Why They’re Not Called Grammar Schools Anymore

Today I was teaching about prejudice and discrimination. I tried to get the class to understand the meaning of the word “prejudice”. I asked them what “pre-” meant. No idea. I asked them what a prefix is. No idea.

Did I mention that this is Year 10 and it isn’t a bottom set?

Leaving the topic for a moment, I probed further. I asked if anyone knew what a suffix is. After a long pause, a girl piped up, “Isn’t that a place, like a county or something?” One boy in the class at least knew more geography that he did grammar: “That’s Sussex, you idiot!”

No More Skye Blues

Though I haven’t seen it mentioned in the press, you can depend on your faithful reporter to dig out new news. I went to the Highland Council website and found assurance that the renaming of Skye will only effect it as an electoral council ward. In a statement issued on Monday,

The Highland Council has assured the public that Skye will continue to be known as, and referred to, as Skye in Council business, literature and road signage and has dismissed suggestions that the island will have a new Gaelic name from Thursday, when Council elections are held.

While on the council website, I also learned that the Highland Region comprises 11.4% of the area of Great Britain. It is 20% larger than Wales. It had a population in 2004 of 211,340. (By contrast, Wales has 3 million people.) It has a population density of 7.9 persons per sq. kilometre. England has a density of 388.7/km². In other words, people are pretty sparse up there.

Having travelled up the east coast, across the top, and down the west coast, I can testify that it is rather desolate, and the coasts are where the population is concentrated.

Over the Sea to Where?

I’m glad I visited the Isle of Skye when I had the chance. Thursday it will be no more.

The jewel of the Hebrides will not sink beneath the waves, but rather under the weight of political correctness. The Highland Council has decreed that the island should shed it’s “Anglicised slave name” and now only be known as Eilean a’ Cheo.

This follows the Western Isles changing its name to Comhairle nan Eilean Siar. I didn’t even know about this until I read about Skye. But then I’ve never been known to be one for political correctness.

If you think Eilean a’ Cheo is the ancient name for the island, you’d be wrong. Most Gaelic speakers call it An t-Eilean Sgitheanach. The latter means “Winged Isle” while the new adopted name means “Isle of Mists”, previously used as a poetic nickname for Skye.

Not everyone on Skye is happy about this. Less than half the island speaks Gaelic. It would be like everyone in Welsh-speaking West Wales telling the majority English speakers of Pembrokeshire they would no longer being able to refer to Pembroke or Milford Haven or Haverfordwest. It would even be like not calling them Penfro or Aberdaugleddau or Hwlffordd but rather giving them new names out of the Mabinogion or The Book of Taliesin.

The unhappiness is more practical as well. Each year 250,000 tourists bring in £90 million to Skye. This is what keeps Skye alive. Go changing the name and people may have just a little trouble finding their destination or even booking their holidays, especially since the council is changing the name on all of their documents and tourists inquiring about travelling to Skye will be encouraged to use the new name. Political correctness may come at a high price.

The Value of Government Promises

HM Government doesn’t just screw over the good people of the British Isles. The Empire may be a thing of the past, but there are still little territories scattered around the globe. I first learned in detail about Ascension Island by reading The Teatime Islands by Ben Fogle.

Ascension is located in the South Atlantic and has a population of 1,100. The residents have no right of abode or right to own property. They were promised these a few years ago. A land register was prepared. People invested in businesses in preparation for tourism. They inaugurated an elected council and developed their own laws, based on those of the UK and St Helena, the island that is in charge of Ascension. Ascension is dependency of St Helena, itself a British oversea territory. The Governor of St Helena sends an Administrator as his representative.

Now the Foreign and Commonwealth Office has changed its mind about the reforms. Yes, the Government has just unilaterally pulled the plug and left everyone in the lurch. But what do they care? They have absolutely nothing to lose. The Ascension Islanders are not UK voters. Even as St Helenians they aren’t UK voters. At least as of 2002 they have British citizenship – the Government did throw them that bone. But it gives them no right to or on Ascension.

So why has the Government done this? As usual, there is the official story and the truth. Lord Triesman, the foreign office minister, told Parliament the reforms were dropped because of the financial liabilities that British taxpayers would face if they had to bail out the islanders. Triesman must not have told Parliament the population of Ascension and the single-digit number of businesses on the Island. I’m sorry, but the excuse is indistinguishable from the guano left by the increasing sea bird population on Ascension.

The real reason? Did I mention that there is a US Air Force base there? Did I mention that it is a stratetic location for long range bombers and was used as such by the RAF in the Falklands War? Does this sound like another Diego Garcia? There’s nothing that can change British colonial policy like a little pressure from Washington.

Pitting My Geography Skills Against the World

Since the website is down for the 2006 Geography Cup competition between the US and UK, I went instead to the Geography Zone and played the Geography Challenge. It took me a few times to get 10 out 10 in the Countries Challenge, because invariably they throw in a few tiny island nations in either the Pacific or the Carribbean with markers pointing to them. The map isn’t big enough to even tell the shape of the island or clearly tell where it is in relation to other geographical points.

Because you indicate your country (and if in the US, your state), there is a leaderboard ranking the countries (and states) on the relative success of their citizens. When I first logged in, I was suprised to see that the US ranked slightly higher than the UK in average score. This changes, because I now see the UK in the lead, ranked 152nd compared to 156th for the US. The difference between the two is 0.631 of a point in average score. The most knowledgeable participants are the Vietnamese, averaging nearly two full points ahead of the Seychellois.

Broken down by region, I had no trouble scoring 100% on European Countries. Checking that leaderboard, the Americans are way ahead of Brits. Twenty-nine places and 5.658 points ahead.

I should note that I have registered as an American from Texas because that is where I received my high school and undergraduate education.

I wonder how soon I can get Aidan playing. His computer time is now mostly focused on the games on the CBeebies website.