The advantages of a modern education?

[Fozzer]

Have a look here...>>>

http://www.simviation.com/cgi-bin/yabb/ ... 1081981579

What do you make of that...?

I cast my mind back to 1940, at school, learning the alphabet and how to draw the letters Aa to Zz, how to count up to a hundred, reading, writing, sums, (which involved adding up and taking away), geography and history, telling the time, and tying up my shoe laces correctly.
(Knotting my school tie successfully was never achieved).
For science, I remember being hypnotised by the flame from a bunsen burner, putting red crystals into a test tube of water and watching the water slowly turn red, and being excited by watching droplets of mercury joining themselves together.
Oh, and I remember sprinkling iron filings onto a sheet of paper and moving a magnet around beneath the paper and watching with great delight at the effects!
As for religious education, most of us thought it was a lot of old cods-wallop, (and still do!).
The nearest thing we got to biology was "show me yours and I'll show you mine", behind the bike shed. (We always got found out, resulting in a slap across the knuckles with a ruler).
"Human Recourses" involved giving the school bully one of my Dad's Woodbine cigarettes every day to stop him giving me a good thumping.

Every now and again we had "exams", which involved answering questions like: "You have three apples. If you eat one apple, how many apples are left?".
or,
"On a clock, if the long hand is pointing at 12 and the short hand is pointing at 6, what time is it?"
or,
"Which one of these words is spelt incorrectly: (a) Howse, (b) House?"
and so on...

I left school at the age of 16, knowing how to read, write, spell, add-up, tell the time, tie my shoe laces up, know where all the countries of the World are, (especially the red coloured ones, which we owned), know all about the ancient Britons, Romans, Angles and Saxons, the Danes, William the Conqueror, etc, etc.
How to make iron filings stand up when passing a magnet beneath a piece of paper.
Knowing that when you pop your clogs you are stuck in the ground, to be dug up centuries later, your bones are wired together, and your remains are exhibited in the local museum, and that is that.
I became disillusioned with the biology bit, having spent much of my young years of showing the girls "mine" in the hope of them showing me "theirs", which they never did, so it's all still a great mystery to me.
So...
I wonder if my life would have been much improved by having a "modern" education similar to the example in the attached thread...?  
...doubtful...!

Cheers all...!

Paul.

P.S.  By the way, If you have three apples.....
...and what is the difference between boys and girls?

[eno]

I agree totally ......... especially when you have kids leaving school and university who still can't read, spell, write or do simple arithmatic without a calculator.  :(

Theres something to be said for the old teaching methods.  :)

cheers
eno

..... ps and about those apples ... and you never did show me yours  :o

[Fozzer]

[quote]
......cheers
eno

..... ps ... and you never did show me yours

[ozzy72]

I've seen what Fozzer does with root vegetables Eno, I'd advise NOT asking

Ozzy

[Smoke2much]

The thing about education is that it moves forward (ish).

[Fozzer]

[quote]The thing about education is that it moves forward (ish).

[Smoke2much]

I was trying to be funny too

I honestly thought that you guys all left school at 14, unless you went to Grammar school in which case you left at 16 and could go on to do exams to get you into university.

My error

Will

[Fozzer]

I was trying to be funny too

I honestly thought that you chaps all left school at 14, unless you went to Grammar school in which case you left at 16 and could go on to do exams to get you into university.

My error
Will

Hi Will...!
Cor blimey, it gets worse... ...!
"University".... ...!
...what's that...?
...something to do with Outer Space, galaxies, and things....... ...?

LOL...!

Cheers Will.... ...!

Paul.

P.S. ..don't expect anything too "Sensible" from your old mate Fozz.... ...!
...ya gotta larf... ...!
LOL...LOL...LOL...!

[Smoke2much]

I............. neeeeed............. a......................... cigarette........................ *

One day I'm going to buy you a pint Fozzer.  One day.

I give up.

* I don't really need one.

[Fozzer]

[quote]I............. neeeeed............. a......................... cigarette........................ *

One day I'm going to buy you a pint Fozzer.

[Smoke2much]

I'd be looking at her.  According to the statue she went into battle topless

Will

[Iroquois]

[quote]I agree totally ......... especially when you have kids leaving school and university who still can't read, spell, write or do simple arithmatic without a calculator.

[Scottler]

Also remember the societal differences between teens of that era and teens now.

Back then (no offense Foz, not trying to make you sound old), teens left school so they could take on jobs to help support their families, many times while their father was off to war.

Teens now quit school so they can have babies and work at Taco Bell to buy new PS2 games.

Additionally, people of Fozzer's generation were raised very closely by their parents, who taught them very important lessons on a daily basis.

Now, parents expect everyone else to raise their children.

[Iroquois]

You made some very good points Hyperion. You anecdote reminded me that some parents were fighter the government over the grade 10 literacy test because they claimed it was discriminatory against new immigrants and children with disabilities.

Now here's the catch. Most teen immigrants are literate in English (the universal business language) and there are special programs for disabled students. Discrimination is the universal cop out for parents who don't want to admit that there kid (for lack of a better word) is an idiot.

Thankfully my parents are British immigrants (came here in 1957 as young children). They were too young for the hippie explosion but too old for the passive attitude of the 70's and 80's. Therefore they never got that junk in their heads.

[ozzy72]

Agreed Scott, my mum taught me some vital lessons, like "mess me around and I'll bury this frying-pan in your cranium". Now her being a nurse gave me a great advantage at biology, and once helped me save someones life. Sometimes experience is more valuable than education, sometimes education is more valuable than experience.
Oh and don't forget that when Fozzer was young there was about a fifth of the history to learn now, the world was flat and America hadn't been discovered (so lots less geography), and the sciences consisted of a periodic table of four things earth, fire, air and water, and the leach was the highest order of biological studies

Ozzy

Ps. Don't forget that Fozzer learnt the British version of geography which clearly states if they have a bit of land you want then you claim it for Britain by planting a flag in a local natives chest