Posted by: blogger
on 17, Jul, 2009
By the Winged Avenger
It's not unusual for people who have been out of schools for 25 years (and more) to whinge about declining education standards. Before they get too carried away with knocking 21st century schools, perhaps they should take some time to think about their education system - the one that left them unable to tell the difference between a donation and a fee; between an act of choice and one of compulsion.
For now, though, let's try and keep it simple, at least for the sake of the less well educated amongst us; and, to be fair to our teachers of yesteryear, for those who seem to have forgotten much of what they were so painstakingly taught.
Posted by: blogger
on 06, Jul, 2009
By Winged Avenger
If key competencies are the threads that help to stitch the various parts of the New Zealand Curriculum together, what does this mean when we measure students' progress?
The answers to these questions are well understood by secondary teachers. We understand that the KC threads need to be woven together with subject knowledge and skills, to create relevant and authentic learning experiences.
Posted by: blogger
on 03, Jul, 2009
With the fast-approching nuclear Armageddon we were promised in the 1980s I mucked around at school. What was the point, I thought. A higher education wasn't going to do much to help me scavenge abandoned shopping malls for food during a nuclear winter should I survive the initial exchange of missiles, I thought. So I wagged Chemistry first, then English, then just about everything else.
By decade's end, and still with no missiles on the horizon, I began to gather my thoughts. Since leaving school I'd been fired from five dishwashing jobs in the space of a year. I was at the mercy of my own lack of enthusiasm for industrial detergent and an economic downturn. How did I let this happen? Oh, yeah ...
Humbly I trooped up to Victoria University's registry, showed them my (not-so-impressive) secondary grades and asked if there was any chance I could enroll. Half expecting to be directed back out the door, I was given a smile, advised to do a couple of night classes and come back. Thanks to the adult and community education (ACE) programme at Wellington High School I was able to embark on fruitful tertiary study, saving myself from myself and building a rewarding career in the process.
Posted by: blogger
on 22, Jun, 2009
By Winged Rodent
It's amazing how things change once you get elected.
Bill English is now brutally taking an axe to the night classes that, four years ago, he claimed gave a life-line to his own mother.
In a 2005 speech to CLASS (Community Learning Association through Schools) English used his Mum to illustrate a story about the important role community education played in society.
"I recall my mother going off to night-time classes in furniture restoration - a quite space in the busy life of a household of 12 children. There are a thousand stories about how human needs are met by the collective and aspirational activity of learning," he said.
English now plans to slash 80% of the funding to those same courses, leaving the remaining 20% to fund more ‘worthy' literacy and numeracy based classes.
But it gets better - in a 2006 press release he criticizes Labour for "destroying" night classes and argues they should be saved.
Posted by: blogger
on 16, Jun, 2009
Tagged in: Untagged
By Hawke-eye
National MP for Tamaki, one Allan Peachey clearly hasn't got enough work to do in the service of the taxpayer so is passing his time blogging. He has mounted his hobby horse, eschewed knives in the back (his usual weapon of choice) for cap guns, and taken aim at his two favourite targets, PPTA and Selwyn College. Unfortunately (or perhaps predictably) he hasn't bothered to check his facts so he's gone off half-cocked. The source of his excitement seems have been a misleading article in the Dominion Post last year which claimed PPTA members were calling for a "secret register of violent and disruptive pupils". This may have been thought a good idea by some members but the actual recommendation passed by Annual Conference, in its wisdom, was that "PPTA work with the relevant legislation to allow the sharing of information about students with a history of high risk behaviour that may put members of a school community at risk." No secrets Allan but actually a call for better access to public information. In 2005 when he was forced by his leader to apologise for threatening remarks he made to the principal of Selwyn College, Peachey accompanied his apology with another threat. "I am not a stupid man. I'm aware that people were taking the opportunity to make a bit of trouble for me. But I don't think that is particularly smart". We don't think it's particularly smart to sound off when you don't know what you're talking about Allan.
