How to make yourself thoroughly unpopular with the under-16s - and their teachers

[LeftishBrit]

Last edited Fri Apr 19, 2013, 06:30 AM - Edit history (1)

'Gove urges longer days and shorter holidays for pupils.'

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-22202694

I am reminded of the perennial American schoolchild rumour, which I am told has been spread about a number of presidential candidates: 'If X wins, he will send us to school on Saturdays!'

[WCGreen]

1. Goldwater was gonna do that...

From the Jumping rope girls to the guys standing around against the brick wall, we were all certain that would happen...

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. I had Saturday morning lectures at university

Well, occasionally had - timetabled every week, but we generally took it in turns to turn up and distribute notes. So attendance was perhaps one fifth of weekday turnout.

[LeftishBrit]

3. Wonder what this implies for private schools...

Last edited Sat Apr 20, 2013, 02:43 AM - Edit history (1)

when I was a kid, I honestly thought that longer holidays were one of the main privileges that people paid for when they went private!

[fedsron2us]

4. I went to an old fashioned Grammar school

that used to have Saturday morning lessons but even my sternly traditionalist teachers looked forward to their six weeks off in the summer. They would have happily lynched anyone like Gove who suggested their summer hols be shortened.

[non sociopath skin]

5. In those days, I guess it really was six weeks off

My Grammar School teachers weren't expected to do much in the way of preparation. My History teacher worked his way through what was written in a hardback notebook which I suspect he'd compiled during his probationary year, The Latin master simply worked through the textbook page by page. I suspect that my English teacher plucked ideas out of the air as he was walking to the lesson.

Nowadays, teachers are expected to spend at least as long in preparing lessons as in teaching them and longer again on marking and assessment. The syllabus changes regularly, which means that one can expect to completely rewrite at least every other year. In the years before I left schoolteaching in the mid-noughties, I could only keep up by using at least half of the "holiday" - much more in the case of the summer - for work.

If Gove extends the teaching time and cuts the preparation time, then standards will suffer and stress will be endemic.

The Skin