It’s quite possible that within all the faff of going into hospital… the details of what one does or doesn’t do/provide become blurred.
Certainly, we’ve had to provide Identity, CV, Mutuelle for each hospital planned thingy…
When I ended up in hospital as an emergency, with nothing by way of CV/Identity etc… I was subsequently sent a letter outlining their A&E charge 19,61€ which I could either pay by cheque or send them a copy of required CV and Identity.
and the important phrase (in capitals)
“sans reponse de votre part sous 15 jours, votre dossier sera transmis au tresor public qui en assurera le recouvrement…”
I doubt they’d have done anything major without knowing who I was etc…
I’m very good at maths. But when I heard about this daft notion of obligating kids to do it up till 18 years old, I thought it was completely wrong. Not everyone has an aptitude for it, just as not everyone can learn languages or has, say, artistic ability. All it will do is demoralise those for whom it’s very difficult or even impossible. It shows a complete lack of understanding of the experiences and challenges of others. I wish such people couldn’t get into positions of leadership, but then there’s no qualifications for becoming a politician other than parroting views your intended audience wants to hear.
It’s a half baked idea designed more to generate headlines and give Sunak something to talk about that isn’t the NHS - the rest of the items in his “5 point plan” were similarly pointless (apart from NHS waiting lists - but that’s not the most important thing at the moment which is sorting out A&E departments which look more like they are in a war zone than anything else).
I’d agree we need more numeracy, that doesn’t mean formal study at A or AS level, it means learning about tax, interest rates, interpreting basic statistics and the pitfalls and deliberate obfuscation that is often used when presenting numbers, mental arithmetic and all the other practical skills that so many lack. It doesn’t, indeed shouldn’t, mean more calculus and trigonometry, apart from the students who would do A’ level anyway.
But forcing disinterested kids - not a great idea, and who is going to teach it? There is already a shortage of STEM teachers in the UK, especially maths.
It will fall by the wayside and be forgotten, like so many Tory promises, when it has done the job of distracting the public for five minutes from the real problems du jour.
In terms of overweight, so many sources report the same findings that I think we have to agree that the UK is pretty high in the obesity charts. 29 out of 200 in this one.
“The bed had blood stains on the side of it. The sink was full of used bits and bobs, and the floor was filthy with stains and tissue paper from previous patients.”
She was “worried then, because he’s so vulnerable”.
Absolutely disgraceful in supposedly one of the richest countries in the world!
Absolutely right. If these kids haven’t reached this attainment level by sixteen it says more about their teaching or lack of capacity and nothing will change in their following years unless they have a radical approach to teaching these children.
All they will do is to male them resentful, a bit like UK voters.
I was rubbish at Math at school, and it was only when I wanted to go to Harvard in my 20’s and had to get my SATs that I became interested. Started from scratch using a much more intuitive approach and had no problem reaching the necessary scores. So it’s the teaching, not the kid. Math is pretty inate. Even my dog can count to 4.
Algebra was my archilles heel - perhaps mainly because I couldn’t see a practical need for it in real life. It wasn’t until I started to take an interest in computer programming and spreadsheet development in work that the realisation came about its real-world usefulness.
Had a similar thing with our son learning French at school - he didn’t see the need for it and was bottom of the class until the time came when he was tasked with looking after the 5 year old son of the French exchange teacher who had come with her to UK on school visits to London attractions.
He didn’t speak a word of English and was constantly tugging at our son’s shirt tails with “comment?” in order to understand what was being explained.
It didn’t take long after that for him to rise to the top of the class once he realised that not everyone spoke English and the usefulness of learning other languages
His French teacher was duly impressed.
Mine too, but unlike you, I never have found a use for it since. I can recognise that trigonometry, geometry and arithmetic has been useful from time to time, but algebra, no.
There’s a difference between arithmetic and mathematics, as you say. There are also concepts like graphs and “exponential increase” which we were everywhere during the first waves of with Covid. I suspect many people don’t know what ‘exponential’ means, and can’t read a graph, especially one with a logarithmic scale.
Anyone wanting to do an apprenticeship has to do functional numeracy and literacy level 2 if they don’t have a recent GCSE pass already. Someone who came for a job at the deli where I worked had to be let go because she didn’t know her tables - it was essential for working out prices on the ancient scales (late 1970s). Anyone who is capable of learning basic maths should do so as it is essential for everyday life - no need to learn anything complex unless they really love maths.
As kids, there’d be groups of us walking to primary school and we’d often chant the times-tables as we trundled along …
So I guess I was chanting 'em before I even understood what they were all about…
I learned the times tables in French at school in Morocco. La Maitresse was a veritable dragon. She would call out “Deux fous trois……?”, and you had to write 6 very fast on your slate in chalk and hold it above your head.
The last one up and any wrong answers, she would walk around the room to whack them on the knuckles with her ruler.
I’m afraid French schools, at least in North Africa, during the sixties had corporal punishment in a routine.
The teachers also used to catch any child chewing gum and stick it on the crown of their head. Tonsures were a badge of rebellion!
Still remember my times tables, though I need to recite the whole line in my head, “Sept fois neuf est…”
I am glad I learned French spirit at that early age. And that I have thick hair.
Daft though it might seem, I’ve flummoxed some shop staff (in all countries) by offering them “the odd 3 cents” or whatever, to make their change-giving easier (or so I thought) but they can’t fathom it… not without a machine…
but they can’t fathom it… not without a machine…