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8 Responses to “Majorca in the 1970’s”

  1. 10 Jun 2024 16:28
    Belyi says:

    At least in the 1970s, people knew how to write a short headline without a grammatical mistake.

    • 10 Jun 2024 16:31
      pete fairhurst 2 says:

      Ha ha ha, fair cop guvnor, grammar never was my strong suit

      • 10 Jun 2024 16:34
        Belyi says:

        Because anything seems to go these days, I can’t really hold you liable.

        I started teaching English to foreign students in 2003 and it has often been an uphill task, getting harder by the year..

        • 10 Jun 2024 16:48
          pete fairhurst 2 says:

          Such a relief to hear that Belyi, no liability! 🙂

          I went to a Grammar school in the 60s too. Oh the shame! But my strong suits were science and maths. So I didn’t pay too much attention to the O level grammar course, as is obvious to you I suppose. But I did at least get a decent grade, that’s all I cared about at the time

          My old man, on the other hand, was a stickler for his grammar. Having attended a Grammar school in the 1930s he knew all the correct names like past pluperfect etc etc. All that stuff went right over my head

          Nobody cared in the ’60s either, all that was so uncool. He must have been as pissed off at the new low standards as I am now with their dumbing down. It has reached unbelievable depths

          • 11 Jun 2024 10:37
            Belyi says:

            I was usually bottom of the class in maths, algebra, geometry. I used to think it was me, but I wonder if in the case of both of us, some blame can be put on the shoulders of the teachers who didn’t adapt their teaching to make it interesting to the students.

            • 11 Jun 2024 10:56
              pete fairhurst 2 says:

              Yes Belyi

              They were my top subjects, plus “science”. They were all that I really bothered with, as you easily spotted 🙂

              I only started to learn about our real history after I retired. The stuff at school was boring as could be to me, dates, names, royals, battles, and all that propaganda. They miss out pretty well all the revealing and important connections between these characters. Other than official family trees, which I subsequently found out, are often BS

              Teachers follow the rules, I don’t really blame them personally, the system doesn’t allow them any leeway. Particularly nowadays, national curricula and suchlike…

            • 11 Jun 2024 17:32
              Tapestry says:

              Maths is far too easy so they make people think it is difficult. Calculation is the basis of business, so they make it as obscure and impenetrable as they can to keep the number of potential competitors down.
              I started treating my children’s maths prep as a game (try this way, try that way, trya another way) and they soon relaxed and enjoyed it – and realised that they could do it, whereas before that, they were struggling, when it was played serious by the teacher.

              The teachers maintain there is only one way to solve a maths problem when there are usually at least three ways, and you can switch between them as you wish and they all work fine. Once the children realise they can use their imagination, it clicks.

              • 12 Jun 2024 08:29
                pete fairhurst 2 says:

                Very true Tap. Last autumn I casually picked up my 9 year old granddaughters maths book. I was utterly stunned by the contents. The techniques that they were teaching her were ridiculously complicated, completely useless to my mind. Even I struggled to understand their nonsense, she was lost

                So I persuaded her to sit with me one day every week after school and started from scratch. After a few months she was progressing. One day, a couple of months ago, she came home triumphantly. Showing me that her teacher had said he was using an “old method” and that it worked. She was elated because it was exactly what I had shown her and she already knew it!

                Karma or what?

                She’s a smart, savvy, sassy, hands on, kid who will only do what interests her. She says things like “They told me about that granddad but I wasn’t interested, so I didn’t bother”. Ha ha. That’s my girl…

                I said to her in response “Whatever you do then learn the three R’s, reading, writing, ‘rithmetic, to your very very best level. Learn as much as you can. You will need these skills all your life. They are absolutely essential whatever you do in future. Take the rest with a pinch of salt, as you please. And don’t bother about their woke nonsense at all”