[Watchman]

I assume first places will go to Truss and Kwatang

[Yug]

When he says "maths", what does he actually mean? I don't know anybody who can't handle a bit of arithmetic, which is all most people need in their daily lives. If he's talking about algebra and stuff he can fuck right off. I had to learn the basics of that in school. Forty years later I still haven't found a use for it. Or geometry, come to think of it.

It would be more useful if adults were more proficient in English. That's something they use every day, and the standard of so many people is disgustingly low.

[Crabcakes]

Maths = banking for Sunak, and he probably assumes people who aren’t rich, tax-dodging hoarders who automatically vote conservative must simply be lacking in numeracy skills.

[Andy McDandy]

I'm sensing a few things:

1. The Hitchens tendency get to bang on about kids these days, lazy teachers, give 'em some hard sums to do. Preferably in Imperial.

2. It's your fault you're financially screwed.

3. Cheap shot at PMQs, "Good thing we're championing maths because Labour can't do their sums" (FFS, did these people stall mentally at 14? No, don't answer, they did).

4. Combining 1 and 2, an obvious appeal to those of the older generations who not only hate their grandkids, but their feckless offspring as well. Clearly training adults in maths is not going to be possible on a large scale, so it's not their plan. It's to blame Labour for what they will say are plainly their failures in education between 1997 and 2010 (so basically anyone between 29 and 45). This in turn allows them to champion Gove's education reforms as necessary but not enough (probably watered down by the LDs, they'll say), and that will all soften us up for Gove to be the post-election Tory leader.

[Youngian]

Many adults are embarrassed about their lack of numeracy skills and may have never even heard of dyscalculia. Like Andy, I don’t detect Sunak’s main motivation is to empower the left behind.

[Watchman]

Ink not even dry, and the flaw in the cunning plan has already been spotted. Did Dishy think this up without even consulting his own SoS for Education?

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/li ... 526bb43f93

[Youngian]

Wouldn’t it be FE lecturers rather than school teachers conducting the maths lessons, does Gillian know, does Rishi know, does anyone? We haven’t moved on much from Johnson, just throw out some bones with no real implementation plan. This is a reheated one but the only idea Sunak’s authored.

I’ve only ever heard of this anti-maths culture from metropolitan journalists who did classics at Oxford. Sunak needs to get out of his bubble more.

We’ve got to change this anti-maths mindset. We’ve got to start prizing numeracy for what it is – a key skill every bit as essential as reading ….
I won’t sit back and allow this cultural sense that it’s ok to be bad at maths to put our children at a disadvantage.

[Yug]

From Watchman's link above

We’ve got to change this anti-maths mindset. We’ve got to start prizing numeracy for what it is – a key skill every bit as essential as reading ….

I won’t sit back and allow this cultural sense that it’s ok to be bad at maths to put our children at a disadvantage …

My campaign to transform our national approach to maths is not some nice to have. It’s about changing how we value maths in this country.

There is no "anti-maths mindset". I think a lot of the antipathy stems from the way people were taught. I can still remember Mrs D'Alton-Goode and Mr Berry, both of whom taught maths to the kids that "got" it and dismissed the rest of us as dimbos.

As for it being "ok to be bad at maths". Well, Ian put it so simply in his post above. People don't think it's ok. They're embarrassed about it.

Sunak's full of shit.

.......

Cross posted with Ian.

[Crabcakes]

It also plays into the tired old whine of many an older person that things are easier these days, and that kids shouldn’t be allowed to use calculators and the like. They always like that sort of mindset as it makes them feel superior for getting 3 C grade A-levels when it was ‘actually hard’.

Funnily enough, they never seem too fussed that kids have to learn an astonishing amount these days, and much earlier, including in core subjects that literally didn’t exist when they were at school. And thanks to Gove and his like, they’re sometimes taught it in the most dreary, utilitarian way possible (my daughter’s English homework frequently used to bewilder me in its demands to use certain adverbs and constructs and the like - and I’m a professional editor).

Of course, the other added bonus is that if you can afford extra tuition to be taught to pass exams then harder maths is no obstacle for the right people.

[Yug]

Tubby. I have some problems with this bit.

They always like that sort of mindset as it makes them feel superior for getting 3 C grade A-levels when it was ‘actually hard’.

A-levels were for the swotty kids. Many of the moaners are the sort who left school at 16 with three grade C O-levels.

[Crabcakes]

Tubby. I have some problems with this bit.

They always like that sort of mindset as it makes them feel superior for getting 3 C grade A-levels when it was ‘actually hard’.

A-levels were for the swotty kids. Many of the moaners are the sort who left school at 16 with three grade C O-levels.

Your main problem is, it’s not Tubby who said it (unless you’re suggesting I’m overweight?)

(Point taken though!)

[Yug]

Sorry Crabby. I left school at 17 with only five O-levels. And it shows.

[MisterMuncher]

When he says "maths", what does he actually mean? I don't know anybody who can't handle a bit of arithmetic, which is all most people need in their daily lives. If he's talking about algebra and stuff he can fuck right off. I had to learn the basics of that in school. Forty years later I still haven't found a use for it. Or geometry, come to think of it.

It would be more useful if adults were more proficient in English. That's something they use every day, and the standard of so many people is disgustingly low.

It's absolutely about arithmetic. Then other stuff doesn't play well with the crowd, all a bit too clever by half that stuff.

As I said when Johnson/Truss was floating the same ould shite

[zuriblue]

Tubby. I have some problems with this bit.

They always like that sort of mindset as it makes them feel superior for getting 3 C grade A-levels when it was ‘actually hard’.

A-levels were for the swotty kids. Many of the moaners are the sort who left school at 16 with three grade C O-levels.

And vociferous graduates of the University of Life (well overdue an Ofsted inspection)

[Tubby Isaacs]

And Sunak under investigation for not declaring interests now.

[Tubby Isaacs]

[davidjay]

And Sunak under investigation for not declaring interests now.

These things used to be big news. Now they barely cause a raised eyebrow. Boris Fucking Johnson has a lot to answer for.

[Bones McCoy]

AAAnd BBC's "Speak yore branez" about moar Maths goes precisely as you'd expect.

Heavy input from the school o hard knocks.
Largely conforming to:

I agree with this, but times tables and no calculators.

None of that difficult algebra stuff.

[Bones McCoy]

AAAnd BBC's "Speak yore branez" about moar Maths goes precisely as you'd expect.

Heavy input from the school o hard knocks.
Largely conforming to:

I agree with this, but times tables and no calculators.

None of that difficult algebra stuff.

This is what we - and, ironically, Sunak - are up against.

[Oboogie]

"Since Rishi Sunak became Prime Minister, we have become used to investigations into wrongdoing amongst his cabinet colleagues. But Sunak himself seems to have wriggled out of scandals centred on himself. However, the Prime Minister may have run out of road now as he faces a standards investigation over a potential failure to properly register a conflict of interest related to this year's budget."

This has the potential to get very tricky for Sunak.