[RedSparrows]

It's never been about a 'debate'.

Ever.

[Andy McDandy]

No, I agree. Just saying that at the start it was about getting access to impressionable young minds. Now it's moved into the kudos of getting invited to speak at "an institution" that enough of the target audience still attach some respect for (at least their idealised version of it), and the anti-kudos of being "banned" by said institution, which is only further proof of how far academia has sunk thanks to letting the lefties at it. Win-win.

[MisterMuncher]

Thick fuckers love a debate, because it's not about proving your thesis, it's about convincing people it's correct. They can then elide that not-insubstantial difference.

That's why you'll see the debate bros in full force around anything intellectually bankrupt, from Young Earth Creationism to Cryptocurrency.

[Andy McDandy]

Joey Naylor: [eating fast food, next to Ferris wheel, at the Santa Monica Amusement Pier] ... so what happens when you're wrong?

Nick Naylor: Whoa, Joey I'm never wrong.

Joey Naylor: But you can't always be right...

Nick Naylor: Well, if it's your job to be right, then you're never wrong.

Joey Naylor: But what if you are wrong?

Nick Naylor: OK, let's say that you're defending chocolate, and I'm defending vanilla. Now if I were to say to you: 'Vanilla is the best flavour ice-cream', you'd say...

Joey Naylor: No, chocolate is.

Nick Naylor: Exactly, but you can't win that argument... so, I'll ask you: so you think chocolate is the be all and the end all of ice-cream, do you?

Joey Naylor: It's the best ice-cream, I wouldn't order any other.

Nick Naylor: Oh! So it's all chocolate for you is it?

Joey Naylor: Yes, chocolate is all I need.

Nick Naylor: Well, I need more than chocolate, and for that matter I need more than vanilla. I believe that we need freedom. And choice when it comes to our ice-cream, and that Joey Naylor, that is the definition of liberty.

Joey Naylor: But that's not what we're talking about

Nick Naylor: Ah! But that's what I'm talking about.

Joey Naylor: ...but you didn't prove that vanilla was the best...

Nick Naylor: I didn't have to. I proved that you're wrong, and if you're wrong I'm right.

Joey Naylor: But you still didn't convince me

Nick Naylor: It's that I'm not after you. I'm after them.

[points into the crowd]

From the film "Thank You for Smoking". One of the best analyses of the modern "debate" strategy.

[Nigredo]

[kreuzberger]

It's not about spelling though, is it?

It is about a rudimentary albeit genuine error, and simply not giving a shit of sufficient size to even check this stuff. Woeful.

[Spoonman]

At least the second year in a row this has happened...

BTec delays: Exam board Pearson apologises to students waiting for results

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-62617693

...all I'll say is that this didn't happen in my day. I received my BTEC National** results over two weeks before the A-Level students got theirs & this helped getting the incoming student loan sorted quickly as well as getting a place in the halls sorted (as they only allocated them to those whose offer was fulfilled, so got ahead of the A-Level pack). Sounds like Pearson/Edexcel need to get their finger out of their backsides.




**"National" back then, nowadays a Level 3 Diploma/Extended Diploma.

[mattomac]

Yeah I’m a bit surprised by the wait on this, like you said I got mine late July.

[Yug]

We're one of the richest countries on Earth, apparently

A head teacher said he had been forced to ask his mother and sister to help out due to a lack of staff.

Steve Hitchcock, of St Peter's Primary in Budleigh Salterton, Devon, said he was losing some catering staff to supermarkets because they paid more.

"It does feel like something needs to give, enough is enough," he said.

The Department for Education said it understood that schools were facing cost pressures and said they would benefit from the Energy Relief Scheme.

Mr Hitchcock said the school had seen a 9% real terms cut in income in the last decade.

He said energy bills had risen 100% in the last six months, the catering bill was £38,000 in the red and the school did not have the money for staff pay increases of 5-10% .

"It is mission impossible," Mr Hitchcock said.

St Peter's Primary School has seen energy costs rise 100% in the last six months
"What we're expected to do with the resources we've got, the two don't match.

"Staff are leaving to go work in supermarkets for better paid jobs which means that it's really hard to recruit.

"And in particular at the moment getting cleaners and lunchtime staff is really tricky because the pay is low.

"So I had to ask my mum to come and volunteer as a lunchtime assistant.

"And I had to ask my sister if she'd come and do some cleaning to make sure we had enough staff to do that as well.

"I mean, that's just crazy."

He started as a head teacher in 2008 and said it had "got to the point where there isn't anything else to cut back".

He added: "We are constantly asking parents for money, constantly asking local groups, constantly trying to get money from any source.

"It shouldn't be my job."...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-63312321

Aren't we lucky we've got a government who know what they're doing, and won't do anything stupid to make things worse.

[Andy McDandy]

The Department for Education said it understood that schools were facing cost pressures and said they would benefit from the Energy Relief Scheme

"You may have had your legs cut off, but the guy in the next bed likes your boots!"

[Yug]

Subjects including German, French, art, drama and design technology could soon be shut off to many state school students as heads say they are being forced into cutting expensive and less popular lessons to address crippling deficits.

The vast majority of English state schools expect to be in the red by the next school year, pushed under by enormous energy bills and an unfunded pay rise for teachers...

https://amp.theguardian.com/education/2 ... -cuts-bite

Authorising a pay rise but not providing the cash to fund it is a clever way to pull the rug from under state education and force schools to drop the "worthless" subjects.

Either somebody played a blinder, or they accidentally got the result they wanted.


My money's on the latter.

[Watchman]

Well we don’t need foreign languages as all those countries begging us for a trade deal will have to speak The Kings English

[Malcolm Armsteen]

Either somebody played a blinder, or they accidentally got the result they wanted.
My money's on the latter.

I think they probably knew what they were doing. Tory education authorities were playing the same game 1997-2005.

[Bones McCoy]

Well we don’t need foreign languages as all those countries begging us for a trade deal will have to speak The Kings English

Let's abolish the language department, and recruit some gammons to teach "shouting at foreigners".

[Tubby Isaacs]

How does this work, seeing that schools are supposed to do a language for Ebac? Is it going to be Spanish only in lots of schools?

[Malcolm Armsteen]

I believe Academies can opt out.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Of the Ebacc? It's not compulsory for anyone, you just get bad mouthed if you don't put everyone in for it, as I understand it.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

Umm... yes?

[Tubby Isaacs]

So strong incentives to keep one modern language to meet the Ebacc conditions. In the past, that would have been French, but I see French could be up for the chop in some places. So from that I infer that Spanish will be kept on.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

Less than 40% of all pupils are following ebacc.