Are We Going Back To The Dark Ages..

[top4718]

As my original post stated people used supermarkets for price and conveniance, now the conveniance is there but the prices have rocketed.

[poppins]

Shops and factories are closing now becasue of the high technology we're all using , buisnesses that needed to hire a thousand workers now only need twenty or thirty workers , banks would have ten or more tellers working the counters, cashing Fridays pay checks, making deposits by hand ect, my bank has two tellers now standing there waiting for customers, it's all direct deposits, ATMs, paying bills on line, it's never going to change, being out of work now is going to be the norm from now on, it can only get worse, more high tec but no manual work to be had, just takes one person now to do the job of ten.

[ANGELFIRE1]

As a kid it was the highlight of the month when someones chimmney caught fire

 

 

Aye, they could be quite spectacular, like a mini volcano.

 

Regards

 

Angel.

[Flowersfade]

Shop local . I hate supermarkets local shopping is good for your locality as well as being fresh and cheaper. We tend to do all our shopping at local deli's grocers and butchers.

[johncocker]

wood is better, the crackle of the logs adds something else

 

 

 

thats why I like listening to my my old blues lp's

[Rupert_Baehr]

But we did know that was coming, didn't we?

 

When I was a teenager (in the early 1960s) I was told: "The rapid increases in technology are going to eliminate many of the low-skilled, low-paid jobs. We won't have to work as hard and we will have more time for recreation."

 

I was also told: "The new technologies are going to require highly-educated, highly skilled people. Work hard at school, so that you can get one of the jobs in the new technological age."

 

School was hard when I was a kid. We learned 'the three R's' and those who didn't learn (but could learn ... there were then, there are now and there always will be people who just can't learn) were likely to get their own R's beaten with a slipper! (I remember being beaten (not hard and the pain from the slipper was far less than the pain from the embarrassment) for not bothering to learn my '9 times table'.) (My gran showed me how to do the '9 times table' on my fingers and although I'm a reasonably competent mathematician, if somebody says "What's 4 times 9' the ring finger on my left hand will still bend.

 

We learned a great deal (in my early days at school) 'by rote' - a method which fell out of favour in the late 70'S and 80's.

 

Learning by rote didn't cause me any problems ... and thethings you learn that way never go away. - Many years later, when I was learning about the Decca chain if Navigation systems, I learned 'Meet Randy Girl, Phone 6895' (The frequency multiples of the system: Master, Red, Green Purple - 6 times, 8 times. 9 times and 5 times the frequency of the 'slave' unit.) Decca has been obsolete for many years, but for some strange reason, it seems you never forget the things you learned by rote.

 

Teaching methods (and learning methods) changed towards the end of the 70's. Learning 'by rote' became anathema and people started to make excuses for those who didn't learn.

 

I've no doubt that there were dyslexic people when the Egyptians were writing in Cuneiform - that's nothing new. When I was at school, we were told you HAVE to learn to read and write, you HAVE to learn to spell if you expect to get anywhere. Nowadays, illiteracy is accepted - by many, but not by all. It seems that the ability to read and write, the ability to spell correctly, the ability to perform mental calculations (do the sums in your head, as opposed to using a calculator) are considered - by many - to be irrelevant.

 

I laughed like a drain when I read a post (on another thread) today in which the poster claimed he was at University with John Prescott on a 'semen' course.

 

I'm no longer an employer ... but if I was and I was faced with a 'university graduate' who didn't know the difference between 'semen' and 'seaman', I wouldn't consider hiring that person.

 

The better qualified school leavers in the UK are at least as good as those of my generation (possibly even better) but, given that we are now in a high-technology society where the demand for literate and numerate school leavers is far higher than it was when I was at school - an era where the demand for poorly-educated illiterate an innumerate school leavers is lower - it is astonishing that 60% of school leavers in the UK fail to achieve 5 GCSE passes at grade C or oabve (including English Language and Mathematics.)

 

Particularly as the government (this one and previous governments) have suggested that '5 GCSE'S at Grade C or above, Including English Language and Mathematics' is the minimum qualification required to get a decent job.

 

When I was at school, somebody who couldn't differentiate between 'semen' and 'seaman' wouldn't even have been considered for a place at university.

 

There is no evidence to suggest that the 'raw material' - the children who enter school - are significantly more able (or less able) than their predecessors, but there is more than ample evidence to suggest that they are not challenged to the same extent as were their predecessors.

 

I am (apparently) extremely intelligent. - It's an accident of birth.. Few people are as intelligent as I am (I'm not boasting, it's an accident of birth.)

 

I have been reasonably successful. - 'Reasonably' - bit I didn't do anywhere as well as I might have been expected to do. (Success has less to do with money than it has to do with achieving one's potential' - IMO.)

 

That success which I have achieved is attributable to the people (family and teachers) who pushed me hard. The failure to achieve my potential is my fault.

 

I am deeply ashamed to admit that the reason I did not achieve the levels I might've achieved is my own fault. - I'm a lazy sod!

 

Thinking back on life, the achievements I attained were directly attributable to those people who pushed me (including Mrs Stuart, who beat me for not bothering to learn my '9 times table'.) I was bright, but lazy. Fortunately, I was pushed.

 

Nowadays, it seem that there is no shortage of excuses and (many) students appear to be encouraged to under-perform!

 

And this is in an era when the demand for successful, highly-qualified people is increasing?

 

Perhaps we (society) need to re-evaluate our attitudes to those in education?

 

If you're studying 'Meeja Studies' you might get a good job ... particularly if you've got blonde hair, blue eyes and a pair of 40 Kilowatt headlamps.

 

If you're doing a Master's degree in Engineering at Sheffield University, if you're working hard and you're making good grades, you will almost certainly get a good job.

 

If you've recently qualified as a Medical doctor, have completed your residencies and are looking for a job then (even if you're a new mum and want to spend time with your child) people will be beating a path to your door.

 

If, however, you've got a pass degree in underwater basket weaving from Whypeeover U, if you can't string 5 words together to make a sentence and you don't know the difference between 'semen' and 'seamen' I wish you luck.

[Rupert_Baehr]

Duplicate post

[Rupert_Baehr]

Shop local . I hate supermarkets local shopping is good for your locality as well as being fresh and cheaper. We tend to do all our shopping at local deli's grocers and butchers.

 

But you can afford to do so! - There are people on this forum (I suspect) who have to 'count the pennies'.

 

I grew up in a poor family and I 'shop around'. I can certainly afford 'quality' but I'm not prepared to buy food from a 'fashionable' shop when I can buy exactly the same article elsewhere at a lower price.

 

I certainly don't get 'taken in' by fashionable prices!

 

F'rinstance: I like to grow my own food; I'm a keen and competent gardener.

 

Raspberries cost about $2.00 a pound. I know about growing raspberries. I was offered a single (yes, ONE) raspberry cane for $7.00.

 

Yes, SEVEN dollars! One cane might - just might - grow half a pound of raspberries a year.

 

I was indeed born at night ... but it wasn't last night.

 

I saw a pineapple plant. $7.00.

(I wasn't aware that one pineapple plant grows just one pineapple ...but that's how it works.)

 

Some daft bugger will pay $7.00 and buy his own pineapple plant. He'll feed it, nurture it and get one pineapple. I'll go to the shop (if I want a pineapple) and pay about $2.00 for a locally-grown fruit

 

If there's a supermarket which sells an item I want at a competitive price, I buy it.

 

If there's a farmers' market which sells locally-grown produce at a price I like (and they'd better undercut the supermarket ... after all, farmers complain that they are forced to sell to the supermarkets, but if they're selling direct, I want a cut too.)

 

If I can't get what I want from the supermarkets or the farmers' market, I'll grow it myself.

 

My dad was right...I am indeed as tight as a fishes arse at 50 fathoms.

[ricgem2002]

40 years ago they would have had a coal fire instead.

until maggie closed the pits 20 years later

[Mr Gobby]

Shop local . I hate supermarkets local shopping is good for your locality as well as being fresh and cheaper. We tend to do all our shopping at local deli's grocers and butchers.

 

Our local shops are always dearer in price ,hence we go supermarket city .