occamsolutions

It's true Maths is very important (and, yes I do realise how important it is in many jobs!) but I haven't made my point well enough. So what do we do with kids that simply cannot make the grade? We can either put them in the "failure" bin or we can see what they may be good at and focus on that whilst continuing to teach Maths & English at a basic level. Maths is a beautiful subject, I've even used Pythagoras to calculate time dilation but only because I'm a sad geek. I also enjoyed Shakespeare! For non-academic jobs you need a basic grasp, you don't need GCSE level Maths. You need the basics of English, you don't need to quote Shakespeare. A builder can measure things without a GCSE Maths grade! I actually don't think that much of the curriculum is very relevant to everyday life and the skills needed, I've heard most people say that they've never needed half of what they were taught at school; surely if that's the case then the curriculum needs revising. I think teachers do a fantastic job in often very stressful environments (I couldn't do it!), I just think that much of what they are told to teach isn't particularly useful for most people; in fact the only people it's very useful for is those that go on to teach it.

Thanks for the comments, it's good to hear other opinions. To be honest, if I ran a building company I would rather see a vocational qualification in bricklaying than an A* in English & Maths. All I'm trying to say is that it's not for everyone and just because you fail at these subjects does not make you a failure. We try to fit every student through the same education system with the same emphasis on the same subjects (pretty much, Maths, Language, Science, Humanities, Arts, Sport - roughly in that order), this has been going on since compulsory education started - for some it just doesn't work. Some kids' skills maybe in the exact opposite order with Maths & English last! I have spoken to teachers in a local school, it's catchment area is pretty deprived, they have about 70% EAL students - not one of them disagreed with me on this. One teacher told me that when presented with an exam paper some kids just put their head on the table and stay that way until the end, they just do not have a chance of passing and they know it. So here's an idea for those kids, how about we try to find out what they are good at and encourage that instead? If you judge a fish by it's ability to climb a tree it will spend it's whole life thinking it is stupid. - Albert Einstein.

I obviously agree that Maths & English are extremely important, my point is that there happen to be some kids that just cannot make the grade in one or both subjects. So what should happen to those kids? We just keep making them resit constantly? It would be like me re-running the 1500m in the hope of achieving an acceptable time, or re-sitting Art until I hit a C grade - it will never happen! Also, a basic level of English does not necessarily equate to a C grade at GCSE but that is what has been proposed - we just keep making them resit until they achieve.

OK, I'm not a teacher, maybe I'm not qualified to comment on this, but really? There are students that will never pass a GCSE in either subject, at least not without an unfair amount of coaching. I’m not sure I understand the huge focus on academia for every student; we need to accept that we’re not all the same and that some people are more adept at other subjects (like the arts, humanities, music etc). I happened to excel at Maths and Science, I did not find art and languages easy at all, one of my friends back then was the complete opposite; he was a skilled artist and excellent at drama. I guess my point is that we are all different and this latest nonsense from the Government does not take that into account. Of course I’m not suggesting that Maths & English are unimportant, just that there are some kids that will never know what they might be good at because they are too busy failing to find out. I really don’t care if my mechanic can write a decent essay or solve a differential equation, I just want my car fixed, likewise I’m not too bothered if a Lifeguard can quote Shakespeare – he has a more important job to do! There are many teachers on this forum and I would love to know your opinion, if you work in a successful Grammar school this might be a moot point but I would bet that anyone working in a secondary school in a deprived area would tend to agree with me. If I had to campaign for one thing in schools it would be to have a more inclusive curriculum that catered for the non-academic kids without any sense of shame. For some kids, Music might be a more important subject than Maths!