Hard News: Prospects
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I could start it with the old chestnut of should politicians write education policy in any form ?
A think a guest post from Hilary would be great.
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I agree a guest post would be good. Ben, your assumption about ready access to specialist assessment is sadly untrue. Even that part of the process is horribly underfunded and often requires persistent advocacy from parents.
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I also think the Hilary guest post would be a good idea. I vaguely remember her saying something a couple of weeks back about having a lot more to say about that subject.
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And as a sidebar -- props to Maori, who proved yet again that sticking to the basics, and doing them well, is more satisfying than the sound and fury signifying nothing on display from both TVNZ & Three. The two main networks were the proverbial curate's egg -- good in parts.
Oh I can believe that. I was almost going to watch Maori TV's coverage. As I've said 400 times now, I actually mostly watched the India/Australia test.
(By the way India have won Gavaskar/Border trophy - yay!)
When I did watch the election coverage, it was One or 3, here & there, just out of habit. But even just the promo for the Maori election coverage seemed somehow more... sober.
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But even just the promo for the Maori election coverage seemed somehow more... sober.
I guess being out in the wilds of Newmarket was far enough away from the ley line of stupid running between TVNZ (random drunks on the roof!) and Three (a much less impressive touch screen than CNN) for an endearingly low-tech seriousness to assert itself.
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And was I the only person who thought, every time Mark Sainsbury cried "let's go to the plasma!", that I'd stumbled across Hell's Kitchen for vampires?
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I could start it with the old chestnut of should politicians write education policy in any form ?
Well, if one follows through on the regular criticism of Helen that a woman without children was telling people how to raise their offspring, no pollie who's never been a teacher (goodbye, vast, vast majority of National's caucus) should ever be let near Education. Similarly non-cops at Police, non-medicos at Health, and non-military at Defence.
John Key is singularly unqualified to be anywhere near policies for women and maori, as are most of his Cabinet-to-be.Good thing we don't try and enforce that "Don't touch it if you have no practical experience" line, because we'd be supremely served on Agriculture and that'd be about it. Not quite sure how one would qualify for Internal Affairs, either. Maybe a past career as a proctologist? :P
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Ben, your assumption about ready access to specialist assessment is sadly untrue. Even that part of the process is horribly underfunded and often requires persistent advocacy from parents.
Definitely true. My mother works with kids with various special needs, and her #1 piece of advice to the parents is to be aggressive and demanding and learn how to get as much as possible out of the system.
Which is sad that it's like that, but if it was my kid, I'd be doing it too.
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That's sterling advice from your mother, Kyle - good on her. It's sad that the system subsequently tends to label such parents as troublemakers when it really leaves them no other choice.
After the recent social services select committee inquiry into disability services (PDF, 236k) there seemed to be a pretty good cross-party consensus that more funding for advocates was needed - instead of disabled people or families always having to play bad cop. Life just doesn't need to be that tough, and if the pollies want to fix some broken bureaucracy then I'd start there.
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John Key is singularly unqualified to be anywhere near policies for women and maori, as are most of his Cabinet-to-be.
Heh a little voice over my shoulder has just pointed out what a joy that would be...
On the other hand it does leave JK uniquely qualified to do....errr um errr....foreign exchange or erm um ermmmmm smiling assassination.
It is not the lack of expertise I dislike but the rather the failure to listen. BTW whether we like it or not teachers contribute somewhat to the raising of our children.
Perhaps it is a really bad time for me to be thinking about this exams, marking and all.....
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Not quite sure how one would qualify for Internal Affairs, either. Maybe a past career as a proctologist?
Depends on the internals, after all Winston has been talking out of his a**e for ages...kerboom tish !
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Following on from a previous post, here's an update of the Wellington poll booth map for 2008.
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