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I'm feeling a bit "down" at the moment because I've just been told that teenagers don't read any more, so there was no point in writing the three teenage novels (including the sequel to last year's Tir na n-Og Award winning "Full Moon") wot I rote. I'm also feeling a bit "up" because I've embarked on a new novel for pre-teens which is up and running with a vengeance. I started with an idea, but the character has (as usual) gone his own way and (as usual) set off running in directions I never intended him to take. I've had to put "Silver Fox 3 ~ The Long Amen" on a back burner temporarily because of it. I hadn't intended to write a third part, but considerable pleading by various people has prodded me into finding the ending of the Glyndwr story. I'll go back to that when I've finished my current project.
Why aren't there more hours in the day? However, the sun is shining, the birds are tweetin', and life is pretty good on the whole.
Yes, it 140 characters. In fact Alexander McCall Smith (author of the Scotland Street series etc.) occasionally writes short stories (about 4 or 5 separate tweets) about a Nordic detective. It's quite fun.
@Jenny...Agreed 100%! Our good friend Phil Rowlands played his part in that
http://americymru.net/profiles/blogs/pentre-primary-and-the-resignation-of-leighton-andrews-minister
I was referring to Leighton Andrews, Ed Minister for Wales, who has stepped down recently. His successor, praise be, is an ex teacher. I can only hope he at least knows something about education!
I agree with you all. Michael Gove (current Education Secretary) is under attack from certain parties simply because he wants to bring back rigour in education and he wants times tables learned, along with all those old-fashioned educational values. Rote learning is important; it gives us the foundations on which we can then build.
I agree Ceri! That has a much nicer ring to it! You'd make a great editor! Brings a whole new meaning to "high" school.
I wholly agree. There is no purpose in advancing a student until he/she can read. Period. Reading unlocks the wealth of every other subject--including maths. I just don't understand the assembly line mentality of schools. They know they're failing so, now, the new mantra is no testing. Testing, they say, does not measure acquired knowledge accurately. Perhaps. But no testingdoesn't measure anything either.
I've been trying to think of a good, lucrative title for a Twitter novel. "Me and my BFF, we be:-? [smoking a pipe]?"Probably not...
PS I don't "get" twitter any more than I got prcis too many years ago in my Cardiff high school!
Harold, when I was reading for my PhD at Cardiff, I taught under- and pose-grads. Their spelling was atrocious and their grammar was worse. I had to teach them the basics of editing before they could submit their portfolios.I've recently been communicating with the (then) Minister for Education. I believe the first 3 or 4 years of primary ed should be nothing but literacy and numeracy. Straight, not dressed up. Once they have the basics, then let them have other subjects. AND I'd keep them back in a class until,they had reached the standard required. There should be no stigma attached. They should be allowed to "go up" as soon as they attained the standard, and they should be rewarded for their hard work when they did. At the moment we're putting kids in front of the locked door of education without giving them the key.Last March I visited a comprehensive in S Wales to workshop with 14 year olds who would be the first cohort group whose GCSE papers would be marked by new new 50% of marks on spelling and grammar rule. I gave them a two-page exercise with 97 "howlers" in it, offering 10 to anyone who found them all. The closest was 75...
It is a bit perplexing. What worries me even more is not that some teenagers don't read but that theyCAN'T read. Moreover, these modern illiterates are beneficiaries of free education and many are recipients of high school diplomas. Huh? Compassionate educators who "pass" them along to the next level without any prerequisite achievements are, in the end, the worst of child abusers. My wife worked one summer at a local university administering entrance exams. She was in a state of perpetual depression. Many students bearing "high school diplomas" were testing at 1st and 2nd grade reading levels. And with "open enrollment policies" the students were accepted into university and immediately shunted off into "remedial reading" courses plus assigned "tutors" to proof-read and provide clerical help like "typing" their papers.
On the positive side authors may have a whole new genre of literature opening up for them: The Twitter novel. A novel written in 160 character installments. Sell the book as a series of tweets guaranteed to inspire, allure, and enrapture the reader with a story of love, passion and "hugs and kisses" xoxo.