Let’s Stop Drumpf?
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I have issues with ‘right’. I am thinking though that ‘we gave those euro fanciers a right kickin’, innit?’ might be a correct yoofspeak use of ‘right’. I liked the innit.
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Let’s Shave Drumpf?
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We have lost something in decimalisation. The number of bases kids had to learn to work in to understand pounds, shillings and pence probably went a long way to incentivise them to improve their mental arithmetic.
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He has those, but the one with chemical molar masses and stuff is different.
This Gove dude is kinda creepy…
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Wasn’t it Douglas Adams who wrote about the planet which was run by lizard overlords and people knew it, but people still voted to make sure the wrong lizard didn’t get in?
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One local twist on this:
NT: Hello, you’re through to the National Trust.
Caller: Hello. Yes, I’d like to withdraw my membership please.
NT: I’m sorry to hear that, may I ask why?
Caller: We’re fed up with it. The houses are too full. There’s queues at the cafes and not enough tables. Plus we’ve noticed there are plenty of stately homes and attractions not part of the National Trust. And we have to pay a that ridiculous fee that we could use for anything we like…
NT: OK, so shall I cancel your direct debit?
Caller: Just wait a minute. I have promised my family that even if we leave, we can still have full access to all of your country houses, historic landscapes and nature reserves.
NT: Yes, you can do that. You just have to pay an entry fee each time you visit one of our attractions.
Caller: But won’t that be hugely more expensive?
NT: Yes.
Caller: And won’t that mean I’ll have to queue up with all the non-members and pay each time?
NT: Yes. And for the car parks.
Caller: So, we can’t use them any more?
NT: You can. But you’ll have to pay. Sorry.
Caller: Will you still send me the magazine?
NT: Well, no. Why would we–?
Caller: How dare you be so unhelpful. Can’t we agree on a different arrangement?
NT: Such as?
Caller: One where we still have full access to all of your attractions and car parks. And the magazine.
NT: Yes. You can do that by being a member of the National Trust.
Caller: Oh, you people. Honestly.
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Did it work, though? And if it did, did it work any better than learning binary or hexadecimal because of the “IT Revolution” did for my generation?
If anyone could not use pounds, shillings and pence they stood to lose out. Decimalisation was promoted as being easier, i.e. quicker to learn; no one base or combination of bases is easier to learn in any absolute sense, our natural propensity is for logarithmic thinking. My nonagenarian grandmother who could happily multiply and divide by ten never was able to understand ‘the new money.’ For many people it was simply habitual to think in pounds, shillings and pence.
Of course people’s average superior mental arithmetic was also due to a much more limited educational environment for many. Pupils left school at age 14 and were given a basic but firm grounding in arithmetic, whereas now they are taught some maths to pass exams with little or no regard to how much of what is learnt is retained. They had no technology to fall back on. A large proportion of the male adult population worked in skilled trades which also required a good basic working knowledge of maths and arithmetic. (Non-academic kids who apparently have no aptitude for maths, more often than not, find that they are quite competent in maths when they start to learn a skilled trade.) When did we acquire our cultural dislike of maths and by extension arithmetic and the belief that they are difficult (and unnecessary)?
It is the relationship between technology and the arithmetical/mathematical environment which negatively impacts arithmetical skills much as the relationship between technology and the food environment negatively impacts people’s physical health. Do the skills that we gain from technology, (which for most people means nothing more than that there is a calculator on their phone) compensate their loss of arithmetical skills?
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Imperial measurements and pounds, shillings and pence are shit if you have dyscalculia (I have it, it’s common in my mums side of the family). Also shit was the attitude of “if you can’t understand it then you are stupid” common in teachers at the time before metric.
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Shhh! I’m a millenial. Half my working knowledge, if not more lives on the Internet. When I’m in a no cell service area, it feels like I’ve had a stroke.
But then I fall back on my Scouting knowledge and start building a lean-to or a snow cave, or a dugout, as the situation dictates.
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We’re talking about the British education system yeah? The one that thought education of the traditional working class could be outsourced to Eastern Europe?
There has been an almost deliberate policy to disregard the education of non-academic pupils for many years. Politicians were complicit in creating a situation where employers could reduce wages because the required basic skills were not available locally. There has been no improvement for all as far as I can see. We have a lot to learn from places like Finland but whatever we call ourselves these days I doubt we will. They (and we) are reaping the rewards now.
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