Our Mother Tongue

Originally Posted by Daimo

Wonder who your referring to there huh.... But i don't bother you

I hate to break it to your ego, but you werent in mind at all when I wrote that. :P

English in this country is appauling. Teaching in this country is about grades and not education, given the attitude of todays teenagers, can you blame the teachers for not being arsed.... Primary school teachers are all over teh place, upper school teaching, well who wants to deal witha load of gobby teenagers with no respect or disciplin, then have to mark all the work after.... No-one...

Another thing thats needs radical change in this country.

Actually something I agree with. But the problem starts at home. If a child is raised without respect, they wont learn respect. There was a good poem about that somewhere, will go dig it out.

Frankly, the idea of parenting classes for some parents wasnt a bad idea. Im truly shocked by the attitude of some. One kid run out of sight of his mother, got hold of a trolley outside the entrance of Tescos and rammed it into my bike. Then into a car. When I had words with the mother, I got a torrent of abuse for daring to criticise.

I can't stand parents like that! How self righeous to think that they're "little darling" is perfect. We all know children are not perfect!

Except mine of course!

I am a mother myself and If that were me I would have made my daughter stand there and apologise and then I would have punished them i.e toys taken away, no tv, no treats etc. then I would have died of the embarrasment!!

Some parents have such a lax attitude that it makes us "normal" parents look and feel like we are abusing our children by trying to teach them right from wrong.

Originally Posted by BabyJ

I can't stand parents like that! How self righeous to think that they're "little darling" is perfect. We all know children are not perfect!

Except mine of course!

I am a mother myself and If that were me I would have made my daughter stand there and apologise and then I would have punished them i.e toys taken away, no tv, no treats etc. then I would have died of the embarrasment!!

Some parents have such a lax attitude that it makes us "normal" parents look and feel like we are abusing our children by trying to teach them right from wrong.

I agree your not even aloud to chastise your own children now without the threat of someone reporting you for child abuse!!!!

Originally Posted by UlsterSV

Not everyone over here speaks perfect English, not at all, but we haven't made a calculated effort to make a mockery of it like some people unfortunately have.

True. I love the Northern Irish accent. When I went for a job interview in 1995, the MD was from Belfast and the first challenge was to understand a word he said. In fact the HR woman had to interpret some of it for me.

Originally Posted by Ed

True. I love the Northern Irish accent. When I went for a job interview in 1995, the MD was from Belfast and the first challenge was to understand a word he said. In fact the HR woman had to interpret some of it for me.

I suppose it could be quite a tricky accent to 'translate'. And I am yet to hear someone from outside of Ireland do a good imitation of it

Language is form of communication. Not a law or cast in stone.

More an art than science.

[quote=Daimo]

Originally Posted by "lynw

English in this country is appauling. Teaching in this country is about grades and not education, given the attitude of todays teenagers, can you blame the teachers for not being arsed.... Primary school teachers are all over teh place, upper school teaching, well who wants to deal witha load of gobby teenagers with no respect or disciplin, then have to mark all the work after.... No-one...

Another thing thats needs radical change in this country.

I've been seeing quitre a lot about education / teachers in this thread, so, I'm going to take the bait!

I am a primary teacher in Scotland. For some time now, we have been striving to do our best to raise achievement in all areas of the curriculum, one such area being Language (as it is called in Primary). There has actually been quite a lot of success in this field, so much so, the whole Literacy Hour concept, and the methods used to teach Language in England and Wales, has pretty much been a reflection on what has been happening in Scotland for years.

I refer to you comment about primary teachers being all over the place...What exactly did you mean by that? I certainly would not describe my, or the vast majority of my colleagues, practice as "all over the place". Maybe I haven't understood your statement however.

As for education being all about grades. To a certain degree, I agree with your sentiment, and also despair at this appauling ethos. However, this comes from those outwith education - ie politicians! I did not go into education to get the children in my care through the next test successfully (although there can be a place for this also). One of the main problems is that society is demanding a raising of standards. This is basically where the demand for grades has come from. People also demand the evidence of this actually happening - ie grades!

There are a number of initiatives that are coming into force in Scotland to try and address some of these issues. "Assessment is for Learning" and "A Curriculum for Excellence" being 2 of them.

For the record, I actually love my job and find it most rewarding, despite teaching in an area where there are many, many social problems. I deal with the gobby teenage type on a regular basis, and actually want to continue doing it!

I shall decend from the lofty heights of my soap box now!!

fantastic, the world maybe needs a few more like u!

anyway I've been thinking alot more about this whole language and respect thing but it strikes me that the seed must have been planted somewhere! so yes lets educate parents about language and to instill respect in their children

Originally Posted by kitten

fantastic, the world maybe needs a few more like u!

anyway I've been thinking alot more about this whole language and respect thing but it strikes me that the seed must have been planted somewhere! so yes lets educate parents about language and to instill respect in their children

Why, thankyou. You're too kind!!

Its not language, its society in general. You would never have seen Geordies trying to speak the queens english.

Its not todays youth that should be blamed, its the youth of 20-30 yrs ago who should be, those who now have kids but couldnt give a rats **** about them.