Yesterday my youngest had to revise for an English test. She had to review 10 pages from her English text book, which is issued to state school children throughout Greece, produced, as I understand it, by the Greek Education Authority.
I happily said I'd help her to work through it, and we were getting on well until it came to a section called 'My country'. It started with a 'listen, read and find' lesson that used a short script to impart the necessary information:
It starts (and I quote):
S: Well Andrew, tell us about your country. Where is it?
A: It's in Europe, like Greece. Its name is the 'United Kingdom'. Its in the North-West part of Europe. And there are four parts in it: England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Moving swiftly on to the next exercise. Here the child is told to look at an appendix containing a map of the UK (and Southern Ireland, although it is not named). The following questions then need to be answered:
1. Which is this country? Required answer: United Kingdom
2. What language do people speak there? Required answer: English.
3. Which is the capital city? Required answer: London.
And later still a set of tasks entitled "Write the nationalities"
5. Julia is from the U.K. She is...required answer: English
Alright, I do appreciate this text book is written to help teach children the English language, not necessarily impart accurate geographic knowledge about the country from where the language originates, but, lets break this down a little...
"Its name is the United Kingdom...' Oh whoops, my mistake, there was me thinking that the United Kingdom is a union of countries that together make the kingdom.
... And there are four parts in it..." Oh please! Parts! Why not at least refer to the composite parts by their correct title, countries. Surely something like "Its name is England, it is one of four countries that together form the United Kingdom" would be more accurate and not too complex a sentence in comparison to the rest of the text.
... Which is this country?... Yes, the right answer really was the United Kingdom. We're back to my initial comment here. Also, how about the phrasing of this question. One might assume it to be multiple choice but there are no options after the question. As I said above, the book is written to help teach children the English language. The question would have been better phrased "Which country is this?"
...What language do they speak there?... Depends on which part of the United Kingdom you're in. Quite a few people in Wales speak Welsh, in Scotland some prefer Celtic and in Ireland a form of Gaelic is still found. OK, so most do also speak English, but it's not a given. Returning to correct use of language, wouldn't this question have been better phrased "Which language do they speak there?"
...Which is the capital city?... This is the capital city of the United Kingdom. Well, alright, it is London (London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom), but shouldn't Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast get a mention somewhere? Yet again, the phraseology could have been better if the question had been "What is its capital city?" had been used.
...Julia is from the UK. She is English... I'm afraid I was unable to contain myself any longer, and wrote next to the answer "or Welsh, or Scottish, or Irish, all are parts of the UK."
Browsing the 166 pages that go to make up this literary gem of educational excellence I've found so many glaring errors. A few of my favourites are:
- "OK kids! Today is free day for sports!"
- "A: Lets play computer games. S: No, it's boring."
- "Write one of your habits on a slip of paper (eg: I eat ice cream)."
- "Christmas is Britain's most popular holiday... They eat roast turkey or beef with fried potatoes and Brussels sprouts."
Don't let me get me started on the punctuation and grammar, I'll be here all night.
I'm not trying to be pedantic nor am I throwing a hissy fit about the inaccurate information concerning my home country. In fact, I was quite impressed with the way the book gets the children involves in team activities and games to help learn what can be a very dry and complicated language. Shame that the school doesn't seem to have a copy of the CD that should be used with the book to bring the lessons to life! However, I am just a tinsy bit worried that if I can find these glaring errors in one of the school books, how accurate are others? What hope is there for our children's future if this is the standard of education provided?
Right, moan over, I'm off to find me some fried potatoes and Brussels sprouts!
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