English, Maths or Science?

[jakarta]

Basically more maths, but with rocks and liquids and plants.

Euclid, Pythagoras, Newton, Lavoisier, Rutherford, Einstein! Steven Hawking, can you hear me? Steven Hawking. Your boys took a hell of a beating!

 

[KZNSeagull]

That's a strange thing to say. I can imagine Pride and Prejudice not being a teenage boys thing but the other two are bang on for adolescent boys: one's full of violence and gore and the other about sex. That looks a really good mix for teenagers (better than the Grapes of Wrath, Macbeth and Pygmalion that I had to do).

Oh, maths for me. We didn't have science: I had to do Chemistry, Physics and Biology (and got my O Levels in them to prove it)

It is a strange thing to say now as I am old enough to appreciate them, but I certainly was not at 14. That's more my point.

 

[Mellor 3 Ward 4]

English, mainly because I was good at it.

I hated Maths, because I was shit at it.

Science, in my day was taught as three separate subjects, I enjoyed Biology, but not Physics or Chemistry. I guess I liked the subjects I was good at.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

One of my recent PhD students fessed up to me that she has never read a book. Any book. At any time. Apparently she was able to get an A at GCSE English by boning up on the small parts of each book required for the exam, and reading the guide notes on the books as a whole. And they say that standards haven't fallen . . .

When she came to write up her thesis (150 odd pages of reportage following 3 years in a research lab) ..... it arrived on the 354th day of her 4th year, hours before she was about to be booted out. Instead of saying 'in the following experiments, the action of drug X on various adverse effects of a disease Y were examined' she wrote 'the role of the drug in the treatment was examined' (to paraphrase). I used a footy analogy to explain the error: when McGee (for it was he at the time) brings on an extra striker for a midfielder ten minutes before the end when we are one nil down, he is trying to affect the game, not trying to study the role of substitution in football'. FFS.

Sorry, I'm still recovering from that particular supervisory experience.

I failed my maths A level owing to crap teaching (HGSB) and my fecklessness and sense of entitlement (I felt I was entitled to a bit of tuition, not just an instruction to do varous exercises that were never assessed). Bennett, if anyone remembers that particular chump, was the man in charge. I was crap at spelling, and my English teacher (Lawrence) mocked me for this at GCSE level by writing scientific words at the end of my coursework, alongside all the spelling errors, and my name spelled wrongly. I think both of these idiots would choke if they knew what I now did for a living (were they alive, which they pfrobably aren't).

My ex PhD student is now a senior lecturer at one of the newer new universities. I make no comment about that.

 

[Rookie]

Hated science and spent more time out of the class than in it (got a mighty DD in GCSE), maths was dull so English wins.

 

[LamieRobertson]

Maths

 

[Lord Bracknell]

If you get a an English teacher, like I did at junior school, who teaches the rule "i before e except after c", you are more inclined to feel slightly dyslexic and even detached from the written language during the schooling years. It's the sort of teaching that damages potential.

Which alternative spelling strategies would you recommend?

One that teaches people how to spell EIGHT, FOREIGN, HEIGHT, LEISURE and NEIGHBOUR, to name just five.

 

[GT49er]

The 1970s English Language student, is todays grammar wanker

Well yes, fair enough ..... that would be the thickos that failed.

 

[GT49er]

Was it The Pardoner's Tale?

No, the bloody Clerk's Tale. Patient Griselda and all that crap. Still emblazoned in my memory to this day. Probably stunted my growth!

 

[OzMike]

I liked all three but would go for ;-
1. Maths.
2. Science.
3. English.

 

[OzMike]

Mind you, I liked music lessons as much as Maths ......................and Sport.

 

[Woodchip]

Science
Maths
English

I could never understand the point of analysing every line of Macbeth. Teach us how to communicate in the modern world, not what someone wrote 200+ years ago.

Probably helped that I was good at maths and science too. All 3 of my highest grades were maths and science (B's). English Language was a D and Lit was an E.

 

[W.C.]

Back in the 80s I dropped science

 

[Garry Nelson's Left Foot]

Enjoy is stretching it a bit but I'd go for English. Maths was pretty easy (until I got to A levels at which point it became mind frazzlingly unfathomable) but dull and Science was poorly taught and incredibly boring. Which is a shame because as an adult I find it fascinating(what little of it I understand anyway).

 

[Westdene Seagull]

I enjoyed Maths because I was good at it. English Lit and Lang bored me to tears.

Science depended upon the teacher taking it - loved it when Mr Lewis ( RIP ) took it at Stringer, man was an absolute loon but a fantastic teacher. Mr Field on the other hand was an utter bore and probably the reason I didn't take Physics at O Level.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

I enjoyed English Language, but had to drop Literature because of other options. I took French, & German, too. I dropped Physics & Chemistry, taking Biology as my science option.
I hated Maths with a passion, although I did enjoy some aspects of it, like geometry & trigonometry. Algebra was a complete mystery to me.

 

[PILTDOWN MAN]

I didn't know don't know was a subject. Apparently an important one as well.

 

[Pevenseagull]

I did maths, chemistry, biology and English at A level going on to study ecology as my first degree (which is pretty much biology with maths). I never particularly enjoyed maths, probably because I found it rather more difficult than the other subjects. English didn't really feel like a learning exercise as I enjoyed most of the books. That said I thought The Wasteland was a load of pretentious bollocks and Hard Times was just plain shit.

A vote for science from me.

 

[pasty]

I could never understand the point of analysing every line of Macbeth. Teach us how to communicate in the modern world, not what someone wrote 200+ years ago.

Had a bit of a row with step-daughters teacher a few years ago on that very subject. At parents evening we wanted to speak to her English teacher about her awful handwriting and even more awful spelling and grammar. No word of a lie, her teachers response was "Oh we don't worry too much about that these days, but she does has a very good understand of Shakespeare"

 

[hans kraay fan club]

I did maths, chemistry, biology and English at A level going on to study ecology as my first degree (which is pretty much biology with maths)..

Very similar - maths, geography and biology, then degree in ecology/ countryside management. I hated maths at A level, but it meant that the statistics element of the degree course was a breeze.