School curriculums



Kent_Mackem said:
Teaching Religious Studies is crucial. Children should learn about the different religions in the world.

What should be banned, and I find it indefensible that it continues in the C21st, is religious indoctrination: faith schools, collective worship, teaching religious bollocks as fact etc.

My other half's then 5 year old left the school gates with a Bronze Age understanding of the origins of The Earth. So something had gone very wrong with an expected lesson outcome. It was because the important prefix "some Christians believe..." was missed. Understandable since he was only 5. WTF are schools doing "teaching" that kind of bollocks to 5 year olds?

Also, since China will likely rule the world when the next generation reach working age, Chinese may come in handy. I know a few schools that are teaching it already.
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its got a all comers welcome name now but its on the agenda ,world studies or something.They were taught to question religion and make their own mind up
 
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joemcdokes said:
Politics is always changing, just look over the last 18 months.
I don’t think knowing more about it would make it any better.

Best kept out of it.
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You can understand how it works and how it is used for good and bad and use examples without it being a mini election every term
Our son has picked stuff up from us two over these last years and he asks questions .Politics can be non party and personal to you
 
JAZZMANB said:
You can understand how it works and how it is used for good and bad and use examples without it being a mini election every term
Our son has picked stuff up from us two over these last years and he asks questions .Politics can be non party and personal to you
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Party politics I meant.
 
I really didn’t enjoy school at all. The two schools I attended had a total of two teachers that I would consider inspired me, both of whom taught English. Not that I really studied hard for either of them, I didn’t. I came to understand their influence after I left school.
I wasn’t a particularly good pupil. I wasn’t generally disobedient, although that never stopped me from getting caned on my arse. I was lazy and disinterested most of the time as I just couldn’t see for example why at 12/13 years old I needed to know about refractive indexes or where the tastebuds were on my tongue. Basically nothing was contextualised. Not saying it was their fault, it wasn’t but to my juvenile brain I really couldn’t see the point. And to their educated brain the majority of the teachers couldn’t care.
 
Tuono said:
That's so true. I went to Redhouse Comp and came in the top two in just about every exam and when it came to the time when you had to pick a course to suit what you would do as a career my teachers were adamant I had to take an academic career path.
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Similar thing happened to me - was told my future was A Levels and University. Hated both and it was a relief when I had to leave my degree due to ill health.

Drifted into the Civil Service, which I also hate. 🤣
 
The Krankie Returns said:
I really didn’t enjoy school at all. The two schools I attended had a total of two teachers that I would consider inspired me, both of whom taught English. Not that I really studied hard for either of them, I didn’t. I came to understand their influence after I left school.
I wasn’t a particularly good pupil. I wasn’t generally disobedient, although that never stopped me from getting caned on my arse. I was lazy and disinterested most of the time as I just couldn’t see for example why at 12/13 years old I needed to know about refractive indexes or where the tastebuds were on my tongue. Basically nothing was contextualised. Not saying it was their fault, it wasn’t but to my juvenile brain I really couldn’t see the point. And to their educated brain the majority of the teachers couldn’t care.
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Its a slog for most kids ,we all wanted to be somewhere else with our mates . To me its preparing you for whats ahead .Unless you're very lucky your working life will be you getting up and getting in and cracking on regardless of how much you want to .
 
JAZZMANB said:
Its a slog for most kids ,we all wanted to be somewhere else with our mates . To me its preparing you for whats ahead .Unless you're very lucky your working life will be you getting up and getting in and cracking on regardless of how much you want to .
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But school never taught me that. The army did and that’s an attitude I’ve taken throughout my entire working career. I’ve realistically had three jobs since I was 17. The army, the police in England and the police in Australia. I’m not saying school is or was a bad thing. School taught me but not, to my mind, the conventional way. It gave a dislike of authority figures…..quite ironic I know.
 
The Krankie Returns said:
I really didn’t enjoy school at all. The two schools I attended had a total of two teachers that I would consider inspired me, both of whom taught English. Not that I really studied hard for either of them, I didn’t. I came to understand their influence after I left school.
I wasn’t a particularly good pupil. I wasn’t generally disobedient, although that never stopped me from getting caned on my arse. I was lazy and disinterested most of the time as I just couldn’t see for example why at 12/13 years old I needed to know about refractive indexes or where the tastebuds were on my tongue. Basically nothing was contextualised. Not saying it was their fault, it wasn’t but to my juvenile brain I really couldn’t see the point. And to their educated brain the majority of the teachers couldn’t care.
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Nice summation of 95% of kids tbh. The only thing that motivated me was avoiding a verbal (usually) pasting of my father.
JAZZMANB said:
Its a slog for most kids ,we all wanted to be somewhere else with our mates . To me its preparing you for whats ahead .Unless you're very lucky your working life will be you getting up and getting in and cracking on regardless of how much you want to .
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Exactly this. Usually my opening gambit with a new class. I tell them my lessons will be boring at times and that they will probably think of a thousand things they would rather be doing but that it's necessary (insert boring exam speech).
 
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sambantam82 said:
Nice summation of 95% of kids tbh. The only thing that motivated me was avoiding a verbal (usually) pasting of my father.


Exactly this. Usually my opening gambit with a new class. I tell them my lessons will be boring at times and that they will probably think of a thousand things they would rather be doing but that it's necessary (insert boring exam speech).
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Boring exam speech, ‘last years lot didn’t even have to sit one and there were record passes, let’s hope you lot don’t have to either eh’.
 
joemcdokes said:
Boring exam speech, ‘last years lot didn’t even have to sit one and there were record passes, let’s hope you lot don’t have to either eh’.
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Something like that. 'Big hard lads crying on results day' is the patter of choice'. My favourite is 'every other kid in the country is hating this just as much as you but you need to gain an advantage because they're all challenging you for jobs, apprenticeships, places etc.
 
sambantam82 said:
Nice summation of 95% of kids tbh. The only thing that motivated me was avoiding a verbal (usually) pasting of my father.


Exactly this. Usually my opening gambit with a new class. I tell them my lessons will be boring at times and that they will probably think of a thousand things they would rather be doing but that it's necessary (insert boring exam speech).
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Ok, I get that you’re a teacher. All I was told at school back in the late 70s early 80s was pass your O Levels, because if you don’t then you’ll be a failure for the rest of your life. Things may be different now, but back when I was there exams were everything.
Please don’t take this as a school and teacher bashing session. I really don’t want it to come across like that. I hope that you can inspire the kids of today where I wasn’t.
 
Design and technology and engineering should have a bigger presence given the problems we have in the world with climate change etc
 
anth said:
I personally think the history curriculum needs looking at again, or at least looking back on what I studied in the early 2000s did. There was nothing about the world wars, nothing about the miners strikes or the aberfan disaster. Basically if it happened after 1900 it wasn't taught. I think that is a lot more important that learning about Henry VIII and his wives.

Apart from that I think, as others have said, some kind of education into finance, managing money etc should be part of the maths curriculum. Seems far more important than solving the area under a graph to me.
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That came up with my children recently. My eldest knows about Belfast as he did his uni course with a lad who grew up just outside Belfast. We were talking about it the other day and my younger son was vaguely aware of the troubles, but my youngest had no idea and was quite shocked when I explained. Given the uncertainty over there, it's probably a good idea to teach children about the history of the troubles.
 
socrates said:
get rid of religious studies.

teach more subjects that can lead kids into trades. Mechanics, Electrical, Plumbing. IT.
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When I attended Darlington college I was shocked at how many people had been going one day a week in their last year if school to start learning a trade. Absolutely nothing like that in the small pit villages which is a crying shame.
 
McHulk said:
Similar thing happened to me - was told my future was A Levels and University. Hated both and it was a relief when I had to leave my degree due to ill health.

Drifted into the Civil Service, which I also hate. 🤣
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A mate of mine went the other way. He was a joiner same as me and we were in the same class at Wearside College up until the 3rd years when we'd finished our apprenticeships. In those days many apprentices on building sites were let go once they finished their 3 year apprenticeship because under union rules they had to be paid a full wage same as the older blokes. He was one of the unlucky ones who was dumped so he did a 4th year at college as he couldn't get a job with any builders because he was just out of his time. He enjoyed the mathematics side of college so much he did a mathematics course as well and eventually ended up teaching mathematics at Newcastle University. He's retired now on a good pension while I'm still butchering wood for a living, and all because I was a better carpenter than him ... and better at maths!
 

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