I can give you a few hints why school turned me off.
I was party to a system change in the German Schools.
Teacher liked the ruler, Why me and not my sister is up to debate. Excuse was my hand writing was sloppy.
Then I wanted to go to an All Girls school. Niped in the butt, by my Granddad.
I was forced to help a very deranged individual, who killed his parents.
WK, the first time I became aware of your son affliction was from a friend. On the upside here, Cerebral Palssy victims Have longer life span.
All said I have mostly A and B

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Pluto will always be a planet to me.

Seti Ambassador
Not to late to order an Anni Shirt

Now this is a surprise, Atheism to be taught to Irish schoolchildren

That'll be a fairly short lesson.

"Hello, come in.
There is no god.
...
Same time, next week"

I believe Andy Parsons originally made this joke.

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Life on earth is the global equivalent of not storing things in the fridge.

I'm not going to give you published examples. I have to live, some of the time, with one my 30+ year old Autistic son.
And as you might realise I had to deal with him and the education system for a long time. For him the expensive system they put in place, for all the "special needs" children, did not work, and if they had listened to me and the doctors should have realised it was not going to work.

Special Needs as far as I can make out on my experience, is all kids who the normal teachers cannot deal with.

You're not telling me much.
30+ could mean 39, which means not all that much younger than me, and so the changes I described would have had none to little impact on him (if any, maybe 3-6 years).
You haven't mentioned where on the spectrum he is. Does not Bill Gates have Aspberger's?
At the university, if I have a legally blind student, I *must* (LEGALLY!!!) find ways to work with such students. And I have.

My son is as I said 30+, now to describe ages approximately I would also use mid-40's or approaching 50.

The short answer from the tests, I have paid for recently, so that he is able to still claim incapacity (now called Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)) and disability benefits, put his mental capabilities about the same as an 11 year old.

I don't think Bill Gates has autism, and although you cannot see it, for those in the UK Brian Cox's new program Science Britannica in episode 2. Method and Madness there is a comparison between those with Autism and scientists. In some aspects they are not that far apart.

I have never believed that phonics helped English speakers to learn how to read all that much. Primarily, this is because English is not phonetically spelled. The problem is that we have 24 vowel sounds due to our diphthongs (ae, oe, ou ai etc).

For instance GHOTI could easily be pronounced as "FISH"

gh is F as in enough
o is I as in women
ti is SH as in action

languages such as Farsi and Hebrew which are phonetically spelled don't usually even write their short vowels and they have only a handful. In my learning to read Farsi I was only confused by the fact that in Teheran they used a bit of slang pronunciations e.g. NAN (bread) was pronounced as NOON and SHISH (six) was pronounced as SHEESH.

I am not a linguist but I almost married one.

Reading that link, my son is a mixture of their explanations, the whole subject of autism is complex and having spoken to many people about it I don't think there are any clear definitions to classify most suffers.

And I have mentioned it before but I have a brother-in-law who is a psychiatrist, although now he is semi-retired and over the other side of the pond.

Autism often gets mixed up with Aspergers, and as I said earlier needs expert diagnosis. Autism

During my 8 years as an FE teacher in IT, I had a number of students that had varying degrees of difficulty in socialising with other people, which is the common link here. Yes, some can be over bright, and others educationally challenging. I don't think that anyone can be categorised as 100% this, or 100% that, it is usually a combination of a number of factors that are individual to them. In WK's case, someone aged 30+ with the capabilities of an 11 year old, would probably be classed as a medium + disability.

there is a comparison between those with Autism and scientists. In some aspects they are not that far apart.

I have always said that you have to be partly off the radar and on the extreme edge, to be able to think outside the box, and to come up with some scientific discoveries. It's the same with psychiatrists/psychologists, it takes one to know one.

Autism spectrum includes Aspberger's.

Does Bill Gates have Aspberger's?

Chris, I would not have discussed it further if he had not brought it up.

[quote]Children should not start formal school lessons until the age of six or seven, a group of educationalists has said.

I have never heard such poppycock! We all know that the majority of kids born today in the UK are either mistakes on a Saturday night after the pub, or deliberate meal tickets.
...
Go into any city centre in the UK and see how many women pushing buggys around have a ring on their left hand. VIRTUALLY NONE OF THEM!! Very few kids today are born wanted, into a stable family unit.[quote]
My such vitriolic hatred. The only thing you missed was saying what race the kids are, but I suspect you are using socioeconomic status to mask that.


Now Chris, tell me how many of those women pushing the buggy are the hired nanny? Tell me how many of them reject male ownership of women and the requirement to advertise they are owned? Tell me how many of them had a husband that beat them regularly?

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What this says about UK public schools I'm not sure.
It could be that the majority of these people were above average intelligence anyway. But if that is the case, before the introduction of Comprehensive schools they would probably have been selected to go to Grammar/High schools and done just as well.

But it does indicate that a better education system would improve the chances of a large section of the population. And that would not only help them but would help the country.

Special report:

Under Margaret Thatcher’s abolished assisted places scheme, working-class pupils went to private schools - how did they get on?

Under Margaret Thatcher’s government, they were plucked from poverty and taken out of state schools to attend top private schools instead, courtesy of the state.

The children of the Assisted Places Scheme are now in their 40s. And according to research published today, about half of them are likely to be earning at least £90,000 a year and sending their own children to private schools – but none of them will be dirtying their hands with any kind of manual work.

£90,000 a year is over twice the national average household income.

Tell me how many of them reject male ownership of women and the requirement to advertise they are owned?

If the man wears a ring does that mean he's owned by the woman? Or is that implicit in marriage anyway? (I wouldn't know, i'm not married, and have no intention of becoming so.)

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Life on earth is the global equivalent of not storing things in the fridge.

It would appear that the race to the bottom, caused by the change to comprehensive schools, hasn't stopped yet.

England's young people near bottom of global league table for basic skills

England is the only country in the developed world where the generation approaching retirement is more literate and numerate than the youngest, according to the first skills survey by the OECD.

In a stark assessment of the success and failure of 720 million-strong adult workforce across the wealthier economies, the economic thinktank warns that in England, adults aged 55 to 65 perform better than 16-24-year-olds in both foundation levels of literacy and numeracy. The survey did not include people from Scotland or Wales.

+1

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It's good to be back amongst friends and colleagues

Chris - you forgot the "Its my right to <insert today's whine>"
Obviously the answer depends on the whine, but always goes along the lines "You need to ear that "right" by hard work...

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

You wish - innit!

Cos, ain't and innit, fair enough.
Like, has correct uses, so banning it could be a little extreme.
Extra and Bare, since when are they slang?

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Life on earth is the global equivalent of not storing things in the fridge.

His words not mine.

Glenn Beck worked himself into a tirade on his talk show Wednesday, telling his large and worshipful audience to push their children into walls.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/15/glenn-beck-advice_n_4097877.html

_______________________________

The universe wastes nothing, it's simply transferred.
Lynn

His words not mine.

Glenn Beck worked himself into a tirade on his talk show Wednesday, telling his large and worshipful audience to push their children into walls.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/15/glenn-beck-advice_n_4097877.html

_______________________________

The universe wastes nothing, it's simply transferred.
Lynn

Thanks that this m*********ing j*****s m*********er was NOT my father. Thanks for all the fathers out there who know how to "push" in the right ways without needing a j*****s m*********er like Glenn Beck to give parenting advice.
(This is the same moronic j*****s m*********er who thinks English of the 1770-1780s was so different that we need someone to translate the Declaration of Indepedence and Constitution for us! Hey, j*****s m*********er Glenn Beck: big hint! That larger scripty B thingy? That's a double S, from the Germanic influence. That's about the only thing that would confuse people. Now, go try reading Shakespeare or Chaucer. THAT, we could use translations of, from Olde and Middle English. Ya j*****s m*********er.)

And if YOU (the general reader) don't like my post? Too bad. Ya just got PUSHED.

As he's a Mormon

Is that information correct or relevant?

It is true Beck is Mormon (as is Romney).
Honestly, though, I attended high school with a Mormon guy. He was smart, a talented bass player and usually nice.
I grew up about a mile from a Mormon family. They, too, were nice.
So, what is it making Beck talk the way he does? I can't believe it's just religious affiliation.

So, what is it making Beck talk the way he does? I can't believe it's just religious affiliation.

Maybe he has his brains between his legs rather than his ears?

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So, what is it making Beck talk the way he does? I can't believe it's just religious affiliation.

Maybe he has his brains between his legs rather than his ears?

Could be he is smelling his own words?

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Maybe he's just a prat? (That's as strong as i can go without being hosed by the mods)

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Life on earth is the global equivalent of not storing things in the fridge.