A reader despairs of the teaching profession, citing this Teachmeet video as an example of the dumbed down way some teachers now communicate with each other: 

Meanwhile I am working on a presentation next week about Education, with a special look at language learning (I myself having had a good shot at French, German, Spanish and Latin at school, then Serbo-Croat, Russian, Afrikaans and Polish with the FCO – eight languages in all).

The hard facts about the busy work of this Labour Government in destroying modern languages in the state education sector are truly awesome:

Hundreds of schools have all but given up on language exams according to new figures, which suggest learning a language is increasingly becoming a privilege only private school pupils can enjoy.

This year’s league tables, published today, reveal for the first time the proportion of pupils in every school who are getting at least a C grade in a modern foreign language. Across the country just 30% are leaving secondary school with a good grade for a language GCSE.

But figures compiled by the Guardian suggest this 30% is largely dominated by private schools. Nearly 100 schools are putting fewer than ten pupils in for languages meaning their results do not register. Furthermore, in 60 schools not one pupil got a good grade in a GCSE language.

Of another 60 schools where 100% of pupils got a language GCSE, only seven were state schools and all of those were selective.

This is of course a stunning model of Positive Feedback:

A system undergoing positive feedback is unstable, that is, it will tend to spiral out of control as the effect amplifies itself

The fewer pupils learning languages, the fewer go into teaching, so fewer learn, so fewer teach, so the subject declines precipitously.

As is happening.

Crikey.

Where indeed to start in putting all this right or even better?