't even assess the "quality of marking" any more, they just check what the policy is and then measure whether the policy is being consistently implemented. Where did you find strict marking as part of her methodology?

Delingpole's commentary shows a lack of understanding telling teachers to "pull their socks up and get on with teaching" - schools have policies and QA processes to ensure you're in line with their policies. His critique is better levelled at the school administrators if the policy is bad, or even more appropriately at the government which has imposed a huge workload and much of it pointless admin tasks which eat up teachers time so prevent lots of meaningful teaching and learning discussion taking place. He also fails to understand that Michaela's lessons are pre-planned and taught to the letter without deviation so the teachers aren't really teaching - they're regurgitating a script.

There's lots of good, healthy debate to be had in the education world over the next couple of years regarding Michaela and it's methods though, that's for sure. I have more questions than answers at this point and there's actually quite a lot around this that is thought provoking. For example - I have always wanted to use education to further a child's world perspective, increase aspiration and enable them to get the best opportunities in life. That's pretty bread and butter stuff for most teachers I guess. Michaela's results have given a lot of disadvantaged kids masses of opportunity. .. but has it provided them a well-rounded education? does it actually prepare them for the real world? Is it essentially an exam factory which teaches to the test and nothing beyond that narrow spectrum? The criticism that is quoted in your text, is actually pretty valid when you consider that schools need to prepare people for adult life and there's lot of queries about how well their methodology works int hat context. Like I said, more questions than answers for me, but I appreciate you sharing. Lots of food for thought there.

Edited by kick it off

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This is the part that made me suspicious of the Delinpole's motive (he's got form).

Let me tell you the most impressive thing of all I found at Michaela: when we talked about Brexit, half the kids on my table made an intelligent case for it. Can you imagine that happening anywhere else in the brainwashed, left-indoctrinated state sector?

 

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1 minute ago, TCCANARY said:

This is the part that made me suspicious of the Delinpole's motive (he's got form).

Let me tell you the most impressive thing of all I found at Michaela: when we talked about Brexit, half the kids on my table made an intelligent case for it. Can you imagine that happening anywhere else in the brainwashed, left-indoctrinated state sector?

 

Yeah, I have to say, I found that bit pretty questionable.

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