So teachers don't need to be numerate?

There is a piece in this morning's paper about student teachers threatening to take legal action because they won't get their teaching qualification if they can't pass the literacy and numeracy tests.
I don't know what the literacy and numeracy tests involve. I do think all teachers should be able to read, write and do basic arithmetic. After that it should surely be a matter of what it is they are going to teach?  Does a teacher of children who do not yet go to school really need to have advanced algebra and trigonometry? 
I was taught basic research skills twice at university. The first set of  research skills was in the area of psychology. I had to learn "statistics" along with how to obtain samples and much more. In my last year at that university I was given the task, along with another person, of writing a questionnaire that went out to more than a thousand schools. In order to do these things I needed to be both numerate and literate. I was also given the role of writing the questionnaire because my doctoral supervisor struggled to do such things. He was a literate man but he struggled with something like that. 
    "Ask Cat," he would tell his secretary. (It was in the days when senior staff had secretaries.) His secretary would sigh and say, "He needs a letter written about...."
But he would sigh when it came to trying to help me understand statistics. It didn't help that I doubted, and still doubt, their value in what I was doing.
When, some years later, I was doing law we had to do a subject called, "Legal writing and research." It was compulsory. It taught students how to find information and how to cite it. I instantly saw the value in that. It presented no problems to me. When the other first year students were complaining about it I told the English as a second language students I was helping, "It's the most important subject you will ever do."  Law students need to be literate.
But I can also remember having to draw and explain a bell curve to a member of the law school staff. Statistics were completely outside their area of expertise. There had never been any need for them to know about a bell curve until then. I understood and simply accepted that. They knew a great deal more about their area of law than I would ever know. They had the intelligence to get the information they needed when they needed it. 
And I think it may be the same for teachers. They need to be able to read and write and do arithmetic and they need to be able to do those things well enough to get more information if they need it. I don't think a pre-school teacher needs advanced mathematics but they need to be competent at basic arithmetic. They need to be able to read, write and spell.
I suppose the question now is whether they need to be able to do basic coding as well as play the coding games they are supposed to teach. I am not sure it will make them better teachers. It might -
but we might also lose some of the best potential teachers because they are required to know things they don't really need to know.
We would have lost an important piece of research if my doctoral supervisor hadn't helped me with statistics. He would not have written a book if I had not helped to write a questionnaire. 
Surely it is more important to work together on the things that really matter?

Reading instructions

and then...well, reading instructions.
There were three new people at the knitting group yesterday. One of them didn't need any help. It was probably just as well because I am not sure she would have listened to anything we had to say anyway. 
The other two did. They came together. They were from another country. Their first language is Spanish. They were trying to read a knitting pattern in English. 
Oh. I groaned inwardly. I felt for them. The pattern was for a little baby jumper (sweater to you North Americans). It wasn't a difficult pattern in itself but it has - abbreviations. It is written to fit into the smallest space available. 
Oh yes, the abbreviations are "standard" but they are still abbreviations. They are confusing. A lot of people who read English as their first language have problems understanding a knitting pattern. When you are not a native reader of the language and you are a beginning knitter then....
The two of them were very nice. They were intelligent. They were genuinely interested in understanding. Their English was much better than my Spanish will ever be but....this is specialist vocabulary here. We have "knit" and "purl" and they have "punto derecho" and "punto reves". The pattern had a mock "cable" or "torsado".  They were about to start the decreasing for the raglan armhole. They were calling it the "reduction" but in Spanish it is the "disminuciones" or "menguados".
Oh  yes, we got past all of that but there is a point in the pattern where you decrease on the fourth row and then on the alternate rows. You also need to decrease in two different ways - and the pattern assumed that the knitter knows about those things. 
And of course, to add to the complication of actually telling them all this, they knit in a different way. I knit as I was taught by my paternal grandmother - who was taught by her Scots grandmother. They knit what in a way we here in Downunder describe as "continental". The results are the same but the process is different. Of course I didn't need to translate it all. I could not have done that. I just needed to be aware of what they were going through. 
I admire them madly for trying. They could have found a pattern in Spanish. There are plenty around. I have some myself.  But - the little jumper was nice. It is likely to be practical - unlike so many lacy baby garments.
At the end of the afternoon though I looked across at our lone male of the group. He is Japanese. He had been watching us. I knew what he was thinking. The Japanese write all their patterns with the sort of diagrams that even I can follow.  
There should be more of that sort of thing.
I think we got there in the end though because I got a hug and a "muchas gracias"....which is more than I have sometimes got from those who do read English as their first language.

"It's blue again

I  suppose?" 
    "Um...yes - but it goes with everything else."
    "I know you like blue Cat but really! This pink one...."
    "I am not going to wear pink!"
I need (as opposed to want) a new shirt. My favourite charity shop didn't have anything that could pass for "best" so I had to go hunting elsewhere. 
Now let it be said here that I have a strong aversion to clothes shopping. I will tolerate food shopping - we need to eat - and I am happy to prowl through book stores and (if I can find them) yarn shops. Clothes? No. 
I suppose part of the problem is that I resent paying extortionate prices for "fashion". I expect my clothes to last more than "a season". (I have clothes that are far more than twenty years old.) As I don't need to "dress up" to go to the office I can get around in jeans and t-shirts most of the time.
And I happen to like the colour blue - and a lot of other colours as well. At the same time I don't care for pink or orange. As a kitten I was forced to wear pink  by my maternal grandmother because "little girls wear pink".  Thankfully my paternal grandmother didn't believe that and, to the best of my knowledge, never gave me anything pink. Her views may have been coloured by having two boys because she tended to make me sturdy overalls for around home and green or blue dresses for "best". 
Attempts were made by my maternal grandmother to get Middle Cat and the Black Cat to wear frilly, fancy pink things too. They objected as well. Middle Cat was going through the stage of wanting to be a boy. (She is now glad she is not.) Her idea of being dressed was a football guernsey and football boots. She now owns a dress. (It was for the wedding of her eldest.) I don't own a dress at all - just a couple of skirts for "must not wear trousers" emergencies. 
Middle Cat will wear pink now. It suits her colouring much better than mine. She can wear that peachy sort of orange and lime too - and they are not my thing at all.   
And the woman in the shop knows all this...she has had cause to use the professional services of Middle Cat and thus knows us both. It is of course also her business to know what her customers might want.
She gave me a look and said, "I knew this was going to happen. Stay there."
She went out to the tiny back store room and, a few moments later, she returned - with a plain, pale blue shirt...in my size
    "Here you are. Go and try it on."
Being an obedient cat I did as I was told. It was fine. It will last me a few years. It was marked down to half the original price. I bought it.
Now why can't clothes shopping always be like that?

Birthday cards

are not really something I care for - but regular readers will know I don't much care for birthdays either.
It always irritates me to pay a lot of money for a piece of light card and an envelope. There can be no justification for the prices that Hallmark and others charge.
I have been known to make birthday cards - for the years ending in "0". They always have the relevant number of quotes on them. The smallest of those was "10" for Ms W and the largest was "100" for a friend who was still alert and able to read at that age. When she died her son took the card back to the US with him because, "Mum said there were things on it I need to take on board".  Yes, there were 100 quotations on that card. 
But ordinary birthdays present a problem. Middle Cat is good at finding cards. So is my aunt. They both seem to find cards that exactly suit the person and the occasion. Middle Cat's tend to reflect her sense of humour. A..., my aunt, will often find cards that have unexpected little things on them or in them. 
I need a card today. It is someone's birthday. I want to acknowledge the occasion. Funny and quirky are not right for her. Sentimental is not appropriate. Actually saying "Happy Birthday" isn't really appropriate either. She isn't well and I know she is depressed - although she refuses to acknowledge that. I've suggested we go out for coffee/tea/chocolate/just a chat more than once but she shrugs and says, "Maybe...sometime." 
She says the same thing to everyone else too so I know it isn't me, rather it is her - and her depression speaking. Her doctor has gone as far as to give me an anxious look as she went into his room. Indiscreet? Perhaps - but I know him and I know his concern is genuine. He knows I would help if I could.
I have stopped inviting her to lunch...she would never come. There was always some excuse. 
So a birthday card as such seems inappropriate. I am even wondering if I should acknowledge her birthday at all. I think I should let her know that we are thinking of her.  
I'd just like to find the perfect card for her - one that would make her smile. 

"So what do you think of Greta Thunberg?"

I was asked yesterday. (This was after someone had read my blog post.)
    "Why?" I asked.
    "Well don't you think she is amazing? She's mobilising a whole generation of young people." 
There was more in this vein. I won't bore you with it. My response was,
     "She isn't a patch on Malala Yousafzai."
And I meant it.
Greta Thunberg may well feel passionate about climate change and the environment but she is also acting a part - and not doing it particularly well. (She is a child actor in Sweden.)  She is being manipulated and used by adults in the background. Her speeches are not written by her. At least one person is making a great deal of money out of using her as a puppet to get across a message they know is popular.
Yes it may well be doing some good if it is alerting people to the need to care for the planet but that is all. She isn't the answer to the problems that need to be addressed.
The difference between her and Malala Yousafzai could not be more stark. Reportedly Malala was called out of class by the deputy head of her high school in Birmingham to be told she had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Her response was apparently along the lines of, "Thank you very much. It's a bit hard to take in. That's very kind of them but I don't really deserve it." She then went back to her disrupted lesson.
She went on working - working hard enough to win a place on merit at Oxford University. (And yes, I am told by someone else there that it was on merit.) She is working there now. Later she may well use the acknowledgement in order to go on helping others.  That is her intention. She knows the value of education, has spoken passionately about it, and - most importantly - encourages others to pursue it.
And, for me, that makes her likely end contribution far greater than that of someone like Greta Thunberg. If Thunberg  had used her UN speech to tell other young people, "Don't strike. Go back to school and learn all you can. Give up some of your spare time to the environment. Try to live in ways that will help the environment" then it could have done much more.
I know what I have just said will upset some people. They will think I am wrong, that Thunberg is amazing and that I should admire her "courage". But - I want young people to be well informed and able to deal with future problems. They can still do things now - although it won't cause the short term adrenaline rush felt by missing school to protest.

The world is a mess

and I think I want to curl up into a little ball, close my eyes and put my paws over my ears. I just want it all to go away please!
Teenagers like Greta Thunberg should be in school learning so they can cope with the future. So-called adults like Trump, Johnson, Corbyn, Morrison, Albanese, Shorten, Wong, Turnbull, Macron, Merkel, Tusk, Juncker and many more should not be getting the news coverage they are getting. We shouldn't need to worry about climate change, homelessness, starvation, or terrorism - and much more than that.
I rang an elderly friend yesterday. She is currently struggling with diabetes related problems. I would much prefer that research money was being spent on finding ways to overcome her problems. All the money being spent on yet another "climate change conference" isn't actually doing anything - except perhaps scaring the likes of young T.... and his classmates. All this talk of "meeting emissions targets" isn't actually meeting them. Getting out there and actually doing things is much harder. And is it really that difficult or is  that people really don't want to make the decisions that need to be made and act on them? Oh yes, "we do our bit"  but it means everyone has to do their bit. It would mean drastic changes of lifestyle for many people...changes they are not really prepared to make. It means major changes of policy - changes people don't want to make for fear of losing power.  
It means not increasing the number of petty rules and regulations but decreasing them so that the world becomes a simpler place.
It means not presuming we can buy strawberries all year round and not thinking that a holiday in Bali every year is essential. 
There are more important things in life. This morning someone emailed to say that a friend is in hospital. The prognosis is not good. This afternoon the Senior Cat's much younger second cousin will bury his wife - someone who was younger than I am. His cousin has early onset dementia and it is going to be hard on his children to handle all that will be involved.  
Those things matter. We need to be seeking solutions to those problems not pandering to the financial interests and desire for power of those who benefit from frightening us but don't take the necessary steps themselves. 
I won't curl up on my sleeping mat and put my paw over my ears -  even though I want to do it. Right now I am prowling restlessly and worried about it all.
 

"You want to put those on a clothes hanger"

the Senior Cat's friend told me. He was right.
I have just finished making two very small garments for a very small doll for a not quite so small child. 
    "I have to keep her wrapped up or she will be cold," I was told, "And Grandy can't make her clothes any more but she said you might if I ask you. Please?"
Of course. I made a little dress and a cardigan that matches. They were simple - but they needed a clothes hanger because Miss Four Year Old has a wardrobe for her doll clothes. It is nothing more than a simple wooden box but there is a rail and she hangs their clothes in there. Miss Four is a very neat child - unnaturally so.
Her grandfather went to his shed, found the necessary wire, cut off a length and - moments later - we had a coat hanger he had twisted out of the wire. It is like all the other coat hangers in the little wardrobe. 
I put the dress on and then arranged the cardigan carefully on top. It made a great difference. 
Miss Four came back from preschool. The doll was dressed and the result was met with approval. I was hugged and thanked - without Miss Four being prompted by anyone. 
     "These hangers are the best. Granddad makes them."
We left her rearranging clothes in the wardrobe, dressing and undressing her three dolls, doing all the things that small girls do.
Miss Four is living with her grandparents for the moment. Due to illness the family situation isn't good and money is tight.  
I made the dress and cardigan out of left over yarn. The hanger came from what was once fencing wire. The "wardrobe" was once an old fruit box. 
As I was leaving though Miss Four came out to say goodbye. I got hugged again and told, "I'm happy and happy and happy."
I'm happy too - happy that she doesn't apparently feel the need for a bright pink plastic wardrobe full of "designer" clothes designed for a doll of improbably proportions.