When the QES launched a website in March, 2009, we asked for feedback and comments about the content and the overall usability of the site. As a result, we have just launched a completely re-designed website:
Membership of the QES is not necessary in order to make use of the website, but we would welcome your support and applications to join us. You will find ample information about membership, within the website.
With some ten days until polling day in the United Kingdom, we are all encountering the candidates on our doorsteps, eager to make amends for past behaviour and eager to solicit our support for their chosen policies. Make them earn your backing and promise that they will not rest until we have an education system to be proud of and a system that produces educated people, not merely good exam statistics.
With economic troubles facing us all, volcanic eruptions and a climate which cannot decide whether it is warming, or not, the state of the English language is probably not the most important thing on your mind. Health services and policing crime are essential to us all. More runways at airports and high-speed rail links may be considered by many to be vital to the future development of our nation. The QES feels that a high priority must be given to our beloved English language, being absolutely essential for clear, concise communications throughout the world.
For decades, we have been building schools, setting targets and allowing politicians to run our schools. But if a school ‘fails’ (and it is often not made clear exactly what the nature of the failure is), the first casualty is often a head teacher, a person who may have well been simply unable to cope, because of interference – by politicians.
It has long been established that when a student completes a piece of work in say, history, the facts within the piece are judged to be correct or indeed, incorrect and the matter is left at that. There is no longer any provision to correct grammar, spelling, punctuation, or even to discuss the choice of words the student has made and used in their work. It may even now be the case that the teacher concerned may not be able to make such corrections and suggestions, having been educated under the same sort of regime as the pupils and students of today. The tragedy is that the very same teacher did what was expected and gained sufficient passes at A-level and went to university, thus meeting the “target” set by Parliament and the myriad of other bodies who have taken over the education of our youngsters.
So, when the canvassers and candidates come knocking, tell them exactly what you expect of them, in return for your vote. Teachers must be allowed the time to teach properly and have the time, AND BE ABLE THEMSELVES, to correct and advise their students about the correct use of English. It must be educators, surely, who have the task of setting the curriculum and not someone who, possibly, was administering a rapid transport system, only six months before.
Great Britain Plc has now no option but to go out into the world and sell itself, as we recover from the recession. Anecdotal evidence is that there are jobs to be done and no suitable candidates to fill the posts, being unable to communicate in a correct and clear manner.
The Queen’s English Society is, and shall remain completely non-political and our membership will almost certainly have very diverse political loyalties. We feel justified in criticising governments of all shades here, as we feel that the decline in standards of English usage is the result of poor education policies adopted over the past fifty years.
Please do not give your Parliamentary candidate your support unless he or she can guarantee a proper education for our future generations. It may be simplistic to say, but it need not cost any money to bring about changes to education, indeed, by getting rid of government interference, we may actually save money, because we all know what politicians cost.
If we had been doorstepped I would have done as you suggest, but no-one comes to us. Good idea though.....wonder what they'd all say.
ReplyDeleteYes, Traveller, it is as though they are all embarrassed and are staying away - WONDER WHY?
ReplyDeleteThere should be a comma after 'and shall remain' (in the second last paragraph of this post). The use of commas needs attention throughout your website. Don't put a comma between a subject and verb!
ReplyDeleteFor example, in your very amusing 'style' section you say:
'Both versions are correct, both mean the same thing, but those which are coloured pink, are so much more "elegant".'
No comma after pink! Or, to put it more elegantly: one should endeavour with utmost zeal to avoid placing a comma between one's verb and its subject, unless one is placing in such a position a pair of commas enclosing a parenthetical clause or phrase.