Again, there's a very good overview from Woodlands Junior school:
Education in England - Life and Culture
But what about this story from Winston Churchill about his first day at (a very expensive, exclusive) school?
‘This is a Latin grammar.’ [The teacher] opened [the textbook] at a well-thumbed page. ‘You must learn this,’ he said, pointing to a number of words in a frame of lines …
What on earth did it mean? Where was the sense of it? It seemed absolute rigmarole to me. However, there was one thing I could always do: I could learn it by heart …
‘Have you learnt it?’ he asked.
‘I think I can say it, sir,’ I replied; and I gabbled it off.
He seemed so satisfied with this that I was emboldened to ask a question …
‘But,’ I repeated, ‘what does it mean?’
‘Mensa means a table,’ he answered.
‘Then why does mensa also mean O table,’ I enquired, ‘and what does O table mean?’ …
“O table,—you would use that in addressing a table, in invoking a table.’
‘But I never do,’ I blurted out in honest amazement.
‘If you are impertinent, you will be punished, and punished, let me tell you, very severely,’ was his conclusive rejoinder.
Such was my introduction to the classics from which, I have been told, many of our cleverest men have derived so much solace and profit …
Winston Churchill’s School Days at newlearningonline
_________________________________________________________________________________
And what does this film tell you about how some people in Britain saw their education system back in the 1960s?
_________________________________________________________________________________
And what does this film tell you about how some people in Britain saw their education system back in the 1960s?
Homemade Trailer for "If...." - YouTube
If... (1968) full movie - YouTube
Is Harry Potter's school in fact a parody?
▶ Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - the first look at Hogwarts (HD) - YouTube
What are the elements of the British private ("public"!) school system?
And do you have a similar system in your own country?
_________________________________________________________________________________
What about how we treat children in our countries?
How does does your country compare?
This study was carried out by UNESCO in 2007:
An overview of child well-being in rich countries
A comprehensive assessment of the lives and well-being of children and adolescents in the economically advanced nations
The true measure of a nation’s standing is
how well it attends to its children – their
health and safety, their material security,
their education and socialization, and
their sense of being loved, valued, and
included in the families and societies into
which they are born.
Click on this link
www.unicef.org/media/files/ChildPovertyReport.pdf
to see a table which compares these different criteria - and the UK and US come out significantly badly:
The United Kingdom and the United States find themselves in the bottom third of the rankings for five of the six dimensions reviewed
There are plenty of other statistics about how well we look after our children. For example, how many resources they have at school, with Scandinavian and German/Austrian/Swiss kids having more than enough - see page 36 of this more recent report:
www.oecd.org/els/family/43570328.pdf
.. where American school children clearly have much less.
But how important are 'school resources' for a good education?
_________________________________________________________________________________
What about education in the United States?
Looking back at the last entry to this blog:
Jay Doubleyou: explaining how your country works
American values make up the American Dream - and an important part of that is getting an education:
Education
Most Americans perceive a college education as the ticket to the American Dream.[27] Some recent observers warn that soaring student loan debt crisis and shortages of good jobs may undermine this ticket.[28] The point was illustrated in The Fallen American Dream,[29] a documentary film that details the concept of the American Dream from its historical origins to its current perception.
On the other hand, there's a very different system of educational tradition in the United States:
What do all these people have in common?
Home School - A True Story (Part 1) - YouTube
And here's another video, but from a 'home-schooler':
All About My Online Schooling Program (Homeschooling) - YouTube
Recently, homeschooling has increased in popularity in the United States, with the percentage of children 5-17 who are homeschooled increasing from 1.7% in 1999 to 2.9% in 2007.[2]
Homeschooling - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In the UK, school is not 'compulsory'.
But should home-education be 'registered' and 'inspected'?
▶ BBC Breakfast Interview with Ann & Josh Newstead 11th June 2009 - YouTube
Why do we have this system in the USA and UK?
Would it be 'allowed' in your country?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of such a system?
Would you like to have been educated at home yourself?
.
.
.
No comments:
Post a Comment