Love it!
Hope you don't mind, Pat, but I've forwarded on to my colleagues.
CB

...
 there is also the nasty problem of 'grade inflation' and the unwillingness (cowardice?) to tell a student they aren't perfectly acceptable just as they are. It isn't just youth sporting events where everyone wins a prize (lest those sensitive psyches be damaged) where there has become a fear to criticise. A letter grade of 'C' is no longer average; the average is probably a B+.

And woe betide the teacher who DOES tell the student they aren't doing as well as they can/should.

I have personal experience of parents' nights where I have been challenged because "Wee Jimmy" got 8% in an exam.  Parent claims I must have marked it too harshly.  Having anticipated this, I produce the exam paper and Wee Jimmy's script - which is mostly blank, with a few almost illegible incoherent and ungrammatical notations.

Parent then proclaims that it must therefore be my fault for not teaching him adequately. At which point I produce his jotter full of complete course notes (well, as complete as he made them given he has poor early-morning attendance), plus the notes I hand out, plus the text book I hand out, plus printout of my web site which I have spent many years building up with a wealth of resources I have written myself along with links to other relevant pages, along with copies of the notes given out to students detailing when I offer extra after-school and lunch time revision and tutorial sessions (which Wee Jimmy never showed face at) and remind the parent of the multiple letters I sent home alerting them to the fact that Wee Jimmy had again not attempted the class homework.

But it's still my fault.  Apparently.

[Rant over - back to writing up lesson plans for next week]

p.s. Though I'd also like to point out that my classes' overall grades are consistently some of the best in the school (and I have taught in several schools), which I would argue rather undermines Wee Jimmy's folks views.

In Scotland (which has a completely separate and different Education system to the rest of the UK) the minimum "pass" mark is generally 50% which appears on a candidate's certificate as a C grade pass, with 60%+ being B and 70%+ being A.  A "close fail" is usually 45%+ and appears as a D but is not considered as a pass grade.

Happy New Year, everyone.

What, you didn't take the bait?  What I told you was entirely true, but incomplete.

As many of you already know, haggis is NOT vegetarian.  It's all the parts of a sheep that you would not want to eat, stuffed into its intestine.  It's really offal.  This is really bad.  The only way the Scots can eat it is to douse it with a good whiskey. 

Oi!  Haggis can be delicious.  And vegetarian "haggis" is also a common thing, here - they leave out the intestines and the other sheep innards, but keep the oatmeal and veg and seasonings.  I prefer this to the genuine thing, even though I am not vegetarian nor adverse to eating some offal.  And I'm teetotal.

The haggis was the red herring.  The real present was the wrapping, which included a rather generous gift certificate.  They were glad to receive the present.  They enjoyed it.

Delighted to hear your guests appreciated your gift.  But I'm sure, had you prepared and cooked it, that haggis would have been equally delightful

Enjoy your 2nd Christmas celebrations tomorrow.

CB.

Hippy Burpday from me, too.

... I prefer to think of it as Nature's way of speaking truth to power. Not God punishing humankind for whatever perceived transgression of the day, just that humankind occasionally gets misguided about its ability to "control" its environment.

Beautifully put, RM.

This is amazing!

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/10/24/amazing-japanese-juggler-yanazo-only-has-one-ball_n_2007878.html

Wow!  It sure is.