For the past few weeks she has been involved with other pupils at the school in a project aimed at stretching students identified as 'Gifted and Talented'. It was based around a fictional hit and run incident and basically the drama group gave us the suspects and their various alibi's, the English group gave us the media reports on the crime, the design and technology did IT displays whilst the humanities discussed issues relating to crime and punishment and the science gave us the forensic evidence. What I had not realised was that we parents were supposed to solve the crime and therefore had t0 stay awake and involved. We were taken around to meet with the various subject groups and so far from having the sneaky snooze I had been anticipating I instead found myself engaging in a discussion on the death penalty with a group of 12 year olds*, and conducting scientific experiments to discover whether certain material strands left at the scene of the crime were made of cotton, silk or were man made with the aim of uncovering the culprit. I had forgotten what great fun Bunsen burners are!
So who was responsible for the hit and run crime?
Was it the unlicensed hoodie wearing guy in his early 20's?
Was it the drunken single mother?
Was it the stressed out distracted wife of the rich man who was cheating on her?
Or was it the respectable business man?
Well we were also encouraged to think about whether we stereotype criminals and of course I was guilty of that from the off. I KNEW it was the 'respectable' business man and I was right! I mean - how many respectable business men are there??? Yes, I love a good stereotype me (see previous comments on public school oiks below).
So anyway, what I learnt about my own daughter was that she can actually speak nicely. This comes as quite a shock to me who expends much wasted breath in trying to get her to drop the 'Estuary English' accent. For her part she had made a radio news show and she was the lead presenter. She sounded beautiful - she pronounced her 'T's and everything.!!!!!! Now my challenge is to persuade her to speak that way at home. Why do I feel so pessimistic about my chances?
* They were all for it of course....
I despair of the English Education system.**
** Just Joking.
6 comments:
Oh, I thought David Duff would have been on by now bemoaning the fact that your daughter and the rest of the school weren't reciting times tables parrot fashion rather than indulge in left-wing nonsense like this ;-)
Oh Good Heavens! Balderdash and piffle! The scenario you describe is an appalling legacy of the progressive sixties! What these children need is Latin verbs, subjunctives, logarithms, slide rules not role playing buffoonery such as you describe you young hussy! And as for this Steve fellow with his self-indulgent and grammatically unruly "Occupied Country" blog, well the chap's clearly a nincompoop, providing me with yet more reasons why I shouldn't visit that barren rain-soaked wasteland known as Lancashire! No. It's very obvious that only I, Lord Duff of The Isles, "Dave" to my young friends in Thailand, really knows where the truth lies in educational terms. Listen tome! Listen to me! I may be an ugly bastard but I talk utter sense!
Nice one on the wee yin's achievements.
And that mention of bunsen burners - I well remember that, when I did actually attend school, I would quite often set fires to the bins with the bunsen burners in chemistry class! Well, what else were the for?
Thankfully Steve, he has appeared now below as I was beginning to fear for his well being.
I totally believe this is you Mr Duff and not that naughty Yorkshire Pudding who would NEVER impersonate D.D.
Reidski - that would explain your lack of physics O Level - oh, that and not actually going to school to take the thing.
That sounded like good fun all round
It was Jim. Unexpectedly so.
Post a Comment