It wasn't just the trumpet fanfare and the odd Oxford Don getup from the staff; it wasn't just the pomposity of the way they walked somberly onto the stage, it was our feelings of disconnection at going to an event celebrating our daughter with a large group of people(including the teachers) we did not know.My local people call this 'normal'. It felt abnormal. And weird because we were celebrating our daughter's honours at this prize giving-which conspired to make it a mixture of happiness, sadness, loneliness, frustration and confusion,
The upside is that it was like watching vaudeville. Every minute or so I could perceive the seat shaking-either me or Alice suppressing guffaws. A few tidbits for voyeurisms sake.
The 'head boy' gives the Wikipedia head boy's speech. His grandest moments were 3 years in the first fifteen and a camp somewhere. Nothing mentioned of the core purpose of schools-educational achievement.Switch to my memories of the Waiopehu College principal Barry Petherick saying, at the end of year prize giving, the yearly camp-(which as I have mentioned before, sorted out the privileged from the not) was likely to be the biggest event and memory of your school experience! I'm sure the head boy's a nice guy- but more than likely a puppet and a product of the system. Sadness as I know he will more than likely have a family and succumb and subject them to this same system.
Then the awards: Now I'm not cynical about showing appreciation, being acknowledged for your effort, talent and so on but.............Excellence in rugby? Merit in rugby? I spose, why not? Everyone wins a prize at this prize giving. Here was I thinking that it was NCEA and these students got Merit in rugby! No, it was the school's prize-giving, I found out later.They had just borrowed the Eduspeak vernacular.
And the singing of the National Anthem, crap lyrics and all! Why are schools singing the National Anthem? Are we kind of grouping ourselves here, identifying with 'National Pride' and equating doing well at school to being a good patriot? And if you don't do well, or you abhor the fervour of flag waving? What then? You aren't a good citizen, dummy! As always, I sat in my seat; refusing to kowtow to pressure or shame. I'll not call anyone sir (except by choice) and I'll not join any Nationalistic or Religious sentiment, lest I wind up thinking I'm right and good and you're wrong and bad.
Showing posts with label homeschooling. Show all posts
Showing posts with label homeschooling. Show all posts
Tuesday, 10 February 2015
Sunday, 24 November 2013
Wednesday, 30 October 2013
No one wants to know about bullying
Everyone is perhaps too busy implementing 'programmes' to have time to learn about the cause of bullying.
The stark reality that our institutions are bolstering a cultural belief in 'get want you want by force', replicating a belief that goes from the bottom to the top of our triangle structure of every institution of society, including most families and most if not all schools- the powerless at the bottom and the powerful at the top. It occurs to me that children have no power; power in a real sense of ability to call into their lives a sense of direction, autonomous freedom to make choices, the ability to protect themselves against assault physically emotionally or sexually.Some cultures which have a top heavy structure are particularly ingrained in abuse. Polynesian cultures divest considerable power in the top and can reign absolutely over their societies. Churches used to exercise similar privelages and therefore abuses.Many still do. They all attract those leaders who do not experience themselves as powerful and who are magnetised into getting their needs met at others' expense.
The children who find themselves in these organisations are repressed and suppressed by machinations of torn loyalty, secret 'don't tell' pacts, fear of reprisal, shame and guilt-most of which are not innate but created at birth and nurtured through messages overt and subtle as they grow up.Abused children have no union, no support network, no value enshrined in law. They aren't as well protected as pets-the organisations that look after animals are not snowed under by over 20,000 cases a year (current stats of reported abuse in NZ)
They belong to a toxic organisation called the family, which guarantees secrecy from prying eyes and anyone who might care.
We want to make noises because we feel bad about it happening. But we aren't going to examine our means of support, our jobs, our professions. I understand this process- why would you look at something that might mean change or even redundancy? This is a self preserving aspect of human society.
We need honesty and courage to face some realities- such as it's us that have built the bullying platform where this behavior thrives.We don't need punishment, we need change.
I can well remember my time in the staffroom discussing an oft picked -on student. " Well he has got a mouth on him/her".was the refrain. That's why they got picked on- because they gave someone cheek. In my observations, the bullied child tries to defend themselves, and why wouldn't they? Do we expect to be assaulted or worse, excluded, and be silent? This is not a dispute and everyone knows it. These children are ritually put through suffering at the hands of their antagonists.
As yet I've had no replies to my requests to talk with either the Manawatu Standard or The Children's Commissioner (see my last post).They have received my letters and acknowledged that and told me they would get back to me.I'm skeptical but hopeful they will kia kaha.
Post script: I apologise to those children in my care that I didn't back them enough and go into a blind rage or publicly resign on that staffroom conversation alone. I apologise to the students I witnessed being bullied at school when I was growing up, and who didn't get my support (except weakly).
The stark reality that our institutions are bolstering a cultural belief in 'get want you want by force', replicating a belief that goes from the bottom to the top of our triangle structure of every institution of society, including most families and most if not all schools- the powerless at the bottom and the powerful at the top. It occurs to me that children have no power; power in a real sense of ability to call into their lives a sense of direction, autonomous freedom to make choices, the ability to protect themselves against assault physically emotionally or sexually.Some cultures which have a top heavy structure are particularly ingrained in abuse. Polynesian cultures divest considerable power in the top and can reign absolutely over their societies. Churches used to exercise similar privelages and therefore abuses.Many still do. They all attract those leaders who do not experience themselves as powerful and who are magnetised into getting their needs met at others' expense.
The children who find themselves in these organisations are repressed and suppressed by machinations of torn loyalty, secret 'don't tell' pacts, fear of reprisal, shame and guilt-most of which are not innate but created at birth and nurtured through messages overt and subtle as they grow up.Abused children have no union, no support network, no value enshrined in law. They aren't as well protected as pets-the organisations that look after animals are not snowed under by over 20,000 cases a year (current stats of reported abuse in NZ)
They belong to a toxic organisation called the family, which guarantees secrecy from prying eyes and anyone who might care.
We want to make noises because we feel bad about it happening. But we aren't going to examine our means of support, our jobs, our professions. I understand this process- why would you look at something that might mean change or even redundancy? This is a self preserving aspect of human society.
We need honesty and courage to face some realities- such as it's us that have built the bullying platform where this behavior thrives.We don't need punishment, we need change.
I can well remember my time in the staffroom discussing an oft picked -on student. " Well he has got a mouth on him/her".was the refrain. That's why they got picked on- because they gave someone cheek. In my observations, the bullied child tries to defend themselves, and why wouldn't they? Do we expect to be assaulted or worse, excluded, and be silent? This is not a dispute and everyone knows it. These children are ritually put through suffering at the hands of their antagonists.
As yet I've had no replies to my requests to talk with either the Manawatu Standard or The Children's Commissioner (see my last post).They have received my letters and acknowledged that and told me they would get back to me.I'm skeptical but hopeful they will kia kaha.
Post script: I apologise to those children in my care that I didn't back them enough and go into a blind rage or publicly resign on that staffroom conversation alone. I apologise to the students I witnessed being bullied at school when I was growing up, and who didn't get my support (except weakly).
Sunday, 25 August 2013
Truancy Shmooancy
There was a front page article in a recent newspaper The Manawatu Standard about a truancy officer who is cleaning up Feilding by getting kids back to school.click to read article
In their zeal to make children's lives better (questionable!) they are riding roughshod over the rights and needs of homeschooled children.They are doing the same thing in Levin and (I'm not sure, Palmerston North?)
I wrote a letter to Talia Shadwell,the Education correspondent for the Manawatu Standard asking for an opportunity to get together and to point out a different side of the argument
Heres what I wrote:
Hi Talia
I read your front page article on truancy.Wanted to know if you wanted to expand the debate. One little known aspect is that homeschooled children are being approached on the street and questioned-enough for my homeschooled daughter to not even venture out during school hours. No one considered their story; and there are more than a few homeschoolers in this region-its more like in the hundreds in the Manawatu Horowhena.I also include a post on truancy from my blog for your information at.http://hilldogg-visionary.blogspot.co.nz/2013/02/go-on-truant.html
Ok hopefully you will be interested.
With regards
Duncan Hill
In their zeal to make children's lives better (questionable!) they are riding roughshod over the rights and needs of homeschooled children.They are doing the same thing in Levin and (I'm not sure, Palmerston North?)
I wrote a letter to Talia Shadwell,the Education correspondent for the Manawatu Standard asking for an opportunity to get together and to point out a different side of the argument
Heres what I wrote:
Hi Talia
I read your front page article on truancy.Wanted to know if you wanted to expand the debate. One little known aspect is that homeschooled children are being approached on the street and questioned-enough for my homeschooled daughter to not even venture out during school hours. No one considered their story; and there are more than a few homeschoolers in this region-its more like in the hundreds in the Manawatu Horowhena.I also include a post on truancy from my blog for your information at.http://hilldogg-visionary.blogspot.co.nz/2013/02/go-on-truant.html
Ok hopefully you will be interested.
With regards
Duncan Hill
No response. So if you could write to her asking to reconsider it may bring about a response
talia.shadwell@msl.co.nz
17th September update: Talia Shadwell has left the job so I've made some intial contact with the new Education reporter Lucy Townend, Let you all know how I get on.
Duncan
17th September update: Talia Shadwell has left the job so I've made some intial contact with the new Education reporter Lucy Townend, Let you all know how I get on.
Duncan
Thursday, 7 February 2013
Go on, truant!
Break the back of this disease we call school. Its an aberration. Go on get out of there.Run and dont look back.Run into your life.
They have been running a campaign in our local town to rescue truants from certain peril (see my earlier blog) by not serving them in their shops.The jury is out on whether truants,returned to school,are ever the successes one local principle is quoted as calling 'research'. Depends on how you measure success. If you mean they complete their compulsory education,I wouldn't call that a success. Completion of schooling isnt success-. in the same way that lack of war is not peace.I would like to read that research.
Now a little guessing game: Who do you think truants from school? Children from a higher, middle, or low income demographic? Families or parents who are interested or who arent interested? You're right so far. Could we say that they rightly perceive (the truant child and the family) that school offers nothing for them? Is staying at school going to launch them on a career path to law or med school? Something about the whole problem smells of exclusion,privelege and a caste system.
I read an interesting Scottish Study of truancy recently. Its worth a look http://dspace.gla.ac.uk:8080/bitstream/1905/251/1/072.pdf I noted that the overwhelming majority of kids in the study wagged because they were bored. I'd imagine the same results would be found here in NZ. So what do we say to that? The idealogues would contend that we have to entertain them with technology to get them 'engaged' in learning;to use eduspeak Their point of view is-it's obviously the kids fault.I would also bet that alot of these children would be the first to say its their fault,that they are lazy or badly behaved.We have The Perfect Society where the victims of shoddy systems are the biggest fans of the system that oppresses them..Natural learners would say let the children decide what they want to do.We did..And it worked.
When I was given the job to watch the gates at school during recess (keeping the inmates from escaping), I was frequently approached by young people begging to be allowed to go to the shop-a 200 metre walk in view of my station. I would engage them,and suggest that they were in a type of jail and that I was given the job of warden. These students were men and women;not children.In the rest of their lives,they were free to go to any retail store, drive a motor vehicle, make decisions about where and who to spend their time with. but for some reason it was considered dangerous for them to pick up a bag of potato chips from the local dairy. I mean,they might run away and never come back! That's ludicrous; the whole town would scoured for them and they would be in trouble from school authorities (and possibly from home).
They have been running a campaign in our local town to rescue truants from certain peril (see my earlier blog) by not serving them in their shops.The jury is out on whether truants,returned to school,are ever the successes one local principle is quoted as calling 'research'. Depends on how you measure success. If you mean they complete their compulsory education,I wouldn't call that a success. Completion of schooling isnt success-. in the same way that lack of war is not peace.I would like to read that research.
Now a little guessing game: Who do you think truants from school? Children from a higher, middle, or low income demographic? Families or parents who are interested or who arent interested? You're right so far. Could we say that they rightly perceive (the truant child and the family) that school offers nothing for them? Is staying at school going to launch them on a career path to law or med school? Something about the whole problem smells of exclusion,privelege and a caste system.
I read an interesting Scottish Study of truancy recently. Its worth a look http://dspace.gla.ac.uk:8080/bitstream/1905/251/1/072.pdf I noted that the overwhelming majority of kids in the study wagged because they were bored. I'd imagine the same results would be found here in NZ. So what do we say to that? The idealogues would contend that we have to entertain them with technology to get them 'engaged' in learning;to use eduspeak Their point of view is-it's obviously the kids fault.I would also bet that alot of these children would be the first to say its their fault,that they are lazy or badly behaved.We have The Perfect Society where the victims of shoddy systems are the biggest fans of the system that oppresses them..Natural learners would say let the children decide what they want to do.We did..And it worked.
When I was given the job to watch the gates at school during recess (keeping the inmates from escaping), I was frequently approached by young people begging to be allowed to go to the shop-a 200 metre walk in view of my station. I would engage them,and suggest that they were in a type of jail and that I was given the job of warden. These students were men and women;not children.In the rest of their lives,they were free to go to any retail store, drive a motor vehicle, make decisions about where and who to spend their time with. but for some reason it was considered dangerous for them to pick up a bag of potato chips from the local dairy. I mean,they might run away and never come back! That's ludicrous; the whole town would scoured for them and they would be in trouble from school authorities (and possibly from home).
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Wednesday, 10 October 2012
How ewe learn: a blog 4 educationalistically minded people
Educating a kid
- You get a kid and you sit there,saying nothing.At this point remove any limiting beliefs such as,"I'm gonna break his spirit" or "All kids are bad unless we do something to them/for them". Ok well done. Now, listen, look and feel your feelings (a tried and true permaculture principle).Great!Almost home!
- Get out of the way.
- Have some resources ready. These can be people,things,tools,books.Hint: If you havent got them ready,dont panic! Make a plan to find some.
- Watch out for lurking populist ideas which reinforce getting what you want while making the kid believe you are helping them eg Nigel Latta,Steve Biddulph
- Watch out for ideas that suggest more is better (homework and staying longer) and earlier is better (teaching babies).
- If they are interested show them what you are doing and how you do it.
- If they are not interested,you are unsuitable for this position and its better for everyone that you quietly slink away and find something else to do.
Tuesday, 4 September 2012
Examining exams
Righto,so i think exams are dumb.To explain why I came to this view I will look at(examine haha) some of the assumptions and premises which are taken for granted.Here's the commonly held rationale behind them: You need to test what people know. Now,don't teachers spend time with students?Ask any teacher around mid year,mid semester-do you know what your students know?I have asked; most know what they know.They have spent time with them.Once apon a time that's just what teachers did.They were entrusted and trained to do just that-see how students are going and work with them to assist them and mentor them .Now we have a 'low trust' model operating-its not enough for you to know your students and them you.
The second rationale is you need to have a pressure cooker system to make people learn better.Why do we create a stressful exam environment,with clocks ticking and success linked to them? If we want to test for how well we do under stress,why dont we say that?Why link it to the subject? It could be a subject in its own right-How to Solve Problems Under Strict Deadlines. Somehow we got to the insanity we have in the school system (and beyond) where we mistake learning for solving problems against time.There is no evidence that anxiety improves learning-on the contrary there is plenty of evidence to show that anxiety makes learning, thinking and doing harder.And for many if not for all,exams are anxiety producing.
The third rationale behind exams is that you should try and catch students out by 'surprises"- another cruel ploy by a system that fails to understand why and how people learn.Catching them out may reassure insecure teachers of the fact that they know something that students don't,but it doesn't have anything to do with learning.More erroneous beliefs are that learning is associated with discomfort,punishment,force or coercion.
I don't support assessment of any kind anymore.It drives down morale and self esteem,most people know their strengths and weaknesses very well.Teachers use it to what I call 'negatively teach'-the weird belief that pointing out failures and mistakes is the role of the teacher,and that they will do better if they are told.Mostly I've seen this when its used exclusively as a teaching strategy.The light goes out from the students' eyes and pretty soon they give up (inside). An analogy: Its like felling a tree in the forest to make it grow better.
An anecdote from a friend whose son recently delved into his favourite Classics subject.He loved it; its his passion. He produced an amazing document for a project but was told he only 'achieved' and did not gain 'excellence' (the New Zealand School system classifies work in terms of not achieved,achieved,merit or excellence) because his project was too long.That sort of petty meddling makes me really angry,especially because the odds are so high that this fellow will now feel deflated and lose interest in a subject he formerly loved.
One reason to support assessment is that an employer or a third party who wants to know something about a student can look at formal bits of paper and get an idea of their strengths etc.
My son has been mesmerised into thinking that he might not know anything about a subject-depending on how well he does in his exams-despite the fact that he his at the top of this particular class! Wak!! What the hell?Dont get your hopes up,it might be all dashed on the rocks! The end result is the mantra "don't trust what you know,you might be wrong"
The second rationale is you need to have a pressure cooker system to make people learn better.Why do we create a stressful exam environment,with clocks ticking and success linked to them? If we want to test for how well we do under stress,why dont we say that?Why link it to the subject? It could be a subject in its own right-How to Solve Problems Under Strict Deadlines. Somehow we got to the insanity we have in the school system (and beyond) where we mistake learning for solving problems against time.There is no evidence that anxiety improves learning-on the contrary there is plenty of evidence to show that anxiety makes learning, thinking and doing harder.And for many if not for all,exams are anxiety producing.
The third rationale behind exams is that you should try and catch students out by 'surprises"- another cruel ploy by a system that fails to understand why and how people learn.Catching them out may reassure insecure teachers of the fact that they know something that students don't,but it doesn't have anything to do with learning.More erroneous beliefs are that learning is associated with discomfort,punishment,force or coercion.
I don't support assessment of any kind anymore.It drives down morale and self esteem,most people know their strengths and weaknesses very well.Teachers use it to what I call 'negatively teach'-the weird belief that pointing out failures and mistakes is the role of the teacher,and that they will do better if they are told.Mostly I've seen this when its used exclusively as a teaching strategy.The light goes out from the students' eyes and pretty soon they give up (inside). An analogy: Its like felling a tree in the forest to make it grow better.
An anecdote from a friend whose son recently delved into his favourite Classics subject.He loved it; its his passion. He produced an amazing document for a project but was told he only 'achieved' and did not gain 'excellence' (the New Zealand School system classifies work in terms of not achieved,achieved,merit or excellence) because his project was too long.That sort of petty meddling makes me really angry,especially because the odds are so high that this fellow will now feel deflated and lose interest in a subject he formerly loved.
One reason to support assessment is that an employer or a third party who wants to know something about a student can look at formal bits of paper and get an idea of their strengths etc.
My son has been mesmerised into thinking that he might not know anything about a subject-depending on how well he does in his exams-despite the fact that he his at the top of this particular class! Wak!! What the hell?Dont get your hopes up,it might be all dashed on the rocks! The end result is the mantra "don't trust what you know,you might be wrong"
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