Layer 208 . . . Imagination, Education Policy, Truants, Bullies and the Recession

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I'm working my way towards writing about the Primary Review in some detail, but in the meantime here are some letters from Monday's Guardian on the subject of the Alexander report -

Lack of imagination in education policy

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/oct/19/primary-education-cambridge-report

Michael Rosen wrote -

The Cambridge review is absolutely right about calling for the abolition of Sats (Too much too young: start school at six says key report, 16 October), and I support this summer's boycott. Sats have turned the primary curriculum into a desert of work sheets, short extracts and a fear of failure.

In the English Sats, examiners have unleashed an abuse of the empirical method by making the reading of literature into a tedious and stunting exercise in fact-spotting, even as children themselves have been reduced to percentages and scores. I have been a school parent continuously for 30 years and visited hundreds of schools. In all that time it has never been any use to me that any child, mine included, be talked of as a number or a level.

The government's education policies were devised without a public debate about how children and teachers learn. You can only do this through the four processes of observation, investigation, discovery and discussion. In fact, finding out about learning has to be at the heart of every teacher's and every school's practice. Children's work itself should be built upon the four processes, with imagination and play as part of the mix.

In the very first key stage 2 Sats paper, the candidates were asked to say what was in a matchbox in a story by Jan Mark. The only correct answer was "nothing", and yet the fun of the story is that the children "fill" the matchbox with their fantasies and ideas. "The children's imagination" would have been a wrong answer. Sats have turned many classrooms into places where children's imagination is always the wrong answer.

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Fiona Campbell
London

The danger that we face in sending our children to school at four is that by the time their brains are ready for reading and writing they are utterly alienated from the school environment. And yet ministers are only echoing what so many middle-class parents believe, that we must get our children reading and writing as quickly as possible so that they can keep up in a competitive world. It is a tragedy, because in reality their brains have other things that they need to be learning through play, as the Cambridge report highlights. We need to stop this endless haste to make our children grow up, and allow them to enjoy their short childhood with play-based learning in nursery-style settings, but until society as a whole understands that, ministers will not be able to back the Cambridge report.

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Chris McDonnell
Little Haywood, Staffordshire

Robin Alexander is to be congratulated. The business of young children is play – play that informs and secures a platform for later, more formal learning.

The current pressure on four- and five-year-old children to meet a target-based curriculum not only inhibits their own development but adds to the stress at home, where parents feel the need for their child to achieve against the background of the larger school group. My own experience over many years as headteacher of a primary school convinced me that getting it right in the early years was the touchstone to later success. Now seeing my grandchildren in the primary years, I am even more certain that we are asking too much, too soon.

Ministers have been quick to dismiss this report as "disappointing". I would suggest that it is disappointing that a report of this significance is so easily dismissed.

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Tim Nichols

Through play, children follow naturally evolved learning instincts, which stimulate the endocrine system and activate biochemical pathways that promote neurone growth. Neuronal networks become established for basic skills and the architecture of the brain is gradually prepared for learning higher skills.

Push children into formal learning before the basic architecture is ready and they will learn slowly, without enjoyment and enthusiasm, developing negative attitudes towards education. The poorest children – without a private nursery education or a lavishly equipped playroom to stimulate them – are less likely to be ready for formal education at four or five years. So disadvantage becomes entrenched and they fall behind.

The government's dismissal of the Cambridge review and dogged commitment to early formal education is a naive attempt to appear serious about literacy standards. Sadly it is ministers' own lack of scientific literacy that will result in failure and damage to children.

…........................................................

On the Guardian website today is a column under the heading -

Truants, bullies and the recession  

We must help families torn apart by truancy, not criminalise them – but the services that help troubled children are under threat

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/oct/21/education-bullying-truancy-recession-care

This is in the education section of the website, and presumably in the paper itself. It's not a particularly inspiring piece of work, by Francis Gilbert.

The news that truancy rates are soaring won't surprise many teachers like me. Figures from the Department for Children, Schools and Families show that children skipped more than 8m days of school last year. The reasons for the rising numbers of skivers are manifold, but I think there is one big underlying reason: the recession is really beginning to bite in many households.

In the UK, 4 million children live below the poverty line and the situation is getting worse: charities such as Save the Children are seeing families of four trying to feed themselves on £20 to £25 a week. That means that lots of children are living in households under severe stress, frequently working illegally or carrying out household chores for parents who need them at home.

It concludes -

A survey by Beatbullying suggests that as many as one in three children truant because of bullying, with 20,000 bunking off school for the same reason. This survey was carried out nearly four years ago now when times were good; the new official statistics suggest that the problem has become a lot worse. Proper investment in public services was never more needed more than in these recession-hit times.

This is Oxzen's response on CiF:

As is obvious from all these [CiF] contributions the causes of poor school attendance can be complex and hard to tackle. Unesco reported that British children are the unhappiest in the developed countries, and yet we've seen no government acknowledgment of that appalling assessment, let alone any sign of being concerned about it, or any ideas about how to improve the state of childhood in this country. Ed Balls won't even accept the recent criticisms of our Primary school system as outlined in last week's Cambridge review.

All that this government has ever talked about is improving test and exam scores and 'cracking down on bullies'. Everything else has lip service paid to it. This very week The Guardian published a Peter Preston column 'In Praise of Targets' repeating the same old rubbish in favour of the targets and league tables culture that has done nothing to improve the wellbeing of children or their enjoyment of school, let alone produce better educated and more enthusiastic learners.

If even the Guardian can't stop repeating the idiotic mantras of those who can't see that cramming pupils for tests is not the same as providing a better education, then what hope do we have, short of expecting the Conservatives, who at least have pledged themselves to get rid of the politically motivated targets and the micromanagement of the system, to do better.

Parents must demand, for the sake of all our children, that the system is changed, starting with the recommendations of Professor Alexander's Primary Review, in order to make our schools places of genuine learning which pupils of all abilities, interests and aptitudes are eager to attend, and where all their intelligences, and not just IQ, are developed by every teacher every day.

Learning to be socially and emotionally intelligent, learning to be non-violent, learning about anger management, and learning to be creative and imaginative, as well becoming academically able, are fully on the agendas of all schools in high-performing countries like Finland and Denmark, and they could and should be in Britain as well. Some of our schools are already doing very well in this regard, in spite of a system that barely supports it or encourages it, but sadly not nearly enough. Hence the high rates of truancy and exclusion.

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Did I Hear You Write?

I'm a huge admirer of Michael Rosen, for his contributions to the education debates as much as his work as a writer, performer, broadcaster and artist. Here are more of his pieces from the Guardian's pages -

http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/michaelrosen

See also - http://oxzen.blogspot.com/2009/06/layer-168-michael-rosen-jim-rose-ed.html

http://www.inpressbooks.co.uk/did_i_hear_you_write_rosen_michael_i016262.aspx

Here's where you can buy this excellent book for 60p -

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/r/michael-rosen/did-i-hear-you-write.htm
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Layer 203 . . . Education, Getting Real . . . and Catching Them Young

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Getting Real

Heard recently on the radio - Jonathan Aitken confessing that prior to being thrown into prison he was "puffed up with too much self-centredness, self-importance and pride". It was always clear to all Aitken-haters that this was the case, but it seems that prior to his prison-induced epiphany and his apparent redemption Mr Aitken was completely oblivious to his condition.

The condition he talks about - self-centredness, self-importance and pride - we commonly think of as egocentricity, which is the condition Zen tries to address. Watching last week's programme on Boris and Dave made you very aware that the whole point of places like Eton and Oxbridge is to inculcate egocentricity, self-importance, pride, etc, and thinking about the change in Aitken's character and his new self-awareness it makes you wonder whether the people who run those places and the parents who send their kids there to be indoctrinated and bigged-up should be considered as child abusers.

Even the act of allowing Eton to be run by cabals of senior students, who emotionally and sometimes physically abuse 'fags' - whether or not this still happens officially - is tantamount to complicity in abuse. And yet Eton continues to stand at the pinnacle of our school system, with student places there impossible to obtain unless you're a very wealthy individual who puts your child's name down for admission the moment he's born.

Aitken actually had one hell of a childhood - especially regarding his physical health - http://en.wikipedia.org./wiki/Jonathan_Aitken The last thing he needed was to be sent to a school that specialises in abusing pupils by filling their heads and their hearts with notions of superiority and elitism.

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Catch Them Young - Drop-outs at five?

At the other end of the educational, social and political spectrum we have on the front page of Guardian Education this week a story about a unit for badly behaved Foundation stage kids that's been set up in a centre for vocational training.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/oct/13/primary-children-vocational-education 

“Many projects seek to identify potential school drop-outs early, and the latest targets five-year-olds. But should we be labelling children so young?”

“In a big, open warehouse space inside a smart, black glass and blue-framed building on a new industrial estate . . . This is Vox 4 Tots, and its creators believe it's the country's first vocational education scheme for pupils as young as five. With about 1,000 primary-age pupils now permanently excluded from schools each year, the programme aims to use early intervention to nip behavioural problems in the bud."

How can we take this stuff seriously? Vocational training for 5 year olds? Please! The dictionary says 'vocational' training is to do with a specific occupation, trade or profession! And aren't we supposed to be in an era where generic, non-specific skills, aptitudes and attitudes are meant to equip young people for a life in which they'll move between many different occupations and trades, if not professions?

As for the idea of “nipping behavioural problems in the bud” – YOU DON'T NIP BEHAVIOURAL PROBLEMS IN THE BUD, YOU MUPPETS! What you do is create serious places of learning where the social, emotional and spiritual intelligences can be properly developed year on year.

Each week, 12 pupils will spend a day here, learning a range of vocational skills including construction, hairdressing and catering.

As if!

The thinking is that if children are unable to settle at school and are badly behaved or can't communicate with classmates, there are probably deeper issues that need resolving. One of the jobs of the staff here is to give the children space to express themselves. "From our side, it's giving these little ones self-esteem, self-confidence, to start engaging them so they can begin to read and write," Ladapo says.

Hello Guardian! Planet Earth to Guardian! Of course there are fucking deeper issues here that need “resolving”, you dimwits! So how come mainstream schools can't “give the children space to express themselves”, can't build their self-esteem and self-confidence, etc? Surely that's what decent schools are supposed to do?

Away from the melee, she produces some of the notes she's received about her new charges: "Challenging – needs constant reminders about tasks and accepted behaviour; poor social skills; little respect for females both in class and at break; fights and chews his T-shirt; doesn't feel the need to be in school."

Er – doesn't most of that that sound like most young children, in most deprived areas? Maybe we should close down most Foundation stage classes and send most of the kids to industrial estates for vocational training.

Vox 4 Tots was conceived after local headteachers called a meeting to discuss how they could cater for this small but significant number of pupils who simply did not cope with school. Some failed to connect with teachers or other pupils, some threw tantrums when asked to sit still and work. Ladapo, who was already running this vocational centre, teaching construction skills and catering to secondary pupils who came in three days a week, suggested the younger ones should come to her.

The headteachers discussed how they could cater for them? You cater for them by making sure the bloody schools are fit for purpose, and making sure teachers and support staff are doing the right things to develop social, emotional and spiritual intelligence!!! It's not rocket science, and its not brick-laying and cake-making either, as useful as those basic skills may be, one day.

She says she has always harboured this dream – by the time those big, awkward-looking teenage boys outside the door arrive, it's too late to really help them, she argues. This way, they can catch them young. Each child will spend time each week with a counsellor, and in time, parents may get involved, too. Ladapo would like eventually to work with whole families, rather than just with these tiny children.

Well it's too much to expect the bloody schools to do that stuff, isn't it!!

"What we try to do is to give them ambition," Ladapo explains. "You know that thing – I want to be a fireman, I want to do cooking. It's instilling goals for life. It's the same as we do with the older ones. We make it clear what they have to do to get to where they want to be, to get an apprenticeship."

And mainstream schools can't do this either?

The older children who attend the centre learn a range of construction and catering skills. Ladapo confesses she has had to exercise a little more creativity when setting up activities for the younger ones. The hairdryers in the little salon are toy ones that work but don't heat up too much; the catering room is equipped with brightly coloured plastic ovens and cooking implements. Everything has had to be inspected to ensure it is safe to be used by a five-year-old. "We've been carrying out risk assessments on plastic bricks," Ladapo laughs.

Ho ho. Sounds like a typical “home corner”? I guess schools no longer have them.

Despite these restrictions, the children will do real practical tasks. The construction students will make toys for them to paint and take home; cakes will be prepared to be baked in the centre's main kitchen, and the tutors who supervise the older boys will teach them to make little brick walls.

Ahhh! Little brick walls! That'll do the trick.

But there are questions about the wisdom of such programmes. Professor Alan Smithers of the University of Buckingham, a leading expert on vocational education, thinks it may give the wrong impression of what vocational courses are for. "One of the problems with vocational education in this country is that it tends to be used to occupy the less brainy, or the children who are otherwise difficult. And that seems to me to be the wrong emphasis," he says.

Brainy? This professor still talks about brainy, less-brainy and non-brainy?

"The real engine behind it should be employers, designing something they want. It should be for young people who have practical skills and want the chance to use them. My feeling is that we should address these social and behavioural problems by concentrating on teaching these children to sit and to listen and take their turns in conversations, and to respect other people, rather than sending them off to something vocational."

Well said, professor. Innovative stuff. And we definitely want employers to take charge of the school curriculum.

There's a wider question, too, about whether removing children from the classroom when they have only just started school might reinforce their negative images of themselves.

Well, yes!

Does Claire like school? " I like school," she says, breaking off to look at five-year-old Brad, who is in her class at school. "But he don't. He thinks school's boring." Brad, who looks as if he didn't sleep much last night and has dark shadows under his eyes, slumps forward with a wordless sigh so that his forehead rests on the desk. Then Sam, six, pipes up: "I like school, but I'm coming here because I've been a little bit naughty. I don't know what I do wrong – maybe I'm bored."

Seems pretty likely to me. Anyone in favour of non-boring schools?

Ladapo is distressed by this: "It makes me sad that they told Brad he was coming here because he was naughty," she says. "I do think if you label a kid for long enough he'll become the label."

Quite right. They should have told him he was going there to learn to be a bricklayer or a pâtissier. Proper, positive labels.
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Layer 194 . . . Fair Play, Delights and Rapport

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Fair Play

It's not often when you watch a live football match on TV that you experience a moment of sheer joy that has you yelling out or jumping up in ecstatic amazement and excitement - and this goes for whichever team you support (as if sitting on a sofa constitutes support!), or whatever match you're watching. Those moments of terrific surprise and delight when somebody or some team does something so beautifully and so unexpectedly that it sends a shock through your nervous system so as to cause an involuntary spasm of shouting, cheering and swearing – such moments tend to be very few and far between, especially if you're English and you enjoy football.

To have it happen three times, then, in a match - and what's even more amazing, in a match involving England - is a rare treat. To see an England team completely dominate and outplay another team ranked in the world's top 10 is – well, unknown. Almost. I won't forget the 5 – 1 thrashing of Germany, in Germany. And so it was when England defeated Croatia 5 – 1 at Wembley last night, and in doing so qualified for the finals of the World Cup in South Africa next year. Job done. Capello 8 – Others 0.

What a guy. Talk about emotionally intelligent! He doesn't fake or exaggerate excitement, or anger, or disgust, or frustration – and if he feels those things he doesn't necessarily try to stop himself from showing small signs of them either. What you see is what you get, and what we have is a team manager who's a real man – a mensch – who can keep a check on his dominant emotions without completely covering them up or denying they exist.

According to Leo Rosten, the author of The Joys of Yiddish, a mensch is “a person of integrity and honor, someone to admire and emulate, someone of noble character. The key to being “a real mensch” is nothing less than character, rectitude, dignity, and a sense of what is right, responsible, and decorous”.

Capello's a three-dimensional human being who's a thinker and a planner, a plotter and an analyst, a calculator and a strategist, as well as someone who knows how to relate to the people he's leading and managing, both as professionals and as human beings. He has intellect, plus emotional, social and spiritual intelligence, in abundance and in harmony, in contrast to every dork of an England manager you can possibly remember, with the honourable exceptions of Bobby Robson, dearly departed, and maybe Ron Greenwood and Alf Ramsey.

He doesn't try to be overly pally with them, like the Rain Man - the Wally with the Brolly - who shall remain nameless, who so shamefully and so spectacularly fucked up on the job, finally crashing and burning in a corresponding fixture with Croatia two years ago, a game that England unbelievably lost 2 - 3 at Wembley.

Capello is polite, and courteous, and professionally distant, as he should be. But he also knows how to coach, how to explain things, how to empathise, how to enthuse, and how to motivate. But not in a gung-ho up-and-at-em ridiculous pumped-up adrenaline-rush kind of a Keegan or (ahem) 'Turnip' Tayloresque way. (I still have to smile to myself whenever I remember dear Graham's little gems – Do I Not Like That!, You've Just Cost Me My Job!, etc)

http://www.saidwhat.co.uk/quotes/sport/graham_taylor
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/g/graham_taylor.html

“Very few of us have any idea whatsoever of what life is like living in a goldfish bowl, except, of course, for those of us who are goldfish.”
No – forget I said smile - laugh uproariously out loud.

Two of the goals last night gave a quiet little buzz of pleasure – when Lennon jinked his way through to a penalty and Lampard efficiently slotted his kick, and when Rooney also unspectacularly threaded the ball past the goalkeeper after the hapless chap had dreadfully mis-kicked to our unmarked striker. (A real shame for the poor goalie – his superb 'keeping had kept the score down to only 2 – 0 at half time when it could easily have been 5 – 0 by then.)

The other three goals were all superbly made and superbly taken headers that flashed into the net – very “English”, as Bilic, the Croatian manager, might have said. Cue ecstatic celebration. To be fair to Bilic he later admitted his team had been humiliated and destroyed.

Whenever someone asks me which team I support I have to admit I don't really 'support' any team. What I do is watch with interest, and hope to enjoy some brilliant action – thoughtful, disciplined and passionate teamwork, great skills, effective defending, dynamic attacking and brilliant goalscoring. I hope to see the game well played, with lots of goals, and victory going to whichever team deserves to win.

I know people who are passionate supporters of a particular team – certain Millwall supporters for example – who don't give a shit about the quality of the football or the justice of the result. Winning is all that matters, no matter how badly the game is played, no matter how dire the football. It's 'my team right or wrong', which is pretty much the way they play the game of life. Within their own little world, their family and their mates can do absolutely NO wrong, and they'll support them and fight for them no matter what, against all comers if necessary.

Sadly such people often only get really excited in life when they're seeing their team win a match, or when they're having a fight or a 'bundle' on 'behalf' of their team or their mates. They might admit to themselves that their team deserved to lose, and they might mention it to their mates down the pub, but they'd never let on to an 'outsider'.

Thankfully, though, there are many more people who have a sense of 'fair play', and who will even feel some odd little sense of satisfaction when their team loses a match, on the basis that the useless f****** b*******'s deserve to be beaten up and defeated. Lots of English people don't like winning if it's a result of cheating or unfair tactics, and lots of us don't even like winning if the victory is undeserved.

But even those of us who are the least partisan and the least nationalistic feel some sort of emotional attachment to our national and our city or town teams, and we get enormous amounts of enjoyment when 'our lads' do their jobs as well as they did them last night.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/sep/09/world-cup-qualifier-england-croatia

It's the women's turn this afternoon – 5.00pm BBC2 – England v Germany – European Nations Final.

Bafana Bafana? Crazy name, crazy guys:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Africa_national_football_team

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PS Try to record the sounds you make (by using some mechanical or electronic means) as you read the following quotes, because I guarantee you will never laugh so much again in your entire life. If anyone ever doubts the power of words and language to affect our moods – here's the proof. Have some tissues handy to dry your eyes. Do NOT read this if you're in your office, supposedly working. But DO make a recording of your laughter the first time you read it because nothing's ever as funny the second time around.

http://www.geocities.com/SouthBeach/Palms/6687/managers.html

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Life's Little Delights

Yesterday on the Today programme there was a discussion about what delights us in our day to day lives. Oxzen had always been a strong believer that the capacity and the ability to experience delight is a strong marker of spiritual intelligence. It's the little things . . .

Here's a description of the book called Delight that JB Priestley first published in 1949 – taken from the Amazon website -

“In the years following the Second World War, there didn't seem much to smile about, but as JB Priestley illustrated in the classic "1949 Delight", there are many joys to be found in even the simplest things. This charming book comprises a series of short essays, which all depict a simple pleasure - the smallest things in life that Priestley delighted in at that bleak time - a notion that chimes perfectly with the current national mood. Just some of the simple things Priestley enjoyed include; fountains; a walk in a pine wood; a new box of matches; Sunday papers in the country; reading in bed about foul weather; suddenly doing nothing and waking to smell bacon . . .

Priestley's sense of humor and literary flare are in evidence on every page. Each self-contained essay is a joy to read and will no doubt bring a little 'delight' to the reader - just as Priestley originally intended sixty years ago. In 'timeless mornings' Priestley muses, 'There is one kind of morning in early summer that is for me very special, the most delightful of all mornings. The sun is up and blazing somewhere but not visible yet down here, where there is a lot of gold mist about and the birds are singing from lost thickets.' The new 60th anniversary edition of "Delight" contains the full, unabridged text of over one hundred of Priestley's personal joys and pleasures.”

On the Today programme Alexei Sayle, the one and only, the wonderful, said he delights in re-reading old copies of guides to restaurants and bars that no longer exist.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Delight-J-B-Priestley/dp/1905080670

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/p/j-b-priestley/delight.htm

http://uk.tv.yahoo.com/07092009/19/paxman-brand-reveal-delights.html

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Rapport

I have a new theory that the secret of his success is the 'rapport' that Capello has developed with his players, and it's also what readers have with a writer like Priestly, or whoever their favourite authors happen to be. To have rapport with someone doesn't mean you have to like or admire that individual. You may have reservations about them as an individual, and you may even dislike some aspects of their behaviour or their ideas. But what you do have is the ability to be on their wavelength, and to be able to communicate or empathise from a basis of shared assumptions about life or about the nature of the task you're working on, or whatever.

To experience 'flow' is hard enough as an individual. For two or more people working together to experience it simultaneously whilst engaged in a particular project, or activity, or game, is almost impossible unless you have rapport. I suspect that what great coaches can do is build rapport, between themselves and others, and between other individuals.

It's a shared sense of what's right and what's wrong, what's effective and what's not, when to do something, and when not. It's part instinct, part empathy, part logic, part knowledge, part understanding, and part intuition. We need rapport that's both inner and outer, within oneself and with others. It's a coming together in three dimensions. It's harmony and resonance, like voices in a choir or strings on an instrument.

Or players on a pitch. England's play last night had a 'flow' to it. They're finally starting to play as a team whose members have a proper rapport. After years of failing to play well together, people like Lampard, Gerrard, Lennon and Rooney are beginning to 'gel' and harmonise. It's partly down to experience, and partly down to the consistent messages and sets of beliefs and understandings that a good coach or manager is able to instil. It's the fine tuning as well as the correct choice of strings, instruments or players. Without rapport and flow nothing is achieved. You can have great skills and individual flair, but without rapport you tend to go nowhere.

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Obama and his Congregation

Like a priest talking to his parishioners Barack Obama yesterday met with, and spoke to, the Congressmen and women and the Senators of the House of Representatives who may or may not be willing to vote for his health care proposals. It seems he made a great speech, or delivered a great sermon, whichever way you prefer to look at it. It seems like a great effort to establish, or re-establish, some rapport with the teams that must function properly together if anything is going to be achieved, and if the country is to make any progress towards becoming more civilised and properly democratic. The country voted for change. Will it be allowed to have it?

30 million Americans can't even get health insurance, let alone are able to afford it. 46 million of them have no health insurance whatsoever.

Check out clips of his speech here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/sep/10/barack-obama-healthcare-address

“We did not come here to fear the future. We came here to shape it.”

Full text of the speech here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/sep/10/barack-obama-healthcare-reform-speech-full-text

Michael Tomasky's blog on the speech:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/michaeltomasky/2009/sep/10/barack-obama-healthcare-big-speech

Tons of comments on it already.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama
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Other Random Musings

Abdullah Abdullah

In case you haven't been paying attention, this is the name of the hapless guy who lost out in this week's election for the presidency of Afghanistan. How lucky is he! However, he's now complaining that the vote, and the count, were fixed. Some people just don't know when to shut the fuck up and just be grateful.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdullah_Abdullah

I'm always fascinated by these guys with double names, like Boutros Boutros-Ghali – people so good they name them twice. Imagine Obama Obama, or Barack Barack. Which would it be?

Brown Brown. Cameron Cameron.

I remember Billy Connelly once making a comment about posh people in Scotland having surnames as first names. Like Cameron.

This naming business is really bizarre. What happens to people, that they want to actually change their names? The most famous examples are when people change their religions, or suddenly adopt a religion. On the other hand, why should we stayed lumbered with names we don't like?

Oxzen Oxzen. Definitely a ring to it.

John Cooper Clark

I  think I wrote about JCC some time ago, and yesterday I came across a poem of his on Spotify that you should listen to if you ever get so angry with someone you want to beat them up and call them a twat. It's called Twat. Just type Twat in the Spotify search box.

http://www.cyberspike.com/clarke/twat.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vS5QMT-JUt4

Dion, Dion

I know I've mentioned Dion before, but I'm going to put in another plug for King of the New York Streets because I think it's possibly the best anti-drug song ever written. It's not didactic – it just sets out what it feels like to be someone living a coke-fuelled life, thinking he's the boss and the head honcho of his neighbourhood, or whatever, and ends with a blank statement - “This attitude comes from cocaine lies ”- the delusions of that particular drug. The refrain goes, “I was only sixteen years, so what could I have known . . . . ?”

The very best thing about the track is that it ROCKS. You want to listen to it on account of the great rhythm and the driving groove, plus the great vocals. Catch it on Spotify and YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMYT3DoMOPU Steve Cropper's wearing the same sweater he wore on the Booker T/Green Onions video!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOCW8brdBaE&feature=related

The lyrics are hard to find on the Internet, but you can see them here:
http://oxzen.blogspot.com/2009/05/layer-156-musical-interlude-vision-for.html

http://johnnyyen.blogspot.com/2009/05/dion-king-of-new-york-streets.html

http://www.diondimucci.com/main.html
http://www.diondimucci.com/king_albums/dm_notes.html – a great piece of rock n roll writing by Dave Marsh. Read it at your leisure.

Dave Marsh

Here's another great example of his writing – about Springsteen:

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=sLJZ84jaxhsC&pg=PA518&lpg=PA518&dq=%22dave+marsh%22+%2B+dion&source=bl&ots=gimIMO0Xpd&sig=xdH7E24gFbIwsLfxpQfgWSvFRA4&hl=en&ei=2OqoStDUEOaZjAf22-GCCA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6#v=onepage&q=&f=false

“Marsh is also a member of the National Advisory Board of PROTECT: The National Association to Protect Children.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Marsh

http://www.rocklistmusic.co.uk/dmarsh_1001.htm   -  The 1001 Greatest Singles Ever Made.

This man has TASTE! Feel the rapport.
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Layer 180 Woodstock, Hendrix, Political Egos, Religion, Faith and Humour.

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Woodstock

This weekend was the 40th anniversary of Woodstock. On Saturday night the 'Director's Cut' of the movie was shown on TV, and it was quite difficult to watch. The whole thing, apart from some of the music, was quite a shambles. Now that I stop to think about it I realise that a) I never bothered to buy the album of the event, and b) I didn't even enjoy the Woodstock movie when it first hit the cinemas - just as the era of peace and love (and anti war demos) was drawing to an end.

My outstanding memory of the film was the Santana section – full of pulsating music from a band that was at that point unknown in Britain. Superb throbbing bass guitar, thundering drums, pounding percussion and wailing Hammond organ. And of course the incredible Carlos and his brilliant guitar.

As for the rest of the event . . . That ridiculous chain-link fence that was so easy to break down or climb over! Sheer amateurish idiocy on the part of the organisers. The rain, the appallingly muddy ground, the lack of food and water, the incessant tannoy appeals to share food . . .

It seems completely incredible that Jimi Hendrix didn't get on stage till the Monday morning – till it was all over, and all that remained in front of the stage were a few bedraggled, wet and stoned stragglers, squelching through the mud and the piles of garbage.

I wonder what Jimi thought of that, as he cranked out his electric blues version of the Star Spangled Banner, which remains stunning to this day in its sonic invention, its painful intensity, its emotion, its sheer audacity and its implicit judgement on a country that was still embroiled in a war in Vietnam that continued to shock the rest of the civilised world for its barbaric conduct, its incredible cost, and its determination to impose the American state's wishes and authority on the people of a small country, all in the name of fighting Communism.

By sheer coincidence my ex-wife is currently enjoying a two week holiday in Vietnam, and the daughter of a friend has recently returned from an activity holiday in Vietnam, learning how to scuba dive. Had a great time, apparently.

According to Wikipedia, “Hendrix got into trouble with the law twice for riding in stolen cars. He was given a choice between spending two years in prison or joining the Army. Hendrix chose the latter and enlisted on May 31, 1961.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimi_Hendrix

Imagine that – two years in prison for just riding in a stolen car – not even stealing it. Two years, mind you. Either that or incarcerate yourself in the army. Jimi chose the army. The army threw him out after less than a year.

Check out three different versions of 'Machine Gun' on Spotify. Also Star Spangled Banner. Play it loud.

And 'All Along The Watchtower'. The greatest song by the greatest songwriter, played and sung by the greatest musician, ever recorded. I've said it before and I'll say it again - get some good headphones, and crank the volume right up.

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Minister of Defence.

Mr Ainsworth says, “I can't keep helicopter crews permanently in theatre. I have to bring them home. I have to train them.” If it were me, I'd train them beforehand.

This kind of language reveals perfectly the mind set of our current politicians. Egocentric and elitist language. I, I, I. Me, me, me.

Check this. WE have to do certain things. WE have to look after our armed forces personnel. WE have to train them. He's doing what he does on behalf of US. It's US that matter. Not him. We're still SO far away from having a government that understands ministers are public servants and do things for US, on OUR behalf.

They may be political leaders, but they still need to understand that they lead in the directions that WE want to go in, and work for the benefit of all, including non-voters and children.

I've just discovered an excellent website that monitors the actions and views of MP's -

http://www.theyworkforyou.com/

It also reports on MPs' 'interests', their voting record, their expenses, etc.

It seems Mr Ainsworth, MP for Coventry North East:

Voted strongly against a transparent Parliament
Voted very strongly for introducing ID cards
Voted very strongly for introducing foundation hospitals.
Voted strongly for introducing student top-up fees.
Voted very strongly for Labour's anti-terrorism laws.
Voted very strongly for the Iraq war.
Voted very strongly against an investigation into the Iraq war.
Voted very strongly for replacing Trident.

I think this gives a pretty clear impression of where he stands on the political spectrum. Pretty much four-square with the Tory party, and, of course, the leadership of New Labour.

“In the 2009 Parliamentary expenses scandal, in which some MPs were criticised for their expense claims, it was revealed that, in 2007-8, Ainsworth had allegedly claimed the maximum permissible amount of £23,083 for second-home allowances, making him the joint highest claimant in that year.” - Wikipedia

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“Religion is of the soul. Faith is of the spirit.”

This is a quote by someone taking part in a Sunday TV programme yesterday, and it's the first time I've heard the divide between religiosity and spirituality expressed in this way. This may well be a cliché in religious circles. But still, I think it's true – if we equate religious needs and religious tendencies with emotional needs and desires, and if we agree that emotions emanate from the soul, then religion is of the soul.

To belong to a religion, and to let your life be directed and shaped by the rituals, beliefs and dictats of a priestly caste and 'holy' scriptures, must be because you feel the need for a set of simple (or complicated) rules to abide by, because you feel an emotional need to put yourself and your life in the hands of some 'Superior Being' (or beings), and because you don't trust yourself to be able to grapple alone with life's challenges and a search for meaning and purpose.

'Faith' is an interesting word. To have faith. Mmmmm. How, exactly, does that work? Self-hypnosis?

On a different programme about religion yesterday the leaders of the major 'faiths' in Britain were asked how they knew that God existed. “It's faith”, said the Hindu guy. You take it on trust. You believe it because you believe it. Or not.

Interestingly, there were no interviews with any Buddhist leaders. Surely that can't be just because Buddhists don't believe in God?

When asked what God actually IS, the Archbishop of Canterbury said, “Something greater than I can conceive of, or put words to.” So that's fair enough then. He can't imagine what God is, and he can't describe God either. That's not what's called copping out, is it?

Apparently Hindus also believe there's one Supreme Being, but they also like to have lots of little Gods as well. Why not? The more the merrier.

There's an exhibition on at the British Museum at the moment called Garden and Cosmos. Don't bother going to it unless you really, really like Hindu art, or you don't mind parting with £8 just out of curiosity. The pictures on the website pretty much do the job for you. Check out painting number 9. What's that guy going to do to all those women with that strange-looking instrument?

http://www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/all_current_exhibitions/indian_summer/garden_and_cosmos.aspx

The most interesting part of the exhibition for me was about the Naths, whom I'd never heard of, and who use hatha yoga and meditation to become like the “great perfected beings”.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nath

"Our aims in life are to enjoy peace, freedom, and happiness in this life, but also to avoid rebirth onto this Earth plane. All this depends not on divine benevolence, but on the way we ourselves think and act."

Here's an interesting blog, which I've just had a quick look at.
http://www.nathsociety.org/lalitas-blog/

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My Big Decision
BBC Three

From the website of Love Productions:

“This series follows girls, on the cusp of womanhood, on the brink of making huge decisions. Each week two girls wrestling with the same issue embark on a road trip across the UK. There's just one catch... They're taking their mums and grans with them. A week of family "bonding" is the last chance for the older women to influence their daughters' decisions.”

In fact this week's (repeated) programme was about just one young woman, her long-suffering mother, and her mum's mum. The young woman is not so much 'wrestling' with an 'issue' as living a lifestyle of binge drinking, casual sex and terminal selfishness.

She says she loves her mum, and she clearly does, but it's obvious to viewers that her over-tolerant and loving mum is desperate for some respite from her daughter's “evil” attitude and constantly obnoxious and challenging behaviour.

After a lifetime of being unable or unwilling to say 'No' to her daughter, this mother, who's clearly a lovely woman in every way, is considering the downside of giving and desiring 'unconditional love'. This seems to be something that a lot of women, and a lot of mothers, need to think about. As well as 'tough love' and 'anything for a quiet life love'.

After a week of activities such as observing alcohol casualties in A & E, talking to the victims and parents of victims of drunk drivers, and talking to long-term alcoholics, the girl has to decide whether or not she will change her lifestyle, in response to the pleas and urgings of her elders.

Three months later the film crew go back to interview the family and find them completely changed. Everyone looks happy and positive. It's like someone's waved a magic wand and filled young miss with emotional, social and spiritual intelligence. She's only been out on the town drinking and partying on one occasion, and she's had no casual sex. She's cut right down on the alcohol too. She's started speaking to her mother respectfully, considerately, and appreciatively.

It looks like her week's 'road trip' has worked a miracle, and she's been brought to her senses by her experiences, and her reflections on her 'issues'. And then the voice-over casually mentions the fact that six weeks ago she met a young man and started seeing him regularly. Er . . .

So she now has an intimate, affectionate and loving relationship with a guy she seems to spend a lot of her time with. They go shopping, they talk, they hold hands, they go for long walks, they gaze into one another's eyes and they experience hitherto unknown natural 'highs'. Or at least we can assume they do, if we've been there and done that ourselves.

Question – what does this tell us about the real needs of teenagers and young adults?

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How to explain to my Japanese friend the stuff on a repeat of The Fast Show?

Anna Gestapo, on 1970's 'Spanish' TV?
Surgeons snogging whilst carrying out a transplant?
“This season I are wearing mostly no pants.”
“Drill Bit” perfume, by Taylor Woodrow, 'for particularly manly men'. What's funny about an Africaaner perfume sales lady?
The Twelve Ronnies, on Spanish TV?
Ron Manager on 'Match of the Day'?

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This week's Celebrity Wife Swap featured Ron Atkinson and Tessa Saunderson. After spending a few days with Tessa's husband, Ron's wife finally 'got it', and was subsequently able to explain to Big Ron why it was really, really unacceptable and inexcusable to call someone a “fucking lazy nigger”. On or off microphone.

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Heard on radio -

“Richard Prior said it took him 15 years as a comedian to really find his 'voice'.”

What lessons are there here for our education system, and the need to enable our young people to find both their spoken and their written voices? If we value self expression, self-knowledge, authenticity, etc, that is.
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Layer 138 The Class, Unhealthy Preoccupations, Outbreaks of Common Sense, and Wabi Sabi.

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Entre Les Murs

The Class (Between The Walls) takes place within the claustrophobic confines of a Parisian multi-cultural secondary school. It examines the dynamics within a very mixed ability class of 14 - 15 year olds, and their French language teacher, Francois, played by the author of the piece, based on his own experiences as a teacher. It also shows the dynamics within the staff of the school, including the school’s director.

It’s incredibly well written, acted, directed and edited, and won the Palme D’Or at Cannes. Apparently the actors are all real teachers and pupils, not actors and drama students.

It’s a compelling account of what it’s really like to work with such adolescents, with their attitudes, issues and challenges. It’s a pretty overwhelming task - one that most of us are ill-equipped to take on.

The kids, for example, can’t see the point of being forced to learn the refined and grammatically correct versions, the ‘standard’ forms, of the French language, since they themselves don’t need them, use them, or even aspire to using them.

The kids and their families have backgrounds that include Algeria, Morocco, Mali, Ivory Coast, the Caribbean, China, Vietnam, and so on. The tensions between the groups are brought out through their support for the football teams of their ‘home’ countries, and indeed France.

Questions of identity, loyalty, self-image, culture clash and conflict are seriously explored.

The film raises serious questions about the purposes and methods of education. They’re essentially decent kids, but tough, hard-bitten and streetwise, and they resent a world that pays scant respect to them, or to their culture and community.

The teachers are portrayed as decent and sometimes heroic figures, though also with their limits - their weaknesses and biases.

There are also interesting explorations of the sanctions available to schools and teachers, and how they are applied. The sense of hopelessness and helplessness of some of the kids, and their parents, is palpable.

You can get a taster of the film through the trailers on the film’s website:

http://www.theclassmovie.co.uk/

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A Buddhist Thought for Today - on Radio 4 today.

This is maybe worth repeating - from my recollection and my notes, with apologies to the Buddhist gentleman who offered this thought - for forgetting his name:

Mr Brown now says the era of laissez-faire capitalism is at an end. Inequality has now been shown to be a major factor in human happiness and the breakdown of social cohesion.

Social policy is very important for wellbeing, and social policies that reduce equality between individuals have been shown to be necessary and important for everyone’s wellbeing - not just the less well-off.

Gaining self worth from comparisons with others seems to be endemic in humans.
It’s hard to be immune from such things. Human competitiveness and drive for ‘status’, wanting to keep up with the successes of others, seems to be pervasive.

But is this in any case a sound basis for our sense of self worth? We should consciously avoid comparing ourselves with others.

We need to focus on our inner dimension of heart & mind - not look externally for feelings of self-worth.

We need to discover our inner dimensions of honest communication, love of nature, love of music, and so on. This is where real happiness and self-worth are to be found.

Through a process of calm reflection and meditation we can cultivate patience, generosity and compassion.

We need to learn to love ourselves first. If we find ourselves unlovely, then we should reflect on how we can change in order to be more pleasing to ourselves.

We also need to respond to ourselves with greater kindness. We must cultivate an inner abundance that others can share.

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An Unhealthy Preoccupation?

This week there was a Scots woman on Radio 4’s Today going on about what she sees as an unhealthy preoccupation in our schools with children’s ‘feelings’. She’s against using the ‘SEAL’ programme’s materials, (social & emotional aspects of learning), some of which try to cultivate ‘emotional literacy’ and the ability to identify ‘feeling states’. She thinks children whose feelings are ‘hurt’ should be told to pull themselves together and ‘just get on with it’. Very Scots. Very Presbyterian.

The woman’s a complete idiot, of course. The SEAL materials can be very badly used, and used in ways that simply create boredom and frustration because they’re dealt with in an almost academic way.

But it’s absolutely crucial that teachers, teaching assistants, heads of year, pupil mentors and headteachers use every opportunity that presents itself to help children develop a better understanding of human conflict, its causes and effects, and remedies. For heaven’s sake - the negative things that take place in schools are learning experiences, if they’re properly handled.

There’s no better time to learn individually about feelings and about real social and emotional intelligence than when someone’s personally or tangentially involved in some sort of crisis or conflict. Of course we must also ensure that children consider as whole classes, in the context of a planned curriculum, things like human values, anger management, loving kindness and non violence. But we must also use real-life situations to the full in order to help children learn better, more deeply and more quickly.

Giving angry, sad, aggressive, vengeful, frightened and tearful children opportunities to calm down and calmly reflect on whatever’s happened, and a chance to think about what went wrong, and what should happen next, are vital if children are to develop high levels of social, emotional and spiritual intelligence, which should be a priority in all our schools. This should be so bleeding obvious it’s unbelievable that anyone should need to say these things.

The lady in question is unhappy that schools take on this work, which she sees as an attempt to “supplant the family”. What an idiot. How can she not see that it’s vital that schools supplement the learning that goes on in families, not supplant it? How can she not see that precious little of such learning takes place within many families, even the materially well-off ones, and that the learning must therefore take place in schools, from Nursery onward, or else it won’t take place at all?

If skilled Nursery and Early Years practitioners fail to involve themselves is such learning then many children wouldn’t even be able to access the rest of the curriculum - the academic and intellectual core. Classrooms would be simply chaotic and totally unruly, unless she’s just proposing to expel children who don’t immediately conform to expectations, and to use that draconian form of punishment to frighten the rest into ‘good behaviour’. In which case you have a system of externally imposed classroom discipline which breaks down elsewhere, on the streets and in real life, because no-one has learnt the need for, and the skills of, self-discipline.

It’s also a simple fact that many families teach their children to be aggressive, to be selfish and to be bullies in order to get what they want in life. In which case schools do indeed need to supplant the learning that happens in those families. And in those cases it’s not helpful for the long run to simply suppress bullying and aggression. Children do indeed need to learn why these things damage themselves as well as others, and to change what’s in their hearts, their souls and their minds.

Learning to be patient, generous and compassionate, learning to cultivate an abundance that can be shared with others, is a long, long journey, especially for those who are already spiritually lame, crippled and blinded. As the Buddhist teacher would no doubt agree.

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Wabi Sabi

As I was saying the other day, there was an interesting documentary on BBC4 about the elusive concept of wabi sabi. The presenter, a certain faux naïf called Theroux (Louis’s Brother?) was pretty irritating - but no matter. Better to consider wabi sabi in this imperfect way than not at all. After all, according to him, wabi sabi is the beauty of imperfect things.

As far as I can see, wabi sabi is an attitude or state of mind that’s engendered by an awareness of the impermanence of things, not their ‘imperfection’. From this comes an attitude, a Zen attitude, which can be characterised as ‘non-attachment’. Through living with this attitude we can more readily accept that everything is impermanent, and everything changes. Impermanence is neither good nor bad. It just IS.

My feeling is that the origins of this philosophy can be traced back to Taoism and the ancient Taoist book, the I Ching - the Book of Changes. The way of the Tao is described in the other classic text - the Tao Te Ching. Zen grew from Buddhism, which was assimilated into Taoist China from its origins in India. Discovery of The Way and one’s individual Tao, and following one’s proper course through life is essential to becoming the best we can be.

Attention to nature, and to the cultivation of gardens, shows us that everything has its season. A time to live and a time to die. A time to blossom and a time to bear fruit. A time for germination and a time to wither and disappear. Everything happens in cycles.

A life based on Zen and wabi sabi seeks simplicity and authenticity. Manifestations of this ideal can be found in pottery, music and gardens. The best examples of such art can arouse in us feelings of serene melancholy and spiritual fulfilment, or satori.

Having just listened to an hour and a half of David Gilmour and Rick Wright and co on Sky Arts 1, Remember That Night, performing Pink Floyd classics such as High Hopes and Comfortably Numb, cranked up loud through the hi fi, I’m Zenned and blissed out, and I’m off to bed. It’s been an incredibly beautiful Spring day, sunny and warm from start to end, with blossom and daffodils everywhere. Life doesn’t get any better than this. Remember That Day.

http://nobleharbor.com/tea/chado/WhatIsWabi-Sabi.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wabi_sabi

http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?WabiSabi

You can watch the BBC programme on iPlayer at

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00j8bkc/In_Search_of_Wabi_Sabi_with_Marcel_Theroux/

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An Outbreak of Common Sense

Robert Peston reports that the Financial Services Authority is now proposing we abandon the prevailing dogma that the market always knows best and that the market should be left to regulate itself. The FSA now wants bank lending to be limited to avoid taking on too much risk, and wants banks to hold more liquidity in case money markets shrink or dry up.

The words stable, bolted, door, closing, after and horse come to mind.

Also stating, obvious, the and bleeding.
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Layer 43 Having A Laugh

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One of the benefits of retirement from headship is the intellectual stimulation that’s suddenly available, and accessible, and very, very enjoyable. I love my days being filled with conversation, books, newspapers, music, the Internet and Radio 4.

Ever since head teachers were bludgeoned into the role of bureaucratic functionaries who just do as they’re told - who just exist to ‘drive up standards’ - they were no longer required to think about the needs of children and teachers, and they were no longer allowed to be alternative centres of thinking about pedagogy, teaching and learning. Their independent action research into how to improve attitudes to learning, to reading, to mathematics and science, etc, was no longer welcome, and in many cases no longer tolerated. Talk about ‘Leaders of Learning’!

Teams of ‘experts’ had devised the National Literacy Strategy, for example, and the role of the head was to ensure the strategy was implemented in their schools. So no more nonsense about holistic learning, reading and writing across the curriculum, the integral role of speaking and listening, genuine purposes for writing and research, a sense of audience for creative writing, and so on. No more rubbish about children enjoying school, or developing a love of learning.

Al of those strands of thinking now had to be abandoned, and the teachers were to be directed to do whole-class teaching and decontextualised and meaningless exercises to practice ‘grammar for writing’, ‘connectives‘, adjectival phrases, and “wow words”! Not just a return to ‘basics’, but a kind of turbo-Victorian approach to children learning by rote to operate within the dominant culture.

These are the intellectual depths to which teaching was supposed to descend - the idea that good writing consists of long sentences full of ‘connectives’, multi-syllable words (whether or not the children fully appreciate their meaning), fancy descriptions, and the kind of vocabulary that may be quite common in some middle class homes but certainly isn’t in the majority of working class homes, where, incidentally, the language is nevertheless, more often than not (because not all of the working classes are thick and ignorant, you see) vivid, lively, colorful and witty. It also tends to be concise, direct and appropriate.

I used to despair of teachers who started out in their careers, and often went through their entire careers, thinking that working class language and expression was inferior and unfit for purpose. I well remember a snooty teacher that I had for ‘A’ Level French who hated the Midlands accent that was prevalent in my school and scolded us for our ‘lazy’ and ‘slovenly’ pronunciation, and for our ways of speaking. I remember asking myself why I should have any respect for this self-made toff (RIP Mr Hottot) who clearly had no respect for (or understanding of ) me and my vast extended family, my friends and my neighbours. I felt a very real need to give him at least a sharp verbal slap, but of course I also wanted to get through my French exam.

The only thing I remember learning from this guy was the word ‘palimpsest’ (See Layer 1). He obviously loved the word, and thought it made him sound educated and terribly bright when he used it. The second time he tried to teach it to us he started off by asking our small group of ‘A’ Level hopefuls (only half of whom passed the exam) if we knew what it meant. When I told him the meaning he asked me how I knew it (!), and was somewhat taken aback when I explained that he’d already introduced us to the word - the previous year. It’s still not exactly a word that’s always on the tip of my tongue. I reckon I could get through life without it.

I’ve known plenty of teachers (and head teachers) down the years who had a built-in conviction that non-standard English needed to be driven out of the classroom and replaced with ‘correct’ English. They found it very hard to come to terms with the idea that if the community they work in has its own modes of speech, its own local grammar and syntax, and its own vocabulary and pronunciation, then it was perfectly entitled to have those things, and entitled to resent any teacher whose attitude was elitist, snobbish and discriminatory.

It seems incredible to me that as part of their basic training young teachers aren’t made aware that their job is to validate and show respect for children’s current usage of language, and to work towards children becoming aware of ‘Standard English’ and ‘Received Pronunciation’, and to be able to use them appropriately when any situation requires it, such as in tests. (Though one might argue that examiners have no right to penalise any child who chooses to write in the vernacular in a test.)

Teachers who see themselves as missionaries, or elocutionists, who descend on working class communities with no respect for the local culture and a determination to impose their fundamentalist beliefs about speaking and writing on the children they work with, and attempt to make the children feel ashamed of their community languages, accents and dialects, should be sent packing. To the contrary, the system goes on encouraging them in their self-appointed role.

However, I digress. All I’m really saying is that the life of head teachers in the current climate is intellectually stultifying, and the biggest challenge on offer is to learn how to work the system and survive in their job, whilst dealing with a daily diet of problem-solving, administration and supervision that is hardly very intellectually stimulating the first time around, let alone the 10th or 20th.

Not that most heads are looking for intellectual stimulation, of course, but wouldn’t it be NICE if the education system offered them some possibilities and encouragement to think at a high level about what they’re actually doing to and for children. Like, for instance, providing for all the developmental needs of children and enabling them to grow their emotional, social, physical, instinctual and spiritual intelligences, as well as their intellects. The system still doesn’t promote intellectual development and critical thinking, of course - just memorisation, fact acquisition, and test-passing ability.

And as for developing curiosity, creativity, imagination and a love of learning for its own sake - you’re ‘avin a laugh!

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Football - the great working class pastime cum plaything and business opportunity for oligarchs, tycoons and rich scumbags from around the world - available free on ITV last night (if you don't count the cost of the brainache adverts): the Champions League Cup Final, live from Moscow. Manchester United v Chelsea.

Football’s become a bit like language really - once the humble property of ordinary people, but lately colonised and now ‘owned’ by those who like to consider themselves the elite, the good and the great, who consider they have the right to make the rules and to impose the terms on which it’s practiced and enjoyed.

At least this is the case in funky old Britannia, where no-one has any qualms any more about selling their souls and their assholes to the devil, or the Murdoch corporations, or Sky TV, or whatever. Mass culture in Britain is increasingly the BBC v The Rest. The People’s Media v Commercial Interests.

Which is why just a few hundred thousand ‘subscribers’ can now watch Test cricket live, or most football matches live, instead of the millions of people (children included, since they also have ‘rights’) who would like to, and indeed feel they ought to be able to.

Though there are increasingly few members of the populace who were brought up on the notion that everybody - regardless of class or financial means - has the right to share in the riches of our national cultural life: even humble street sweepers, shelf stackers, labourers, child minders and others on minimum wages and part-time hours, who may not have two pennies to rub together when all their bills and taxes have been paid.

(They don’t pay Income Tax? Well they DO pay near enough 20% VAT every time they buy a bog roll or a pair of shoes or a pen or pencil. Which means they pay proportionately more in tax than middle class folks, who in any case are able to afford accountants who show them how to avoid paying tax. So stick that in your anti-egalitarian pipe and smoke it.)

Interestingly the football clubs of Spain and Germany are still at least 51% owned by the fans themselves, joined together in ‘sporting associations’. (Was this the origin of our ‘Association Football’? I’ve never really thought about it.)

In those countries they have maintained a member-owned tradition and a commitment to allow young people to experience being football fans in some of the finest stadiums in Europe. They still have ‘affordable’ prices for entry - 100 Euros can still buy you a ticket for the entire season at Barcelona’s Camp Nou.

Well that’s where a political tradition of anarcho-syndicalism gets you, Mr Scudamore, Mr Abramovich. But you’re not really interested in that, are you? It’s just noses to the trough, as far as you’re concerned. And those that can’t get near to the trough can just fuck off as far as you’re concerned.

I just wish Bill Hicks, who was satirizing the shit out of commercialism and its domination of cultural life, 20 years and more ago, was still around with his courage and his explosive wit and his insightful wisdom. I miss him badly. He was a good man. He made me laugh - like no-one else ever did, or probably ever will again.

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You can read David Conn’s excellent column on the state of football, its finances, and the impact of the ’free market’ on the national team, in yesterday’s Guardian.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2008/may/21/premierleague.championsleague

As for the match last night - it was brilliant. As it would have been had the players been ‘earning’ less than half of what they currently gorge themselves on. As it would have been had Barcelona and Bayern Munich been able to afford those particular players, and been in the final instead of Glazer’s United v Abramovich FC.

Well done the Uefa president, Michel (Liberty, Fraternity, Equality) Platini, for continuing to draw our attention to the fact that the success of the top English clubs has been “built on an unsustainable level of debt which, in all fairness, is distorting the level playing field in Europe”. In all fairness, I reckon they should just kick us out of Uefa.

So don’t laugh about the German teams not doing well in the Champions League any more. At least Germany insists on keeping football as the people’s game, and keeping live football affordable. It’s not the decent and egalitarian social-democratic Germans who are the nationalist neo-fascists these days - it’s us.

We‘re the ones who consider ourselves entitled to all the power, the prestige and the glory, at any cost. To ourselves, (our own people, our own game, our own national team,) or others. (Yes folks, I can bring politics into anything, even Uefa and the Bundesliga!)

Though by all means have a damn good laugh that there aren’t any decent German footballers any more. Over the years I think they’ve had more than their fair share of luck and good fortune. The wheel of fortune has certainly turned, in more ways than one. So sorry Herr Ballack - you were the only German in the Final, and you were crap. Your glory-seeking off-target shooting from free kicks and from miles out of range was rubbish. You were having a laugh.

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PS John Terry is a wuss. Fucking hell, man. You just missed a penalty, that’s all. I can’t feel sorry for you. Think of all the money you’re earning. Fuck the glory. Fuck your ego. I’ll save my pity for the poor fuckers who can’t afford to get into Stamford Bridge, and will never be able to afford to watch you and your vastly over-paid pals kicking a football, except on a screen, of course. Down the pub, maybe. The few that still remain in working class Britain, that is, and can afford a pub license for Sky.
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Layer 42 Results, Results, Results.

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I thought I’d said all there is to say about SATs and testing, but Anne Atkins was back on the subject on Today’s Radio 4 Thought for the Day.

Nothing new or original, really, but more emphasis being given to what a futile, nasty and destructive business it all is. She spoke about how education was originally seen as something that was for the benefit of the individual, and learning was just for learning’s sake, and for the sake of the students - not for any other purpose.

She said that we’ve come to believe that every talent can be measured, which is clearly nonsense. Even the believers in SATs don’t believe that, unless they’re complete morons. The mad satters try to maintain that SATs are just a routine, low-key, end of key stage procedure that needn’t take up a lot of time and energy -which is downright dishonest and stupid, to say the least.

Anne, on the other hand, was keen to make the point that love can’t be assessed, and neither can being a good parent. Nor can ‘character’. She concluded that any quality that can be weighed and measured is not much more than that.

I just wish I could believe that this steady chiseling away at the nonsense that we currently take to be real education is having any impact on the thinking of the people who have been promoting the system we currently have in this country. I still seriously doubt it. They embrace it like a religion, and in the absence of any inclination to properly debate an intelligent rationale for our system they will go on clinging to their fundamentalist beliefs.

The stupid tendency will go on parroting their idiot mantras - “We need to drive up standards . . . Too many children are failing to master basic skills . . . We need to prepare children for the jobs market . . . There is no excuse for failure . . . SATs are just 5 days of testing at the end of a key stage . . . We need to measure the performance of schools and teachers . . . High standards are not incompatible with enjoyment of school and a rich curriculum.” Bollocks - all of it.

The problem with these fuckwits is that they have no concept of what life is really like in schools where there is no critical mass of able children, and no experience of the problems of running schools where there are huge issues with the recruitment and retention of able and well-trained staff.

They have no understanding of the impact of government directives and strategies, and an Ofsted regime that cares only to analyse spurious data. They have no clue as to the way in which school managers and governors are demoralized and terrorized into turning their schools into results factories, and to hell with the wellbeing, creativity and enjoyment of school of millions of children, both the able and the less able who struggle to cope with the rigid demands of the system.

Crime and Disorder

Half an hour before the Anne Atkins piece, and also half an hour after it, there were reports on the huge amounts of money that have been spent on locking up young offenders, and on the excessive use of custody and criminalisation, with no measurable impact on crime reduction and prevention. This is the big news of the day, according to the BBC. We lock up a much higher number proportionately than any other civilized country. The cost of this custody has been met from moving money out of the education, social services and housing budgets. We’re spending £280m a year on locking up our criminal youth, and £24m on crime ‘prevention’.

Hasn't it occurred to anyone that we need to spend more money on both education and rehabilitation, as well as on better housing and proper community policing, and less on being the best friend of the USA in its imperialistic adventures and its 'war on terror'? It's a similar issue really - first you make people angry, and then you bash them over the head and put them in detention for expressing their anger in the only ways they know how.

Why are we not rehabilitating our young offenders? Why are we not reducing re-offending? Why are crime prevention measures not working? Duh! Why are we still asking these dumb questions?

Let’s go through this again. We take money away from the education and the developmental needs of young people, from work with families, and from community development. We alienate more kids by providing an education system that cares nothing for the real well-being of children - an education system that causes them to be competitive, stressed, depressed and angry with the system that brands them as failures or also- rans, which of course is what most kids are, according to our system of grading and measuring.

We take away their enjoyment of school. We pay no attention to developing children’s crucial emotional, social and spiritual intelligences. We don’t give a damn about developing creativity and imagination, let alone caring, loving and enjoying life - every minute of every day.

We drill them in classrooms where the emphasis is on competition rather than collaboration and cooperation. We reduce opportunities for creative interaction and conversation. We never let them play and learn in situations where they need to develop skills of cooperation and dialogue, where they’re allowed to work out their own problems, rivalries, jealousies, with minimal intervention from adults who know them well and are concerned to develop their individuality, and are well trained to do this.

We spend virtually no time on developing their understanding of concepts and vocabulary around human values, morality and ethics. We never let them ask questions about real issues. We give them no understanding of philosophy, let alone experience of Socratic debate and dialogue. We give them no time for proper reflection or meditation.

We drill them and regiment them and dress them in uniform. We give no encouragement towards individuality, let alone encourage them to develop their unique human ‘voice’. We exclude them from activities they genuinely enjoy, and we remove any notion of learning through play.

We exclude them from school for petty breaches of discipline, including not wearing the approved shoes and socks. We exclude permanently the less able (who are going to mess up the school’s statistics) at the first possible opportunity, often on the flimsiest of pretexts.

And we wonder why they turn out to be anti-social, angry, unable to exercise self-discipline, bitter, resentful, depressed, psychopathic and thoroughly fucked up. And that’s just the ones who do well in SATs and GCSEs.

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Children and families cope with their lives and make something of themselves in spite of, not because of, the pathetic systems of education and social support that we have in this increasingly materialistic and nasty society we’ve been creating since the beginning of the Thatcher-inspired counter-revolution against progressive values and social democratic politics.

If children and young people don’t turn out to be basket cases it’s primarily down to their own resilience and spirit, and the support they get from loving parents, and some very caring teachers who do right by them in spite of excessive work loads and demands for treating the kids like units of production.

Brain-washing the kids into conformity and willingness to cram for tests, and to do ever-increasing amounts of homework from the age of 5, is now the name of the game.

The education system is a mess, and everyone knows it, though virtually no-one is willing to admit it. It’s architects have been people like Thatcher, Baker, Blunkett, Woodhead, Barber, Blair . . . and Adonis! And now we have Balls and . . . Jim Knight! Hurrah!

The only decent Secretary of State for Education we’ve had in the past 20 years, the only one with any experience of teaching (in secondary schools only, admittedly), the only one who spoke from knowledge and conviction and from the heart, without briefing notes, has been Estelle Morris - and she resigned because the system was beyond being steered by a single individual in a proper progressive direction, and it was doing her head in. At least that’s my take on her demise.

Coincidentally she was a student in Coventry (at the College of Education, where I went to many a disco, in spite of not being a student there myself) at the same time as me, graduating a couple of years after I did. I like to think that teaching in a Coventry comprehensive school did her a power of good, at least in terms of seeing real life and real working-class kids and families from the perspective of a class teacher. Coventry was the first city to adopt comprehensive education and build new comprehensive schools. The one I attended was on a large green-field site, the first in the country, and was totally brilliant, apart from the odd teacher, like the one who tried to teach me to speak German for 5 years. And even he wasn’t a bad old boy.

Individual schools may do well by their kids in spite of the system, not because of it. The system does not encourage doing well by the kids. The system does not care about the kids. Not really. The system cares about results.

Results. Results. Results.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7411909.stm

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This is what Polly Toynbee had to say about Estelle Morris at the time of her resignation:

She never played the Westminster game. She spoke gently and intelligently, made reasoned arguments persuasively. Anyone who heard her fine speech in Blackpool - the best and the best received of the conference - knows that she has done herself a grave injustice, fatally colluding with her thuggish attackers. But in a state of meltdown, people do and say the wrong thing. "There! That proves it! She couldn't take the heat," says Westminster. Why should she - or anyone else?

Some say her unwarranted insecurity springs from her own failed education, failed A-levels and a retreat to a teacher training college at the age of 18. School failure - at 11 or 18 - often does scar for life. Even those who rise above it later can find that in adversity and under stress, lacking the false affirmation of paper qualifications, they buckle under the illusion that they are essentially stupid and will be "found out", as they were at school. (As an 11+ failure with one A-level, I should know.) People retain a mystic faith in old exam results or in the snap judgments of school reports, dogged by lazy character assassinations for the rest of their days. That is why education should always try to praise a child's talents, not brand it with failure. These things she knew well, and it made her a humane politician and a good education minister.

What made her job unendurable was the perpetual interference of Downing Street's bright young men, filling the prime minister's head with their not so bright ideas. She was never in favour of the spread of yet more faith schools. Nor was she in favour of anything that smacked of a return to selection at 11.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2002/oct/25/publicservices.gender
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estelle_Morris
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/2355059.stm


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The Dalai Lama is in the House.

Visit the following page for details of what religious nutters can be like when they fall out with one another. Talk about spiritual intelligence!

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/afp/20080520/tuk-britain-china-tibet-protest-a7ad41d.html

“A Buddhist group on Tuesday announced plans to picket public appearances in Britain by the Dalai Lama, accusing him of restricting religious freedoms in his homeland and among exiled Tibetans. The Western Shugden Society, a branch of Tibetan Buddhism that reveres a god denounced by the Dalai Lama since 1996, said demonstrations were planned outside Britain's parliament and at several other locations on his 11-day tour.”

Layer 28 The Happiness Debate

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The Guardian is a brilliant newspaper, and recently won another award as the world’s best daily paper. Its so-called News Room is currently staging an exhibition of the work of Chris Riddell, one of the world’s best political cartoonists and commentators on contemporary life, who has been with the Observer for more than 12 years. His artwork is superb, especially up close in the exhibition, and his wit is laugh-out-loud funny. As Andrew Rawnsley says in his introduction, he can say in an instant, in a single cartoon, the brutal and excoriating truths that even excellent writers can’t express as well in a whole page of prose.

Which is more than you could say of the participants and the organisers of the debate at the News Room. “Can We Teach Happiness?”

Duh! NO! Let’s go home.

Much as I admire Dr Anthony Seldon who believes that his school Wellington College is successfully teaching happiness to its pupils (and staff) I find it hard to believe that he agreed to propose this crackpot notion in a debate. Though he was eventually honest enough to agree with my challenge that he’s doing the cause (of better education) a disservice by insisting that we can teach happiness, when it’s obvious that it’s not even possible to learn to be happy. Who has ever done that? Or would ever want to! By not avoiding unhappiness and its causes, through needing to understand and come to terms with confusion, misery and suffering, we progress along the path of spiritual enrichment and enlightenment, which is a far worthier goal than seeking after individual ‘happiness’.

Let’s promote other people’s happiness by all means, but teach people how to be happy - never! Dr Seldon also agreed with my point that we need to talk about learning rather than teaching, and we should stress that what we’re setting out to do is enable young people to learn how to develop all of their intelligences - IQ, EQ and SQ - in order to be better prepared for life in a complex world, and better able to cope well with life’s challenges, and therefore more likely to avoid life’s more obvious pitfalls and various causes of unhappiness.

What’s so hard about all this? I hated the smart-arse little twit of a girlie, the self-styled Director of the ‘Think Tank’ that was promoting the debate, who chaired it in an obtrusive and irritating manner, but I hated even more the Chair of her wank tank who stood up and railed on about teaching the basics of reading and writing instead of bothering with liberal nonsense like teaching happiness and creativity. Arrghhh! I had an urgent need to punch his dim little fascist philistine lights out.

How did the Guardian, liberal newspaper par excellence, get involved with this crew? Who let them in? It’s not just what they say, it’s how the bastards say it. I hate that special clever-class way of speaking that they cultivate to set them apart from non-clever people. Only in England eh? - a special ‘intellectual think tank’ accent and attitude.

I once visited the offices of Demos, in Tooley Street, and had a look around, bought some of their booklets. We need to know more about think tanks and what they think - that’s what I think. We need to consider how these special thinking classes have influence over our national affairs. We need to know who funds them, who uses them, and what sort of bangs the funders expect to get for their bucks. Maybe all that time and intellectual effort and money is doing some good. Who knows?

The opponent of the motion, Professor Frank Furedi, thinks he knows everything, when it’s clear that he knows very little about education in schools. But like most people who have been to school, especially if they have kids at school themselves, they think they know everything. Let’s put it this way, pal. You’re a professor of sociology. I don’t tell you what’s what about sociology. If I have a view on it I’m entitled to express it with a degree of humility and in the expectation of being put right on its deficiencies. So don’t barge into a debate about education and start telling the pros what’s what! In your ex-(?)Stalinist intolerant supercilious manner.

This professor actually believes that there’s no such thing as emotional intelligence and spiritual intelligence. Duh! Pretty much what you’d expect from a rationalist and a Stalinist. Clearly he has none, he can’t see what these things might be, and he doesn’t value them. He seems to think that kids should come to regard learning as something important in its own right (fine so far) but then promotes the notion that only academic success and intellectual advancement are of any importance. How far away is this from Gradgrindism? “Give these children facts. Facts alone are wanted in life.”

Give this man a good slap. That’s what Zen would recommend.

These poor little hobby horses of mine. Ride them to death, don’t I?

The conclusion of the “debate” was interesting. Actually it wasn’t a debate, in any sense that I understand the term. The ‘audience’ was only allowed to ask questions of the speakers, not bring their own thoughts and insights to the chamber. The chair asked us to raise our hands to indicate support for the motion. Not to raise one’s hand showed support for Prof. Furedi. But to raise a hand showed support for the notion that we can teach happiness. Abstain? Allow Furedi to have the benefit of an abstention and thereby affirm his obnoxious views? No - Dr Seldon had recanted on the possibility of teaching happiness, and therefore he deserved support. What he’s actually doing at his school - in practice - deserves support. Forget the semantics - lets all get behind the notion that through our teaching and pedagogy we can help young people to avoid a lot of unnecessary misery in life. We can and should be helping them travel a path towards greater enlightenment. This is the most worthy aim of education.
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Happiness - Lessons From A New Science, is a book written by Richard Layard. Buy it. Read it. Think about it.

http://www.agora-education.org/events/debate.php
http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/comment/story/0,,2257832,00.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/newsroom/story/0,,2238638,00.html
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2247375,00.html
http://www.chrisriddell.com/
http://books.guardian.co.uk/top10s/top10/0,,1444290,00.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Seldon
http://www.frankfuredi.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Furedi
http://www.siteset.co.uk/anthonyseldon/

You can read Hard Times on Google Books. It's well worth re-reading the first 2 or 3 chapters from time to time to remind ourselves of Dickens' wonderful insight into how a utilitarian view of how schools should work just crushes the spirit out of children (Mchoakumchild) as its deadens their minds and imaginations -
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=DbHGywDs--UC&dq=%22hard+times%22+dickens&p...