Peter Buckroyd is a right clown and I have a load of stories which show the AQA to be a bunch of utter incompetents, but to be honest I'm just as worried about the school who let him submit that paper in the first place.
As an exam hall veteran who walked many, many miles between the neat rows of desks, reading all the kids answers and jangling my keys; I can honestly say that any brat that I'd spotted writing something like that would have been hoisted out of the exam hall by his ear with his paper ripped up and thrown in the bin (and to Hell with what the Head would inevitably say later)
Thinking about it, maybe that's why I never got very far in teaching...
8 comments:
Isn't that a crazy story?! I have included a link to a different article based on the same story in a recent blog post.
Agreed, agreed, agreed. And most Heads would only say what they thought they had to say because they're scared (of parents, LEA advisors, examiners, Ofsted). Education's lost it's balls somewhere in the last twenty years.
"Education's lost it's balls somewhere in the last twenty years"
That will be continued under Ed 'Private School for me not you' Balls the schools muppet!
And if the young rebel had written 'Fuck off Nigger' Or 'My teacher is a lesbian scumbag' would the student be awarded extra points or reported to the authorities?!
My father was a headmaster and would also have ripped up the paper. He probably would also have caned the pupil. He said the day he had to put down Big Ben & Little Ben - the canes of choice, would be the day he would retire. Luckily, he retired before it happened.
Those were the days. He had absolute discipline in his school. He was a really formidable character.
As a 12 year old, I can remember coming home, to find all the local press around our house and being briefed by my father to say nothing. He had expelled a boy for hitting a teacher. The LEA had insisted he take him back. LOL, my dad brought all his teachers out on strike. My dad won, of course,he always did. The lad went to borstal.
30 years later, that lad, now a man, shook my dad's hand at a school reunion and thanked him.
NOT that it could happen now, I remember my father telling me that in the 70's, he totally ignored bomb warnings because it was some little bastard who had not done his homework. Luckily, he was always right.
He must be turning in his grave right now. The do-gooders, as he called them. The PC brigade, prison visitors (Who visits the victims? - His words, not mine, before some group hits me)
Sorry, I have gone off track but the essence of my post is :
How low can we go?
Reproduction. Yeah man, we *uck eech uveer, right! 100/100
“It would be wicked to give it zero, because it does show some very basic skills we are looking for – like conveying some meaning and some spelling.
“It’s better than someone that doesn’t write anything at all. It shows more skills than somebody who leaves the page blank.”
Very basic. Yes.
Skills. No.
At least the blank page shows manners and is reusable.
This country has gone soft. It's time for a reintroduction of old fashioned teaching, rote learning and corpral punishment. It's also bloody time we brought back the grammar schools, so that the ones with a bit of spirit can have a chance!
It's also about time we went back to calling a spade a spade (or a failure a failure.) My son came home from school with his report card a few years ago, it had the worde "defered success" on it. His teachers had convinced him that he had actually done well! What a load of rubbish, you've done well if you've got C or above on your grades and effort bands.
I'm disgusted with the poor. poor standards in our schools now! Something needs to be done and fast!
"I can honestly say that any brat that I'd spotted writing something like that would have been hoisted out of the exam hall by his ear with his paper ripped up and thrown in the bin"
Context, it's all about the context. I wrote "fuck off" several times in my higher English exam, but it was a direct quote from a book (“Catcher in the Rye” by J.D. Salinger). The quote was relevant to the question and I gave a full analysis of the significance of the quote.
Post a Comment