On keeping up school standards....

I just posted this comment on an article in the Telegraph about how students are being chucked out of sixth forms half way through for performing poorly in their AS exams. Is it right that schools should be allowed to do this? Shouldn't they stand by the student instead since they have signed up for a two year course not a one year one? Does it raise the whole question of what our schools are there for?  Read the full article here

"It's high time someone in government put a stop to this nonsense situation. Many grammar schools are doing their communities a disservice and it has to stop. Highly selective schools have got themselves into a trap which they haven't got the guts to get out of. They push for ever higher standards, which seems a noble thing to do on the face of it, but that then has it's consequences further along which we are seeing now. In Tonbridge for example there is only one boys grammar school and it is super selective. That means that the vast majority of the boys from the town itself who pass their 11+ must go to nearby Tonbridge Wells a half hour bus ride away because they missed a few marks. Meanwhile the Tonbridge School in question, Judd School, takes in pupils from up to 1.5 hours journey time, in many cases well out of town, well out of county even. It's ludicrous that a school can leave students in the lurch instead of working out a solution and sticking by them. Yet it is allowed to happen. We hear the old excuse for this shocking treatment of young adults trying to make their way in the world that they don't want to let down the other students by lowering standards in the class. This is  just utter nonsense. We all know the real reasons so why pretend any different. What is required maybe is a rethink and a period of readjustment so that schools can reassess what it is that they are there for...."

More on Apostrophe Apprentice....

In reply to one or two of the comments to the earlier post, sparked off by The Apprentice runner up's well reported apostrophe debate, in fact Mr Books is short for Mark Richardson Books which complicates things even further. So it could even be Mr's Books and still be grammatically correct. Actually that should be M.R.'s Books. The Bookshop is in fact and entirely separate word just to indicate that it is in fact, if you didn't already know it by the name, a bookshop. That's why, on my instructions, the sign writer separated the Mr. Books from the Bookshop with a logo which is meant to be a couple of old fashioned tomes. So to be perfectly grammatical the name should be M.R.'s Bookshop.  All that said I'm still with Ms. Zissman on this. Just spell it how you like because (a) the language is allowed to evolve and (b)it is a trade name. BTW Mr. Books is in fact a registered trademark believe it or not, so no copy cats please.....

Summer Reading....

Also, I'm being all intellectual at the moment with my reading material. Well you're forced to do that sort of thing now and again when you have a bookshop even if just for appearances sake! I'm currently reading (well starting to read at any rate) Virginia Woolf's To The Lighthouse which seems quite appropriate in a way because a couple of weeks ago whilst in Cornwall I could see Godrevy Lighthouse, which is the lighthouse in question, most of the time in the distance and actually walked up onto the cliff tops to with a hundred yards of it. Quite spectacular views they are as well I can tell you. I'll report back on the goings on in the Ramsay family (in the book) when I've got further into it. If they're anything like the author and her fruity friends I reckon I'm in for a right old shocker.

Before this book I read Franz Kafka's famous Metamorphosis which, at only fifty odd pages, is more of a short story than a book but what a weird old carry on that was. I won't ruin it for you but this young bloke wakes up one morning and he's only gone and turned into a great big beetle. It takes him a little time to adjust and his family, not surprisingly, are a tad upset by the whole episode in Gregor Semsa's life. He dies of course after a few weeks or is it months and only finds true happiness right at the end.

I might try a James Patterson next or maybe a Danielle Steele. Having never read either author I really should....

Pretty Boy....

Some of the crazy stuff I post on twitter. Of course it's always a little abbreviated to fit in the allowable 140 characters. I find this is a bit limiting for a blabber mouth like me but it does keep you disciplined.  Anyway this is actually true. A man does keep coming in Mr. Books with a parrot on his shoulder.

"Man just came in shop with a parrot on his shoulder. The parrot said.... This is the third time in a few weeks. It has beautiful plumage btw"

Apostrophe Aprentice....

And here I go again. This time commenting on an article about the twitter debate raging about Aprentice runner up, Luisa Zissman's, lack of a grasp of punctuation.  Specifically correct use of the apostrophe. See the piece here Many of her followers on twitter would like her fired of course but here's my thoughts.

"You fools. She has been very clever by the look of it. No better way to court publicity than generating a debate even if at your own expense. In any case shouldn't it be "Bakers" Toolkit?! I have the same problem with my business. Should it be Mr. Books Bookshop (as it is) or Mr. Book's or Mr. Books' The young shrewd entrepreneur is right. At the end of the day it's a trade name so she should go with whatever looks right. Apostrophes are very over rated these days anyhow...."

What do you think?

BBC licence fee. Night light robbery?...

A customer in Mr. Books just mentioned that my blog has been quiet which is true. Even Tonbridge Blog needs a holiday now and again. To tell you the truth I have a severe case of the holiday blues this year having returned from an all to brief trip to North Cornwall a week or so ago. I normally find it quite hard to get going again after a break but that feeling usually only lasts a couple or three days. Could be another mid life crisis coming on. Oh God does that mean I'll have to buy another motor bike?!
Anyway, although I don't post a lot on this blog these days I am still pretty active blogging on newspaper web sites and twitter. Maybe I'll start sharing some of those with TBlog fans. For instance here's my comment against a Telegraph opinion column regarding whether or not the BBC should drop its licence fee at long last.

And here's my comment:
"In the current age it would be perfectly possible and reasonable for the BBC to ask customers to voluntarily pay for viewing it's channels in the same way as you might pay for Sky channels. The viewer should not be compelled to pay even if they decide not to watch BBC channels. Why should they? Once there was very little else to watch but now it is perfectly possible to avoid their channels altogether. If that means the Beeb having to run adverts then so be it. Often I'd rather see a limited number of commercials than the kind of self congratulatory links and ridiculous dancing number 3s and so on we are currently forced to endure...."