Didn't mean it to come out like that, Colin
what i was trying to point out is, that although the present government is totally pro EU,(which is another argument and minefield altogether) one would expect a school that makes it their point to give children the best start in life by gearing up their exam's to a european level, the education ministers have ( as usual) taken an insular viewpoint and stand and said that first and foremost the school should be teaching as a matter of course, the OLD CLASSICS and those subjects that so many modern kids are just NOT interested in.
I have never said that these subjects should be stopped but kids should be given that choice in their options from year 9 onwards should they wish to do so.
I maintain that some of the stuff that I was subjected to as a kid, and also what I subjected kids to in my 22 years of teaching, because of set government guidelines and exam board curriculum was neither use nor ornament, but sadly I had no option but to teach it.
However I would like to hear whet some of our european members from germany, france norway and such think of the way in which we in Britain teach and still glorify our age of colonialism and our classics rather than teaching for the future.
Do they spend inordinate amounts of time teaching stuff, that even though widens the mind, does little for future job success through out the world.
Sorry, I might be very cynical, but I spent 22 years in the profession, and although teaching has come on tremendously in the years that I have been out of the frey, the sad fact is that the teachers are still to a certain extent still bogged down by the subject matter.