tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7111053985478999734.post7690430096193142121..comments2024-03-27T15:59:11.066+00:00Comments on Prometheus in Aspic: Hooptedoodle #111 – Dr HuntleyMSFoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14470241067504971068noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7111053985478999734.post-85779775973002553722013-12-14T17:52:09.516+00:002013-12-14T17:52:09.516+00:00His catchphrase was "If you don't co-oper...His catchphrase was "If you don't co-operate I won't set you any homework". A winner every time.Vintage Wargaminghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04251018372867101509noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7111053985478999734.post-53695789321650329132013-12-13T10:55:57.561+00:002013-12-13T10:55:57.561+00:00Teaching is now a graduate profession, but all the...Teaching is now a graduate profession, but all the old teachers' colleges and polytechnics are now universities, so the whole whole thing has just moved down a level anyway. Sorry to read that you regard parents as the enemy. I can understand how you get to feel like that, but it's a commonplace in the profession and it certainly doesn't help. Ive done some time as a school governor and Ive seen it repeatedly. Teachers lose sympathy when they switch between being a sacred vocation and a commercial profession to suit the argument of the day. There are lots of guys who are better as teachers than they would be in another job - they have to decide whether they want to change jobs, same as everyone else.<br /><br />I do believe teachers need a better deal (my wife is a teacher!), but the switch to a female domination of primary teaching has also meant a big move to part timers, and that, I think, has had a big impact on the profession and on the success of the schools.<br /><br />All the best to you and your colleagues, though - LouCec Rhodeshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17313215648551374718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7111053985478999734.post-31878807616185324792013-12-13T08:07:27.690+00:002013-12-13T08:07:27.690+00:00Brilliant post...in parts thought provoking, and ...Brilliant post...in parts thought provoking, and in others amusing.. little to disagree with... and as you said, my wife is a nurse so don't even start me on how they treat them.....Steve-the-Wargamerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07077311120172727690noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7111053985478999734.post-84371803874794566582013-12-12T20:14:12.116+00:002013-12-12T20:14:12.116+00:00If you will forgive me, I should like to 'hija...If you will forgive me, I should like to 'hijack' this discussion to pay a belated tribute to my old Maths teacher - Mr H.E. 'Harry' Smith of Burton on Trent Grammar School. He was a big man and bore himself like an RSM (which he may well have been; he was captured at Singapore and survived the Burma-Siam railway, which - not surprisingly - made him hate anything to do with Japan. I remember a boy rash enough to bring a Japanese calculator into his lesson watched it fly out of a second floor window to smash on the concrete below...we, of course, understood and made no complaint; what would an Ofsted inspector have said?) and had all the repartee: "Am I hurting you?" "No Sir." "I should be - I'm standing on your hair! GET IT CUT!!!"<br /><br />He never used notes, or a textbook - other than to set exercises for homework - and could draw an almost perfect circle on the blackboard with one sweep of his hand; "using God's compass" as he said.<br /><br />If one ever got less than 60% for a piece of work he kept one in that same evening - no 24 hous' notice or letters home for 'Harry' - until one could do it correctly. Every piece of work was marked meticulously and in detail.<br /><br />In a school where physical punishment was often used, he never hit anyone - he didn't need to! He had a knack for giving boys nicknames that targeted their idiosyncrasies: thus, a boy of doleful manner was 'Smiler'; a saturnine fellow was 'Black' Newton and I was 'Paper Tiger' because I had torn some pages out of my exercise book to conceal a mistake, and ever afterwards had to number the pages of each new book to prevent me doing it again...<br /><br />We were all afraid of 'Harry' because of his sarcasm and rigid discipline; the Maths soon ceased to have any terrors for us. Even the most unacademic, indolent boys passed GCE O Level Maths.<br /><br />Some of my friends went on to read Maths at university. When I asked them what it was like, they said, "The first year was easy - we'd done most of it with 'Harry'." I think that says it all.<br /><br />Would he have survived a modern Ofsted appraisal? I doubt it.<br /><br />But you earned my undying respect and gratitude, Mr Smith. <br /><br /> arthur1815https://www.blogger.com/profile/12333670394529977263noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7111053985478999734.post-14835973994131624312013-12-12T15:58:02.235+00:002013-12-12T15:58:02.235+00:00Go on Clive - tell us about Happy Harry...Go on Clive - tell us about Happy Harry...MSFoyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14470241067504971068noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7111053985478999734.post-58511210719857637312013-12-12T15:29:09.356+00:002013-12-12T15:29:09.356+00:00The definition of a lecture is the process by whic...The definition of a lecture is the process by which information passes from the notes of the lecturer to the notes of the student without passing through the brains of either so I guess Dr Huntley was spot on, if a little labour intensive.<br /><br />Don't get me started on Happy Harry Hunter....Vintage Wargaminghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04251018372867101509noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7111053985478999734.post-68576585662680870112013-12-12T15:10:49.710+00:002013-12-12T15:10:49.710+00:00Hi Rob - I don't take issue with anything you ...Hi Rob - I don't take issue with anything you say (apart, maybe, from the strike episode). My aim in writing it was not really to take issue with very much - except maybe the odd tradition.<br /><br />The profession vs vocation thing is of interest - if someone has a job he loves and finds fulfilling, the straight economic comparison with other jobs is distorted for him. Yes, it is iniquitous that bank managers get paid more than teachers, for example, but their employers can afford to pay them and feel the need to fork out a supposedly 'competitive' salary. The free market is universal - if a teacher feels he doesn't earn enough and it is a problem for him, then he is free to change profession at any time - I am unaware of a great many leaving in this way, though of course many may not start at all for this reason.<br /><br />I would quite have liked to be a pro musician - I had the opportunity, but I would have starved to death, so I spent my life in the finance industry (God forgive me). If I had become a musician and then gone on strike because the money wasn't enough, then (a) no-one would have noticed (b) people would think I was unhinged. I would like a world in which remuneration made sense according to merit and contribution to society. That doesn't happen, and in a Conservative Britain it is not likely to - teachers and medical workers and a good many others are all in the same boat.<br /><br />The preponderance of female primary teachers is, of course, why we in Britain can no longer play football for toffee...MSFoyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14470241067504971068noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7111053985478999734.post-10918439511753280972013-12-12T14:38:46.540+00:002013-12-12T14:38:46.540+00:00Twenty odd years as a teacher after being in indus...Twenty odd years as a teacher after being in industry. That strike thing - one of the things I noticed about teachers was how they tried everything to avoid letting people down. Result? took me 3 years for my salary to catch up to my industrial wage at a time when inflartion was about 15%. When the government at one stage inflicted an 'independent' wages body on the profession, they then told that body what was the maximum it could award. Finally, government decided it was still giving too much so scrapped it! Fact is, you want good teachers who are appraised you have to accept that you should pay them If you don't want strikes, stop shafting them on a regular basis.<br /><br />I think that it is a 2 way thing - government (ie, the parents of the children being educated) has to be fair to the teachers. One thing about 'fair' wages and conditions - men often go for and get the higher paid jobs, women the lower paid jobs. The proportion of women in teaching has steadily increased over the years, you would be hard pressed these days to find a male Primary school teacher.<br /><br />Sure there are good and bad teachers - but as you said yourself, things like 'When I left school, most of my friends who went on to teachers’ training college were those who failed to get into university.' did and still do happen - though of course it is now a Graduate profession. It's the old saying - pay peanuts, hire monkeys. So you would not expect as high a proportion of 'brains' in teaching. It doesn't help that everyone in the world can teach as well as teachers. No they can't. <br /><br />One of the things that made me laugh (?) during my time teaching kids who were out of the school system were the parents who always blamed the teachers and the schools. Get kicked out of one school, possibly, perhaps even two - but 4 or 5?<br /><br />I like teaching (ex Science teacher, ex Special Needs Co-ordinator, ex Head of Maths, currently semi-retired) but it ain't easy!<br /> Rob Younghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02533996736711014752noreply@blogger.com