Posts by dc_red
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Am I right in thinking that's BtB on the cover? He's yet to witness a stabbing, one hopes!?
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Although this whole "whites only" lols is a little confusing to me at least - does this include Latin America? Where do we stand with countries that have large white or not white minorities?
I believe the US has a long history of distinguishing between "white" and "non-white" Hispanics. Must be jolly difficult if you're a Hispanic (what does this mean anyway - Spanish speaking?) of mixed or uncertain origins. Or of a generic coffee-coloured complexion.
It's the kind of idiotic quasi-racial categorization Turiana Turia would be proud of.
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97% on famous faces (Tony Blair threw me)
Exactly the same for me. That didn't look at all like Tony Blair!
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Bart said:
We weren't obsessed with what we wore and I don't know anyone who spent "too long" getting dressed in the morning to learn.
Give the nascent minds the freedom to wear what they want and they end up wearing clothes - just like we do as adults.
The reason you don't see it here as much as in Canada is not many schools have the imagination to get past the "school uniforms were good enough for me so they must be good enough for this generation too" mentality.
Very well said - expressing my own views more clearly than I have managed. The proof of the pudding is that when students are finally liberated from uniforms at 17 or 18 (either upon entering 7th form, or leaving the retched system altogether) they aren't suddenly panic-stricken about what to wear (or what not to wear).
If you can manage to choose your own clothes on weekends and holidays, you can probably manage to do so on weekdays too. It's not rocket-science.
Interestingly enough, I don't know whether uniforms were ever widespread in Canadian schools. I would hazard a guess they weren't (imagine setting a uniform raincoat in Vancouver, or a uniform parka and balaclava in Edmonton....)
Actually, we probably shouldn't tempt NZ schools to begin thinking about such things. They already obsess enough about minutiae such as gender-specific rules for hair-length, hair ties, the number and size of earrings......
As Minister of Education I would be sorely tempted to force schools to focus on things that actually matter by removing their power over student appearance.
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Yes, I got your point, Craig, and I agreed with it.
I was making a joke to the same effect: i.e., that his mentality would vastly increase penalties for offenders like himself.
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a convicted statutory rapist calling me a soft cock.
Prison's too good for 'em. Prepare the miniature guillotine.
And someone tell the "upbeat Prime-Minister-in-waiting" (yuk) that this policy will go down a treat.
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The Scandinavian names are odd by NZ standards, but just about any name is considered normal in Canada, as it is a nation of many different ethnic types. NZers kept commenting to my cousin when she visited that her son’s name (Theoren) was “weird”. Actually it’s a perfectly normal French name, for instance the hockey player Theoren Fleury is famous in Canada, Barbara was taken aback by how many people commented on how “weird” his name was, and how many expressed the opinion he would be "beaten up". No in Canada has ever said they found his name weird, nor has he ever been beaten up.
Re: Canada's diversity. Indeed, just don't tell Tariana Turia, who thinks Canadian immigration to NZ is part of a plot to "whiten" the country. What a dreadful woman.
Re: the diversity of names. Another good point, but 3 of the first 5 names I entered into my cellphone in Canada were "Bob". "Bob", "Doug", and "Mike from Calgary"seem to account for 50% of the male population.
Re: Theoren Fleury. Famous, yes, but more for his lifestyle than his name!
Re: potentially being "beaten up" for an unusual name in NZ. A delightful insight into the mentality of some.
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In general schools with fearsome uniform regulations seem to have pretty good outcomes
That was the thing about WAGS. Its fearsome (and definitely staff-enforced) uniform regulations were entirely out of keeping with the low SES character of the school community, and the school's generally poor-to-middling record of achievement.
Many of those who made it to 7th form did go on to do well, but my feeling was this was in spite of, not because of, the often indifferent teaching, and the entirely counter-productive uniform obsession.
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They also regulate colours of hair-tie.
Bearing in mind that every minute school staff spend enforcing such absurdities is a minute they don't spend um, educating, surely a case could be made for scrapping uniforms to enhance educational achievement.
The almost complete absence of uniforms in public high schools in Canada, for example, does no apparent harm.
I distinctly recall WAGS teacher/enforcers justifying uniforms in terms of their being "good preparation for the workplace."
Interestingly, at my workplace I could wear anything from muddy gardening clothes and no shoes - through to a suit and $500 leather shoes - and it would make no difference.
At my bank today the employees were wearing sports jerseys.
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Crickey, David, there's a post to stir a few memories. I went through west Auckland public eduction a few years after you I guess (we had Sixth Form Certificate, and corporal punishment had been banned a year or two earlier).
Fortunately, West Auckland Grammar School (WAGS) was coeducational, which smoothed off some of the roughest edges. And while there was a rugby culture, there was no disadvantage to not being part of it. You were welcome to pursue field hockey, soccer, or nothing at all.
The gross inadequacy of the uniforms in winter (incidentally, classrooms were either unheated, or had electric bar heaters ... rendered useless by the fact they were attached to the ceiling) is a strong memory.
Paired to this, was the WAGS administrators' obsession with the minutiae of uniform infractions. One distinct memory of 3rd form involved girls' hair being inspected for non-colour-compliant hair ties. There were three permissible colours, from memory, and those girls found to be deploying others were sent off for punishment. A good screaming at, presumably.
In subsequent years, the same administrators fought pitched battles with boys over earrings and facial hair (both prohibited). I distinctly recall that, in my last few years, they'd given up trying to enforce this for Maori and PI students (presumably because these students told them to "eff off") - but the intimidation of the white guys continued apace. There were times when it seemed there was 5 minutes of uniform enforcement for 1 minute of teaching at WAGS.
The teachers were, I suppose, the usual mixture of the good, the bad, and the ugly. The ugly generally tried to instill fear/respect through uncontrolled screaming. They included the ugliest, stupidest maths teacher ever to deter interest in that most damned of subjects; a bug-eyed Christian sadist; and (briefly) an overtly racist Maori deputy principal.
I must say, though, I am surprised to see you put much of your misfortune down to being streamed in 3A. Try being unstreamed in west Auckland. The only consolation was that most of your illiterate and overtly violent 'classmates' dropped out when they were 15.
I don't think teaching can occur in any meaningful sense, when, as in our 3rd form English class, one group is reading Homer's "The Odyssey", while another group can barely spell their names, and struggle with "Hairy MacCleary" or similar.
Despite this far from inspiring context, a large number of those who made it to 7th form went on to do very well at Uni, some going on to Masters' degrees, and a few on to PhDs.