Let’s kill the daft modern phrases – Letters

A reader has had quite enough of blended learning for stakeholder kids

Are kids stakeholders?

The term “Blended Learning” has recently emerged from the mayhem Covid-19 has inflicted upon our educational system, and the schooling of our young people in particular

This is yet another example of the misuse of words/phrases, apparently intended to obscure, misrepresent or put a gloss on things, and which have the unintended (or perhaps intended) consequence of confusing and infuriating those of us who are a little more advanced in years than we would like to be.

My dislike of this practice has its roots in a visit to my GP when he referred to a consultant at the hospital as a “good clinician”. What is a clinician I mused, until Google explained that it is a “hands-on medical doctor”. So why not simply a “good doctor” or a “good consultant” – and anyway, is a nurse running a clinic not also entitled to be called a clinician, good or otherwise.To avoid further mental contortions I placed “clinician in the unnecessary cabinet in my mental furniture and tried to forget it

More recently, “Stakeholder” has tried my patience as every time I hear it I get a mental picture of someone, arms aloft, endeavouring to dispatch a vampire.

Also, students attending schools are, I fear, at an unnecessary advantage over pupils at the school, as the students are obviously already embarked on a university education

Young goats instead of children now appear to make up a substantial part of the human race, and there are a host of other words and phrases which grate and exasperate in equal measure

Would it be too much to ask the author of Blended Learning to think again and give due consideration to those who treasure accuracy and simplicity in language? In essence, reserve the word “blended “ to describe whisky and cookery, where it properly resides

Graham Hammond, Hoghill Court, East Calder, West Lothian

Begin at home

How much does merging the International Development Department into the Foreign and Commonwealth Office cost in terms of upheaval and staffing changes when the Government recently had no cash to spare for the provision of school meals for poor children in this country?

It takes the international footballer Marcus Rashford to tackle the situation when Boris Johnson was ready to score an own goal on the issue.

The UK is the world’s third largest foreign aid contributor. For too long concentration on percentage target for overseas aid has failed where it counts, resulting only in helping the least well-governed and corrupt political elites; one study into aid payments to 22 nations found a lot of aid money ended up in tax havens!

The way things are going it sometimes looks as if the UK is edging towards Third World status itself – with more than one million children in this country regarded as being below the poverty line, taxpayers’ money could be better directed.

Jim Craigen, Downie Grove, Edinburgh

Animal ‘slavery’

Last Sunday was Ban Live Exports Day, marking a ban supported by 13 million people worldwide. That evening a BBC Scotland documentary revealed the depth of Scottish involvement in the Atlantic slave trade. Comparisons could be made with the present-day cruel and unnecessary export of live animals to uncertain treatment and methods of slaughter in and beyond Europe .

As the Scottish Government prepares to defend in the courts (using taxpayers’ money) the right to continue the export of thousands of new-born unweaned calves on these horrendous journeys, will future generations view their support in the same way as we now feel shame for our ancestors’ compliance and complicity in the human slave trade ?

Hamish Allan, New Skinners’ Close, Blackfriars Street, Edinburgh

Irony bypass

The UK government relocated a department of the Department for International Development (DfID) to East Kilbride in 2010 and it now employs around 600 people.

With the announcement that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the DfID are to be merged, we quickly have demands from Dr Lisa Cameron, MP for East Kilbride, that Boris Johnson must “give a public guarantee that these jobs are secure and they will remain in East Kilbride”. She also states that “the East Kilbride base is one of Whitehall’s biggest footprints in Scotland”.

How extraordinary and ironic then that she drives on with her “independence” quest. What on earth does she think will happen to a foreign government department should Scotland become independent? You couldn’t make it up!

Richard Allison, Braehead Loan, Edinburgh

Stay focused

I was interested to read Hamish Johnston’s measured letter (16 June) about slavery. I am concerned that the underlying horrors of that business will become lost by being hijacked and used as a basis for wider civil disobedience, rather than focusing on the true horrors of slavery and discrimination.

Both are prevalent today. Rewriting history is no help and one thinks of the Nazi regime burning books, killing those it simply did not like and causing painting and music to meet its own uncultured 
ideals.

We must put things into perspective rather than simply destroy or misremember from time to time if we are to progress with a humane 
civilisation.

David Gerrard, Spylaw Park, Edinburgh

Learn lessons

I read Martyn McLaughlin’s article, “Beware those who bark the loudest in row over opening schools” (Perspective, 17 June) with attention, especially after having read the Economist (13 June) article, “An unwanted guest returns”.

In Israel some school pupils went back as early as 3 May. However, this did not last long. More than 100 infections have been linked to a single school. A minimum of 300 teachers and pupils have tested positive. More than 100 schools have been shut, thousands of people are in quarantine, and laboratories are overwhelmed. The clever learn from the mistakes of others, the stupid blunder blindly. As for big accountancy firms, we know the mistakes they make in their core proficiency: auditing. Why trust them with education?

Keith WF Proborszcz-Maloney, Gilloch Avenue, Dumfries

Extra holiday?

Around a third of school students are currently not seriously engaging with their studies, apparently: that sounds much as normal to me, remembering my days both as a pupil and as a teacher.

Is anyone genuinely shocked that some pupils are treating this period as an extra holiday? Sounds like it’s not just the pupils who need to keep on learning.

Steve Hayes, Aithernie Court, Leven, Fife

Help the NHS

It is apparent that there is an urgent need to provide specific training for all relevant decision makers in the pandemic chain, from the Holyrood 
politicians at one end to the triage nurses receiving patients in Scottish hospitals at the other.

The previous management failures must not be allowed to be repeated. Estimates suggest that more than 2,000 people became infected with Covid-19 in Scotland’s hospitals, of which more than 900 were staff, with in excess of 200 deaths resulting.

Effective business management training techniques, such as Shell’s scenario forecasting methods, could be applied to provide a blueprint and What If? decision trees for all managers in the pandemic chain who need pragmatic coping mechanisms.

Case studies and decision tree models of hospitals which avoided cross contamination could also be used. For example, some hospitals accessed special testing technologies available locally, such as Addenbrookes in Cambridge, while others without these tests available used different methods to effectively prevent cross contamination, such as the Infectious Diseases Hospital in Naples. It is not enough to say our health service needs to do better. They need to be provided with the means to do so.

Elizabeth Marshall, Western Harbour Midway, Edinburgh

Open attractions

I agree with Pauline Eggermont (Letters, 17 June). Supermarkets can manage social distancing, as can tennis courts, golf courses and garden centres, so why is it so difficult for other outdoor spaces to do the same?

Edinburgh Zoo and the Botanical Gardens have much more space at their disposal to allow social distancing. Even a small enterprise like Jupiter Artland is admitting visitors on a book ahead system.

Our economy badly needs a boost, so let’s hope the First Minister lifts some more restrictions quickly.

Fiona Garwood, Ormidale Terrace, Edinburgh

Floral tributes

After weeks of reading depressing news, your photo and article of 16 June depicting the Edinburgh floral clock gave me an almost overwhelming feeling of admiration for the skill and dedication of the gardeners and husbandrymen who harness Auld Mither Nature to produce such a wonderful display, which to me is very much the Pride of Edinburgh.

Fortunately, the same skills result in floral displays in so many of our ancient burghs and it is to be hoped that council money will continue to support such schemes.

John M Nisbet, Auchencrow Mains, Reston

Abridged

May I join Margaret Wallace (Letters,17 June) in lamenting the passing of cartoons from your columns. Also, the diary and the Bridge column.

Laughter has lightened lockdown immensely on this ranch, thanks to a steady supply of “funnies” from family and friends.

Moyra Forrest, Starbank Road, Edinburgh

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