Unexpected web pages of our time
The CIA site's kids' page. Yes, really. Neither MI5 nor MI6 seem to have anything similar. My Russian not being all that it could be, I cannot tell whether the FSB (the successor to the KGB) is reaching out to Russian small people.
Since there is a woeful lack of the bloggable out there, feel free to treat this as an open thread.
Since there is a woeful lack of the bloggable out there, feel free to treat this as an open thread.
Labels: Internet, United States
This entry was posted
on Wednesday, May 16, 2007 at 10:10 am.
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Does 'open' mean anything at all, or should we follow the labels?
If it's anything at all, then grammar schools are getting a bad deal and the Conservatives earning a bad press.
There is nothing the matter with what was (is, even, though it's not up to what it once was) taught in grammar schools, or the way it was taught; the matter is it was/is available to so few on the argument that few benefit from the curriculum or the teaching practices.
This is patently untrue and a cover up for a limited supply of qualified teachers and good physical facilities , yet the whole grammar school ethos was trashed (usual suspects, elitist, socially divisive....).
The poisonous combination of using schools for social work and the 'place of safety' ideology, lack of funding for expensive disciplines -sciences, sports, performing and practical arts, constantly up-dated technology, and trades union generated parity of worth for the different disciplines, has always hidden behind the condemnation of grammar schools.
In other countries the grammar school ethos thrives and is open to all who seek that educational experience, lycee, liceo classico or scientifico...
To deny the educational validity of grammar schools in isolation from educational policy is a sop to easy riders in the acquisition of both knowledge and understanding.
The social break that occurs between generations, not that between peers, is what needs to be carefully mended.
People should be able to choose the kind of schooling they want, match the entry requirements, and go. They can in the rest of Europe.
HG - Open is open, so grammar schools are an eminently suitable topic. I am a grammar school boy myself, and can thank my alma mater for a solid education in what these days would be called a socially mixed area.
If diversity is good, why can't we have diverse sorts of schools?
PS why is it that whenever I want to comment, blogger rejects my password and makes me sign up again?
It seems as though, out of all the countries in Europe/UK, the UK had/has the most destructive left.
Could I add, strongly associated with a grammar school education in the UK is the catastrophic effect of the 11+ .
That should not have been there and must never be brought back. I fear the Conservatives have continued the false denigration of a kind of education, on the grounds of an unjust and cruel selection system.
Others will know French systems better, but in Italy if middle school is successfully completed (and usually it is) then the leaving certificate is the qualification to enter the ginnasio of the classical, scientific, technical, artistic, or any other school.
There is a put up or shut up aspect; fail the end of year exams there are resits in September. Fail those and it's choose another course time.
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