Comments on: Where did our schools go wrong?!!!!!!!!??????

By: Manuel

Manuel — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 09:54:05 +0000

The Maltese of those whose English is er….deficient, is equally deficient.

By: Chris II

Chris II — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 18:58:11 +0000

@ Andrea – remember who were the persons that in one feel swoop, back in 1972, removed the old lyceum with its long tradition of foreign teachers teaching foreign languages, etc. Today’s teachers are the result of the disaster in education that occurred in the early 197s (then continued with 101 Maltese-style experiments – and I am afraid we are continuing with this experimentation) – so in a way it is GIGO – garbage in, garbage out. There is also the fact that the first language our children learn is Maltese with Maltese-transformed English words – can you imagine the confusion when the same words are written English?

And as for your point on IT advancements, these are in fact partly to blame – look at the SMS messages and the MSN messages – I can never understand a message written by my children. IT has also produced children that spend more time on the computer than watching TV or reading a book.

By: Andrea Sammut

Andrea Sammut — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 12:28:37 +0000

@Daphne.
you asked where did our schools go wrong. As you said “language is directly linked to the development of thought and vice versa”, so the product we have today is of youngsters who have not been taught language properly and therefore cannot think properly and the other way round.

By: Andrea Sammut

Andrea Sammut — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 11:57:03 +0000

@ Daphne. Compare boys coming out of our junior lyceums today to boys who were educated in the old lyceum, for instance. Advancements in IT these last twenty years should have increased access to education and learning but instead we have youngsters not knowing even the basics of English grammar and language. Somethng is terribly wrong.

[Daphne – Successive Nationalist governments, like the three preceding Labour governments, have undermined and downplayed the importance of English. Importance? It’s not important. It’s crucial. Also, language is directly linked to the development of thought, and vice versa. The people expressing themselves all over timesofmalta.com are not a cause for concern because they can’t write. They’re a cause for concern because they can’t think. The absence of analytical thought is far more worrying than the absence of grammar.]

By: Andrea Sammut

Andrea Sammut — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 07:40:10 +0000

Louis Galea, wherefore art thou?

[Daphne – This mess has been a long time coming, and he would have been partly responsible, as has been every minister of education since the 1960s.]

By: Antoine Vella

Antoine Vella — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 22:36:33 +0000

I wish this blog was not about Malta so I could laugh without feeling sad that my country is in such “deep doo doo” as it was elegantly put in another Times comment.

By: Marku

Marku — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 22:27:52 +0000

This is just too precious for words.

By: Andrea

Andrea — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 22:14:09 +0000

Red hats were yesterday. Red carpets are the future trend.