Road Tax on driving a vehicle

And learning to cope with failure without sulking is another one.

Ineed. The triumph of socialism has been to move the dysfunctional drone from the realms of the upper class landed gentry to the council estate chav. Arguably the former were less of a nuisance.

And quite rightly. Germany at least seems capable of turning out competent builders..and probably Poland and Czechoslovakia too. Sweden for all its dreary mediocrity, does good dentists..

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher
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The Grammar School I went to in Aberdeen streamed each subject - five streams for each mainstream one. So if you were good at maths but poor at English you could be in the top stream for one, but the bottom for the other - although this was rare. However, a spread of three streams was common. But more to the point was the decent social mix of kids. It had a primary department with the kids mainly drawn from the local area, which was a 'good' one. All those kids continued into the secondary side regardless of 11+ results. The secondary side was larger and kids who had passed their 11+ at other primary schools joined - all those who passed the 11+ got a place at one or other of the grammar type schools. So you ended up with a good social mix based mainly on ability. As indeed you did at some of the Secondary Modern schools.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

Tell me about it. I failed my 11 plus.

11 'O' levels, 4 'A' levels and 2 degrees later, I have mixed feelings about streamed education...
Reply to
Huge

Ex H2S displays from Lancaster's and Shackletons, 17/6d each in Proops in the days when Tottenham Court Road had proper junk shops.

Reply to
Peter Parry

That was the setup in Athens *30* years ago.

A.I.R. it was operated with even/odd index numbers.

They just made sure they had access to 2 cars to use on even/odd days.

DG

Reply to
Derek Geldard

Why a fridge alarm?

We had to fit a lock on our fridge when the children were teenagers!

Mary

Reply to
Mary Fisher

LOL! Very useful :-)

Mary

Reply to
Mary Fisher

Yes and it doesn't work.

Trade vehicles and vans are exempt.

People buy two cars, with the second being a more polluting crappy one,

It increases congestion in the suburbs because of a lack of off street parking.

Reply to
Andy Hall

Perhaps demonstrating that selection at age 11 wasn't deleterious to the outcome?

Reply to
Andy Hall

Dunno. Like I say, I have mixed feelings.

But being very old(!) and having no children, I'm not that much interested any more. :o)

Reply to
Huge

:-)

Owain

Reply to
Owain

Because I wanted to try a HeathKit and there wasn't much in the range I could afford. And I'd already got an intercom.

What I *really* wanted to build were a Maplin stereo amplifier and an electronic crosspoint telephone exchange.

There was never anything in our fridge that I wanted to eat.

Owain

Reply to
Owain

I'd dispute that. A good teacher can handle a class of otherwise bored/unruly teenagers - surely you're not pretending that primary school kids are harder to cope with than that? FWIW my 'social skills' meant those skills which weren't directly related to the subject - covering things such as charisma, etc.

It's the job of the education system to cope with this. In the real world of work, you can eg refuse to employ somebody who's not up to the job. The state education system can't do this : they must be able to handle everybody. (We know of examples where the schools are behaving more like bad employers - eg encouraging those who won't get an A to not take an exam, to improve 'results'. I'm sure you'll agree this is not good.)

They already teach this. Well, at most schools. (There is (was?) at least one famous exception, but they're rather different to the rest). Fixed lesson times, homework, coursework, etc - all are doing exactly what you want here. No need to actually discriminate against people to achieve it either.

Except there is a problem with segregated provisioning. It's not just perception.

Bollocks. Segregated provisioning has significant problems you're just pretending don't exist.

In this country we still have grammar and comp. There's no evidence that the "decline in standards" affects either system more than the other. Therefore there is no evidence that comp produces mediocrity. Look elsewhere for mechanisms for the (possibly overstated) decline in standards.

clive

Reply to
Clive George

And, indeed, may have actually been advantageous?

Reply to
Bob Eager

Who knows, without living my life over again, and all things considered, I'll pass, thanks.

Reply to
Huge

It's just that it's such an ugly, anti-social concept.

Reply to
Stuart Noble

Life is full of selection, much of it ugly and anti-social. Might as well get used to it ASAP.

Reply to
Huge

I built one as well. The timebase was generated by a "Miller integrator screen coupled phantastron" using an EF39 pentode.

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It was very nice. :-)

Not to forget "Lisle Street"

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'd bet a pound against a piece of shit it was an "Indicator Unit type

62A" from the Gee Navigation system.

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being that it used the VCR97 crt which had electrostatic deflection. I'm assuming (BICBW, nothing much on the web) that the H2S display used a magnetic deflection tube with rotating scan coils sync-ed to the rotating antenna (somehow). However it's CRT definitely had a long persistence phosphor with a blue flash and orange afterglow.

Footnote, a schoolfriend's dad actually built the Practical Television home-built TV set using the VCR 97 and EF50 valves from an indicator unit 62A

DG

Reply to
Derek Geldard

There's no need to pretend. They can be.

Fine, but it doesn't make up for any lack of ability in the subject.

Always assuming the principle of universal provision by the state or the possibility of opt out with refund, although that's a separate issue.

There is, in any case, nothing that says that the state has to do this by mean of single comprehensive schools as opposed to freedom of choice.

It isn't good, and is another reason why the comprehensive system has let down two generations of children.

This could be entirely avoided by a correct matching between school and pupil rather than attempting a poor form of social engineering.

There was no discrimination. You are confusing appropriate matching of pupil with type of school as being discrimination. It isn't.

There isn't a problem with segregated provisioning - only a perception that there is.

There is nothing wrong with matching the pupil with the most appropriate type of schoold for them.

Not to the degree and with the freedom of choice that we did.

Standards have certainly declined in the UK over the last 40 years compared with what they were. There is really no argument about that. This has not happened in other countries who have focused on correct provision of education rather than social wet dreams. The correlating factor is comprehensive education.

Unfortunately there is. It isn't the only reason for mediochrity but is certainly the major culprit.

It isn't overstated.

I've looked recently at GCSE papers. They are of the standard of 2nd form grammar school at best.

Reply to
Andy Hall

So's the real world. Unfortunately we have to live in that one.

Reply to
Andy Hall

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