pugliese

Good joke Did you stepdaughter pass the test for medicine?

Lorna at Vicenza

Well everybody ........... little Alex didn't get into any trouble about his maths homework because it was all the teacher's fault !

She threw everybody that worksheet for homework and forget to tell them all not to do problem B, D and G because they contained double number divisions !

All that sodding heartache because of her

Garbatellamike

She's a witch burn her

Lorna at Vicenza

On the plus side Mike, I know now who can help Alex and I in the future

Bloody teachers, they go mental if the kids forget something but she didn't even say sorry to them all this morning - just that she forgot about the double numbers.

jonwel

No, she didn't! It was for Milan. If she'd tried for Pavia she'd have got in with that mark. No harm done, she got a first degree and then a Master's degree in biology and now works for a chemical company.

MarkRD

It something that happnes all the time and you sort of get used to .. all the way up to quinta superiore ..

..such a wonderful example for the kids of course ...

HADENOUGHPIZZA

Mark .. how did your exam go ?

MarkRD

OK I think . .I haven't got the result yet (up to 30 days!). I can't say it was easy-peasy though . .and it was more complex to what the tutor had told me (in writing) that it would be ..

The next one is Eng. Literature and - to quote Shakespeare - I'm brickin' it a bit!

HADENOUGHPIZZA

http://www.repubblica.it/scuola/2012...08/?ref=HREC1-
I apologise for this being in Italian but I didn't find a translation

MarkRD

Got the result today ... 30/30.

(didn't get the 'con lode' though... )

HADENOUGHPIZZA

I'm so proud of you !!!

MarkRD

Awwww thanks. ..

In the meantime I've also done Eng Lit 1, but that'll be quite a different story methinks!

Lorna at Vicenza

Well done Mark

It's the annual "visitoni" here and I am sick to my back teeth of teachers saying,
"la classe è troppo vivace, troppo distratta, indifferente, some kids have given up and have even started handing in blank test papers blah blah blah, they're very hard to work with."

Yes ok, you said all that stuff in the rappresentanti meeting and sent letters home and now I am here to talk about my Chloe, not everybody else's kid. She's not handing in blank papers because I have been putting my signature on them and signing off her marks in her "libretto personale".

I told the technology teacher that Chloe often doesn't understand the words that get said in dialect. The teacher laughed it off and said, "oh yes, a few words in dialect now and again just to "rafforzare" you know, just to drum it into their heads. Well that's not what I have heard and besides which, if they don't understand the word in dialect in the first place, how can it possibly be ramming it home for the kids?
She said, "ma signora, if Chloe doesn't understand something all she has to do is ask." That's the same thing I said to Chloe last year and the first time she tried it she got told that if she interrupted again she'd get a black mark in the register.

The bloody negativity from them all is beyond belief.

Only the French teacher was nice, but even she said she's finding it very hard to get the kids interested.
I told her that now they have a brand new "LIM" in the classroom (installed on Monday) she'll be able to use video and audio materials and interactive lessons and conversations with the kids and it's so much better than only having text books and French words on paper.

"Oh good idea" she said. She's going on a teachers' course in January to learn how to use it. FFS !!!!!

gelato

Lorna - I hate that whole 'let's tar the entire group with the same brush' thing which they seem to have in Italian schools. My colleague was just telling me how her 12 year old son's entire class has to miss the school excursion because of the bad behaviour of a few. Doesn't seem fair, does it, when some of the kids are just fine?

Anyway my 4 year old is at a scuola materna statale and it's pretty bare bones but I like the kids, parents and teachers for the most part. But it's in central Rome and the building is falling apart and the courtyard they have to play in is a bit grim (not a blade of grass to be seen and very small). Also we have to supply the art supplies, toilet paper etc.

Another colleague was just boasting to me about how Italian public schools are soo terrible so his son pays 600 euros per kid for his 2 kids to go to a private scuola materna. This is about the same as the average Italian monthly salary. He was also slagging off the Italian public medical system and saying that he does everything privately. I have no idea how he can afford this on an Italian salary. He can't earn much more than me. We certainly can't.

But I hate that feeling that maybe my daughters are not going to get a decent education going to state schools (which is all we can afford) when there are so many people here who seem to think they are terrible. Same with public healthcare. I have major health problems but I always go public because I'm essente from the ticket. If I paid to do everything privately it would be thousands of euros a year. Yes the hospitals look terrible but I've found that in the end the doctors know what they're doing.

I guess this guy must have money and good for him. But I feel like a get this a lot from people 'oooh I couldn't possibly send my kid to state schools because they are so bad' or 'ooh the public health system is terrible I always go private' but that's all we can afford so we're stuck with it. Considering what most Italians earn I don't get how everyone else seems to afford all of this. I guess the answer is family money. But you'd think people could be a bit more understanding of the fact that not everyone can afford all of this in these difficult times.

jonwel

There's a lot of boasting by Italians about how much money they spend, it's not always true. Bu they're also spending their savings as fast as they can go and sooner or later they'll come to an end.
I get furious about private hospitals and private education, because they milk money out of the state, which could go to the public services. If they were really private and self-financing they wouldn't last six months!
Yes, the doctors do know what they're doing. I had excellent treatment for a blood disease a few years ago and it's been banished without trace. That was in a public hospital, where the medical, nursing and ancillary staff were all perfectly courteous and professional. But my father-in-law spent some time in a (state-financed) private hospital with a geriatric ward. The doctors were arrogant with little time to talk to relatives, the other staff ill-trained and rude.
And this government, which cuts funds left, right and centre because allegedly there's no money left, then gives more money to private schools.

If the school system doesn't work, people should rise up and make it work, not pull out and spend their money on private schools.