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Learning Experiences
Nov. 5th, 2010 11:23 am'cos of my injuring myself again, I recently had three months off from Ninja High and only recently went back to it. Last night was the first night of fighting I've done in a while, so you'll all be delighted to know that not only was I given a nosebleed, but this morning I'm covered in bruises - including a black eye.
That got me some interesting looks on the train this morning, as well as a seat to myself.
Still, it's been a learning experience in how not doing something for several months leads to a loss of ability - and that gives me a rather neat segue into my subject for the day, education.
Y'see, we hear it every year at about exam results time. The outcry over ever-increasing and record numbers of A grades which showed that exams are getting easier and education standards are falling. Back in 2008 I observed that the Olympics must be getting easier too, as British Athletes grabbed a record number of Gold Medals that year.
There was an undercurrent to my observation about the Olympics which one or two picked up on at the time, which is whilst that obsessive training to a single task* leads to success it has little wider application, and so it is with the record number of A grades in exams, especially when compared to other educational systems. Something my brother speaks of from his time working in India is the way Indians sometimes ask him why the British threw way the best education system in the world, and the way he gets miffed because he knows it's a fair question.
It sometimes surprises me the degree of objection I get when I observe that as the two best educational systems in the world are widely regarded as being the South Korean and Finnish systems, we might benefit from at least considering what they do and possibly emulating them. I don't know any Koreans, but I know couple of Finns and by crikey they're well educated, the jammy sods. I dont' know much about the Finnish or Korean systems, but as a general rule learning from people who are better than you is a pretty good idea more often than it isn't. The Coalition's proposal to make the system more like the Swedish one aren't a bad idea - the Swedes come in about third or fourth best, by and large - but as it's an idea from teh ev1l toriezz once again it must be wrong no matter what for some people. I once asked a fan of the comprehensive education system why they liked it, and it really struck me that in their initial answer they mentioned fairness and equality a lot, but didn't mention education once. It kinda depressed me as well, if I'm being honest, and I didn't pursue the debate as enthusiastically as I usually would after that.
Anyway, enough of this seriousness for a bit of history! If what the Indians say is true then there was a point when the British education system was best in the world, and maybe it's possible to look at that. Maybe you've heard of the Indian Civil Service? It was the organisation which ran Britiush India for about seventy years, and its members were colloquially known as the 'Incorruptibles' (due to their immunity to bribery) or the 'Heaven born' (due to their talent)**. Entry to this organisation was based on an open examination taken at the age of 19, and the service required high standards of attainment in arithmetic, English grammar and composition, history and geography along with excellent handwriting and spelling. If you wanted to join the Treasury, you also had to be prepared to answer examination questions on the first three books of Euclid and translate a passage out of Latin, French, German or Italian.
But I'm not a cruel man. Here's some questions from the examination required to enter the service as a junior clerk (the lowest rank). It's Friday, and you arne't doing any work, so here's a challenge: without google, how well do you do? Are you smarter than a 19 year old?
History
•What were, at different times, the titles of the Chief Magistrates of republican Rome? Name the first and last of the 12 Caesars and the principal writers of the Augustan Era.
•What were the Petition of Right, Instrument of Government, Act of Uniformity, Act of Settlement, and Act of Navigation?
Geography
•Draw an outline map showing the overland route to India
•Mention seven colonial possessions of Great Britain, specifying wherein their political and commercial importance to this country.
English Grammar
•Construct sentences exemplifying the use of the relative pronouns in the possessive and objective cases.
*I read an article about Rebecca Adlington's training regime at the time. Blimey, it was stunningly focussed.
**You might think I'm kidding here, but I'm not.
That got me some interesting looks on the train this morning, as well as a seat to myself.
Still, it's been a learning experience in how not doing something for several months leads to a loss of ability - and that gives me a rather neat segue into my subject for the day, education.
Y'see, we hear it every year at about exam results time. The outcry over ever-increasing and record numbers of A grades which showed that exams are getting easier and education standards are falling. Back in 2008 I observed that the Olympics must be getting easier too, as British Athletes grabbed a record number of Gold Medals that year.
There was an undercurrent to my observation about the Olympics which one or two picked up on at the time, which is whilst that obsessive training to a single task* leads to success it has little wider application, and so it is with the record number of A grades in exams, especially when compared to other educational systems. Something my brother speaks of from his time working in India is the way Indians sometimes ask him why the British threw way the best education system in the world, and the way he gets miffed because he knows it's a fair question.
It sometimes surprises me the degree of objection I get when I observe that as the two best educational systems in the world are widely regarded as being the South Korean and Finnish systems, we might benefit from at least considering what they do and possibly emulating them. I don't know any Koreans, but I know couple of Finns and by crikey they're well educated, the jammy sods. I dont' know much about the Finnish or Korean systems, but as a general rule learning from people who are better than you is a pretty good idea more often than it isn't. The Coalition's proposal to make the system more like the Swedish one aren't a bad idea - the Swedes come in about third or fourth best, by and large - but as it's an idea from teh ev1l toriezz once again it must be wrong no matter what for some people. I once asked a fan of the comprehensive education system why they liked it, and it really struck me that in their initial answer they mentioned fairness and equality a lot, but didn't mention education once. It kinda depressed me as well, if I'm being honest, and I didn't pursue the debate as enthusiastically as I usually would after that.
Anyway, enough of this seriousness for a bit of history! If what the Indians say is true then there was a point when the British education system was best in the world, and maybe it's possible to look at that. Maybe you've heard of the Indian Civil Service? It was the organisation which ran Britiush India for about seventy years, and its members were colloquially known as the 'Incorruptibles' (due to their immunity to bribery) or the 'Heaven born' (due to their talent)**. Entry to this organisation was based on an open examination taken at the age of 19, and the service required high standards of attainment in arithmetic, English grammar and composition, history and geography along with excellent handwriting and spelling. If you wanted to join the Treasury, you also had to be prepared to answer examination questions on the first three books of Euclid and translate a passage out of Latin, French, German or Italian.
But I'm not a cruel man. Here's some questions from the examination required to enter the service as a junior clerk (the lowest rank). It's Friday, and you arne't doing any work, so here's a challenge: without google, how well do you do? Are you smarter than a 19 year old?
History
•What were, at different times, the titles of the Chief Magistrates of republican Rome? Name the first and last of the 12 Caesars and the principal writers of the Augustan Era.
•What were the Petition of Right, Instrument of Government, Act of Uniformity, Act of Settlement, and Act of Navigation?
Geography
•Draw an outline map showing the overland route to India
•Mention seven colonial possessions of Great Britain, specifying wherein their political and commercial importance to this country.
English Grammar
•Construct sentences exemplifying the use of the relative pronouns in the possessive and objective cases.
*I read an article about Rebecca Adlington's training regime at the time. Blimey, it was stunningly focussed.
**You might think I'm kidding here, but I'm not.
