Hard News: From soundbite to policy
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Thanks Goodoh. Sounds like there's no shortage of love there. Is she happy? So good to know you've got a community of people around you. That's a real achievement. Next achievement as far as I'm concerned is getting rid of these wideboys who pose as government ministers.
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When my daughter was mainstreamed at her local school in 1989, the Minister of Education, speaking on Morning Report, called me a zealot because I was insisting that my daughter "who would never learn anything" was "sucking up money from other kids."
He's now Speaker of the House.Not that I doubt your story, because it sounds entirely credible, but those facts don't stack up. National didn't becoming the governing party until 1990. Lockwood Smith was indeed Minister of Education in that government, but he couldn't have been speaking in that role in 1989. So was he speaking as Education Spokesman? Or did you get your years wrong?
As I said, I'm not doubting you. Just wanting to clarify Mr Smith's exact role at the time. -
Sorry, 1989 Education Act - you're right National came in soon after. They thought the act was dreadful - if it had been 2008 they would have repealed it by lunchtime.
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Jan, the funny thing was, I went to Selwyn College, which at the time was proud of it's position as a progressive school, valuing artistic subjects very highly. And yet I felt that it failed me completely in the Art department, once it hit the point of national standards (School Certificate). But it didn't fail all the Art students - many achieved very highly.
But that was the problem - the focus went onto achievement. Art became a closed shop to me by simple virtue of there only being 24 hours in a day. What time I did have for Art I gave with all my attention, and I made quite a lot of progress. Just not as much as the kids who were prepared to spend 30 hours a week on one out of 5 subjects. That was discouraging.
Even more discouraging was the fact that I could not continue Music at all. Nor Latin. You can only take so many subjects. In 4th form we took something like 10 subjects, but in 5th you had to narrow it down to 5. English, Maths, and Science were compulsory, so that left 2 electives. How suckful is that for people who have wide interests?
If I knew then what I know now, I would not have let it discourage me. But one of the things about all these national tests is they become a big focus, and everything is subordinated to getting good grades. We were assured time and time again how important it is. So I quit Art altogether, a year after I quit Music altogether (and a bunch of other subjects that I liked too). I was extremely resentful of PE which was a compulsory subject that year because it was wasting valuable time that could have been spent on examined subjects.
So, yes, while I was the kind of student who schools were designed for in the old days, I really don't think the way those schools worked actually did me any favors. They just made me drop my interest in a lot of things, to specialize highly in things that mostly I have never used. I work as a computer programmer, but I can tell you that I have never needed calculus even once. Furthermore I learned computer programming at home, outside of school hours, and found that my schooling got in the way of that big-time.
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3410,
Out of interest, what Education experience does Anne Tolley have?
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Marks out of a hundred, Mark? :-)
Well, to be blunt (and I hope you'll forgive me), I'd give you 79-83. Perhaps you'd feel that's unfair based on my previous glowing comment (which I'll attribute mainly to the candid clarity with which you wrote.
I'll explain the reasoning behind your low mark; you gave solid examples and sound reasoning for the ways the teachers and system influenced you, both positively and negatively. The question was pretty much aimed at garnering the negatives, and while I appreciate the fairness of your answer, I'd say you may have been a little too evenhanded (if that can ever be a bad thing). More to the point, I feel that you perhaps neglected to mention any extra curricula influences, above you mentioned:
because my mother taught me to love stories. ... My father's rage at my arithmetical incompetence also probably didn't help.
You did not really elaborate in what way their attitudes affected your own. In this respect there was also no mention of how or if your peers' reactions to the teachers and system had a significant influence on your outlook.
Having said all that, and felt like a NAZI, still...
a wonderful answer. -
ben I was a kid (and young adult) who tested well. I was very good at working out exactly how much work I needed to put in to get the mark I needed (and often only aimed for the exact grade I needed to proceed to the next level) and was able to goof off all year long and make up with a sort but intense bust of work when exams or assignments were due. These are not skills that have served me well in adult life
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Good to hear the Green's Catherine Delahunty is on the Education and Science select committee. She has been an education and student activist since she was 14. She organised a march on parliament when she was 15 and took on the then Minister of Education - possibly George Gair. In this battle she appeared on the TV Gallery programme interviewed by Brian Edwards.
She's been an activist ever since, very articulate, and never intimidated by anyone, least of all the Roger Douglas's of the world. Not much will get passed her.
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By the way on my plane to Auckland today were some fresh new MPs, so I did a bit more raving about this unnecessary Education Bill and the unjust law making process which denies us ordinary citizens our democratic rights to make submissions to a select committee.
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I'm building a numerically controlled plasma cutting machine. I have no background in electrical engineering or computer programing.
I'm guessing that you'd have some precision engineering skills. In my humble experience of precision engineers, they're an interestingly "different" bunch.
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By the way on my plane to Auckland today were some fresh new MPs, so I did a bit more raving about this unnecessary Education Bill and the unjust law making process which denies us ordinary citizens our democratic rights to make submissions to a select committee.
You're our own one-woman select committee live submission. We should all pitch in and finance you to spend as much time as possible on the AKL-WLG-AKL route and at Thorndon New World.
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Isabel, that's what I was like at University. Having realized that you're not actually one of the top 10 minds there in the first 20 mins, you stop trying to be. I goofed off everything that bored me and did the same intense few weeks you speak of to scrape out a bare pass. I was a lot happier, and learned a lot more that way (about the subjects that interested me).
But I'm curious that you don't think of it as useful as an adult. Life as a consultant (when I did that) was much the same - endless goofing, followed by bursts of extremely high activity. I think there is a place for that way of doing things. Furthermore, that type of behavior is very useful in workplaces, because goof-offs are always efficiency experts. They spend so much time working out how to save themselves effort that they are always making improvements to systems.
But I think a talent like that is very hard to teach. Seems to me that people work like that because they are like that naturally. It is seen as a failing in our society, rather than how I see it, which is as a 'personality type'. Being hard working is rated very highly, but the goof-off is actually someone who is totally goals-focused. They won't do work just to feel like they are working, because they don't like working. They may do it to look like they are working, because society demands that. But when work actually needs to be done, that personality-type will do it. In fact, when work needs to be done fast, they're the best person to do it. They won't be distracted by what doesn't really need to be done. The person who works hard all the time may justifiably refuse to work harder when push comes to shove. They may lack the energy, having already expended it.
I think over time, the best hard worker will do more work, including useful work. The best scholars were always total swats, you can't beat putting the hours in. But an awful lot of people put in the hours and don't get as much out as the person who leaves things until the last minute. And an awful lot of the time, the last minute is all you have. That's where the slacker's amazing talent comes in - how to do the required amount of work in the least amount of time....
I don't think you can blame the school system for how you do things. It's not like they told you not to do all your homework every night, and to concentrate in class. You just found a way that suits you. If it hasn't worked out well as an adult, maybe you're just in the wrong job?
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@steven crawford - you're a brave man, and when I hear from you or see your comments here, my admiration for you grows and grows.
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Mark:
I'd give you 79-83.
Very fair. And a lovely answer. Sleep well!
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Middle-class people accept that there are 'good schools' and 'bad schools' and they don't want their children to go to 'bad schools'. That's an unconscious way of accepting a two (or more)-tier system, and wanting the advantages conferred by the upper tier, surely?
Hmm. See Jolisa's comments earlier about the conflict between wanting to stay in the public system and demand it be better, and move to the private system because it is better.
I don't see a conflict between wanting your kid to go to a good school, and wanting all schools to be better. In fact, enough of the second, and everyone gets the first.
I'd like to know how many people don't understand teacher feed back about there children's progress, necessitating urgent "common sense" legislation. maybe its the part of the adult population that's a bit thick :)
I've never found that I've had trouble understanding teachers. I have found sometimes that they've been pretty slow about giving me information.
When my son was younger and moved up from one class to the other, the new teacher quickly organised a crisis meeting because his reading was well behind, and he was struggling. He got put into reading recovery and made great progress.
I've always wondered why the teacher of his earlier class had never mentioned that he was falling behind. We were always told that he was doing OK.
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Boys are often slow to get started and it takes a while to establish wheter there is a problem or not. Reading Recovery is not assessed until the child's 6th birthday at which time if there is enough room, and if the problems are bad enough, then an intensive daily Reading Recovery is started.
Wouldn't it be great if the funding needed for such programmes as above was increased markedly by diverting from funds which are probably going to be needed for National Standards Testing?
For some kids by the way the readiness for reading can be delayed simply not ready, but the rush for those kids to "keep up" can make them feel failure and the failure inhibits their learning. Pace. Pace. Pace. Watch what happens when the pace is too fast (or too slow) when teaching computer skills to adults. Often stroppy and balking! -
My younger daughters have been slow to get going on reading. After their assessment on their sixth birthday, the school didn't put them into Reading Recovery, but did make sure that they got extra reading time, and extra assistance. It was enough to make sure that they continued to make progress, and didn't need the intensive input later. It was a fantastic response. (NB. State school, one of the largest primary schools in the country. Before we came to live in Australia.)
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The CNC profile cutter is mind boggling. There all these wires and circuitry and computer logic and servo motors and precision bearings and software that doesn't run on Mac. One of the difficult aspects of the project is obtaining affordable second hand parts that are compatible with the other parts. I'm at the stage where I know enough about what I'm doing to ask the right questions and who to ask, leading to knowing more to in-turn ask more.
Kewl! I spent a chunk of the 80s immersed in a primitive (by now standards) NC project. Recirculating ball screws, stepper motors, the pros & cons of open & closed loop. After much debugging it all worked to expectations, only to be eventually obsoleted by doing things (turning artwork into 2D animation) entirely by computer.
At school I was classed as a math klutz, but with a real-world problem to solve and the help of some great & dedicated people it wasn't a problem. No need to wish you the luck with your extraordinary undertakings Steven, you've obviously got that under control :)
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Anne Tolley's father was also an intermediate school principal here in Napier. Makes her fully qualified I guess!
I have to say also that during the entire National Party campaign I felt as a teacher somewhat insulted with the constant Standards/reporting in plain english thing as if I was not doing this when in actual fact I think am doing a good job of this. Made me realise that they have no idea what really happens in schools.
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I could be pumping out art, at within 0.02 mm of accuracy.
That comment should sound so wrong, but just sounds so right. context is everything.
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I reckon it would be cool to put steppers on cinema projectors, and do dub/scratch robot DJ with pictures.
This kind of thing, maybe?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_printerThe old National Film Unit had a state-of-the-art early 70s model, along with a full-on animation stand from the same maker. The guy who installed them had apparently just come from Iran, where he'd set up several for the then Shah's dream of becoming the Hollywood of the middle east. Your Weta contact should be able to fill you in on what became of them.
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Wow. Ben's comment on the previous page about high-functioning slackers has justified my entire lazy, procrastinating way of life, and moreover made it sound almost admirable!
I feel vaguely awesome now. Heh.
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Going back to the content of the original post Tapu Misa has a great little "apology" to the Nat/Act Govt for being too "negative". Beautifully written. Worth aread.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=10548017 -
Danielle I aim to please. I don't think it's any accident that our species doesn't just provide the capacity for long hard work automatically. We have the most highly developed talent for doing smarter work, and using that talent is a large part of the reason we are not still running around after antelope, or digging for hours for roots to eat.
Caveat: To feel awesome you do need to put in sometimes. Hard. Harder than everyone. And come up with the goods.
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