Quick post on the road!

Browsing the news at Gatwick airport, I read this about the decline in studying English , both at A-Level and at degree level:-

 “Enrolments in humanities courses in UK universities overall have fallen sharply. The number of students beginning foreign language courses fell by 10% last year; art and design by 5%.”

 I suppose in an age when students end up with huge debts, then they are going to choose something practical which has more chance of a job. But it seems a great shame. Of course, I am of the generation that could opt to study something they were really interested in rather than the purely useful.

 But experts say that other factors come into play as well. “And that’s what is happening to the subject in schools, where spelling, punctuation and grammar (referred to by the acronym SPaG) have, under the core knowledge curriculum championed by schools minister Nick Gibb, come to dominate. Education consultant Myra Barrs is among the critics of what she calls a “new formalism”, in which content and meaning are sacrificed to a recipe-type approach (take an adverb and some wow words, add a pinch of unusual punctuation …) You don’t have to be against the traditional staples of grammar or Shakespeare to see the pitfalls of this, or the constricting effect of the enormous importance placed on GCSE grades.”

 There you go.

 I am taking advantage of Gatwick’s 90 minutes of free wifi to post this quick blog as my friend and I wait for our flight to Cuba.

 A girls’ adventure is underway.

 Further posts depend on wifi access (doubtful perhaps) in Cuba.