What would you put in the curriculum?

Good heavens...does nobody have a sense of fun anymore?

I was referring to the Maureen Lipman advert

No wonder discussions turn bitter when some people as so up themselves literal.

wanders off singing 'always look on the bright side of life, ta dum...

These days aka academics have to prove that they are having an "impact" in order to get funding. if they can't do this their careers are dead in the water. Generally I am in favour of a more pragmatic approach to higher education. The Germans, (who were possibly less mired in an historical/class obsession with the classics) put far more emphasis onto high quality technical education post-18 and their economy bears tribute to this strategy.

I so agree GadaboutGran a good grounding has to come first.

I wonder how long before all children have a programme of learning geared to their needs & interest. I believe there is some guy who runs such a school in New York with heavy dependence on computers & who offers it worldwide.

What kids are really going to need in the future is how to deal with rapid change & managing floods of data, plus very open minds to deal with the globalisation of everything.

Re earlier comments on Design, I'm not sure James Dyson would agree. Nor would my GD (6) who wishes she could do it all day long at school - but that's where the individualisation of learning would be useful.

Another random thought - subjects such as Business Studies, Sociology & Psychology are very popular but I sometimes wonder if they are best done later after a good grounding in core subjects. But with ever expanding knowledge & info, I don't envy anyone making decisions about all of this.

I will ask him!

I bet a plumber with a training in Latin would have a logical grasp of any problem & be able to work it out. S/he would have no problem in understanding trade manuals either.

Me too, Granniepam, but I don't care if DS's plumber friend studied the classics (although I think his wife did), just that he knows how to re-design my en-suite and re-plumb without a leak - or his workers do.

And he is very well off indeed compared to some of his peer group.

Plumber from plumbum -Latin for lead, Greek alphabet used for symbols in electicity (omega for resistance etc.), binomial names for plants........

Philology, etymology, archaeology, theology... all studies in which a background in the Classics is useful. I wouldn't be at all surprised if there were, somewhere, a plumber/electrician/gardener with a classical education!

Aka I've just been reading "Testament of Youth" and was very grateful for the classics (and modern foreign languages) part of my own education - in other words I didn't need to look up the meaning of quotations. They certainly added to my appreciation of the book. As with the other aspects of what I was taught/ have learnt, I look on Classics as a part of what I need to enjoy life to the full. Each subject or skill becomes dominant in importance when it is required!

aka What particular "ologys" did you have in mind. I cannot agree that classics is any more important that any ology.

All an Ology means is "The scientific study of a particular subject:"

dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/ology_2

I fully agree with Greatfulgran54 and Mishap about schooling for those with severe learning difficulties. As much language tuition as possible, whether it is Makaton, speech or whatever, and life and self care skills to what ever level can be achieved. Obviously the range of the curriculum should depend on the greatest needs of the pupils.

Can anyone tell me if the "special schools" (i.e severe learning disabilities) school performance league table results are included in the overall school performance data?
That would make no real sense to me, although the percentage of this group of children might not be enough to make a particularly great statistical difference.

goldengirl

It's a shame that practical subjects like plumbing etc are often considered less worthy than supposedly academic ones. We all depend on practical people in one way or another. You don't call someone with a Latin degree when you have a leak!

Quite right, Penstemmon.

I used to wish DS had trained as a plumber, as one of his friends did. However, it was not for him.

Aka why??? Do you mistakenly think it is always easier to get a degree in one subject rather than another? I think it is that type of 'educational snobbery' that causes us to have such a problematic education system. Instead of accepting that people have equal but different aptitudes, as a society, we appear to value a narrow academic ability over broader or practical ability.
We all want practical and efficient engineers, plumbers, electricians etc. but we do not really value them which turns 'supply & demand' on its head. A person with a classics first may contribute equally to society but is not really any more valuable. They may struggle to get an electricians Level City & Guilds diploma or part P . Different but not necessarily better!

Sorry, in my book A Levels in The Classics is better than an 'ology'

mcem - my careers advice at school was abysmal. It consisted of an interview between my motherand me, a senior mistress and a careers adviser. The interview went thus: "Do you want to go to University?"
Me: "Yes". "Do you want to teach?". Me: "No, um, I'm not sure what I want to do exactly". Careers adviser: "Do NOT waste a place at University if you do not want to teach". End of interview, there's the door.

Same as me, anno, though I gave up Classics after "A" Levels. Thank goodness - enjoyed English so much more. But you had to have "A" Level Latin to get on to an English Degree course way back then.

Classics scholar? Moi? Sorry to disappoint you, Aka. I gave up Latin and Greek after first year at University and stuck to English, though a background in classics has come in useful on many occasions. mcem, we didn't even have careers staff in my school. My French teacher went ballistic when he found out I wasn't doing French at University. Well, he had never advised me to do it and, with hindsight, I wish he had!

Anno I had similar experiences and eldest DGD is about to go through the same. Here the schools are back and she'll shortly embark on Highers - the very last time Highers as we know them will be set. Obviously all exams have to be set early enough for marking and moderating to take place in plenty of time for college/university places to be offered.
Staff at your school were a bit more helpful than mine. As soon as we said 'university'to the careers staff they switched off and there was no further discussion. Far from preparing us for university, my french teacher spent part of 6th year reading Gide with us but it wasn't until university that we discovered that Gide was gay, very significant for understanding his work, but a topic our very traditional teacher wouldn't discuss!

Wow! You're a Classics Scholar then. Respect!

Scottish Highers were - and I think still are - earlier in the year. Always appreciated the irony of taking Higher Latin on the Ides of March. We stayed on at school and sunbathed behind the pavilion prepared for the year ahead, if we were taking the exams in 5th year and for Bursary exams if it was 6th year. At the end of 6th year, my classics teacher gave me preparatory work on my first year university Greek texts. Very helpful!

A Level timings! Memories of sitting in a glass sided hall with the sun beating down on us for three hours at a stretch. And this in the days before bottled water

(That's not an embarrassed bunny it's an overheated one)

A level timing is also driven by the University application thing. In order for students to be placed and find themselves accommodation etc the A level results need to come out in August. So there needs to be time between the exam being set for the exams to be marked, the moderators to do their quality checking procedures, the separate marks for the various subjects a student to be collated etc Computers undoubtedly help. It takes a while for a marker to wade their way through a huge pile of A level papers, ensuring that they are marking consistently. There are far, far more students sitting far more A levels than there were 40 years ago.