-Caveat Lector- Dumb students are not just a US phenonomen. Worldwide, students are becoming dumber. The New Dumb World Order? Or is the N.W.O. dependent on world wide mass stupidity? flw THE TIMES September 1 1999 EUROPE Charles Bremner on the exam howlers that signal a decline in French education 'Capitalism was a remarkable idea by Marx' MANY French school-leavers are passing the admired baccalaureate examination barely able to express their thoughts and with only the haziest idea of history and culture, according to two teachers. Inured to laments about declining standards, the educational establishment will find it harder to dismiss their book's conclusions, drawn from answers to this year's baccalaureate tests. Guy Morel and Daniel Tual-Loizeau, who teach in a lycée at Le Mans, procured hundreds of marked papers as ammunition for their attempt to sound the alarm over the dumbing down of the examination that still serves in Britain and elsewhere as a model of educational rigour. Timed for a launch with next week's new school year, Educational Horror makes grim reading for those parents and state officials who have been comforting themselves with the thought that 70 per cent of pupils take le bac, with an 80 per cent pass rate. "Far from being little geniuses, today's lycéens on the whole have no or little mastery of basic knowledge," say the teachers, who blame the State and teachers for rewarding linguistic incompetence and ignorance. They say papers are being passed with "incomprehensible sentences, syntactic incoherence . . . and gross geographical and historical confusions". Among gems, they cite: "Capitalism was a remarkable idea by Karl Marx"; "Victor Hugo wrote Ruy Blas while Georges Pompidou (President, 1969-74) was reigning over France." Poor grasp of literary criticism was typified by lines such as: "Jacques Prévert (the 20th-century poet) wrote Paroles because he was going out at night and had things to say." Asked what type of verse Hugo used, another replied: "Language with a lot of punctuation." The teachers also lambasted colloquial style, such as "Madame de Warens is Rousseau's girlfriend. Rousseau was with Madame Bazile, but he got dumped . . . he blew his chances." On geography, pupils could usually identify only those French towns that have first division football teams and almost none could place the Saône, a major river. The authors make much of gaffes in syntax and spelling, the bane of pupils because so many word endings are not pronounced. In one telling howler, a candidate wrote: "Dès l'enfance, on est ensaigné par la TV" - "From childhood we are blooded by television." What was meant was "enseigné" - educated. Such sloppiness was hardly surprising, the authors say, given that no less an authority than Claude Allegre, Minister of Education, committed a howler last year when he wrote in the visitors' book at an agricultural fair: "On voit que la recherche à penetrée le monde agricole." An Alevel student would know that when saying "one sees that research has penetrated the agricultural world"' there should be no accent over the a and no extra e on penetré. The two teachers say that everyone is aware of the crumbling standards, but neither the State, teachers nor parents are "ready to break the taboo and question the way in which these [examination] results are achieved." The main complaint, that teachers are forced to boost pupils' self-esteem at the expense of basic standards, is a familiar one elsewhere, but less so in France where the system has long prized knowledge and rigour. DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
