I believe I want my country back

RedOnRed

Jay-Jay wrote:

Your average police officer who's going around in urban areas to domestics, burglaries, breach of the peace doesn't need an extremely fast Volvo. Your traffic police who are chasing joy-riders and speeding motorists around the countryside don't want a diesel astra.:)

Couldn't disagree more. Perhaps if "your average police officer who's going around in urban areas to domestics, burglaries, breach of the peace" had a faster car they may be better equipped in pre-emptive policing and actually catching them at it, instead of just doing follow up calls the next day with a clipboard in a Fiesta diesel.

The scenario usually goes...there's a bank robbery, where's the nearest high performance armed rapid response? Oh, it's parked up in the countryside somewhere doing laser gunning.

Jay-Jay_4

peterbaker wrote:

Yep mine did too but they weren't taught synthetic phonics AFAIK at least not at home ... question is, is "plays well listens well gets mucky" a true indicator of things that might actually be more important at that age? In ten years time it might be more important whom she chooses to play well with, listens to, or tells to "stick it", and what muck she avoids, but by then it'll be a bit late to correct any basic rules of behaviour. I don't doubt in your house JJ that it'll all be fine, or that with Jollyphonics or any other method your daughter would have learned well and early in any event, but surely we don't need to impose yet another sea-change in our schools if they aren't already aligned to this fashion stuff?

I do know what you're saying but years ago learning to read was sitting down with your class and having 'words' drummed into you. With Jollyphoics the chidren learn an action for each sound. Each sound is the building block with which the children contruct words. It's lots of fun and the children pick it up without realising that they're learning.

Reception years are very much about playing, socialising, painting and all the other fun stuff that children love to do. Although there are times in the day when they sit down and listen and learn how to behave in the classroom I believe that there's a good balance between the two.

AllI know Peter, is that at my daughters school the children have been using the phonics method for a few years and it works. From speaking to parents, there were lots of us that were absolutely amazed at how quickly the children were reading, and having fun at the same time.

Maybe when they compared the areas that used phonics to those that didn't, the phonics children were 'better' readers. Maybe that's a simplistic view but if that's the case then surely a small investment into teacher training and a few books is worth the extra pounds.

There are worse things that the goverment are spending our money on.

Jay-Jay_4

RedOnRed wrote:

where's the nearest high performance armed rapid response? Oh, it's parked up in the countryside somewhere doing laser gunning.

More likely to be sat with their feet up waiting for armed response jobs

peterbaker

In the little bit of Europe I know where they dont start reading and writing until age 7, they start frequent fires at their school. Nope - not what you might be thinking:) ... It happens more than once a week. They actually have full-time employed outside members of school staff who show the young kids how to make fires and how to cook bread on a stick in them and most importantly how to behave with fire. Most kids there dont crave learning from books at any early age, they simply have better things to do with their early childhood. They start school at 8 in the morning and finish at 12, but there's a committed and contiguous "after school" function which carries on from 12, supported by a strong network of parents who retain telephone numbers of all the class parents and collectively they make sure that kids get freedom to use their afternoons as they please but under supervision of a school staff person or one of the parents if kids decide to go to one anothers homes instead.

The citizens all understand it and believe in it. They aren't fazed by fashion, they value good design.

The overriding impression I get of their 'way' is of creation of good routine, with freedom, colour and gentle control, as opposed to the force-fed black & white read & write or jolly whotsits read & write followed by after school chaos or isolation, with so little variation in between, that we are now faced with in the UK.

Murtle

Jay-Jay wrote:

ahem!


FWIW the 'new' system of learning to read or 'jolly phonics' DOES work and doesn't cost any more money than the old system. It's used in many schools already with great success.

It gives children the ability to 'sound out' any word they wish to read rather than having to teach them to read each word (whole word recognition). The children use phonics together with whole word recognition to develop a flowing reading style.

If a child knows that a y on the end of a word makes an i sound and that an e on the end of a word makes the middle vowel into its proper sound (are you still following this?) then they know that happy is pronounced happi and that by putting and e on the end of hat you get hate, hence the a changes from an ah sound to an ay sound.

We take these rules for granted but it's difficult for a 5 year old to understand if they aren't taught these simple rules......Jollyphonics teaches them these rules but in a fun and easy to learn way.

why is this a *new* way to be taught how to read??? It's the same way I was taught over 20 years ago???? what went wrong in the UK in between time???? true, I wasn't born here, but arrived when I was 6 and was already over a year ahead of fellow class mates in the school reading list. No I'm not from Europe!

SidB_2

shrek101 wrote:

I mean people come here into our country they should have an understanding of basic English and respect our culture as we should there's.

I presume you speak a wide range of languages then. Either that or you only holiday in English speaking countries.

SidB_2

M.E.2 wrote:

How many parents put their children in front of a TV as it's easier.

And my kids watching Blue Peter, Newsround and Animal Planet is damaging them ?

SidB_2

What is the problem here ? Talk about the blame culture. Why so negative ?

I presume that when you complain about immigrants you think that the influx of West Indian nurses, Indian doctors and teachers from Africa is negative too.

If this country is so bad, leave. Oh hang on, that'll make you an immigrant, and they're completely worthless (sarcastic).

Police in cars or on foot ? Hmm. I presume that if you're ever involved in a criminal incident you'd prefer the officers to walk ?

Education ? I left school about 25 years ago with people who couldn't read or write. Was education so great back then ?

Speed cameras. If you don't like them don't speed. If you don't notice the change in speed limits I presume you're not paying attention and therefore shouldn't be driving.

Third world debt. We lent some of the countries money so that they could buy our arms.

Free trade. If you remove all subsidies and allow free movement of goods. That's what it's all about. We prevent some countries from trading with us by charging huge import tariffs, and subsidising cheap exports.

I seriously expect to get flamed for most of this, but I get really fed-up with people constantly complaining about this country. It's far from perfect, but it's never been perfect, and there's never been a golden age for the vast majority.

It's our country and it's up to us to improve it, not dis it all of the time.

Rant over.

Backbiter

Good post Sid. We think alike. In my view the original post belongs in the Dail Mail letters column.

surfcat

shrek101 wrote:

I mean people come here into our country they should have an understanding of basic English and respect our culture as we should there's.

Which country can we deport you to since you clearly don't know the difference between theirs and there's?

(Just for the record there's is short for there is).

Perhaps you should learn a foreign language and visit a foreign country to experience how much more polite, accommodating, and hard working well most other cultures are.

Tories and their immigration poster have a lot to answer for.