Alex Callinicos/SWP vs Laurie Penny/New Statesman Facebook handbags

[Spanky Longhorn]

The teaching at Newcastle College was awful when I was there. My Law teacher was a rampant alcoholic and would drink in lessons. She'd also take us down to the canteen for a lecture so she could smoke. Really quite sad in retrospect - someone should have intervened. Maybe someone did but I sometimes wonder what happened to her.

she is now the principal

 

[Greebo]

she is now the principal

The Peter Principle strikes again.

 

[_angel_]

anyway i've been doing some cover supervisor work in schools in the local area, hopefully will get some more this yer, and all the kids are hard working and want to learn. to listen to the tory party you would think all schools are like beirut and it fucking depresses me how they are trying to get rid of coursework and gcses which despite their faults are still better than the fuckin "international baccaluriat" and all of the things which can often make kids enthusiastic about learning and replace it with some pre-1950s ideological bullshit. I enjoyed doing coursework at gcse more than writing an exam which you could easily fuck up on a particular day

A mixed approach is best. There's obviously only so much you can impart in a three hour exam (thinking essay type subjects). An exam might work best for Maths but not so much English or History.
We didn't do an exam in English so I had 1 and half years of coursework not taking it seriously and the last few months of getting As. If it'd been an exam I could have got an A but because I wasn't taking it seriously my marks were lower with 100% coursework.
Anyone who thinks coursework is automatically "easier" misses the point. But the cheating thing is always a worry.

 

[cesare]

"Account for the division of Europe in 1945 and show how this division affected the administrative arrangements made in 1945 for (a) Germany; and (b) Austria. How did power blocs develop in Western Europe and Eastern Europe in the years 1945-1954 and on what European issues did these power blocs quarrel?"

"Explain how Europe came to be divided by the Iron Curtain after 1945. How far, and for what reasons had Western Europe moved towards economic and military co-operation by 1954? What progress towards similar co-operation had been made in Eastern Europe by this date?"

Two sample O level questions from 1977/78. Bloody glad I'm not doing it nowadays

 

[phildwyer]

Must be nice to go to suddenly decide to go to Cairo. If you and I were going to Cairo it would be planned, saved up for, and anticipated months if not years in advance.

It costs about 200 quid to get to Cairo, and is so cheap once you're there that you actually spend less than you would in London.

 

[ymu]

It costs about 200 quid to get to Cairo, and is so cheap once you're there that you actually spend less than you would in London.

Not if you still had rent and bills to pay back in London.

 

[Firky]

£200 of disposable income that many people don't have.

"Account for the division of Europe in 1945 and show how this division affected the administrative arrangements made in 1945 for (a) Germany; and (b) Austria. How did power blocs develop in Western Europe and Eastern Europe in the years 1945-1954 and on what European issues did these power blocs quarrel?"

"Explain how Europe came to be divided by the Iron Curtain after 1945. How far, and for what reasons had Western Europe moved towards economic and military co-operation by 1954? What progress towards similar co-operation had been made in Eastern Europe by this date?"

Two sample O level questions from 1977/78. Bloody glad I'm not doing it nowadays

My mate did A-level further math's and his uncle who was some physicist in the Royal Navy (probably nuclear subs!) couldn't do his math's homework.

It was just a pile of letters and symbols to me.

 

[phildwyer]

Not if you still had rent and bills to pay back in London.

Well obviously you sublet.

 

[phildwyer]

£200 of disposable income that many people don't have.

You could earn it in a week.

 

[Firky]

You could earn £2k in a day.

 

[cesare]

You could earn it in a week.

Someone on minimum wage would find it hard to earn that net, and extra (disposable), in a week.

 

[Idris2002]

You could earn it in a week.

Just get yourself down the docks.

 

[phildwyer]

Someone on minimum wage would find it hard to earn that net, and extra (disposable), in a week.

You not telling me that an able-bodied, intelligent young man such as Firky couldn't put his hands on 200 quid if he really wanted to, in today's London?

 

[Captain Hurrah]

200 quid is a lot when you've only got a tenner or twenty spare after everything else (your life) is paid for.

 

[Firky]

Oh, Dwyer

You can't troll a troll.

 

[phildwyer]

200 quid is a lot when you've only got a tenner or twenty spare after everything else (your life) is paid for.

Get a job in a pub for a month or so innit.

Anyway you can get to Cairo for less than that.

 

[cesare]

You not telling me that an able-bodied, intelligent young man such as Firky couldn't put his hands on 200 quid if he really wanted to, in today's London?

I think there are many people who would find it hard to get £200 extra in a week, in London.

 

[ymu]

You could earn it in a week.

Of course! Low pay and unemployment are voluntary. Poverty is a lifestyle choice.

 

[Captain Hurrah]

It's all getting a bit Atomic Suplex now.

 

[Idris2002]

Of course! Low pay and unemployment are voluntary. Poverty is a lifestyle choice.

Phil will even lend you the bike.

 

[Firky]

£150 a week on cheese.

FWIW if I was going to spend £200 on a flight it wouldn't be to Cairo. I'd go Barcelona or Eastern Europe. Would love ot go to Croatia.

 

[Captain Hurrah]

£150 a week on cheese.

Times are tough.

 

[phildwyer]

Of course! Low pay and unemployment are voluntary. Poverty is a lifestyle choice.

Nobody's saying that.

I'm saying that an able-bodied young man can find 200 quid without too much bother, in today's London or anywhere else in the Western world.

 

[ymu]

Ah, that massive shortage of people applying for jobs.

 

[phildwyer]

Ah, that massive shortage of people applying for jobs.

Not a job. 200 quid.

Anyway, you can hitch-hike to Cairo.

 

[Buckaroo]

You can take the Night boat to Cairo, Istanbul for 500 quid, fifty for a catamarran to Jordan then walk the rest of the way but that would be madness. But if you care about the environment etc

 

[frogwoman]

even if you can earn 200 quid in a week that predisposes that you've got other money to pay for other shit. also don't forget that although it might be cheap in cairo we're tlking about the flight being 200 quid, you will still have to withdraw money once your there and the bank charges overseas aint cheap.

 

[Firky]

FFS, now I have Madness in my head.

It's just gone noon, half past monsoon on the banks of the river nile, boat half a float, coxswan with a toothless smile

 

[phildwyer]

even if you can earn 200 quid in a week that predisposes that you've got other money to pay for other shit. also don't forget that although it might be cheap in cairo we're tlking about the flight being 200 quid, you will still have to withdraw money once your there and the bank charges overseas aint cheap.

Well all I know is you meet working-class Brits all over the world, probably more than any other nation in fact, so they manage to get there somehow, Lord knows it's a terrible mystery though.

 

[Random]

Well all I know is you meet working-class Brits all over the world, probably more than any other nation in fact, so they manage to get there somehow, Lord knows it's a terrible mystery though.

Are you on Twitter, phil? I think you could get some excellent piss-taking done