Saturday Pomes & Words, 01/06/2024
Some questions for an English Baccalaureate, by Alison
For last week’s Pomes & Words, click here
Something witty & amusing & a little silly for today. & not very long either, as a welcome refreshment after some previous long rambles. Plus, I thought I’d squidge it in before the serial starts tomorrow.
By way of a little necessary background, this was written around 11 years ago (2013) during the Tory-Lib-Dem coalition government in Britain, when George Osborne was the Chancellor and Michael Gove was Education Secretary, and had recently proposed an English Baccalaureate to replace the GCSEs, although he then scrapped the idea.
Maybe Sir Humphrey took him to one side for a quiet word to remind him that the purpose of the education system was absolutely not, hehe, to make the population smarter, but to keep them in their place. We wouldn’t, after all, want the rabble getting ideas in their heads now, would we, Minister?
Anyway, here a few questions which we think should be on the exam papers.
Oh, and here’s what Govey’s inner child thinks of his idea.
Some intriguing questions for an English Baccalaureate
Poetry
Isn’t it funny how bears like honey…
Is it? If so, why? If not, why? One word answers will not suffice.
Mary Pugh was only two…
Discuss, with particular reference to imperialist didacticism in this work
The boy stood on the burning deck when all but he had fled
Why? Would you? If not, why not?
It’s a braw bricht moonlit nicht the nicht
Is it? Explain why in no fewer than 2000 words
Economics
Is George Osborne a good Chancellor?
(Please note: there is only one correct answer to this question)
Politics
Why?
Logical Reasoning
If it takes two men six days to dig a hole and four men three days to dig a hole, how many holes would be needed to return the country to full employment?
Literature
The Ragged Trousered Philanthropist – “possibly one of the best books ever written”
Discuss. What do you mean you haven’t read it? Just because it isn’t on the syllabus is no excuse.
Mathematics
How many beans make five?
Sociology
Explain why homosexuals should not be allowed to marry if flavours can be.
Geography
The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain.
Illustrate by use of flow charts, precipitation figures, one Venn diagram and a full colour detailed map of Russia.
History
Rewrite it.
Science
Explain how the burial of the remains of Richard III in Leicester may affect our accepted understanding of the colours of the rainbow.
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