Patrick - thanks so much for that - the Ogden Nash a much better - and more interesting - pome than that of Byron!
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Great story, S_A. We got great chunks of Shakespeare to learn at school - Henry IV pt 1 was our set work for O level. We didn't have to recite it, but were told to write it out in class, always with some odd instruction, like turning the paper sideways, or writing the first line at the bottom of the sheet, in order to preclude the pre-written copy.Comment
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I didn't go to Prep School of course, more like Bash Street Mixed Infants. The only learning by rote we did was the times table (how else do you learn it?) We had weekly spelling tests on Friday, we didn't have to learn the words prior to it as it was random words, although a lot as I recall were those when you could transpose letters such as diary and dairy, woe betide if you got them wrong as the test was repeated the following Monday and it was assumed you would learn by your mistakes and be perfect and, if you didn't, Oh The Shame, The Shame!
It would be interesting if those here who have teenagers or younger going through the schools system would give some input into discipline now, as supposedly it doesn't exist any more. Certainly we were in mortal fear of the teachers and the headmistress and, I recall my teacher in the last year of Juniors aged 11, Mr. Jackman, we all liked him so much that to fail seemed (looking back on it) an insult to him and again, the shame of letting him down.
Edit: Sorry, this is offtopic but I realise now we applied ourselves because of those teachersComment
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contrast this
with this
i feel there are lessons from the ecologists for the conditions created for young humans in inner cities
... and Anna our new college has improved results and discipline in a new built environment full of space and light ... not just the building of course, new team at the top etc and an assumption of good citizenship .... but the town itself is a dessert fro youngsters, not as bad as north lunnun there are open spaces and clubs and homes, but if parents are not community or ecology minded we can not expect kids to flourish ...According to the best estimates of astronomers there are at least one hundred billion galaxies in the observable universe.Comment
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I often [all too often] feel; while listening to R4 output....of ecologists, historians, geographers, biologists, physicists, astro-physicists, conservationists, archeologists, curators etc etc etc....get a bloomin job....Not a particularly nice reaction, nor a particularly informed one....But then, I am informed, and my gut reaction seems to froth, not only with bile, but also dislike of speciialisation and a sublimation of the past and the far off....while to be brief Rome burns....but Rome burning was as we have seen quick and easy....it made the current affairs producers job very easy....If we spent as much time constructing the face of youth today as is spent reconstructing the face of a Bronze Age Man, using a skull found in a peat bog in Norfolk....we might be further on....
Maybe it's just me....bong chingComment
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Some sort of change will occur, though not exactly helpful, when the prisons reach full capacity. I have not been against the tough approach as one component of a strategy. However, it is blimmin' ridiculous if the outcome is a guarantee of no custodial sentences being possible in the event of future rioting.
Please, please, please, though, can someone help me with the statistics. Here - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14704914 - we see that "46% received a custodial sentence" and that "the prison population has.........reached a record high for the third consecutive week last Friday, standing just 1,500 short of its operational capacity at nearly 87,000".
But here - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14668770 - we are told in London that "Scotland Yard said that 2,006 people had been arrested and....(just) 42 jailed".Comment
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Many have been remanded in custody pending sentence and the case being removed to a higher court....in jail but not 'jailed' after sentence....bong chingComment
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Hi eighth, I appreciate your reply but the figures still don't add up.
The second article says "Of the 1,500 offenders who have appeared in courts nationwide, more than 160 have already been sentenced and half of them jailed". That is 80.
Of which 42 have been jailed in London presumably.
46% of thousands might be in custody pending but how is that a custodial sentence?
Once again, we are being hoodwinked here. Every impression is being given by the prison service and the politicians that this is harsh treatment. Doesn't look like it at all to me! - Lat.Comment
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Did anyone hear Ken Clarkes comments re inner city folk and then the interview with IDS on R4 TODAY programme, where he quickly covers up and puts meat on the bones [but not a real human being with personality]....IDS has some idea, but if ever there was a need for some people really in the know to actually be in charge of intention and policy nows the time....things are only going to get worse,much worse, people need hope not scathing general remarks....Ken Clarke, you are out of touch, making speaches you think people want to hear....time, at long last for you to go....
....it's not on iplay yet , I'll put it up when it is.bong chingComment
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Clarke statement 45 secs in....IDS interview 2hrs 10 mninutes inbong chingComment
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Quote Originally Posted by handsomefortune View Post on MURDOCH thread
>>>
central to the debate should ideally be the notion of the threat, and increasing possibility of the death of political ideology - not least, because this is literally what is at stake, in allowing media/etc monopolies. logically, we should all detest what is happening globally... that is unless people arent bothered about 'the death of political ideology', or the threat of 'the death of the democratic process'. <<<
I'm worried that all the red brick graduates from the 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's are all now just pursuing 'lifestyle politics'....running after that gite in Brittany, Normandy, the trip to Machu Picchu, Ankor Wat, the Landrover Discovery parked outside of the Rural Idle, the Second Home in Dorset or Devon....it is so sad that there has been this polarisation and the marginalised [you'd know if you had ever been marginalised] are left in swamp of innercity marginalisation....and all anyone can think about is ...."what can someone else do", "what can the government do"....
Those who were relying on the 'product' from shares and iniquities to finance their dream retirement, should maybe have found their dream locus in investing in the community in which they live....bong chingComment
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Seems to me that the name GOVE, is nowhere to be seen in this article....is he only dealing with those who want to do PPE and Latin, and the already discredited Baccalaureate....
bong chingComment
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Clap Hands, Here Comes Casey!
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a dry evidence based approach sure helpsAccording to the best estimates of astronomers there are at least one hundred billion galaxies in the observable universe.Comment
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