The Monarchy

[lloydie]

<a class="postlink" href="http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/mar/26/cameron-concedes-defeat-publication-prince-charles-letters" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015 ... es-letters</a>

10 fuckin years, and they've now beefed up the OSA so we'll never know what else he's had his self interested fingers in.

 

[I'm With Stupid]

There are new monarchies popping up all the time. Okay, they might not call themselves that, but how many politicians win one election and then never hold another real election for the rest of their life? A dictatorship is simply a monarchy by another name. The propaganda might be different, but a fixed election is as much of a mandate as a divine appointment. Both violently crush any dissenting voices, and crucially, both are pragmatic enough to know that they need a certain amount of popular support to stay in power, so do everything they can to ensure that's the case. In the monarchies of the past, that was through invoking religion, in the dictators of today, it's by controlling the media and education system.

 

[AltrinchamBlue]

My rhetoric is informed from a wide variety of sources and is underpinned by evidence. We’ve become increasingly averse to broadening our knowledge; we want easy answers; we’re led, child-like, into being told what’s good for us..

I'd love to see the wide variety of sources and evidence that support these conclusions.

Without getting off topic (which is where this tit for tat was heading) if you look at the uptake at GCSE/A Level and beyond for subjects such as The Classics, foreign languages, philosophy, history, they’ve been in sharp decline for several years. It’s mainly due to the way subjects are now weighted at GCSE level - if it’s not part of the government’s all so important 5 GCSE A-C, including Maths and English, it’s very likely to bite the dust, so to speak. This means that pupils are driven to what will see the school succeed in the league tables. Universities are now equally under absurd pressure to provide data for how many of their courses lead to employment, ergo, the so-called “soft” courses, which won’t necessarily lead to immediate work are culled.

This, in turn, leads to pupils who are being taught courses that will get them a job, but which won’t nurture their ability to critically debate. Part of my languages degree was spent discussing, analysing and debating various aspects of French and German history, politics and economics. This often led into long, coffee-fuelled nights of discussions about our French/German/UK/World society. We were actively encouraged by our professors to have these long, often unfinished conversations. And they played an integral part in those conversations. Now, universities are increasingly little more than module ticking, money driven institutions. There are exceptions - we have some of the world’s greatest universities. But, on the whole, we’re a society that’s being increasingly pigeon-holed and told what we need to do and what we need to get from life.

Taken at an even younger level, my current Year 6 pupils are doing very little at the moment other than maths, reading and writing - it’ll get them through their SATs, it’ll ensure my school keeps its head above the Ofsted parapet - but it’s not the rounded, questioning education I want to give.

Have a read of Frank Furedi's book “where have all the intellectuals gone?” - he’s not my cup of tea politically, but he makes some excellent points about where we’re heading, intellectually, and the impact it’s having and the impact it’s likely to have. Which, in a very roundabout way, leads me to my point on the monarchy!

Absolutely on the money. 100%. I'm currently at a top 10 university in the country for my field and 90% of my degree is jumping through hoops, boxes to tick and filling of quotas. Never was I once encouraged to question, read around, find out more about a subject and this has been the case all throughout my school career. It has simply been, 'this will be on the exam, the information is here, remember it, and there you go.'

From reception we are coached for sats in year 2, then again for sats in year 6, then entrance exams, then year 9 sats, two years of GCSE's, two years of A levels, I'm approaching my 8th consecutive summer of June exams. I think coached is the way to put it. You only have to look at the now frankly huge number of children at school who are having out of hours tuition in addition to their education. This trend started just as I left primary school and now it seems an epidemic.

I think as a society we are lazy. That is the parents job. A good parent will give a child an inquisitive mind and with some help and genuine enthusiasm with their homework, will get them through any exam that they are given up until they are able to motivate themselves, or not, for GCSE's and beyond.

A slight tangent to the thread I'll admit but a point definitely worth making.

 

[kas_tippler]

Without the monarchy we'd have to have an elected head of state. We'd end up with a self serving toe rag like Tony Blair or Simon Cowell. The monarchy is the best option, brings millions into the country as well.

Lol. I thought this comment rang a bell. You posted it in reply to my point in the Richard 111 thread, more than a week ago!

Is it your intention to say the same thing about Blair and Cowell every time someone says kings and queens should be a thing of the past?

Blair is the route of all evil and Cowell is the opium of the current unwashed underclass. Blair produced all these feral chavs wondering round pushing prams full of kids sucking on a Greggs pastie drinking cold tea from a bottle. Viva President Blair/Cowell!!!!!!!

 

[kas_tippler]

Without the monarchy we'd have to have an elected head of state. We'd end up with a self serving toe rag like Tony Blair or Simon Cowell. The monarchy is the best option, brings millions into the country as well.

Lol. I thought this comment rang a bell. You posted it in reply to my point in the Richard 111 thread, more than a week ago!

Is it your intention to say the same thing about Blair and Cowell every time someone says kings and queens should be a thing of the past?

Blair is the route of all evil and Cowell is the opium of the current unwashed underclass. Blair produced all these feral chavs wondering round pushing prams full of kids sucking on a Greggs pastie drinking cold tea from a bottle. Viva President Blair/Cowell!!!!!!!

And anyone using the expression 'Lol' needs to have a word with themselves

 

[DelToro]

Lol. I thought this comment rang a bell. You posted it in reply to my point in the Richard 111 thread, more than a week ago!

Is it your intention to say the same thing about Blair and Cowell every time someone says kings and queens should be a thing of the past?

Blair is the route of all evil and Cowell is the opium of the current unwashed underclass. Blair produced all these feral chavs wondering round pushing prams full of kids sucking on a Greggs pastie drinking cold tea from a bottle. Viva President Blair/Cowell!!!!!!!

And anyone using the expression 'Lol' needs to have a word with themselves

Talk to me more about the "route of all evil".

Is that the A534 or the M6?

 

[Damocles]

I'd love to see the wide variety of sources and evidence that support these conclusions.

Without getting off topic (which is where this tit for tat was heading) if you look at the uptake at GCSE/A Level and beyond for subjects such as The Classics, foreign languages, philosophy, history, they’ve been in sharp decline for several years. It’s mainly due to the way subjects are now weighted at GCSE level - if it’s not part of the government’s all so important 5 GCSE A-C, including Maths and English, it’s very likely to bite the dust, so to speak. This means that pupils are driven to what will see the school succeed in the league tables. Universities are now equally under absurd pressure to provide data for how many of their courses lead to employment, ergo, the so-called “soft” courses, which won’t necessarily lead to immediate work are culled.

This, in turn, leads to pupils who are being taught courses that will get them a job, but which won’t nurture their ability to critically debate. Part of my languages degree was spent discussing, analysing and debating various aspects of French and German history, politics and economics. This often led into long, coffee-fuelled nights of discussions about our French/German/UK/World society. We were actively encouraged by our professors to have these long, often unfinished conversations. And they played an integral part in those conversations. Now, universities are increasingly little more than module ticking, money driven institutions. There are exceptions - we have some of the world’s greatest universities. But, on the whole, we’re a society that’s being increasingly pigeon-holed and told what we need to do and what we need to get from life.

Taken at an even younger level, my current Year 6 pupils are doing very little at the moment other than maths, reading and writing - it’ll get them through their SATs, it’ll ensure my school keeps its head above the Ofsted parapet - but it’s not the rounded, questioning education I want to give.

Have a read of Frank Furedi's book “where have all the intellectuals gone?” - he’s not my cup of tea politically, but he makes some excellent points about where we’re heading, intellectually, and the impact it’s having and the impact it’s likely to have. Which, in a very roundabout way, leads me to my point on the monarchy!

Absolutely on the money. 100%. I'm currently at a top 10 university in the country for my field and 90% of my degree is jumping through hoops, boxes to tick and filling of quotas. Never was I once encouraged to question, read around, find out more about a subject and this has been the case all throughout my school career. It has simply been, 'this will be on the exam, the information is here, remember it, and there you go.'

From reception we are coached for sats in year 2, then again for sats in year 6, then entrance exams, then year 9 sats, two years of GCSE's, two years of A levels, I'm approaching my 8th consecutive summer of June exams. I think coached is the way to put it. You only have to look at the now frankly huge number of children at school who are having out of hours tuition in addition to their education. This trend started just as I left primary school and now it seems an epidemic.

I think as a society we are lazy. That is the parents job. A good parent will give a child an inquisitive mind and with some help and genuine enthusiasm with their homework, will get them through any exam that they are given up until they are able to motivate themselves, or not, for GCSE's and beyond.

A slight tangent to the thread I'll admit but a point definitely worth making.

Maybe you lot just had shit teachers?

I've never not being asked to read around a subject or engage in lively debate in lectures. In fact in one class we went on for about 30 minutes debating the usefulness of a very specific and almost irrelevant part of database design, whilst the teacher acted as a moderator and challenged any points that needed clarifying, despite the fact his lecture just went out of the window. My academic life which continues to this day has always been intellectually stimulating and challenging.

Just a point to both you and johnnytapia, when you guys are talking about we are a society as lazy, perpetually under-educated morons with crap parents you meant other people right? People who aren't you, coincidentally.

 

[DelToro]

Without getting off topic (which is where this tit for tat was heading) if you look at the uptake at GCSE/A Level and beyond for subjects such as The Classics, foreign languages, philosophy, history, they’ve been in sharp decline for several years. It’s mainly due to the way subjects are now weighted at GCSE level - if it’s not part of the government’s all so important 5 GCSE A-C, including Maths and English, it’s very likely to bite the dust, so to speak. This means that pupils are driven to what will see the school succeed in the league tables. Universities are now equally under absurd pressure to provide data for how many of their courses lead to employment, ergo, the so-called “soft” courses, which won’t necessarily lead to immediate work are culled.

This, in turn, leads to pupils who are being taught courses that will get them a job, but which won’t nurture their ability to critically debate. Part of my languages degree was spent discussing, analysing and debating various aspects of French and German history, politics and economics. This often led into long, coffee-fuelled nights of discussions about our French/German/UK/World society. We were actively encouraged by our professors to have these long, often unfinished conversations. And they played an integral part in those conversations. Now, universities are increasingly little more than module ticking, money driven institutions. There are exceptions - we have some of the world’s greatest universities. But, on the whole, we’re a society that’s being increasingly pigeon-holed and told what we need to do and what we need to get from life.

Taken at an even younger level, my current Year 6 pupils are doing very little at the moment other than maths, reading and writing - it’ll get them through their SATs, it’ll ensure my school keeps its head above the Ofsted parapet - but it’s not the rounded, questioning education I want to give.

Have a read of Frank Furedi's book “where have all the intellectuals gone?” - he’s not my cup of tea politically, but he makes some excellent points about where we’re heading, intellectually, and the impact it’s having and the impact it’s likely to have. Which, in a very roundabout way, leads me to my point on the monarchy!

Absolutely on the money. 100%. I'm currently at a top 10 university in the country for my field and 90% of my degree is jumping through hoops, boxes to tick and filling of quotas. Never was I once encouraged to question, read around, find out more about a subject and this has been the case all throughout my school career. It has simply been, 'this will be on the exam, the information is here, remember it, and there you go.'

From reception we are coached for sats in year 2, then again for sats in year 6, then entrance exams, then year 9 sats, two years of GCSE's, two years of A levels, I'm approaching my 8th consecutive summer of June exams. I think coached is the way to put it. You only have to look at the now frankly huge number of children at school who are having out of hours tuition in addition to their education. This trend started just as I left primary school and now it seems an epidemic.

I think as a society we are lazy. That is the parents job. A good parent will give a child an inquisitive mind and with some help and genuine enthusiasm with their homework, will get them through any exam that they are given up until they are able to motivate themselves, or not, for GCSE's and beyond.

A slight tangent to the thread I'll admit but a point definitely worth making.

Maybe you lot just had shit teachers?

I've never not being asked to read around a subject or engage in lively debate in lectures. In fact in one class we went on for about 30 minutes debating the usefulness of a very specific and almost irrelevant part of database design, whilst the teacher acted as a moderator and challenged any points that needed clarifying, despite the fact his lecture just went out of the window. My academic life which continues to this day has always been intellectually stimulating and challenging.

Just a point to both you and johnnytapia, when you guys are talking about we are a society as lazy, perpetually under-educated morons with crap parents you meant other people right? People who aren't you, coincidentally.

I was assuming they were talking about me.

That's ok fellas.

 

[Damocles]

Absolutely on the money. 100%. I'm currently at a top 10 university in the country for my field and 90% of my degree is jumping through hoops, boxes to tick and filling of quotas. Never was I once encouraged to question, read around, find out more about a subject and this has been the case all throughout my school career. It has simply been, 'this will be on the exam, the information is here, remember it, and there you go.'

From reception we are coached for sats in year 2, then again for sats in year 6, then entrance exams, then year 9 sats, two years of GCSE's, two years of A levels, I'm approaching my 8th consecutive summer of June exams. I think coached is the way to put it. You only have to look at the now frankly huge number of children at school who are having out of hours tuition in addition to their education. This trend started just as I left primary school and now it seems an epidemic.

I think as a society we are lazy. That is the parents job. A good parent will give a child an inquisitive mind and with some help and genuine enthusiasm with their homework, will get them through any exam that they are given up until they are able to motivate themselves, or not, for GCSE's and beyond.

A slight tangent to the thread I'll admit but a point definitely worth making.

Maybe you lot just had shit teachers?

I've never not being asked to read around a subject or engage in lively debate in lectures. In fact in one class we went on for about 30 minutes debating the usefulness of a very specific and almost irrelevant part of database design, whilst the teacher acted as a moderator and challenged any points that needed clarifying, despite the fact his lecture just went out of the window. My academic life which continues to this day has always been intellectually stimulating and challenging.

Just a point to both you and johnnytapia, when you guys are talking about we are a society as lazy, perpetually under-educated morons with crap parents you meant other people right? People who aren't you, coincidentally.

I was assuming they were talking about me.

That's ok fellas.

I was saying Cha-BALL

 

[SkyBlueFlux]

I'd love to see the wide variety of sources and evidence that support these conclusions.

Without getting off topic (which is where this tit for tat was heading) if you look at the uptake at GCSE/A Level and beyond for subjects such as The Classics, foreign languages, philosophy, history, they’ve been in sharp decline for several years. It’s mainly due to the way subjects are now weighted at GCSE level - if it’s not part of the government’s all so important 5 GCSE A-C, including Maths and English, it’s very likely to bite the dust, so to speak. This means that pupils are driven to what will see the school succeed in the league tables. Universities are now equally under absurd pressure to provide data for how many of their courses lead to employment, ergo, the so-called “soft” courses, which won’t necessarily lead to immediate work are culled.

This, in turn, leads to pupils who are being taught courses that will get them a job, but which won’t nurture their ability to critically debate. Part of my languages degree was spent discussing, analysing and debating various aspects of French and German history, politics and economics. This often led into long, coffee-fuelled nights of discussions about our French/German/UK/World society. We were actively encouraged by our professors to have these long, often unfinished conversations. And they played an integral part in those conversations. Now, universities are increasingly little more than module ticking, money driven institutions. There are exceptions - we have some of the world’s greatest universities. But, on the whole, we’re a society that’s being increasingly pigeon-holed and told what we need to do and what we need to get from life.

Taken at an even younger level, my current Year 6 pupils are doing very little at the moment other than maths, reading and writing - it’ll get them through their SATs, it’ll ensure my school keeps its head above the Ofsted parapet - but it’s not the rounded, questioning education I want to give.

Have a read of Frank Furedi's book “where have all the intellectuals gone?” - he’s not my cup of tea politically, but he makes some excellent points about where we’re heading, intellectually, and the impact it’s having and the impact it’s likely to have. Which, in a very roundabout way, leads me to my point on the monarchy!

Absolutely on the money. 100%. I'm currently at a top 10 university in the country for my field and 90% of my degree is jumping through hoops, boxes to tick and filling of quotas. Never was I once encouraged to question, read around, find out more about a subject and this has been the case all throughout my school career. It has simply been, 'this will be on the exam, the information is here, remember it, and there you go.'

From reception we are coached for sats in year 2, then again for sats in year 6, then entrance exams, then year 9 sats, two years of GCSE's, two years of A levels, I'm approaching my 8th consecutive summer of June exams. I think coached is the way to put it. You only have to look at the now frankly huge number of children at school who are having out of hours tuition in addition to their education. This trend started just as I left primary school and now it seems an epidemic.

I think as a society we are lazy. That is the parents job. A good parent will give a child an inquisitive mind and with some help and genuine enthusiasm with their homework, will get them through any exam that they are given up until they are able to motivate themselves, or not, for GCSE's and beyond.

A slight tangent to the thread I'll admit but a point definitely worth making.

I'd say this is pretty much as close to an antithesis of my university experience as you could get.

We could barely get through a lecture without things getting derailed. We had to approach one person in particular to request that they leave questions till the end of the lecture so we could make better progress. Lecturers were forever telling us where we could do explorative or further reading into the subject (generally in expensive books I couldn't afford). I remember arguing for a solid 30 miniutes with my maths lecturer about whether zero counts as a natural number, which for all intents and purposes was irrelevant to getting a good grade. My course mates in general, questioned everything and accepted nothing at face value (almost to the point of being annoyingly pedantic). The last lecture of every module HAD to cover material that wasn't on the exam but was designed to be interesting and get students to think creatively about the topic.