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Thursday, February 07, 2008
Ashes to Ashes
If your average Head was a bit more like Gene Hunt and a bit less like Frank Spencer, then we would not need to spend a small fortune on teacher recruitment adverts.
Gene Hunt is a character in the series Life on Mars (set in the 1970's), and now Ashes to Ashes (1980's).
He's an 'old school' police detective inspector with no politically correct views in his work. He is not above the practice of physically beating information out of suspects. Nor is he above giving his subordinates a slap or two to keep them in line...
Hey, anonymous, the subjunctive is not a tense; it's a mood. No wonder that standards are falling when our wannabe pedants can't get their basic grammar peeves right.
The frequency of your hits on it's site must be keeping Wikipedia solvent.
However, your comments regarding the gross misuse of the language by a serving teacher with the gratingly wrong "was" as opposed to "were" ..... are what exactly?
Gene Hunt - played by the great Philip Gleister. See http://www.bbc.co.uk/drama/ashestoashes/ a 'man's man'. Typical comment - 'Take you're seatbelt off your not a bloody vicar'.
Anon 11.04 - there is no possessive apostrophe in that usage of 'it's'. it should be 'its'. And you talk about 'grating'? I believe Frank is a maths teechar, anyway, so his addishun is a bit more important than his grammar.
http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/news/wales-news/2008/02/11/teachers-threaten-to-boycott-assessments-91466-20460936/ ------------ my apologies for getting away from this riveting discussion on fictitious coppers but the above link will show how your profession can be effective in doing something about the state of our education system without alienating the general public with silly token one day strikes.
Jerym, completely agree. The only tests kids need to do are their G.C.S.E's and A'Levels and no others inbetween. Kids now are tested to death and it's not needed.
You can gage how well a student is performing by looking at their homework results. When will the bloody government realise that tests only show how well a persons memory is working, they do not show how well they have been taught to think for themselves (which is exactly what the real point of education is!)
Also, one day strikes are no good, we should follow the Australian teachers' and only have 2 unions, one of which you must join before being allowed in a classroom. Furthermore, when one union goes on strike the other automatically joins them, and the teachers there do not negotiate, they say: We get exactly what we want or we stay on strike, no ifs, no buts and no deals. I absolutely loved it over there, it's a shame teachers over here are so spineless. Come on you lot get some balls and toughen up, or stop moaning and just allow the government to walk all over you. Pick a choice then stick to it!
You guys really know how to derail a thread! One has to love a pedant with their facts wrong... It reminds me of the time a teacher of mine 'corrected' me after I wrote 'etc.' on the blackboard; he told me it was 'ect.'. I pointed out to him and the rest of the class that it was short for 'et cetera'. He gave me a detention, I got it quashed by the head.
Unfortunately for me the teacher was also a member of the PE staff...
completely agree with you. We need far tougher discipline bringing back to schools. I am a firm advocate of corpral punishment, although I believe that only the Headmaster should have the ability to use it.
The only way we will ever bring order back to these "sink-hole" schools is when we kick these bleeding heart, liberal do-gooders out of power and stop placating and pandering to the needs and wants of children.
Discipline comes when our young people learn that it is the adults who are in charge, not them. Therefore, whether they like it or not they simply have to do as they are told until they reach the age of 18, when they themselves become adults.
To use the common P.C parlence, I lived in a ecconomically deprived area, in actuall terms "a real fucking shit-hole." My father died when I was very young and my mother had to work three jobs to keep a roof over our heads. I never dared use that as an excuse for bad behaviour, you simply got on with it. Anyway, even if I'd tried my teachers would have given me a stern clip round the ear and told me to "toughen up, boy."
We need to go back to having characters like Gene Hunt in charge of things, not some pencil pushing do-gooders who don't have the first clue about what it's like in a classroom.
I'm recently retired from the teaching game, and I would not go back now for a million pounds. These last 20 years have been hell, watching our power and authority slip away and the kids gain all the power. I'll tell you this for free, before corpral punishment was abolished there was nowhere near the amout of bad behaviour as there is now. I remember at the time, when there was all this psychological bollocks being banded around, about how using the cane was cruel and barbaric and that all we needed for kids to behave themselves was to give them more say in their own schooling and more freedom and understanding, that it was all a loud of bullshit, and I was right.
The honest truth is that, punishments only work as long as they are scary enough to make you want to avoid them. Trust me the thought of getting a small amout of physical pain is the best deterant there is.
20 comments:
Who Gene Hunt?
That's a terrible insult ... to Frank Spencer!
I had a teacher who did the Gene Hunt Special on several unruly pupils - slamming them up against the wall by their lapels. Serves them right.
can sombody tell us who the heck is Gene Hunt? Not knowing who this person is, we are missing the point of the post. Thanks
Gene Hunt is a character in the series Life on Mars (set in the 1970's), and now Ashes to Ashes (1980's).
He's an 'old school' police detective inspector with no politically correct views in his work. He is not above the practice of physically beating information out of suspects. Nor is he above giving his subordinates a slap or two to keep them in line...
Think of a police dog in human form...c
Hey, "Teacher" subjunctive tense:
"..If the average Head WERE a bit more like Gene Hunt.."
Not your grammatically incorrect "..if your average Head WAS a bit more like .."
No bloody wonder the educational standards are falling. A case of the blind leading blind, I think.
(In anticipation of your bleating response: no, common usage is not commensurate with proper usage.)
Hey, anonymous, the subjunctive is not a tense; it's a mood. No wonder that standards are falling when our wannabe pedants can't get their basic grammar peeves right.
Hi :)
I'm reading It's Your Time You're Wasting, things certainly have changed since I've been at school!
Anyway I'm really enjoying it made me
laugh a few times.
Anon 8:10 - top marks!
The frequency of your hits on it's site must be keeping Wikipedia solvent.
However, your comments regarding the gross misuse of the language by a serving teacher with the gratingly wrong "was" as opposed to "were" ..... are what exactly?
Gene Hunt - played by the great Philip Gleister. See http://www.bbc.co.uk/drama/ashestoashes/
a 'man's man'. Typical comment - 'Take you're seatbelt off your not a bloody vicar'.
Anon 11.04 - there is no possessive apostrophe in that usage of 'it's'. it should be 'its'.
And you talk about 'grating'?
I believe Frank is a maths teechar, anyway, so his addishun is a bit more important than his grammar.
http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/news/wales-news/2008/02/11/teachers-threaten-to-boycott-assessments-91466-20460936/ ------------ my apologies for getting away from this riveting discussion on fictitious coppers but the above link will show how your profession can be effective in doing something about the state of our education system without alienating the general public with silly token one day strikes.
Jerym, completely agree. The only tests kids need to do are their G.C.S.E's and A'Levels and no others inbetween. Kids now are tested to death and it's not needed.
You can gage how well a student is performing by looking at their homework results. When will the bloody government realise that tests only show how well a persons memory is working, they do not show how well they have been taught to think for themselves (which is exactly what the real point of education is!)
Also, one day strikes are no good, we should follow the Australian teachers' and only have 2 unions, one of which you must join before being allowed in a classroom. Furthermore, when one union goes on strike the other automatically joins them, and the teachers there do not negotiate, they say: We get exactly what we want or we stay on strike, no ifs, no buts and no deals. I absolutely loved it over there, it's a shame teachers over here are so spineless. Come on you lot get some balls and toughen up, or stop moaning and just allow the government to walk all over you. Pick a choice then stick to it!
Lisa: "Typical comment - 'Take you're seatbelt off your not a bloody vicar'."
It's "you're not a bloody vicar", not "your".
Ay carumba!
Collective nouns. Is it a school of teachers or a pedantry?
Is it a school of teachers or a pedantry?
A bit off topic, but sometimes the best teachers as those least qualified:
http://www.10news.com/news/15274005/detail.html
You guys really know how to derail a thread! One has to love a pedant with their facts wrong... It reminds me of the time a teacher of mine 'corrected' me after I wrote 'etc.' on the blackboard; he told me it was 'ect.'. I pointed out to him and the rest of the class that it was short for 'et cetera'. He gave me a detention, I got it quashed by the head.
Unfortunately for me the teacher was also a member of the PE staff...
Boy on a bike, your right! It is you're - I'll get in write their next thyme.
Was typing quickly and not paying attention. Will try harder in future.
Mr. Chalk,
completely agree with you. We need far tougher discipline bringing back to schools. I am a firm advocate of corpral punishment, although I believe that only the Headmaster should have the ability to use it.
The only way we will ever bring order back to these "sink-hole" schools is when we kick these bleeding heart, liberal do-gooders out of power and stop placating and pandering to the needs and wants of children.
Discipline comes when our young people learn that it is the adults who are in charge, not them. Therefore, whether they like it or not they simply have to do as they are told until they reach the age of 18, when they themselves become adults.
To use the common P.C parlence, I lived in a ecconomically deprived area, in actuall terms "a real fucking shit-hole." My father died when I was very young and my mother had to work three jobs to keep a roof over our heads. I never dared use that as an excuse for bad behaviour, you simply got on with it. Anyway, even if I'd tried my teachers would have given me a stern clip round the ear and told me to "toughen up, boy."
We need to go back to having characters like Gene Hunt in charge of things, not some pencil pushing do-gooders who don't have the first clue about what it's like in a classroom.
I'm recently retired from the teaching game, and I would not go back now for a million pounds. These last 20 years have been hell, watching our power and authority slip away and the kids gain all the power. I'll tell you this for free, before corpral punishment was abolished there was nowhere near the amout of bad behaviour as there is now. I remember at the time, when there was all this psychological bollocks being banded around, about how using the cane was cruel and barbaric and that all we needed for kids to behave themselves was to give them more say in their own schooling and more freedom and understanding, that it was all a loud of bullshit, and I was right.
The honest truth is that, punishments only work as long as they are scary enough to make you want to avoid them. Trust me the thought of getting a small amout of physical pain is the best deterant there is.
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