What happens to state benefit in a recession

huntersc

SingleSue wrote: »

You've picked up on something there that always amazes me.

Why is it seen as 'not cool' to do well at school whilst you are there? I have seen this not only from my eldest son (who calls me a boff) but also on an awful lot of American teen films/programmes.

I keep trying to tell my son that it is better to be 'a boff' and be able to get a well paying job later on in life than someone who fails and has to take a minimum wage job.

This is something that's always puzzled me too. The annoying thing is that I'm now paying through the nose in taxes for all those snotty kids at the back of my class that used to laugh at me for working hard and handing homework in on time. Now I'm paying for their tax credits and benefits because they couldn't be bothered.

Here's a bit of advice for you. Take your son to a factory. Find a friend or arrange it somehow. Make him stand there and watch a person moving one bit of metal from one place to another, over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. Spend an hour there. More if you have to. Then ask him, "Son, fancy a job like this?"

This happened to me at a young age. I didn't want to work, I wanted to mess about etc. After watching some guy covered in dirt after welding for an hour I told my teacher I'd rather work and own the Aston Martin that the man was making rather than being covered in dirt making it.

It worked too. I'll never forget that experience, the thought of working in a factory for life scared the crap out of me, I worked by !!! off to get decent grades and didn't care about being cool.

Now I'm the cool one in the Aston Martin and my old classmates are working in jobs they hate paying minimum wage wishing they'd worked just that little bit harder.

It's not cool to be stupid kids. Knowledge is the one thing that you will always have, the one thing that you can rely on, the thing that sets you apart from the masses, knowledge is not only power, it's fun! Why's the sky blue? How does a battery really work? How do we know the earth is not flat? What is a Higs particle? Why does 2+2 =4? How does the internet work?

Most people are blind their whole lives. They use their computer, use the internet with no idea how it really works. They look at the sky, no idea why it's blue, they just know it is. Going through life like that? Terrible. if there's one thing my kids will do, it's to be excited by knowledge, to be enthralled by the workings of our world. To see algebra not as some boring learning exercise but to see how it relates to our real lives.

Whoops, I'm going off topic a bit here, just feel strongly about it. It's such a shame kids aren't excited about knowledge anymore. So depressing to see them not relating what they learn in the classroom to everyday life, trajectory and motion to the basketball going through the hoop, friction and energy transferal when balls are hit in snooker, the list goes on.

huntersc

And while I'm on the topic of education, whatever happened to the Rubik's cube? It was the best introduction to abstract algebra and group theory that a child could have. Now it's all about Play Stations at the age of 5. Give them a Rubik's cube and watch them learn, see how fascinated they become and they're learning something fantastic without even knowing it!

PasturesNew

huntersc wrote: »

And while I'm on the topic of education, whatever happened to the Rubik's cube? It was the best introduction to abstract algebra and group theory that a child could have.

It is/was??
They never had those at school, although I did know somebody who had a Rubik's cube and I managed to be allowed to touch/twist it for 30 seconds or so once.

Never heard of group theory.... is that maths, or something a group of people do?

Maths was my favourite subject.

Edit: just checked, it wasn't available until I was 20 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubiks_cube

huntersc

PasturesNew wrote: »

It is/was??
They never had those at school, although I did know somebody who had a Rubik's cube and I managed to be allowed to touch/twist it for 30 seconds or so once.

Never heard of group theory.... is that maths, or something a group of people do?

Maths was my favourite subject.

Edit: just checked, it wasn't available until I was 20 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubiks_cube

Bit older than me then

The Cube is a toy/educational item that EVERY child should have. As for group theory, it's a branch concerned with transformations and symmetry. An example might be a conjugate, which is a part of a quadratic equation field or even Sylow Theorems. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylow_theorems

This is good http://match.stanford.edu/bump/rubik.pdf

PasturesNew

huntersc wrote: »

Bit older than me then

The Cube is a toy/educational item that EVERY child should have. As for group theory, it's a branch concerned with transformations and symmetry. An example might be a conjugate, which is a part of a quadratic equation field or even Sylow Theorems. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylow_theorems

This is good http://match.stanford.edu/bump/rubik.pdf

No idea what that means!

I did O Level Maths.

I did do A Level Pure Maths/Statistics at evening class (calculated it manually as you were allowed a calculator for that but I didn't have one), but didn't take the exam as that cost £27 and I had 2 weeks warning to get it. The class was free as I was in full-time education, the exam I had to pay for and they sprung the date/cost on me.

Edit: followed the link .... blimey. No idea what that is as it's not written in English, it's all gibberish

Davesnave

SingleSue wrote: »

You've picked up on something there that always amazes me.

Why is it seen as 'not cool' to do well at school whilst you are there? I have seen this not only from my eldest son (who calls me a boff) but also on an awful lot of American teen films/programmes.

I keep trying to tell my son that it is better to be 'a boff' and be able to get a well paying job later on in life than someone who fails and has to take a minimum wage job.

I think it's worse for boys. Girls still suffer, but girls have been out-performing boys for some time now.

The people kids choose as role models often don't come across as particularly bright, or even 'good.' As you say, in popular culture, male 'heroes' tend to solve problems in a physical manner. Women in the media are often there courtesy of an attractive body. Sports 'personalities,' like footballers, (and their wives!) must take some responsibility too. There's just no glamour in being bright.

I really don't know what to suggest when it comes to role models in a free, largely uncensored society. In a good school, you'll have a higher proportion of popular and able children who'll be local, same-age role models, and thus very helpful. In a less-favoured school, such children will be in a small minority, and sadly, they'll be keeping their heads down, rather than flying the flag for learning.

Interesting comments on this :

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/2209280.stm


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/884405.stm

huntersc

PasturesNew wrote: »

No idea what that means!

I did O Level Maths.

I did do A Level Pure Maths/Statistics at evening class (calculated it manually as you were allowed a calculator for that but I didn't have one), but didn't take the exam as that cost £27 and I had 2 weeks warning to get it. The class was free as I was in full-time education, the exam I had to pay for and they sprung the date/cost on me.

Edit: followed the link .... blimey. No idea what that is as it's not written in English, it's all gibberish

This will explain it better than I can http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_theory

I did GCSE maths, we actually had to use the old O Level papers as mocks, they were really difficult at the time, most of us went on and got top marks in GCSE maths even though we struggled with some of the O Level papers.

You must have been dedicated to do pure maths in evening class LOL, that's going beyond the all of duty

PasturesNew

huntersc wrote: »

You must have been dedicated to do pure maths in evening class LOL, that's going beyond the all of duty

I tried to sign up for A Level Pure Maths (and Statistics) a couple of years back - but it wasn't available as an evening class in the county where I was living. Not one evening class at A Level Maths in the whole county. That is how dire any form of self-training is these days. It simply didn't exist.

I wanted it so I could pursue more data analysis and stats stuff.

When I have a job/am settled in an area, I will try again to see if it's offered in any form locally there too.

moggylover

gemmalouanna wrote: »

Agree with your common sense approach! What I cannot understand is why a person's benefits can exceed the amount for 40 hours at minimum wage - as minimum wage is what the government considers people can live on so surely this is what should be suitable.

If people need extra things for care etc then these should be provided in reality not as cash - wonder how quickly the undeserving DLA claimants receiving the care component would be happy with actually receiving the 'care' as a person coming round to help them rather than cash!

Well as a genuine DLA claimant, I for one would just love it! Let me explain to you just how much care one needs in order to qualify for the higher rate care! Almost 24 hours a day, 7 days a week! You will need someone with you at night, and not just sleeping in your home, but up and caring for you, you will need help dressing, washing, cooking, eating and taking medicines. For all that care on DLA one gets the princely sum of £67.00 plus one can claim another £50 direct for a carer! This brings the total to £117.00 per week!

Now, for the genuine (and single) claimant who needs a great deal of help (and I need in excess of 12 hours a day for instance) and has to pay £5.73 per hour in order to get it this means that the amount one would really need per week to pay for the care one gets is (even allowing only 12 hours per day) £481.32, which is WHY the care in the community (:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: ) system is extremely cheap for governments to run - it depends upon friends and family to supply free of charge assistance, or the disabled person just not getting the help they need in order to live anything like a normal life:D .

Now, I am not complaining about the amount I get! I am not claiming it should be more (although I do think there should be more direct services available to us as well:o ) and I am not denying that there are a nucleous of people out there who have the acting abilities of an oscar winner and get money they should not be getting. However, getting DLA is not easy even when you genuinely DO have a disability, and I have to admit that I find it hard to believe that there are as many great actors out there as the Daily Mail would have us believe:D . What I AM trying to point out is that since, in my own case for instance, the other alternative would be for me to live in a home or institution of some kind, which would need to be nurse/medical supervised due to medication needs and which would thus be more like £1K per week!

Now do you see why we will never get direct services instead of a little cash?;)

moggylover

huntersc wrote: »

And while I'm on the topic of education, whatever happened to the Rubik's cube? It was the best introduction to abstract algebra and group theory that a child could have. Now it's all about Play Stations at the age of 5. Give them a Rubik's cube and watch them learn, see how fascinated they become and they're learning something fantastic without even knowing it!

We have a Rubik's cube, and several other "puzzles", my kids love them. They also enjoy Play-Station games. My BIL gave my boys his old Play-Station and some games (some of which I confiscated:eek: ) when the oldest was about 7 and the youngest 4! Actually, some of what they have to learn to do on the games is very educational as you have to learn strategies and so forth. It may not "seem" educational, but my youngest learnt to play chess (on a board) in about 4 sessions because he already had the idea of strategies. His father is very good at chess, by the 4th session he could still beat DS2, but he really had to work at it and it took him over an hour:D and he was amazed when he asked why a certain move had been made and DS2 told him the six or seven following moves he had worked out following this one dependant upon his fathers next move:D .

At 8 DS2 had not only taught most of the kids at his (35 pupil) primary school how to play chess, but was also organising and running "championships" in which the winner played him:D . The headmaster says he has trouble beating him:D .

He also has a game he loves on the computer called Age of Empires and he knows masses of history that he has learnt from the game and it is advanced enough that he can't wait to get to Senior school where they learn more about it:D . He can tell you all about Attila the Hun, The Conquistadores, etc., and he will ask me how to pronounce something and then look it up on Google to see what he can learn about the period. Thus, not all playstation is bad - but I would agree that it needs some supervision.