Ping the Medway Handyman

[Mark]

I always thought it was "those who can, do" "those who can't, teach" "and those who can't teach, write about it"

-

[Rod]

Needs updating.

"and those who can't write, post to Usenet." :-)

[<me9]

Small village schools have been doing this (on an even grander scale, reception to Y6 with one teacher) for years. Such schools are often found to function well with this arrangement, and great howls of rage arise when attempts are made to close them.

[<me9]

I couldn't agree with you more. There are also good teachers,plumbers, electricians, bankers.... but perhaps not Prime Ministers.

[George (dicegeorge)]

wasnt Lloyd George a good prime minister?

[Dave]

Speaking as someone that has worked at a primary school for over 3 years (not in teaching though), I too have seen this happen. When I have asked the teacher why it was done, it turned out that the 2 classes were so evenly matched, that it made perfect sense to teach them together. They invariably separated into 2 streams again later, as their development grew them apart.

Generally, teachers have their minds on the needs of the children in their care and not on the ease of their lives. The introduction, by this government of assessments and standards has lowered the educational standards by quite a lot. They can't even get the SATS results through now.

Dave

[Andy Hall]

This is confusing the issues of teacher pupil ratio with using children as teaching assistants and holding back of children.

I don't have an issue with mixing of age groups per sec. I have a very big issue with how some schools have done this together with slowing the development of children.

[Dave]

While I completely agree with you here...

Wasn't it DIY that got you interested in women anyway ;-)

Dave

[Dave]

There are not that many bad teachers, just those that get run down with modern rules and regulations. I don't recollect that much about my primary school teachers, but my secondary and night class teachers were superb. They took a child that had suffered asthma until the age of 13, spending as much time at home as at school and Bronchitis ever since into a semi literate, numerate person that was aware of history, classical music and geography. I can't remember a bad secondary teacher. I can remember a bad day release teacher, but that was only because some of us would wind him up beyond his limits. My maths improved in my early

20's when I had to catch up on all that I had missed at school as a child. Thanks to teachers I had listened to at college, I could understand the maths that set me on my way to a career that crumbled shortly after :-(

The cotton industry circa late sixties. I eventually went into the aerospace industry at quite a high level of secrecy. I loved the job.

Dave

[geoff]

In message , "George (dicegeorge)" writes

Did he know your father ?