Simon Pegg lays into Rishi

[Darran]

https://twitter.com/halsparks/status/1611069170434859009?s=61&t=khIrfCrUGYJv1Uh8TcQscg

 

[exiledclaseboy]

He’s right too. I hated maths and if I could have dropped it as soon as I could count, add, subtract, divide and multiply I would have. Never needed any of the other nonsense they attempt to get you to learn and it bored the holy hell out of me.

 

[Pentyrchjack]

This is my most memorable and valuable maths lesson which you sing to the tune of “The cow jumped over the moon”:

“Hey diddle diddle the median’s the middle,
You add and divide for the mean,
The mode is the one you see the most,
And the range is the difference between.”

 

[Dan_Swan]

He’s right too. I hated maths and if I could have dropped it as soon as I could count, add, subtract, divide and multiply I would have. Never needed any of the other nonsense they attempt to get you to learn and it bored the holy hell out of me.

Back in the mid 90's I took my GCSE's, I wasn't in the highest Maths set. Anyway, I took home an exam paper from the previous year to revise and genuinely there were things in this that I was not taught in the classroom. In the end my father showed me how some of these equations were worked out and I ended up having a B which was the highest grade I could have achieved, getting in excess of 95% in both papers.

I left school at 17 and ended up working in Finance and apart from the things you have mentioned I have not used anything else in that time. Go figure...

 

[Neath_Jack]

No idea who he is, but he is right.

You should be able to drop maths at around 13/14 years of age. Those that need it for their career path would be welcome to carry on studying it to their hearts content.

Far more important that we start teaching children about interest rates, loans, mortgages etc.

And in the same vain, get shot of RE as well, and introduce proper cooking skills, not making an apple tart and pizza.

 

[Jack2jack]

I was shite at maths, ended up with grade 2 CSE. How the hell I ended up as a Civil Engineer, I've no idea.

 

[exiledclaseboy]

Adding to the list of things I was shit at or bored by in school: geography, any kind of language bar the one I spoke and wrote in, woodwork, metalwork, “library”, whatever the fuck that was supposed to be, RE (in which apparently only one religion existed), physics and any other science. Basically if it wasn’t English or history I wasn’t interested. No wonder I ran out of there as soon as I was allowed to.

 

[Pegojack]

No idea who he is, but he is right.

You should be able to drop maths at around 13/14 years of age. Those that need it for their career path would be welcome to carry on studying it to their hearts content.

Far more important that we start teaching children about interest rates, loans, mortgages etc.

And in the same vain, get shot of RE as well, and introduce proper cooking skills, not making an apple tart and pizza.

Interests, loans, mortgages IS maths. I was giving lessons around those subjects to spotty 15 year olds when I was a maths teacher 15 years ago. Getting them interested by talking about percentage cash discounts or loans on their favorite car in the local showroom, for example.
I agree with you about RE though!

 

[monmouth]

I’m not always a great fan of Jenkins, but this is pretty much on point, if a little simplistic. Well worth a read.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jan/05/maths-schools-rishi-sunak-arts-sport

 

[monmouth]

Interests, loans, mortgages IS maths. I was giving lessons around those subjects to spotty 15 year olds when I was a maths teacher 15 years ago. Getting them interested by talking about percentage cash discounts or loans on their favorite car in the local showroom, for example.
I agree with you about RE though!

It should just be more applied in a systematic way. Trigonometry and geometry is probably pointless for most. Maths’ big win to me in pure abstract terms is that it teaches logic.

I’m a bit biased as my love of it pushed me to engineering, finance and treasury, but there’s no way it should be compulsory for everyone in pure form, let alone to 18. Religion should certainly be kicked into touch.

I remember ‘library’ too . I think it was to introduce penlan kids to the word.

 

[Neath_Jack]

Interests, loans, mortgages IS maths. I was giving lessons around those subjects to spotty 15 year olds when I was a maths teacher 15 years ago. Getting them interested by talking about percentage cash discounts or loans on their favorite car in the local showroom, for example.
I agree with you about RE though!

Well yeah, i know that it's maths, but it's not the maths that i was taught. Pythagoras, trigonometry, algebra, about as useful as an ashtray on a motorbike for most. Once most kids can add, subtract, etc, they should be allowed to move onto something more useful.

 

[sainthelens]

Times have definitely changed.
In school remember one teacher in the classroom asking " Where's Pakistan "
One the boys shouted " in the playground with pakidave ".

 

[Jack2jack]

Well yeah, i know that it's maths, but it's not the maths that i was taught. Pythagoras, trigonometry, algebra, about as useful as an ashtray on a motorbike for most. Once most kids can add, subtract, etc, they should be allowed to move onto something more useful.

Its an interesting point you make there, as I for one only saw the point of Trig etc, once it was applied to practical situations like working out curves, arc lengths etc. Then and only then did I see a point to it. Mind you computers have taken all the hard work out of it, but useful to know first principles.

 

[K23]

I was lucky, I was instinctively good at maths and took it as far as I could and since then I've used maths of some sort probably every day in my line of work. I didn't particularly enjoy it at school but then I didn't dislike it either because I found it relatively easy, it just depended on who the teacher was. I chose to do it until I was 18 and beyond because it was the only subject I found to be stress free but I have known a lot of people to whom even basic maths is in a completely impenetrable parallel universe and there is absolutely nothing to be gained by forcing people like that to be taught it until they're 18 when there are probably quite a few other worthwhile disciplines at which they would excel.

 

[MajorR]

It’s important kids have a good education because it’s the key to getting ahead in life, but this business about making kids study maths until their 18 is nonsense. I did my Maths O level back in the 80’s and apart from helping my kids, I’ve not used most a good 90% of it since.
Lots of kids hate maths and having to study maths until their 18 will put them off saying in school and doing other subjects, my take on things is as long as children can get their Maths GCSE for most that will be enough.

There’s a big shortage of teachers already and Maths and science teachers are at a premium. How on earth are we going to recruit more of them to teach even more kids up to the age of 18. Pie in the sky!