Educational Standards In Britain Today.

This is a genuine text conversation I had this week:

Stranger: Is dis ross?

Me: Yes. Who is this?

Stranger: Its fran ave u go ne ringin cred

Me: Sorry I don't recognise the name "Fran". Are you sure you've got the right Ross?

Fran: Haha u tryin 2 b funny, sum1 jst gave me da numba so its obv u,jst a txt 2 say du kev a favour nd keep away frm im cz me nd is bruv dnt want im goin bk 2 jail nd im sik ov im liein 2 me nd e onli seems 2 du it wen es waiv u

Me: Seriously I don't know you. My guess is that someone had my number on their phone along with this other Ross and got them mixed up.

Fran:  Ye alryt ross

Teenagers Are Wordy Ungood.

Teenagers have been warned they are becoming unemployable because they use a vocabulary of just 800 words.

Sounds shocking and there are inevitably calls for "urgent action" to make them use more words. However the details aren't nearly as clear cut:

The majority of teenagers should have developed a broad vocabulary of 40,000 words by the time they reach 16.

Linguists have found, however, that although they may understand thousands of words, many choose to limit themselves to a much smaller range in regular conversation and on a daily basis could use as few as 800 terms.

So it isn't as if they only know 800 words, but they only use 800 different words on a daily basis which is a very different thing. I've probably used fewer than 800 words today yet it doesn't mean that I am unable to use more words if I so choose.

I Hate Young People

Not people who happen to be young, but the phrase "young people". Is there anything more irritating than constantly referring to young people as "young people" when done by politicians or other professional busybodies? The phrase grates like nails being dragged down a blackboard. This is the immediate article that prompted this post:

Many of the 300 young people attending the debate, including the young person I accompanied, left home at 5.30am during their half-term holiday to represent the views and opinions of their peers, and they did so with passion and integrity. Young people rely on public transport, and it was this that let them down and resulted in the late start to the debate.
.....
Young people have never been allowed to sit on the formidable green benches before, and I imagine that some were daunted by the prospect.
......
I have worked with children and young people for many years, and do not consider them to be a helpless group who will eventually grow into citizens.
......
I saw young people of all shapes and sizes; some were shy and others were confident. None were brazen.These young people are not merely "playing" at politics – they are elected by young people to raise awareness of the issues that matter to them.
.......
It showed that, when given the opportunity, young people are able to forcefully debate, discuss and fully participate in local and national decision-making.

I fear that your article disrespected the many young people of this country who are trying to make a difference and contribute positively.

This is about the "youth parliament", a body made up of the sort of young people who refer to themselves as "young people".

Community Work.

I've just been reading something about sectarian divisions in Northern Ireland and how they have worsened in recent years. I realise that this probably makes me a very bad person, but one of the reasons given for increased tensions strikes me as being extremely funny:

Of 214 kids who had attacked children of the other religion, 158 said they recognised them from cross-community schemes.'

Batman & Ratboy.

Camila Batmanghelidjh (try saying that quickly), writes in the Indy:

The questions is this: when children do harm, whose crime is it?

Ooh, ooh I know. Ask me! It's the crime of the little Ratboy scrote who commits it Miss.

In court will stand the child who committed the offence, but a more catastrophic injustice remains unredressed. The crime of those who allow childhood in Britain to be so destroyed that vulnerable children are left to simply survive it.

Oh, I'm wrong.

The rest of her article contains one good point surprisingly, criticising the lack of accoutability in the social services. It might contain more than one good point actually it's just that I haven't got a clue what she is wittering on about:

first we have to communicate the importance of human life. It's not a lesson of morality; preciousness of life has to be emotionally experienced and practically realised. In writing off one person, we facilitate violence as a repercussion.

?????? Nope, she's lost me.

Update: There is a way to interpret her words that makes a surprising amount of sense.

Young & Dumb.

Watching the special schools edition of Question Time yesterday has confirmed a thought which I have had for a long time. The voting age ought to be raised back up to 21. People tend to be much more superficial and self absorbed before they take full responsibility for their lives, for example during yesterday's programme there was not a single question about the floods that have engulfed much of the north of England, but they of course found time to ask about tuition fees and lowering the voting age.

Pommygranate & David Vance of ATW weren't impressed with the show either.

The Voice Of Yoof!

I was so struck by the stupidity of the anti free speech activist in the previous post that it occurred to me that there is almost certainly further evidence of his idiocy on the web so I googled the name 'Kieran Hutchinson Dean' to put my theory to the test. Guess what? I was right! The BBC''s Question Time website has a forum for suggesting possible guests for future shows, and Oxford's answer to Kim Jong Il suggests:

More young people! For example members of the youth parliament. How do you expect young people to get interested in politics if they never see their peers on programmes such as Question Time?
Kieran Hutchinson Dean MYP, Leeds

MYP stands for 'Memberof the Youth Parliament'. How deluded and egotistical does a spotty teenager have to be to effectively propose himself as guest on a leading public affairs programme? He views himself as the voice of yoof when if the impression I'm getting is correct his presence on Question Time would repel 99% of 'young people' and 100% of 'all other people'. I'm not sure what he would do on the show anyway, start squealing unless the producers agreed to axe all guests with opposing views perhaps. This is what happens when schools teach kids the importance of self esteem without merit. Anyway if people were interested in a infantile political neophyte whose arrogance goes hand in hand with his ignorance, then Johann Hari's Independent columns would be far more popular than they are.

And yes, I do realise that this may rank as the most trivial post that I shall ever write.