Posts by Richard Aston
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Hard News: Moving from frustration to disgust, in reply to Bart Janssen,
You shouldn’t have to make a choice about the school you send you children to, they should ALL be good.
Yeah sure they should all be good, but they are also different and I think for many parents - and students - its the difference that matters.
Asking all schools to be good implies there is one good - , good for me is around creativity and thinking but for someone else its about languages, displine, networks, arts, science the list goes on.
To argue for one level of good for all schools - and tertiary - is the industrial model , one size fits all. It simply doesn't. Kura Kaupapa schools may all be , good, but crucially different. -
I agree that league tables are as useful as reading tea leaves when it comes to selecting a school for yourself or your kids.
Gauging the real world quality of education is difficult enough for teachers let alone ministries and by the time it’s shuffled up to cabinet, well, it’s not education they are really talking about, it’s not even policy, its politics.
My question is how do parents – and students - make informed choices about schools? What should we be doing, what would be meaningful rather than narrow?
League tables and national standards are in my view a desperate – and clumsy- rear guard attempt to address educational quality. Today its National Standards, before it was the 3 Rs .
As Sir Ken Robinson has so passionately pointed out these old school measurements come out of the industrial model of education, schools as producers of products. In my view education is way more than outputs (qualifications or skills even) it’s about outcomes, human beings able to think, to create, to communicate, to remember, to contribute. How do you measure all that?
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Hard News: Media7 will soon be Media3, in reply to Sacha,
you young folk and your argot
Wow learn't a new word today thanks Sacha.
Argot is a bit uncomfortable in the mouth but a good word non the less, better than jargon which sounds I dunno american
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Great news for real news Russell .
Will Media 3 be the same as Media 7 - didn't have to compromise too much to get on a commercial channel?
Will you still be able to piss people off in other words. -
Hard News: The Perfect Drug, in reply to Scott Chris,
SSRIs have about as much appeal as a weekend in Gore.
Unless your in Gore And on SSRIs, then who cares..
But hey what about the John Money Collection in Gore
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I don't understand the public hysteria about recreational drugs and the passive silence around "medications" , the medical profession's spin for their drugs.
I know too many people recovering from addictions to medically prescribed drugs ( medications)
Tramadol - a scary bitch to get off for one freind
Morphine - post hospital surgery , one woman still on methadone 7 years after hospital generated morphine addiction.
Anti depressants - ever seen someone try to get off those, they seriously mess with your brain chemistry.
Ritalin - seen too many young boys in my work who are "settled" but vacant with hollowed out souls.To name a few.
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Speaker: The Voyage: On Interpreting and…, in reply to Islander,
HOWEVER back here in ANZ buying a property(landed means something ENTIRELY DIFFERENT here) is a vastly different matter from buying a property in China – and comes with a whole set of prohibitions of use and commitments towards community than a possible Chinese owner (Corporation or set of individuals) might know about-
Islander thanks for bringing up this side. I'd extend that to say land should not be seen as a purely trad-able commodity /asset, its way more than that. Its what we are made from , its our bones and the land offers to support us for nothing and as such deserves our gratitude and respect.
Ownership is in the end , guardianship really and guardianship comes with responsibilities, sensibilities and sensitivities.
If a foreign "buyer" can engage with that kind of relationship to land then maybe maybe - but I cannot see a large Chinese Corporate even understanding the above. -
Aging populations are going to retire and get sick over the next 20-30 years, leaving a smaller group of passengers working and paying taxes for health care costs and pensions
Well I don't know about that . It may have been true 20- 40 years ago when those aging were flogged out manual workers but I think the future of aging may be different. I am 60 and am not expecting to retire for quite some time and like many of my friends we are looking after our health a lot more than say, my parent's generation did.
I wouldn't be so quick to write off the aging population as a liability too soon. -
Speaker: The Voyage: On Interpreting and…, in reply to Scott Chris,
developing a trading relationship based on mutual trust
Can you expand on what that really means Scott.
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Hard News: Press Play > Budget, in reply to TracyMac,
Didn't mean to single out Clark in particular, hell I voted for her, its just that's the only story I knew of . I just struggle to understand why someone like, say Helen Clark who must be on a huge income would need to dip into a NZ tax payer fund for travel expenses , I mean couldn't the UN pay for those? Its not about her per se just the principle of funding ex prime ministers and Governor generals, I mean whats the rationale behind that.
Its just seems in-congruent when Bill English is calling for austerity, balancing the books etc.