Posts by Jolisa
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Hard News: Moving from frustration to disgust, in reply to Kumara Republic,
The Americans tried compulsory bussing years ago to de-segregate the public school system, and ultimately failed after wealthier parents switched to the private system.
Also, massive white flight from the inner cities to the (more expensive) suburbs, whose public schools are perceived to be “better”, because whiter and more middle class. And better funded via taxes, given the weird local funding system there :-(
What remains, at least as we witnessed it in New Haven, is a predominantly “minority” urban population (I know, contradiction in terms) being, for the most part, still bussed across town to average out the school demographics, but also in pursuit of minimally differentiated “magnet school” offerings. And/or to the handful of charter schools, which operate on long hours and strict discipline.
In practical terms, this means very few kids are walking to their local schools; very few parents are able to just pop in and help out or talk to the teacher; and much less cohesive neighbourhoods.
There’s been talk of returning to zones, to address the sheer ridiculousness of it all. Naturally, one of the very few public schools that still has a strict zone is the one in the university-adjacent neighbourhood where all the professors live… It’s massively oversubscribed and subject to all sorts of behind-the-scenes jiggery-pokery as out-of-zone parents try to get their children in. (Our family briefly included, for reasons outlined in the post Russell linked to).
Interestingly, in the last year – and this would have been us too if we hadn’t moved back – there was a parent-led movement to help regenerate the *other* local public school (long disregarded because a lot of its students were new immigrants and refugees). The conscientious opposite of white/bright flight, if you will. It will be interesting to see if the “neighbourhood school” movement spreads across the city – including obliging the charter schools to have a neighbourhood preference for their student intake.
[ETA: snort, yes, pretty funny that the "best" school in town was called the Hooker School. I never did get my hands on one of their "Proud Hooker Mom" bumper stickers :-( ] -
Hard News: Moving from frustration to disgust, in reply to Russell Brown,
TKI has a very useful school-zone-and-info map, (according to which, Russell, you'd now only be in zone for the one very local public school, although with a nearby Catholic school as another option).
It's a great resource -- I spent many an hour flipping back and forth between TradeMe, plugging in addresses, to figure out which corners of Auckland are equi-walking-distant from a public primary, intermediate, and secondary school (the location trifecta for a family keen to avoid using a car where possible!).
You can search by school name or by street address. It shows which schools have zones and where they extend to, includes decile info, for better or for worse, and links directly to ERO reports for each school and in many cases the school's own website as well.
With that, and some strategic visits to the school, and the usual info-gathering consulting of local people in the same boat, parents have quite a lot of data at their fingertips already. Funny that the government wants to preempt all that with a single datum (ranking) which would eclipse all else. So much for doing it "by the numbers."
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Hard News: Moving from frustration to disgust, in reply to Jackie Clark,
Bright flight, then?
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Hard News: Women and their representations, in reply to Russell Brown,
You left out the greatest of them all: the amazing Shirley Maddock, who produced the first NZ TV documentaries --- and made the bloody tea.
And she wasn't even allowed to use the term "producer", since in those days, women didn't "produce"! So her earliest programmes were credited along these lines: "devised, arranged, written and directed by Shirley Maddock."
Also: she's Jolisa's late mother-in-law. Jolisa will complete Shirley's unfinished memoir one day .
You're right. It's long overdue. I'll get right onto it.
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Hard News: Moving from frustration to disgust, in reply to Greg Wood,
Why should I not take my three crazy early-days kids and my large tax contribution elsewhere? Tell me.
Cos we will miss you :-(
But your description of the pirates at the helm of this ship is so scarily on the mark, I can see why the horizon is looking pretty bloody tempting right now.
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And speaking of lubricious innuendos, here's Josh Drummond's exquisitely titillating peek into the Dotcom/Banks boudoir.
The love that dare not recall its name, not even when it travelled in a private helicopter to get there.
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OnPoint: Peek-a-boo, I can't recall…, in reply to Paul Campbell,
the occasional advertising for Chrisco hampers stuffed through my letter box still make me wonder why one would want to buy a hamper full of lard …. but then my ISP orcon makes me wonder too
For making your Southern Fried Chicken, maybe? Or deep-frying the turkey? Not a euphemism.
So there's another Orcon out there. Who knew??
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OnPoint: Peek-a-boo, I can't recall…, in reply to Keith Ng,
NSFLunchtime, maybe.
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OnPoint: Peek-a-boo, I can't recall…, in reply to Hamish,
blithering wing-man
That almost should be in capitals, like Speaker of the House.