Hard News: A Real Alternative
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What made me incoherently angry was the TV news report last night which showed an Afghani woman and her kids who'd been to rehab and then gone back to opium explaining that it was because opium was cheaper than food and quelled the kids' hunger pains.
That was 15 different flavours of fucked up. The story, the way it was presented, the context.
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The way things are going, current policy thinking towards square pegs in round holes is to grab a bigger sledgehammer.
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Seems to me the deal is basically going to be: "these kids who are at most risk are too far gone to help, let's cut them loose, it's the most cost effective thing to do ..... until they rob your house then we'll lock them in a shipping crate"
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Saying "kids who go to AE are taking drugs so we must stop funding AE" is so... just... bad.
If you're saying that for AE, you might as well say the same for A&E: "The hospitals are full of sick and injured people! Quick, review funding for hospitals, and we'll reduce sickness and injury!"
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The way things are going, current policy thinking towards square pegs in round holes is to grab a bigger sledgehammer.
Or rather to drill fewer smaller, rounder holes.</stretch_metaphor>
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We've only just come out of a school system designed to fail half the participants.
We have (for the moment) a system that at least tries to bring everyone up. As we now need an educated workforce.
Aside from the obvious agenda was anyone shocked that some kids who've had a bad run so far are also into drugs?As for the Afghani & Opium. It's a crime that Afghanistan isn't the world supplier of legal Opium to the worlds pharmacies. Think of the Pharmacs savings with pure Opium being para imported.
No more Methadone programmes - go for the straight opium :p -
Hence his argument for philosopher kings, which seems like a jolly good argument to me!
The argument may be good, but those philosopher kings seem a bit scarce at the moment.
And they would probably be banned from public office 'cause sitting on your arse wondering about the state of the world is bound to offend someone.
Especially Lawyers, accountants and everyone doing a degree hoping to land a cushy career in the public service 'cause they are supposed to be the only ones qualified enough to understand all that complex stuff needed to run govts etc. -
Plato puts up quite a good argument, yeah. But still insufferably smug and self-serving. Philosphers have egos, too- some of considerable dimension, some in another dimension entirely. ;)
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As for the Afghani & Opium. It's a crime that Afghanistan isn't the world supplier of legal Opium to the worlds pharmacies.
Blame Tasmania for that.
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just to bring the board back to where I assume Russel's original intent was; education, I have a question: Why is it that NZ kids always do so poorly at international maths and science 'elite' competitions, and always do so well at maths and language comprehension in OECD ratings? The usual top five are Japan, Korea (south), Norway (I think), NZ, and another. Now I've lived in Korea, and Japan, and with knowledge of my own upbringing in NZ, wouldn't wish their education demands on a scoundrel.
We are, moderately egalitarian, socratic, platonic, who knows. But, long summers at Muriwai beat as wrote chanting in a darkened room any day.
Still, it would be nice to have a few more Nobels in physics etc, just to justify the 'long summers' you understand.
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Philosphers have egos, too- some of considerable dimension, some in another dimension entirely. ;)
Blame Jesus for that.
So the Nats are tinkering with Alternative Education. Wonder if their ranks just see red when that word appears anywhere near their field of influence.
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Why is it that NZ kids always do so poorly at international maths and science 'elite' competitions, and always do so well at maths and language comprehension in OECD ratings?
I believe we do quite well in science as well - I know that we brought back a few International Chemistry Olympiad medals in 2004, for instance.
If you want Nobels, then barrack for university funding - Nobels tend to be awarded for theoretical discoveries. I doubt this government has much time for those, though. Not enough money in them.
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Kerry
There's a document on the min of ed site - that's about e-learning. Not specifically digital literacy, but it offers some parameters for schools.
apologies for ugly url.
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You'd think this depressing and horrifying story - even if the numbers are a bit ropey - would give those here some pause for thought re special ed:
Early death concern for drop-outs -
This is off topic but I've just read the new Listener - the article about the Unfortunate Experiment. I'm stunned.
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Ping,
What an odd story.
This statement strikes me:
"It said 78 per cent of girls in the system were using marijuana well ahead of the 44 per cent of American girls in a similar system using marijuana."
That's not the school's problem surely.
Isn't the fact these kids use drugs more indicative of their surrounding and perhaps the things that landed them in an AE school in the first place?
I did a story not so long ago on an AE in Otara and I wasn't sure what to expect.
What I found was intensely proud kids trying to make the most out of a billy-basic environment.
Are they intimidating? Possibly - but that's probably because I was there as a journalist who they felt was looking in on them - having a prod to see what weird things they'd do or say. I don't think they could see how I was there to pen a story about what they'd achieved... I guess because, apparently, AE kids don't achieve, they're too busy smoking pot.
I'm sure they already feel like outsiders and at 14/15 yrs old they're painfully aware of how NOT cool they are - they can't be in rugby teams, don't have an art department, there's no tuck shop and nope, no cool ICT department to learn about multimedia.
Personally I think it would suck to be at an AE school as a teenager - they don't even have a school ball - but still, these kids turn up day in day out from what I was told and I think that's down to the teachers they work with and the kid's determination to achieve something.
Despite the odds.
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Who is The Honey of the Drones...?
Who will be Queen Bee of the BeeHive?Will it be Paula B, Judith C, or Anne T?
Who has the most sting, who will sting the country for the most or who is the stingiest?Anne T having attended Colenso College and obtaining a Diploma in Computer Programming is a natural to decide the future education of our larvae...
Judith C definitely has a bee in her bonnet about boy racers, a hornets nest crying out for a stinging rebuke from the queen of Corrections...
Paula B does seem to be the "single reproductive female" in the Beehive and Social Development and Employment are very Hive oriented pursuits...
But seriously - what does the Alternative Education System cover, we aren't talking Steiner Schools and the like are we?
This term School System of Last Resort seems to have come out of nowhere - though I do (just) remember some great nights at the The Last Resort in Wellington, and there did seem to be quite a few punks there... : - )
Perhaps Ms Tolley should go to the annual Christ's College vs Boys High Rugby match in Chch - to see how the "civilised" sector behaves.I would have thought that indications of high drug abuse amongst these kids was good reason to give it more funding not less - still, guess we have to wait for the review.
Cutting Enviroschools funding is the daftest thing I have ever heard - guess we need the "trash vortex" in the Pacific to fill up a bit more, the planet's only hope is informed, concerned and committed kids, Enviroschools is a great start...
yrs industriously
Buzz E. Boy
dancing for food... -
The AE discussion once again highlights how narrow this governments vision is when it comes to education. Anything that sits outside the numeracy and literacy box is a prime target and while numeracy and literacy are very important there is a lot more to a child's learning than the 3 R's. Creativity, inquiry, use of IT, physical activity and the arts are just as important and hopefully I am providing opportunities for my 5 year olds to explore these aspects of learning as well.
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a cushy career in the public service
Further teeth gritting nonsense from Hickey about that, blinded by ideology.
Apparently our private sector is performing so badly because the gummint pays its workers a few percent more. Thank goodness "encouraging growth" needs nothing more than slashing some public servants. It worked so well in the 90s after all..
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Ping,
Tony - even things that fit in the literacy and numeracy box aren't safe - as in Adult Community Education, programmes funded by TEC's Foundation Learning Pool grant (including literacy and numeracy classes run in schools for parents), Environschools... doh.
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Actually, the next sentence quoted from that student, Mere, is: "No-one ever talked to me about this before I got to AE."
See that's the true story, a dropout kid finds a unique school that listens to him.A progressive education concept.
That's a sensible way to deal with juvenile deliquency, give them education and a more flexible learning environment. Education is essential to any kid, who gives a fuck about where it takes place, these kids need education beyond anything else before the lack of it dettaches them from their city.
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Lara,
The amount of crap that young people get in the media is amazing. From the age of 15 onward till about 20, reading the paper (the Press down here) was an exercise in being told how useless I was, how I didn't know anything, and how society would be a better place if me and my fellow young uns bumped ourselves off. I'm either used to it now, or am now part of that condemning culture that we have around young people here in NZ. I shall watch your show with interest Russell.
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Apparently our private sector is performing so badly because the gummint pays its workers a few percent more.
Or perhaps because the private sector pays it's employees a few percent less - maybe the answer is for the government to fund unions .....
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I really don't know how or if I would have survived without the alt ed I got. I was in 'real' schooling for a few years, and was glad to have escaped.
It hardly had any funding from the Government even then, and ran on the determination of those who wanted it to survive - and also on their ability to circumvent ERO's need to push education into little boxes. The current Government's obsessive focus on narrow definitions of education puts at risk such spaces which allow children to grow.
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Ping,
I've only just started reading the 103 page report but aren't these the more interesting bits...?
"All of the students (100%) interviewed at the AE centres in our study, told us that they enjoyed being at AE and 95% said they enjoyed learning again, since attending AE."
"The one-to-one help they were receiving from the AE tutors was helping them re-establish their confidence in their ability to learn and increasing their optimism and beliefs about their future."
"Almost all students had enjoyed learning at primary school and had achieved reasonably well there."
"Once students join alternative education there appear to be limited processes and structures for them to return to mainstream secondary schools. They appear to be “lost to the system”
Don't those bits raise for more interesting and serious questions...?
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