tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19191002.post6499040696714397905..comments2023-09-21T08:53:42.554+01:00Comments on blethers: Reflections on a life-long processChristine McIntoshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14198224025775398453noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19191002.post-42402034632662026212014-02-22T11:08:06.768+00:002014-02-22T11:08:06.768+00:00I'm sure you could have done. But I'm stil...I'm sure you could have done. But I'm still glad that it was the grammar that was successfully drummed into me at a very early stage. What really rocked me, in the sixties, was witnessing girls in my peer group who didn't have enough academic qualifications to get into uni to do a degree (and who couldn't write English well or understand parsing to save their lives) proceed happily to "Training College" to be turned into Primary School Teachers !<br />In tutorials during my "Cert.Ed" year at Manchester University I used to argue that Primary teachers should be paid more than Secondary but I was always in a minority of one.malxhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16049039862352093777noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19191002.post-1485429816707599372014-02-21T17:38:52.770+00:002014-02-21T17:38:52.770+00:00I bet I could have got you into poetry - I loved t...I bet I could have got you into poetry - I loved teaching boys poetry! :)Christine McIntoshhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14198224025775398453noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19191002.post-64608294136137130682014-02-17T15:15:26.555+00:002014-02-17T15:15:26.555+00:00I totally agree. I was fortunate to be sent to a p...I totally agree. I was fortunate to be sent to a private school (in England) from the age of 4½. I transferred to the state sector when I was 9 and two years away from sitting my 11+.<br />Nobody taught me anything new in English grammar after the age of 9. I knew it all. Parsing was a daily piece of cake. My mother told me, years later, that one day, when I was 14, I came home from the Grammar School and told her that I had been the only one in the class who knew what an adjectival clause was.<br />Literature was a problem, though, and I don't think I had very inspirational teachers with the exception of one year. That one guy even got me to like POETRY and I can still quote bits of "The Brook" and the "Presumptuous maid! with looks intent" saga.malxhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16049039862352093777noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19191002.post-10678532185310425382013-11-29T17:13:39.481+00:002013-11-29T17:13:39.481+00:00Trouble is, I think holding a lecturing post could...Trouble is, I think holding a lecturing post could be the kiss of death to a teacher - my ideal would be to drop in, do something, and fly back to the classroom!Christine McIntoshhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14198224025775398453noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19191002.post-30333819390127563272013-11-28T23:56:36.423+00:002013-11-28T23:56:36.423+00:00Would you kindly bounce out of retirement and take...Would you kindly bounce out of retirement and take up a lecturing post at a teacher training college? I have colleagues arguing with me about apostrophes and I know I'm right, dammit! Something has to be done or we'll be 'riting lk ths' forever more...Duffynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19191002.post-42640339753873694222013-11-15T20:51:14.631+00:002013-11-15T20:51:14.631+00:00You never forget a good teacher! Thank you Miss Bl...You never forget a good teacher! Thank you Miss Blair - funny how often I think of her with respect and gratitude.Fredahttp://www.livesimplysimplylive.weebly.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19191002.post-76909321635104971412013-11-11T13:29:24.450+00:002013-11-11T13:29:24.450+00:00I am eternally grateful to Mrs Duncanson who taugh...I am eternally grateful to Mrs Duncanson who taught me English for five years at my comprehensive. There was one year I was relegated to Class 2 so that she could continue to teach/deride me consistently. She mocked my reading of Dennis Wheatley, took a red pen to Agatha Christie, but taught me to parse and become quite expert at interpretation. She mocked the fact that I was always in school musicals because it often meant I was hauled out of class for rehearsals. She pushed me, and I hated her with a vengeance. My mother made me go to her and thank her for my A in my English Higher, before I left school, and I left that meeting feeling belittled. However, in my later years, I thank her for the grounding she gave me, even if I now cringe at what passes for English in Facebook and elsewhere!Fr Kennyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09825687159958396082noreply@blogger.com