Tory minister Nicky Morgan refused to answer times tables questions she’s now forcing on 11-year-olds
Thicky Nicky needs to brush up on her multiplication tables. There are several possible methods.
One friend of This Blog practises his maths during sex. Obviously that’s not appropriate for school pupils but Thicky Nicky might benefit from it. The outcome would then depend on her personal life…
Hm.
Actually, it’s probably better if there’s as little speculation on Thicky Nicky’s personal life as possible; that could be really grisly.
The top Tory who’s forcing a new maths test on 11-year-olds refused to answer it herself on live TV.
Nicky Morgan clammed up when asked about her times tables – despite now launching a nationwide crackdown.
Today the Education Secretary announced all Year 6 pupils will be expected to know up to 12 x 12 , with action against teachers who don’t come up to scratch.
But it was a different story for the minister when she appeared on ITV’s Good Morning Britain in February .
She was asked to compute 7 x 8, the question which famously tripped up Labour schools minister Stephen Byers in 1998.
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7 x 8 must be a tricky one, wasn’t that the one which also foxed Osborne when a schoolboy asked him?
I have to assume this is some sort of joke since most of us in junior school in my day had already learned our times tables long before the 11 plus came round. Any MP who cannot do such basic and mundane mathematics is not qualified to be in any position of authority let alone dictating to others what should be the benchmark. This example of dunce is beyond thick it’s akin to not being able to do joined up writing(anybody seen her handwriting?)
Wow, we are used to Eton schooled dunderheads(an Eton education is no guarantee of intelligence, many get by having the gift of the gab and bluster as has already been demonstrated by Cameron) and should not be confused as such with competent understanding of basic education.
Hi mohandeer, I spent a brief period while at university on a course that had a very high percentage of public school educated people:. the gab and bluster comment is quite an understatement. In fact it is very highly tuned and presented with the benefit of hundreds of years of educational experience behind it. If you come up against it you will probably need to keep pinching your left-hand and counting how many fingers it has or you’ll risk loosing all sense of reason. My advice in such circumstances is to get down to the details and ask them to go through them, unless you’re particularly unlucky, it will demonstrate their ignorance and make them very cautious about trying that approach on you again.
shaunt
I’m discalcualic, didn’t even know it existed until the last 15 or so years, despite extra curricula help from fantastic and dedicated maths teachers at school, it clearly would not stick, i’m forty five and still have to rely on calculators as long as I double check every single digit input.
Id have been screwed and those excellent teachers penalised
BTW, David Scully, if your still out there ill never forget your hard work in flogging a dead horse… At least I was always set 1 maths in secondary school by deducing answers eventually
This government has to be the one that most closely matches the expression ‘do as I say not as I (can) do’. Of course in the Tory ‘us and them’ society, what applies to us does not apply to them. Not least because any problems they have to surmount they can pay for someone else to do it for them: from nanny, to teachers at Eton through to all those special advisors. For us, should we stumble on the way through life’s, sometimes tortuous path, then were failed parents, not heroic enough to conquer our disabilities, not smart enough, do not want enough, and in that event a burden on society. What they mean is that you are a burden on their tax contributions, which as they have £ millions in the bank, are always, for them, too high. Be careful about feeling sorry for them as those £millions have managed to remain firmly clutched in their hands for countless generations – what we are talking about is excessive greed.
shaunt
p.s I not calling for them to be saints, but mildly compassionate human being would be a welcome change. Nor do I propose that they loose their £millions, no, just that it does not have to keep growing at ‘x times inflation.
You could teach a parrot to recite times tables, but that wouldn’t mean that the parrot was good at maths.
She shouldn’t be in charge of education – nor anything else.
I’m the opposite, being discalculaic, I cannot to save my kids life do any mental arithmetic or times tables, but given a sheet of paper, I was always in the top percent in secondary education maths tests and further vocational qualifications
Just watched the video clip of the above. What struck me more than the fact she would not answer was the way she repeatedly referred to children of 11 years old as “Young People”! makes me wonder if the Tories have plans to scrap Childhood or perhaps ‘children from the English Dictionary, perhaps in the same way they are attempting to scrap Poverty by removing it from their literature etc…
I suppose on a less deep level, it will be easier for them to sell the ideology by propagating the idea of Young People rather than Children.
Learning by rote, removing critical thinking. Dumbing down the children of the future in order to produce a Commodity of subservient robots to drive the profit making machine.
So predictable when you have your eyes open but dangerous nonetheless.
Forcing on 11 years olds? I knew the 12 times table long before then, as did most children 60 years ago.
Nicky Morgan comes across to me as being rather ‘short’ and abrupt in her responses and behaves in a ‘bullying’ manner when I’ve often seen her on the box. As far as this goes though, it’s not the first time that this sort of thing has happened with MPs, and I don’t suppose it’ll be the last.
If I were a politician anywhere near this issue I would make sure I was boned up on my tables, it’s not rocket science – well it shouldn’t be for govt. ministers. But then the Aristocracy never went a bundle on education.
I learned my tables parrot fashion because the maths teacher terrified me. I still remained poor at maths, although there have been occasions when knowing my tables have been useful. These are few and far between, though!
That Thickie Nicky is a minister at all is sadly indicative of the ability of the generality of tory M.P.s. The old charge of not being able to organise a booze up in a brewery is as true of her as most of her predecessors after Estelle Morris
Her generation was also the victim of experimental education. It was all creative spelling , never corrected,Spelling and Grammar were Caught not taught, and as for recitaion of tables and learning by rote or even learning poetry by heart. That generation still has difficulty with English and basic maths.Everything had to be fun, fun, fun. Remember ITA anyone?
Does anybody remember a half way decent tory minister of educations? My long memory takes me back to Sir Edward Boyle. A long time ago and much dross since. Gove and Thickie Nicky are just about the worst; worse even than Kenneth Baker and that’s saying something.
Modern method of appointing a Minister of Education: find the most stupid MP on your side and appoint them as Min of Ed. Works a treat.