Free education - A right or a privilege?

[Kermit power]

We have free education in this country. It's generally considered one of those absolute rights that all should have, but where should we draw the line?

We went to Chessington today. It was the first day with all the rides open, so it was heaving. In one of the queues, there was a family behind me, with the son (around 13 or so at a guess) complaining about the length of said queues. His mother, absolutely seriously, agreed that the queues were bloody awful, and that they would just take the kids out of school one day to get the rides without the queues!

Why on earth are we paying taxes to provide that woman's family with an education, when that's her impression of the importance???

I would never want to see the day when free education isn't available to all who want it, but shouldn't the key be those who want it? Why do we spend lots of money desperately trying to keep truants in school, disrupting the education of those who do want to learn, only for this sort of attitude to be tolerated?

If someone doesn't want to learn, fine. fk 'em. Give them a couple of chances, maybe, then just pull the plug.

[Kermit power]

BJG1 said:

Kids - given the choice - wouldn't go to school - nearly every single one of them. If a parent doesn't value education, it denies a child that education if school isn't compulsory, and that's unfair. The State prevent parents from gross negligence in many ways - and I believe stopping a parent denying their child an education is a necessity.

I totally agree, but how far do you take it? I suppose it depends to a degree on whether fecklessness is hereditary? If a parent is such a lost cause that they're willing to take their kids out of school just to avoid the queues at an amusement park, what are the chances of their kids being any better, regardless of the level of state intervention?

[Kermit power]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

In the case of today's fine specimens, the answer would seem to be "going to Chessington with Mum & Dad."

[Kermit power]

Swilly said:

Ummm it's not a right or a privilege, its a legal requirement.

With regards to the philosophical side of your question, education from the State's point of view should always be universal and mandatory.

If the State provides nothing else, it should at least provide universal free-at-the-point-of-receipt education.

Parents and children should never have the opportunity to decide if they want an education, if they don't want it, it should still be forced upon them.

When one generation remains uneducated you beget a series of generations of the same... and hence we find ourselves with an underclass, that can do nothing, contributes nothing but consumes all and affects all.

That's the view I would like to take, but how do we get to that point? How much do the parents and kids who don't want an education be allowed to disrupt the experience for those who do want it, before we say enough is enough?

[Kermit power]

V6 said:

AJS- said:

Austin.J said:

I last left school just about 2 years ago, the last 2 years of school a few of us skived at least 2 lessons everyday without fail and fk me am i I (capital) paying for it now, ? (Question?) New sentence 1 One of the blokes is jobless and going on the dole, I'm working my arse off in a job which if I had decent grades would of have made it been a hell of a lot easier (wouldn't of have been a temp for 6 months - plural)

I know if I could go back to school and re-do it, I'd work my bks off and get decent grades then go to uni, New sentence Everyone who thaught thought school was a "doss off" time now is is now either on the dole, or like me trying to work to get where I would of have been if I had worked in school.

Call me a grammar nazi, but I believe you could greatly improve your employability by improving your grammar and spelling as per the corrections above, regardless of your GCSE results.

I left school with no GCSEs at all because I fked around royally, but I was fortunate enough to have supportive parents who valued education and backed me financially to go to college and later university, when I was a bit older and had perhaps learned some of the hard lessons you are learning at the moment.

I have also worked in recruitment, and I can think of no more sure fire way of making a bad impression than having glaring grammatical errors in your covering letter and CV. It's not like most recruitment consultants or HR people are grammar fanatics, as the advertisements testify, but the obvious ones will let you down.

You think posts on internet forums are directly related to how people's CVs are written and punctuated?

Absolutely 100% yes.

OK, you might let slip the occasional typo on a forum which you'd double-check on a CV, but I really don't accept that anyone capable of writing perfectly would ever right that imperfectly, even on a forum.