Sydney Grammar principal questions whether English should be compulsory

[brendan]

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23838995-2702,00.html

actually that should be Sydney Church of England Grammar School as Sydney Grammar School is different school

[BA22]

here we go again, same issue comes up every year.

[brendan]

lols but this year its a principal rather than VCE students whining =p

[BA22]

Not a victorian principal though, will be interesting to see if his opinion makes any waves here

Besides, the main point of contention appears to be the difficulty of the course, do students this year find their VCE course to be unnecessarily challenging?

[bubble sunglasses]

  Well, if you're going to have compulsory subjects, why not have something like a psychology subject very much applicable in everyday life?

[droodles]

bubble glasses why is there always a large gap at the top of your replies?

english should be compulsory, why cant the future students go through the pain and suffering of english like the old generation did?

[BA22]

  Well, if you're going to have compulsory subjects, why not have something like a psychology subject very much applicable in everyday life?

The reason why the compulsory nature is being challenged is that it is subjective what is applicable in everyday life, psychology would be a subjective selection regarding that criteria

[bubble sunglasses]

   hmmm, maybe it should be compulsory to do one of a selection of subjects

[BA22]

I wouldn't think so, they used to have Type A and Type B subjects, and you had to do at least two units from each.

Limiting choice is not the answer really.

English is a good subject to have as a compulsory course, it teaches adequate analytical skills and allows rural schools to compete with metropolitan ones in terms of ENTER. People who have a problem with english are generally those who come from families that may not speak it. Most people in Victoria have no real issue with it

[brendan]

it teaches adequate analytical skills and allows rural schools to compete with metropolitan ones in terms of ENTER.

Regarding the first claim, i do not see how VCE English does this adequately

Regarding the second claim, i don't understand it, how does that work?