Whilst Nanny arrests 14 year olds who want to sit with pupils who speak English, it is reassuring to know that educashun standards have now slipped so low that it is possible to get a top grade GCSE in English literature without having read a book.Why am I not surprised by this?
David Jesson, a professor at the Centre for Performance Evaluation and Resource Management at York University, co-wrote a paper on the subject which says that the teaching of literature by extracts has become the norm. As such, some pupils believe that Romeo and Juliet has a happy ending.
Pupils can now get through the whole of their secondary education without ever reading any book from cover to cover.
Nanny's chums in the Exam boards and the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, are responsible for the debasement of literacy in Britain; as they now encourage teachers to concentrate on bite-sized chunks of text instead of the full novel, play or poem.
Last month the authority provided on its website the two extracts from each of the three Shakespeare plays which will form the test for 14 year olds next year.
Teachers can choose between the plays, and download the extracts which may be "photocopied for class use at the discretion of the teacher".
Anthony Farrell, the head of English at St Ives School in Cornwall, who co-wrote the paper, said that model test answers and assignments were silencing pupils' voices and creative instincts.
A spokesman for the Department for Education said:
"It is only possible for a child to go through Key Stage Three
without reading a whole novel if the teacher chooses such a reductive route and their subject leader approves."
As Orwell warned in "1984", once the state controls the language and the understanding of language it controls the mind and the ability of people to think for themselves.
Is a 'Subject Leader' anything like a 'Block Soviet', or is it more of a handlebar moustache and Torchwood-with-uniforms sort of thing?
ReplyDeleteMy youngest's University course is English with Film Studies (or some such concoction) but does not seem to involve much reading, certainly not outside the course modules.
ReplyDeleteMy other half seems to read quite avidly. I often wish she wouldn't since it is inevitably pulp fiction and I fear it gives her a rather warped view of the world.
It would be much better for her to read a few instruction manuals for various gadgets from time to time. And reduce her consumption of TV soap operas.
Ken said,
ReplyDelete..."As Orwell warned in "1984", once the state controls the language and the understanding of language it controls the mind and the ability of people to think for themselves...."
Over here in North America, the left has been bastardizing the English Language for 20 years.
In the small town in Canada where I live, the local piss-rag is full of nonsensical words like: "Garbages, informations, behaviours, demeanours" and the latest one: "toasts." as in ordering toasts with breakfast in a restaurant.
Business executives are now chairpersons, and the most hilarios one of all is that now fishermen are now FISHERS. Which just cracks me up everytime I see that in print.
Technically, R&J has a happy ending, IMO. They get to be with each other for eternity, away from the cruel world where they encounter only hardship and separation, at least IMO. Of course, that's not the point of this article or blog, and all I can say is I'm glad I live in the States!
ReplyDelete