Education
In almost every area of life, in this country at least, we've never had it so good. Most moaning about 'the good old days' can be quite easily dismissed with hard evidence about about the massive improvements we have seen in health, wealth, freedom, safety and happiness over the last 70 years.

In spite of all this great achievement, the one thing that I really do believe has got much worse over the past few decades is standards in education - and my big worry is that this will soon start to affect the progress made in all these other areas.

This is of course quite difficult to prove, especially against a backdrop of continuous improvements in exam results - but it is so obvious to anybody who has had to deal with school leavers. It is genuinely shocking how ignorant and incapable people with top A-level grades can be: until of course you take a look at what and how they are now taught and how they are assessed. Defenders of the system will talk about how the curriculum and examinations have changed with the times and can't be fairly compared with the past, but this is bollox. Take a look at an A-level maths paper from last year, and then one from 20 or 30 years ago - it's not a difference in 'style', it's a completely different standard. In the not too distant future, the people responsible for running the economy and designing nuclear power stations will not really know what algebra is.

tl;dr
Young people these days are thick as fuck and this will lead to the end of our civilisation.
(Baggenfrock get fucked, Thu 23 Jul 2015, 17:03, 19 replies)

The youth we employ are as bright as they've ever been
Maybe don't hang out with thick kids?
(Go Man River everybody loves anal, Thu 23 Jul 2015, 17:11, closed)

Perhaps the photocopier business is not as intellectually demanding as I had thought.

(Baggenfrock get fucked, Thu 23 Jul 2015, 17:28, closed)

Seriously, Basingstoke.
We employ graduates and summer placement students and they're easily as bright as they were twenty years ago. You're hanging out with thick kids.

I assume because they're easier to get into your paedo bed.
(Go Man River everybody loves anal, Thu 23 Jul 2015, 17:49, closed)

The kids haven't got thicker,
But the standards of education, and the grading of exams, have been shifted.
So, a grade A from 30 years ago is worth more than a grade A from today.

Of course, that guy from 30 years ago has probably forgotten everything by now, so he can fuck off.
(eViLegion Chief Commissioner of the Scottish Lunacy Board, Thu 23 Jul 2015, 18:05, closed)

Really?
Because ... as I might have mentioned ... the kids we're recruiting now are at least as good as the ones we recruited 20 years ago.

It's a common claim that education has got shitter but nobody seems able to do more than repeat it as a bald assertion. Which is a pretty damning indictment of their own education.
(Go Man River everybody loves anal, Thu 23 Jul 2015, 18:18, closed)

30 years ago there was no A* grade.
There currently is one.

So, assuming an approximately even level of intelligence, and that the smartest kids get the top grades, then the A from back in the day is equivalent to the A* of today. Therefore today's A isn't as good.
(eViLegion Chief Commissioner of the Scottish Lunacy Board, Thu 23 Jul 2015, 18:30, closed)

Yeah. You're not even going to scrape a 'B' with logic like that.

(Go Man River everybody loves anal, Thu 23 Jul 2015, 18:37, closed)

I like to claim that my D grade A-level, attained whilst at grammar school, must be equivalent to a B attained at a comprehensive school.
Doesn't make it true, though.
( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Fri 24 Jul 2015, 9:48, closed)

You've been in the same job for 20 years?
lol
(Baggenfrock get fucked, Thu 23 Jul 2015, 19:26, closed)

No.

(Go Man River everybody loves anal, Thu 23 Jul 2015, 19:32, closed)

maybe you just have really low standards?

( rachelswipe with a fork, Thu 23 Jul 2015, 20:14, closed)

This isn't going to end well.

( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Fri 24 Jul 2015, 9:49, closed)

Depends on what floats your boat really

(Baggenfrock get fucked, Fri 24 Jul 2015, 10:05, closed)

you say this like you think the current people responsible for running the economy
and the last lot before them understand algebra or even the fact that 5 - 6 = negative figures...
( rachelswipe with a fork, Thu 23 Jul 2015, 18:14, closed)

Stand back, people. Arts student attempting sums.

(Go Man River everybody loves anal, Thu 23 Jul 2015, 18:16, closed)

^ wants to bone gideon ^

( rachelswipe with a fork, Thu 23 Jul 2015, 18:55, closed)

If only there was someone on here intelligent enough to
put together a realistic comparison.
Not sure how being thick has anything to do with the education system. You will always get thick people and cleverer people in every standard of education.. Their level of intelligence will decide how much of it they can take in. Intuitively I feel standards have dropped but my only evidence is I know people with a dozen 'A's and a degree who need help putting their wellies on the correct feet.
( edjogs Collared doves are shit., Thu 23 Jul 2015, 20:38, closed)

your conflating academic intelligence with common sense
whereas in reality that relationship is of the inverse variety.

either that or the lizards need to keep the proles dumb so they can continue to rule
(katie hopkins telling it where its at, Thu 23 Jul 2015, 22:03, closed)

You're right.
None of my kids even know what a slide rule is.
( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Fri 24 Jul 2015, 9:46, closed)

30 years ago..........
..........computing was in its (relative) infancy, and I was struggling to teach BASIC. Kids today aren't thicker, they're educated differently, to reflect the needs of employers. The kids I assess going into teaching aren't thick - they're bright, young, articulate and motivated. They're also pretty damn' smart. They're preparing to teach in an ICT literate world with different expectations, not lower ones. Different!

Sadly the view that modern kids are rubbish prevails with a fair percentage of the Good Old days brigade.

Heigh ho!
( The Lone Groover has mal des nuts., Fri 24 Jul 2015, 9:52, closed)