Posted on 02/09/2009 4:19:28 PM PST by bruinbirdman
Ralph Surman, a national executive member of the Association of Teacher and Lecturers, said a significant number of young people who were brought up by single mothers in the 1980s are now doing nothing with their lives, have no work ethic, few social skills and cause higher crime rates.
Mr Surman, a deputy head of Cantrell Primary and Nursery School in Bulwell, Nottingham, said: "We must talk about a class of uber-chavs. They are not doing anything productive and are costing taxpayers a fortune.
"It is very difficult, almost impossible, to take these people now and provide basic social and work ethic skills.
"The offspring of the first big generation of single mothers were children in the 1980s. Now they are adults with their own children and the problems are leading to higher crime rates and low participation in the labour force."
He spoke after figures obtained by the Conservatives showed the number of 18 to 24-year-olds classed as Neet - young people not in education, employment or training - has soared over the last five years.
Unemployment rates among 20-year-olds alone has rocketed by almost 50 per cent since 2003.
David Willetts, Conservative shadow skills secretary, who obtained the figures following a Parliamentary question, said: "The rise is vivid evidence of the deep problems in our education and training system.
"People are dropping out once school finishes because they can't find the right opportunities. From 18 onwards, the position is especially bad."
The number of 18 to 24-year-olds Neets increased from 590,000 to 730,000 over the last five years. Numbers increased by 38,000 to 113,000, figures show.
Mr Surman's comments were criticised by David Mellen, head of education at Nottingham City Council, who said the term "uber-chav" demonises young people and is damaging.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
It's not a superlative in the great majority of its uses, any more than "over" is in english in, for example, "overtake". It does have this sense, as you say, in some usages, such as "supernatural" = "übernaturlich", but it gets it in this case from being "above" or "over" the natural, and it's not applied this way uniformly. German uses "ultra-" just as english does in scientific terminology, for example. I think it's unquestionable that the "Uber-" prefix in english usage hinges completely on "Ubermensch".
> A good drill instructor or a competent sergeant major
> could turn these Yobs around.
Or teach a hating heart how to kill even more efficiently...
Some hearts just refuse to be fixed. The worst types of weapons are the kind that can’t be controlled.
Why do you think so many Mexican cartel enforcers come from the military?
“...”How exams are dumbing down
The moment of truth came when the class of ‘97 turned over their examination papers and started to read the questions.
‘Give an account of the position and general structure of the liver. Where does most of the blood supplying the liver come from, and under what circumstances and in what manner does this blood vary in composition?’ ‘Draw a map of the West Coast of England and Wales, naming the counties on the coast and the principal capes and inlets. Mark the positions of Aberystwyth, Cardiff, Carlisle, Chester, Holyhead, Ilfracombe, Preston, Southport, and Swansea.’
‘Determine by a geometrical construction the force which, together with a number of given forces, will keep a particle in equilibrium ...’
That’s enough to tax the most agile mind. Could you answer these questions? Could your children? These are typical of the examinations that 16-year-old children took in their stride. Not our children, mind you; these questions are not from the 1997 GCSE’s. They come from the School Certificate exams in 1897 - a century ago.
Are examinations as tough as they were? Employers and parents insist they are not. Educationalists claim that they are. The issue can only be resolved by looking back to the exam papers of the past. Today’s GCSE is descended from the first school examinations, which were set by the Cambridge Board in 1858. For this first year the pupils sat the exams at the age of 15, but it was soon raised to 16, the age at which the exams are still taken today.
As disappointed employers know, educationists always justify the fall in standards. A question in the first-ever School Certificate exam asked: ‘Draw a map of Great Britain, marking the principal rivers.’ That, of course, must be because they didn’t have photocopiers. These days children have printed maps, and (in the age of the motorway) are far more widely travelled.
That excuse doesn’t work. Here’s another question in the 1858 exam: ‘Describe in words the coast-line of England from the mouth of the Thames to the mouth of the Severn.’ Perhaps today’s youngsters are more European in their outlook, and don’t need to know so much about Britain. That sounds feasible until you read the next question from the mid-Victorian exam:
‘Draw an outline map, showing the coast-line of Europe from the mouth of the Danube to the mouth of the Rhine; and mark the chief rivers and the chief ranges of mountains between those two rivers and the coast.’
In truth, yesterday’s school children were expected to know far more about Europe than we do today. Few modern youngsters know where are the capitals of Europe. As today’s teenager: ‘Where’s Brussels?’ and you’d probably be told: ‘In the fridge, next to the parsnips.’ ...
http://www.brianjford.com/Exam%20standards.htm
That means we need to socialize the family , and make it into a boot camp full of Uber Chavs!
Zeig Heil!!!!!
( I am practising for our upcomng ACORN meetings here in Vermont.)
I was thinking more of its use as a prefix for titles like “Ubersturmfuhrer” and “Uberleutnant.” In those examples, it means exactly what I decribed: “over” in the sense of “superior to” or “beyond.”
That's Oberleutnant! not Überleutnant! Of course, ober is evidently another cognate of over, but Harrap's translates it as upper. So again, what I said ...
"Upper" makes less sense in this context than "over." But enough of this.
What happened to Ivan anyway. His account is still active.
When I scan for überleutnant on german pages, I get 259 hits, and most of these are hits on “über leutnant”, e.g. “Testbericht über Leutnant Hornblower lesen”
Oberleutnant gets 347,000 german page hits, plus it’s in Harrap’s and Überleutnant is not.
Then in a search for german pages I get:
No results found in your selected language(s) for übergruppenfuhrer.
...whereas I get 50,100 german hits for obergruppenfuhrer.
uberleutnant and ubergruppenfuhrer are simply corruptions.
True. I read about drunken "yobs" and "chavs" who would beat a pensioner to death for sport. Our white trash, "Jerry Springer" types aren't (usually) that violent.
“True. I read about drunken “yobs” and “chavs” who would beat a pensioner to death for sport.”
I have seen groups of these at a distance in Edinburgh, and I can honestly state that it is a type of people I would hate to have to have any direct contact with, especially in the UK (no guns for me:/)
I suspect they are much worse in London, maybe birmingham manchester etc.
And like-minded folks like us are not into control. If I were the POTUS, I would leave as many people far less dependent, or better, independent from the state.
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