"Old Thing"

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Rob Houghton
Posts: 16029
Joined: 26 Feb 2005, 22:38
Favourite book/series: Rubadub Mystery, Famous Five and The Find-Outers
Favourite character: Snubby, Uncle Robert, George, Fatty
Location: Kings Norton, Birmingham

Re: "Old Thing"

Post by Rob Houghton »

Being a child of the 'progressive' 1970s, a lot of my teaching was different and sometimes experimental. We learned to read phonetically - which I think is the best way - said the alphabet the same way - 'ah, bu, cu, du, eh, fu, gu, hu etc - and although we briefly learned verbs, nouns, adjectives, I think I only remember one or two lessons on them as most. We also learned how to lay out speech and how to lay out a play script, aged about 9 or 10.

Being creative, technical stuff often bored me - I wanted to write stories, not learn about verbs - and the same tended to go for learning to spell. I was never any good in the weekly spelling test we had...would always get around 12 or 14 out of 20...but then the attitude of most teachers I had in the 1970's was 'get the story down - don't worry about spelling - you can correct it later!' :-D Our school had several very good creative writing teachers, and I was much more inspired by them than by anyone into the technicalities!
'Oh voice of Spring of Youth
hearts mad delight,
Sing on, sing on, and when the sun is gone
I'll warm me with your echoes
through the night.'

(E. Blyton, Sunday Times, 1951)



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