We are developing the social individualist meta-context for the future. From the very serious to the extremely frivolous... lets see what is on the mind of the Samizdata people.
Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]
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Another Daily Telegraph quote for Guido The only time I ever read anything in the Daily Telegraph nowadays is when Guido Fawkes quotes some particularly ridiculous thing in it, and has a good old sneer.
Well, just in case Guido missed it, here is another choice item of ridicule-worthy Daily Telegraphy, spotted earlier today by 6k:
Expect the GCSE pass rate to dip some more.
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i read the front web page to check what socialist right are thinking…
That’s right up there with “Lady with large chest for sale” and “Baths for babies with tin bottoms”.
Recognizable to Australians as a rather extreme case of Tall Poppy Syndrome.
I would think that at least some of the parents would object.
This explains what people mean when they say, for instance, “The kids sure cut up rough today.”
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Now this, from Mr. Shelley (IIRC):
Thy lips, O slippery blisses!
Hardly the best way to double the number of “smart” students.
That’ll teach those swots.
Half the Class go to the right, other half to the left.
King Solomon will be pleased to see that his best practices are still in use.
One sentence from the BBC story jumped out at me:
writing about the GCSE Maths exam
HALF MARKS got you an A? For the stupendous achievement of getting slightly more questions right than wrong, an A?! 16% of pupils got A or A* in the last full year of the old grades. Does that mean only 16% of pupils managed to get just over half marks?
In 2013, the average GPA in four-year private colleges in the USA was just over 3.3 out of 4.0.
“A” is by far the most common grade on both four-year and two-year college campuses in the USA (more than 42 percent of grades).
“A”s are the new participation trophies. How else are they going to continue the fable that every kid ought to go to college?
I’m so old that….
I remember stories of a Gentleman’s “c”, and how that was “good enough” to receive a diploma (suitable for framing) from our most prestigious institutions of higher learning”.
Of course, it was dependent on how you scored in the “Gentleman” class exam.
Aw, they fixed it. The (awkward) new headline is “Number of children achieving top GCSE grades expected to halve under new reforms”.
But the URL still reads “http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/2017/08/23/children-getting-top-gcse-grades-expected-cut-half-new-reforms/”