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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To despair of the English education system

65 replies

LadySlipper · 24/04/2014 21:04

I just had to explain VJ Day to my son. He was amazed as he had no idea that Japan was in WW2. I am astounded by his ignorance. I suggested he might like to read up on it a bit to bridge that gap in his knowledge. He said ' Nah.'

He is currently at university studying to be a secondary school teacher. Readers, coming to a school near you, (and obviously already there) the educators of your children - can't spell, know nothing, and couldn't care less.

This despair set in, not with DS, but at a parent's evening when he was in year seven and I was voicing my concern that he couldn't spell for toffee and his English teacher declared "It's not my job to teach them how to spell."

OP posts:

SoFetch · 24/04/2014 23:06

Is he training to be a history teacher?

TheFarceAndTheSpurious · 24/04/2014 23:08

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

BIWI · 24/04/2014 23:08

Oh look! The OP hasn't made any other posts beside this one, nor has s/he returned to this one ...

CorusKate · 24/04/2014 23:15

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

1FluffyJumper · 24/04/2014 23:22

sooty I am a teacher. I think it's regrettable he has missed a chunk of something so important....but it looks like he HAS worked out to handle his mother perfectly. Maybe he would be more interested to learn if she wasn't so down on him when she discovered upon something he was so 'ignorant' about.

1FluffyJumper · 24/04/2014 23:24

Icimoi · 24/04/2014 23:54

So because your son doesn't know one fact, that condemns the entire English education system? It doesn't look as if you were taught logical thinking wherever you were educated, OP.

OOAOML · 25/04/2014 00:05

If he's going to be a teaching history, English (quite a few books I can think of) or a science then it might be an idea for him to know about the use of nuclear weapons at the end of the war, so he may want to reconsider declining to learn at least a little about it. Or Modern Studies/Politics - the aftermath of WW2 has had a pretty major impact.

I now have a slightly paranoid train of thought about what things I should make sure my children know.....

Lovecat · 25/04/2014 00:26

I did O levels in what that idiot Gove seems to view as some lost golden age of education. Amongst my options was geography, taken purely because we got to go on field trips and I thought it sounded more fun than writing endless history essays. I honestly couldn't point out many countries on a map (I got a very low score in that quiz someone on MN posted the other day), but I can tell you all about fruit farming in Kent and the vegetation of the Arctic tundra. Because I dropped History at 13 I can tell you about the Easter Rising and the Jacobite rebellion, but anything after that I found out for myself rather than via the school - so I wouldn't be so quick to put all the blame on teachers for the gaps in your son's knowledge, as they will teach what happens to be on the curriculum.

His attitude to learning, however... isn't that more down to his parenting?

TillyTellTale · 25/04/2014 00:51

can't spell, know nothing, and couldn't care less.
You're very complimentary about your son, aren't you?

He feigns ignorance and lack of interest to fend you off doesn't know about the Pacific Asian theatre in World War II and you equate that to him knowing "nothing"? Is this deliberate hyperbole as a literary device, or you being irrational?

He is presumably training to be a specialised subject secondary teacher, and I bet you'd have said if it was History or Physics.

BoneyBackJefferson · 25/04/2014 07:02

There are so many gaps in the OP its funny.

"Yes. I have met teachers I wouldn't want to entrust my children to at all, never mind to be educated"

"Same here, its silly to suggest every single teacher is going to be good."

I could say the same about lots of people.

Yangsun · 25/04/2014 08:08

Your son is training to be a secondary teacher,? What subject? If history you are right, it is astounding that he has succeeded in studying gcse, A level, a degree and a teaching qualification without it coming up. If any other subject it surely just reflects gaps in his general knowledge which (as others have said) are more attributable to his parenting than the way he has been taught. Would you be equally appalled if he didn't know much about physics or textiles or any other subject which is taught in secondary school or is history your personal hobby horse?

2blackcats2 · 25/04/2014 08:20

I am a secondary school teacher. I am (boast) very good at my job. I don't mean that to sound big-headed, but I've always had excellent results.

Posters are confusing knowledge with intelligence. I teach English. My job isn't to know and be familiar with every single text published in the English language but to teach students skills of analysis, using textual evidence and close reading.

One of my favourite lessons is when teaching unseen poetry I choose a student to pick a poem and so I am seeing it for the first time in the lesson,as the students would be in the exam. I then model to them how I'd go about tackling the question. Zero planning, too

Re the spelling: it's actually pretty difficult to "teach" spelling. Most students learn grammar and spelling best when they learn it implicitly, through reading. Research has shown that a student who never reads will massively struggle to get beyond a C in GCSE English.

monkeymamma · 25/04/2014 10:43

Hmmm think there's a bit of a generation gap here. Your ds is part of a generation who will be very adept in accessing knowledge where needed but won't necessarily store every fact he'll ever need know in his brain. Ie he is part of the Wikipedia generation I'm afraid! He might not be able to impart every single piece of necessary info to his young charges when he starts reaching but in sure he'll support and encourage them in finding out themselves.
And IMO his spelling and general knowledge reflect parental input just as much as his schooling!

monkeymamma · 25/04/2014 10:43

Just realised 2blackcats has just said it better than me!

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