[OT] The three Rs

[whisky-dave]

How many jobs to you see that require latin or fortran ?

[Terry Casey]

My mum was clever so I learnt to tell the time without any real effort on my part.

After I knew the numbers from 1 to 12, she would be working in the kitchen and would ask me to tell her where the hands were pointing on the clock in the living room.

I would come back and say, for example, that the big hand was pointing to the three and the little hand was pointing to the ten. She would say: Oh, that's a quarter past ten.

It wasn't until after she died that the realisation hit me that she'd been ever cleverer than I'd prevously thought. She didn't have a watch but did seem to have a very accurate mental clock because, when this practice started, the big hand always seemed to point at the 3, 6, 9 or 12. Only after it was obvious that I'd mastered the quarters did we move on to five past, five and twenty to and so on and then, finally, neasrly half past or just gone ten past, etc.

I really wish I knew how she'd managed that!

They tried that on my wife. It only lasted a day but then she went home and told her mum.

The following day her mum marched down to the school and gave them such a piece of her mind that it never happened again!

I thgink that being forced to write right handed with his left hand tied behind his back was the cause of King George VI's stammer.

[Terry Casey]

I don't remember that but perhaps I was lucky enough to miss that phase due to starting school with the Spring term.

I was annoyed, though, that you weren't allowed to join the local library until you were seven.

I was very envious of my daughter because there didn't seem to be a lower age limit when she joined!

[whisky-dave]

[spuorgelgoog]

Indeed currently has about 6 vacancies for Latin teachers and 100+ where Fortran skills may be advantageous.

Owain

[michael adams]

Nowhere in your account is there any indication that the clock was actually working all the time, rather than being stopped maybe and set to a particular time beforehand. As you, like your mother presumably didn't actually wear a watch, is this something you would actually have noticed.

Do you perhaps have memories of her sendingg you out in the garden to play, while perhaps she scurried back to the living room to restart the clock ?

Otherwise according to your account not only would your mother have needed a particularly accurate mental clock, but you would need to have been available in the kitchen at the appropriate times.

michael adams

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[Steve Walker]

My dad was forced to write right handed. It is very useful because it has made him truly ambidextrous. If he's helping me out with any DIY, he can do things in awkward places where I struggle with the wrong hand.

SteveW

[Steve Walker]

Latin does give some useful (and interesting) background about where parts of the English language and most of our grammar has come from. It is also (at GCSE level) 50% Roman history.

My eldest son is taking it at the moment, two one hour lessons each week, after normal school has finished.

An interesting subject and something to stand out from the crowd a little on university applications and the like.

SteveW

[Dave Plowman (News)]

At my school, Latin was compulsory until 4th form. I know all the arguments about how it gives you a better understanding of English etc, but never fully believed this.

[tabbypurr]

Yes. So of course does teaching those things as part of English, in about 1/100th the time.

Latin wasn't when I took it, though it wasn't a GCSE then. And even if it is, what earthly use is roman history.

I certainly beg to differ on interesting. I studied latin under protest and ditched it the second I could. What an utter waste of time it was.

NT

[tabbypurr]

Compared to studying English it gives less understanding of English.

NT

[Steve Walker]

Teaching of English doesn't mention the background and etymology of the langauge.

It is now and it was whenI took it as a GCE 34 years ago. You could equally ask what is the use of History?

I chose it as an option. My son has chosen to stay late twice a week to study it as an extra subject.

SteveW

[Dave Plowman (News)]

[Dave Plowman (News)]

And why not, if it helps things?

[tabbypurr]

Do we have another Rodney here? Does anyone need to mention that teaching English contains whatever part of English the one teaching chooses? Really?

[Tim Streater]

All history is useful. If yoof had learnt about the antics of the fascists in Germany in the 30s they wouldn't be joining Momentum now.

[whisky-dave]

Where are these vacancies ? How many schools would yuo suggest teach latin to fill 6 posts for latin teachers ?

[whisky-dave]

So was my mum but it didnlt help her.

Perhaps he could have acheived more if he was allowed to use the hand he was most comfortable using. A friend of mine had a car accident which caused him to note be able to write with his right hand so he had to re-learn how to write with his left. if this is such a useful thing how come this isnlt included at school or university level. Or in football if yuo;re a left winger train on the rigght so you can play on both sides o the pitch that makes senses doesn;t it ?

I wponder if it matters whether you're left or right handed when using the 'dead arm' method.

[whisky-dave]

And how is it useful ? Maybe fire fighers should take this course if it'll help them save lives.

And that helps decide on which cladding should be put on which buildings ... how exactly.

I watch documenties about such things, up to date docs. rather than text boks that tell me that christopher colombus discovered america.

Yes enabling you to get a job managing a subject you know little if anything about as part of managment or administration.

[Martin Brown]

Funnily enough I recall a claim that it made learning to program computers easier as a justification for learning Latin at my school. The main side effect was a proper understanding of English grammar usage of subjunctive clauses that was not taught in the English syllabus.

Today for teaching general programming it makes sense to use something a lot more interactive and less tied to heavyweight number crunching.

I expect the Vatican still use Latin but botanists finally gave up on it for species description only recently in 2012:

Fortran is still used for a lot of large scale legacy scientific software and has some advantages over C for multidimensional arrays.