TEACHING IN THE UK TODAY
The QES campaign to persuade all concerned that young people deserve the chance to learn and to use English properly, when and where it matters
Education in many areas of the UK is not working properly. Crumbling buildings and threats of reduced funding are, of course, a serious concern, but not a matter for us in this forum. The QES has launched a campaign to reverse decisions made by politicians and other public bodies, over several decades, and to upgrade teaching and teacher training. The aim is to ensure that the teaching of all subjects includes instruction in the use of the best possible levels of standard English, (grammar, spelling, punctuation and style), and that provision is made for the correction of work submitted by students of all ages.
Elizabeth Foster told the Society:
"I teach English in a comprehensive school. The
poverty of language is depressing - but most of the
staff do not recognise it as such because they were
educated at a time when grammar was considered
superfluous and their knowledge of it has been passed
on by a system akin to the game of Chinese Whispers.
Ignorance is breeding ignorance - especially among
English teachers - and those of us who offer our
services (tactfully) are dismissed as old-fashioned
because newly trained teachers have been taught in
the sixties mantras. At the same time, those who
trained the inadequately trained have not been
properly taught themselves and either do not
recognise the rot which has set in or do not want to
admit their part in allowing it to get this far. I
have found, however, that children who are convinced
that English is 'impossible' and
'beyond' them are interested and relieved to
hear that there is logic to it which can be mastered
- such a discovery gives them some sense of security;
knowing that three clauses require two conjunctions
to build them into a sentence is a sound start. I
love my language and I am keen to pass it on with
pride rather than having to teach its constructions
apologetically in a whole-in-the-wall fashion. I was
educated in Northern Ireland, where grammar still
matters more than it does in some schools I have
taught in elsewhere."