Keep politicians out of education.

I believe that is/was stood or sat is dialect and I haven't come across it except in the North of England - until recently when it seems to have spread, perhaps by way of Coronation Street.

You mean they actually watch Coronation Street down south?

In the Southern Hemisphere they watch it.

If you write "I was stood" it does look (and 'sound') all wrong, but with a Yorks or Lancs or Cumbrian accent and written "Ah wu stood theer, laak chaise a' fourpence" it's just fine and dandy.

Yes, I agree, it's fine as colloquial English, and if a passage in a book etc. is written in that idiom, but I don't find it acceptable when it just seems to be bad grammar on the part of the author.

I don't think children nowadays are being taught that you don't necessarily write as you speak. The principle of there being different registers - written and various spoken ones - seems to be going out of the window. Are the social media to blame?

Well, we can blame them anyway if we feel so inclined because they can't answer back

Well isn't that interesting...
www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/jun/17/michael-gove-national-curriculum

BTW Annobel, there is lots about writing in different registers already in place in the curriculum.
I think one of the problems is that some people see the teaching of writing as the teaching of grammar, punctuation and spelling in a series of decontextualized chunks, which you then put together. I believe that the systematic teaching of those things is very important, but that writing is a craft and you learn to write by writing.
It is a bit like learning to drive, you can't do the theory first and then do it all smoothly first time, you have to practise, make mistakes and have someone to help you learn from your mistakes. When you write for different audiences you learn the genre. There is a strong tradition of this in the teaching of writing, dating back at least to the National Writing Project in the eighties.

Couldn't agree more, Mamie. My younger GD (9) seems to be forging ahead with all kinds of writing, though she excels at the creative kind.
The article is most interesting. I couldn't believe that any genuine educationalist (which Gove is not) would approve of this rigid regime which is, I think, modelled on the system under which he himself was educated however many years ago it was. It does sound familiar to me though I don't think there was an official list of spellings. We had a thing called the 'Spell Well Word Book' in my Scottish primary school.

The facts curriculum

Looking at the subjects proposed to be covered in Years 1 & 2 I'm wondering how my DGDs (aged 6) and others of a similar age are going to get their heads round the idea that the Magna Carta limited the power of the monarch, never mind studying the Roman Invastion of Britain in 43AD!

Gradgrind lives! I notice that my 7 and 8 year old GSs are expected to study the teachings of Confucius. How many of us have done this?