My two previous articles covered Nanny's pathetic attempts to change the English language, in order to control our thoughts.Orwell, in his classic "1984", warned us of a time when a totalitarian regime would seek to control people's thoughts by expunging the language of "unnecessary" words.
After all, if you don't have words you don't have the ability to think do you?
Aldous Huxley, in his book "Brave New World", also warned of a society where the state controlled people's lives. This time not so much by "wordspeak", but by social and genetic engineering; whereby society was engineered into various groups: alpha, beta, delta and gamma.
Needless to say the alphas were on top, whilst the gammas were given the short end of the stick. They were limited in their intelligence, and their education was kept to a minimum.
The state used a mixture of drugs and mind numbing programming to ensure that the various groups were kept pacified.
Doesn't this sound a little familiar?
What?
I hear you say.
Ken you exaggerate, surely?
Maybe not.
I watched Newsnight (ooh a link, that's rare!) on Thursday evening, and saw a report about the Britannia Village Primary School in East London.
Only Nanny would use the obviously daft word of "village", to describe a school in the East End of London.
The new Headmistress of this school, is fed up with the lousy literacy levels of her pupils, and has decided to abandon Nanny's prescription of the National Literacy Strategy and opt for phonics teaching.
I wish her well, she has an uphill task.
You see Ladies and Gentlemen (oops I used a proscribed word again!), the children featured in the report (see it via this link Britannia) could not even read words such as:
-Cat
-That
-With
They could not even pronounce the letter "D".
Read the above again, and weep, then read it again just to make sure your really have taken it in.
By the way, in case you think that maybe the children were too young to be able to tackle such difficult words as cat, you need to know that they were between 7-9 years old.
I had read Jane Eyre twice by the time I was 8.
Something has gone very wrong with our education system, to allow this state of affairs to exist.
Nanny claims to care, but does she really?
You see, if the children cannot read basic words, how can they possibly think for themselves.
They will grow into adults with no skills, abilities or ambitions. They will become totally reliant on Nanny to feed and house them.
Nanny will keep them pacified by ensuring that they can continue to watch mindless cack, such as Big Brother and East Enders.
In short we are already living in a hybrid of "1984" and "Brave New World".
Meanhwile Nanny continues to concentrate on the important issues, such as banning the use of the word "ladies".
Reading stories like this about 8-9 year olds with literacy levels that would've embarassed a five year old of generations passed always makes me so sad. I'm only 20 years old, so I'm hardly harking back to the 'good old days', but my parents began teaching me to read when I was 3 and by the time I started school at four and half I was a confident and voracious reader. Like you Ken, I'd read things like Jane Eyre, David Copperfield, the Hobbit by the time I was 8 and at age 9 I think I was settling down to read the Lord of the Rings for the first time.
ReplyDeleteI feel truely sorry for these poor kids who've been so let down by a crap education system and by an ever growing nanny state which has sought to absolve parents from any responsibility in their child's education and upbringing. God help the generation that follows them.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if the post you removed was by the same guy who posted on my site, one "Deek Deekster". Anyway, to see his comments to me which actually should have been addressed to you, and my reply to him, click here.
ReplyDeleteBTW - I added you to my "Blog Middle" menu. I'll be back to watch you expose the lunacy of the nanny gov't.
Keep up the great work!
J at TAotB
http://www.theartoftheblog.com
Thanks J
ReplyDeleteNo the post I removed was from a spammer trying to sell something.
Re Deek
A rather odd post from Deek.
Why?
Because if he had bothered to watch the Newsnight report, which is linked on my site, he would have seen:
1 That the children tested were not immigrants
2 The teachers noting that the main problem that they had in the school, until the new headmistress arrived, was that of discipline and children running amok
Sorry Deek, your post is bollocks.
Ken,
ReplyDeleteI didn't weep when I read the story but my jaw definitely dropped when I saw the Newsnight report (thanks for the links by the way!). Apologists for the education system will probably insist that this is an isolated or unusual case.
Undoubtedly, some children have problems learning how to read but this is an entire school for God's sake! Even if it's argued that this particular school is an isolated case, there is still no doubt that there is something wrong in our education system. Universities are complaining at the poor standard of state educated pupils applying for places.
And while it is easy to blame the system, you have to wonder at the parents not helping their children to read but presumably they can't be bothered or have poor literacy skills themselves; hence the cycle goes on and more and more children will grow into adulthood finding themselves locked out of any means of self-improvement.
Like aj above, I too feel sorry for these kids but at the same time I am very angry that this situation has come about. There are children in Africa who walk miles to get to school every day, who lack decent classrooms and equipment but are probably more literate than their counterparts in Bliars Britain.
In his book "The Welfare State We're in" James Bartholomew mentions a primary school "Kobi Nazrul Primary" in Whitechapel, East end of London with immigrant children from Bangladesh where the children read fluently at age 7, having been taught using 'phonetics.
ReplyDeleteI've just read the blog, and am watching the report.
ReplyDeleteIts amazing that Nanny wants kids to learn foreign languages from an early age, when she can't even get kids to read and write their own language.
I hate hearing about children who can't read or write properly. It makes me sad that the system can allow children to leave primary school unable to read, write or do sums at the level that was considered standard just 10 years ago when I was their age.
When I have kids, at some point in the future, they certainly won't fall behind as much as these kids obviously have. If the Government can't teach them to read properly, then I will.