From: Steve Shaw - PM
Date: 19 Sep 17 - 05:08 AM

Iains, your ignorance is astonishing.

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Complaints from industrialists about schools churning out illiterate students have been there forever, not just since 2000. A couple of points on that: first, the complainants always represent a small numerical minority of industrialists, usually right-wingers who are harking back to a mythical golden age when the privileged few sat in serried ranks of wooden desks with full inkwells, learning by rote, ruled with a cane of iron wielded by a strutting classroom Hitler

I would have thought that, as a teacher, you would have discovered that canes are made of cane (surprise surprise)not iron. Of course, "rod of iron" would have been acceptable usage, both being a biblical quote (and common expression) and using 'rod' as a common synonym for 'cane' (as an instrument of punishment).

It's amusing to see that the posts of the two right-wingers here who moan about declining standards of literacy are themselves generally replete with errors of grammar and punctuation, not to speak of inelegant expression. They are also the people who sneer most at the errors of other people's posts. Ironic, eh?

In view of the above, I trust that this last quote was also meant ironically?