News : Pupils begin 'tough' new national curriculum

[Anonymous]

Headline : Pupils begin 'tough' new national curriculum.

"Five-year-olds will learn fractions and computer coding, while those in early secondary school will have to study at least two Shakespeare plays."

"Teachers' leaders say the timetable is unrealistic, but the Department for Education said its aim was to prepare children for "life in modern Britain"."



My thoughts :

I'm all for bringing knowledge and learning at school age, but computer coding for 5 year olds !

Source : BBC News.
Read more here : http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/education-28987787

More here http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-28984411

[Anonymous]

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@Cleoriff wrote:

Leaving aside poor grammar for a moment and touching on the subject of current 'in' expressions, I see that the English Oxford dictionary is now adding a whole new vocabulary to their pages.

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Hi @Cleoriff   It is amazing how language changes and I suppose like it or not we may just have to put up with it. After all there was a time when "prevent" meant to go before somthing or someone rather than attempting to stop them.  And "let" used to mean the opposite of what we mean by it today. One of my pet hates is the use of the word "fulsome" to mean "glowing" (as in "he gave X fulsome thanks")  whereas its original meaning embraces the notion of "excessively cloying" or "Unpleasantly and excessively suave or ingratiating in manner or speech". 

And you'd better not get me started on the Americanisation of English!   Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Gerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry

[Toby]

I understand what's being said here about new words in our modern language being recognised, but were not all words at one point or another used as colloquialisms or by those in rural areas? Is that not how how language itself evolves?

I'm just asking the question, not making a judgement

[MI5]

Yes, it seems that language is a constant evolution - It's just keeping up with it that gives some of us problems

[Bambino]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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And you'd better not get me started on the Americanisation of English!   Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

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Ummm.....I'm American 

[Anonymous]

MI5 said "Yes, it seems that language is a constant evolution - It's just keeping up with it that gives some of us problems "

^
What he said.

[Cleoriff]

I suppose the evolution of grammar is to be expected.

The lowering of basic language skills is not (in my opinion)

I have a friend who is a teacher. She told me that exam boards no longer pay too much attention to spelling or grammatical errors. I think that is extremely poor practice......

[MI5]

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@Cleoriff wrote:

I suppose the evolution of grammar is to be expected.

The lowering of basic language skills is not (in my opinion)

I have a friend who is a teacher. She told me that exam boards no longer pay too much attention to spelling or grammatical errors. I think that is extremely poor practice......

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That is very concerning..... 

[Anonymous]

Possibly the use of 'text' talk has played a part too !

[Anonymous]

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@Toby wrote:
I understand what's being said here about new words in our modern language being recognised, but were not all words at one point or another used as colloquialisms or by those in rural areas? Is that not how how language itself evolves?

I'm just asking the question, not making a judgement

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You may well be correct @Toby  but the for language to be useful there has to be some convention and agreement as to what words (whether written or spoken) actually mean. Education has its part to play in that as has the socialisation of children within the family and the community where they are brought up.  If we "put up" with the disregard that is shown for the conventions then we introduce difficulty, difference, confusion and ultimately disaster.  This is especially true when words are somehow hi-jacked to mean the opposite of what is generally understood - eg the example given by @Cleoriff   of something being referred to as "wicked" when what is really meant is that it is "good".

We should ask UKIP to agitate in Brussels for legislation to protect our language against such ravages. 

Gerry

[Cleoriff]

Re my last post.....I do not include people with dyslexia, word blindness or other similar medical problems......(before anyone bites my head off)