Public Address | Cafe | Hard News: Who'd have thought?

Rob Stowell

Thu, 12 Jul 2012 13:07:30 +1200

More slick NASA public relations- these guys are good at it :)
http://youtu.be/Ki_Af_o9Q9s

Lucy Stewart

Tue, 10 Jul 2012 11:38:20 +1200

yet everyone left out that detail

It fascinates me as an anecdote because it's such a good example of how a result can be both true and totally wrong.

Sacha

Tue, 10 Jul 2012 09:23:25 +1200

As the heat had nowhere else to radiate from....

yet everyone left out that detail

Lucy Stewart

Tue, 10 Jul 2012 01:41:25 +1200

They were gotten up, every morning of the year, to swim in the cold pool. Sado-masochistic they must have been, back then.

Hey, I had to swim in an unheated, thoroughly shaded pool at 8am when I was at high school. Only in the summer, mind, but it didn’t precisely…

Islander

Mon, 09 Jul 2012 19:39:59 +1200

And silly me, I thought it was 10%!

And, I thought you were serious!

Islander

Mon, 09 Jul 2012 18:45:55 +1200

And anyway, since 90% of body heat is lost through the head, so long as you’re wearing a warm cap, you could go starkers and only be 10% cold.

You ever actually tried this Ben?
Say, somewhere in Central on a real bonspiel night?
I guarentee you'll find you really…

Lilith __

Mon, 09 Jul 2012 18:35:49 +1200

since 90% of body heat is lost through the head, so long as you’re wearing a warm cap, you could go starkers and only be 10% cold.

Yeah, quite! Thus that myth is, uh, exposed. ;-)

BenWilson

Mon, 09 Jul 2012 18:30:38 +1200

The thing I've never quite understood about New Zealand school uniforms was dressing children in shorts in winter.

The All Blacks wear shorts in any weather. It's really a sifting process.

Edit: And c'mon! They were woolen shorts.

Edit2: And anyway, since 90% of body heat is lost through the…

Glenn Pearce

Mon, 09 Jul 2012 14:40:03 +1200

This discussion has taken a Pythonesque turn ;-)

They were gotten up, every morning of the year, to swim in the cold pool

.. walked 20 miles to school, barefoot, uphill, both ways

Carol Stewart

Mon, 09 Jul 2012 14:22:28 +1200

My lad's intermediate school uniform consists of thin cotton shorts for winter. Luckily they get to wear a voluminous polarfleece jumper which covers their nether regions if not their legs.

I don't understand it either. Must be something to do with this Character, which Lucy refers to.

Jackie Clark

Mon, 09 Jul 2012 14:17:16 +1200

My brothers went, as very small boys of 7, as weekly boarders to Kings Prep. They were gotten up, every morning of the year, to swim in the cold pool. Sado-masochistic they must have been, back then.

Lilith __

Mon, 09 Jul 2012 12:21:05 +1200

they kept the dormitory windows open overnight in winter to Build Character

Fresh Air was also widely thought to protect from respiratory illnesses such as TB.

TB Sanatoria exposed patients to as much fresh air as possible. My Mum recalls the one at Waipiata in Central Otago had the patients…

Joe Wylie

Mon, 09 Jul 2012 10:50:59 +1200

. . . at Nelson Boys, they kept the dormitory windows open overnight in winter to Build Character.
Given the place's history, those character-building open windows might well have doubled as emergency exits.

Lucy Stewart

Mon, 09 Jul 2012 10:21:10 +1200

The thing I’ve never quite understood about New Zealand school uniforms was dressing children in shorts in winter.

When my grandfather (and I think perhaps my father) were boarders at Nelson Boys, they kept the dormitory windows open overnight in winter to Build Character. Then again, I believe they also…

Kumara Republic

Sun, 08 Jul 2012 17:02:43 +1200

This is just about the saddest inditement of right wing New Zealand ever. I actually do care about the other children in my community, actually about all other children – here and overseas. I do not just care about myself – remember when we were a country that cared?

Is…

chris

Sun, 08 Jul 2012 14:58:33 +1200

The thing I've never quite understood about New Zealand school uniforms was dressing children in shorts in winter.

Paul Barker

Sat, 07 Jul 2012 21:57:59 +1200

Parents want only to see their children in schools that promise the best results. They do not care about the home circumstances of other pupils.

This is just about the saddest inditement of right wing New Zealand ever. I actually do care about the other children in my community, actually…

Caleb D'Anvers

Sat, 07 Jul 2012 01:21:48 +1200

Parents want only to see their children in schools that promise the best results. They do not care about the home circumstances of other pupils.
Which is to claim that they do care, greatly. And want to keep themselves and their children away from "those people" and their unfortunate offspring…

Russell Brown

Fri, 06 Jul 2012 18:46:34 +1200

Your impression corresponds 100% with mine. People tried.

Rob Stowell

Fri, 06 Jul 2012 18:41:14 +1200

People in the ministry were focused on ways of making standards a good thing – as in, a useful source of insight
Yes, I saw some of this. But the people I saw (and talked to) were also pretty defensive, and knew full-well they were walking a tightrope. "We can…

Kumara Republic

Fri, 06 Jul 2012 10:47:23 +1200

I would actually debate that. People in the ministry were focused on ways of making standards a good thing – as in, a useful source of insight – which is why they so strongly opposed the direction the editorial declares to be the purpose of standards.

By the sounds of…

Kumara Republic

Fri, 06 Jul 2012 10:46:32 +1200

I wonder what would the editorial writer have thought about the Little Rock Nine, or the Ole Miss incident of 1962?

merc

Fri, 06 Jul 2012 10:15:05 +1200

Good point, the NZ Herald veers towards otherfying* – the old, you are either with us or you are against us, thing. They must think it works, but for whom?

* a trademark of this coalition Govt. as well.

Martin Lindberg

Fri, 06 Jul 2012 10:09:43 +1200

Parents want only to see their children in schools that promise the best results. They do not care about the home circumstances of other pupils.

There is so much wrong with that piece, but what really gets me is the way it purports to speak in my name as a…

Sacha

Fri, 06 Jul 2012 10:02:11 +1200

Simon Wilson's editorial column from that Metro education edition has now been posted online as a single-page scan.

Sacha

Fri, 06 Jul 2012 09:51:21 +1200

Professionals were trying to make it work, for sure. But to me that's the difference between the political and practical points of view, between the dogwhistle and feeding the dog.

I'd say the Herald editorial accurately echoes the intended public political messaging which Giovanni's piece about the Metro schools edition…

Russell Brown

Fri, 06 Jul 2012 09:40:15 +1200

At least he admits (clumsily) that these ‘standards’ never had anything to do with improving children’s learning; only with helping put-upon parents choose the ‘right’ school (despite them sneaky teachers keeping vital clues from them).

I would actually debate that. People in the ministry were focused on ways of making…

Sacha

Fri, 06 Jul 2012 09:17:53 +1200

he's the loud-mouthed dunce you'd avoid at parties

Sacha

Fri, 06 Jul 2012 09:16:45 +1200

At least he admits (clumsily) that these 'standards' never had anything to do with improving children's learning; only with helping put-upon parents choose the 'right' school (despite them sneaky teachers keeping vital clues from them).

merc

Fri, 06 Jul 2012 09:15:48 +1200

A trend in this anonymous NZ Herald writer to be inhumane. (Amended to "this anonymous NZ Herald writer" on afterthought).

Lucy Stewart

Fri, 06 Jul 2012 09:11:53 +1200

Parents want only to see their children in schools that promise the best results. They do not care about the home circumstances of other pupils.

I see whoever wrote this editorial is having terrible trouble differentiating what people say and what they mean. And also with the concept of things…

Russell Brown

Fri, 06 Jul 2012 08:42:28 +1200

And so today the Herald has what is presumably a John Roughan editorial on the state of national standards.

It pretty much creates its own reality. And Roughan’s paranoia about teachers gallops onwards.

Many teachers will, for their part, be having a quiet chuckle. They have been able to utilise a…

Jackie Clark

Fri, 06 Jul 2012 08:16:12 +1200

Uniforms are an interesting thing. I went from uniformed to non-uniformed schools – uniform at my very first school (St Annes which closed and a parent group started up Kristin), to nonuniform at Takapuna Primary, back to uniform at Dio, and then on to Marsden, and finally mufti in my…

BenWilson

Thu, 05 Jul 2012 23:05:05 +1200

Any problems with gang colours (even in Kohimaramara)?

None that I was aware of. But it wasn't really a fighty kind of school, and was in a wealthy area. Which is why I doubt anyone was much put out of pocket either way – uniforms weren't really expensive, and kids…

Graham Dunster

Thu, 05 Jul 2012 17:26:52 +1200

Just stumbled on this apposite quote from Armando Iannucci in an FT article http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/65876d80-ba0f-11e1-937b-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1zif5j3MV –

Because there is no money for grands projets, he says, there is a kind of bathos in the compulsion to legislate in ever-finer detail. “It becomes very specific: instead of building 150 new schools, you…

Rich of Observationz

Thu, 05 Jul 2012 17:18:16 +1200

Selwyn went mufti while I was there

Any problems with gang colours (even in Kohimaramara)? I'm generally anti school uniform, believing it to be part of a system of regimentation, but have read teachers who assert that if they didn't have it, fights over colours would be uncontrollable.

Emma Hart

Thu, 05 Jul 2012 16:24:45 +1200

I can't comment on whether parents paid more or less after mufti came in, on an annual basis. Gut feeling is that it didn't change at all.

Like Hilary says, for poorer parents uniform is a nightmare, because it's a big outlay all at once. And then it requires being…

Hilary Stace

Thu, 05 Jul 2012 15:37:19 +1200

One child went to a uniform school and one to a non uniform requiring one. I definitely preferred the later. Uniforms require a huge outlay at the beginning and it has to be exactly the right thing bought from the right place (usually the school) so no way to discount,…

BenWilson

Thu, 05 Jul 2012 14:08:20 +1200

Selwyn went mufti while I was there, so I got to see first hand the effect of the change. I preferred having no uniform, because it was less of a hassle, and more comfortable, and you weren't instantly identified as a schoolkid in public. The teachers liked it because enforcing…

Steve Withers

Thu, 05 Jul 2012 14:00:55 +1200

It can't be called a "trial" when you take an incomplete, poorly-thought-out policy and implement it nationally. Attempting to make such a claim just debases language and makes perfectly good words meaningless.

A trial is when you test something on a smaller scale to tease out the issues and resolve…

Kumara Republic

Thu, 05 Jul 2012 13:21:34 +1200

The point to life saving is saving lives, right? Not when the managers are in charge.

Talk about anti-PC gone mad.

Sacha

Thu, 05 Jul 2012 13:14:18 +1200

You lose many of the shitty status cues embodied in mufti clothing

True, though I recall the wealthier kids favouring expensive optional blazers, better shoes and suchlike. The girls would also use whatever latitude they could negotiate to preserve social status displays in jewelery, etc.

Tom Semmens

Thu, 05 Jul 2012 12:46:23 +1200

no one would ever dream of making teachers wear a uniform these days.

Actually I have always thought that this is a capital idea! Mortar boards and gowns, it’ll look just like Hogwarts.

Keir Leslie

Thu, 05 Jul 2012 12:25:18 +1200

They don’t confer magic powers of discipline and pride in kids, but they’re a democratising outfit.

They are not democratising. They remove the fundamental freedom of every human being to control their appearance and self-presentation, and give it to some jumped up busy bodies.

Apart from anything else, no one…

Russell Brown

Thu, 05 Jul 2012 12:15:55 +1200

I know it’s trendy to pile on about school uniforms, but they have a function that was valuable to me growing up, in a poor family that lived in rich, poor and middling areas. They don’t confer magic powers of discipline and pride in kids, but they’re a democratising outfit.…

Lilith __

Thu, 05 Jul 2012 11:58:16 +1200

Not when the managers are in charge.

Jesus.

TracyMac

Thu, 05 Jul 2012 11:58:15 +1200

I know it's trendy to pile on about school uniforms, but they have a function that was valuable to me growing up, in a poor family that lived in rich, poor and middling areas. They don't confer magic powers of discipline and pride in kids, but they're a democratising outfit.…

Tom Semmens

Thu, 05 Jul 2012 11:54:02 +1200

It’s part of the same long, slow cultural tragedy that sees managerialism eventually destroying the ethos and, well, point of every institution it invades

The point to life saving is saving lives, right? Not when the managers are in charge.

Tamara

Thu, 05 Jul 2012 10:21:49 +1200

Definitely, our one is Eden/Epsom and it's awesome! Makes the transition to NS-bound primary school all the more tricky though.

dc_red

Thu, 05 Jul 2012 03:33:51 +1200

… this isn’t a “philosophy of education.” It’s a regime of quantification masquerading as a system of value. It’s part of the same long, slow cultural tragedy that sees managerialism eventually destroying the ethos and, well, point of every institution it invades

Well said!

And like any system of quantification…

BenWilson

Thu, 05 Jul 2012 00:54:27 +1200

Most people have more than one talent or aptitude.

Also, it is possible to just get bored using only one.

Lilith __

Thu, 05 Jul 2012 00:36:24 +1200

I seem to know so many people who trained in one thing, sometimes to a high level, but are now doing something utterly different. And a few who’ve switched careers repeatedly.

Most people have more than one talent or aptitude.

Caleb D'Anvers

Thu, 05 Jul 2012 00:14:26 +1200

I heard several years ago that a certain school in Auckland had the highest proportional dropout rate from the University of Auckland BUT of course that can change year to year, and it doesn't necessarily mean that they aren't preparing students well for university. It could be that large numbers…

Jackie Clark

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 22:30:51 +1200

Email me and I'll tell you where we are, but there are 110 public kindergartens in Auckland and most of them have vaguely similar philosophies. We're all run by the same outfit.

Yamis

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 22:05:16 +1200

Can teenagers really know what fits them, career-wise? I think it’s great for them to have a look at the options (and particularly if they can go out and talk to people who do them), but don’t most people blunder around a bit before they find the right thing?

Well…

James Norcliffe

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 21:50:29 +1200

Next item is the agendum

Islander

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 21:42:14 +1200

but don’t most people blunder around a bit before they find the right thing?

Well, speaking for me & mine- yep.
A lot of my siblings were attracted to the health field – I hated the very idea. I knew I could write, I knew I could speak, and I knew…

Lilith __

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 21:34:39 +1200

One area that schools really do need to work their arses off these days is in careers so that every kid has got an idea of what their options are and can choose ones that fit for them

Can teenagers really know what fits them, career-wise? I think it’s great…

Yamis

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 21:20:32 +1200

I think the focus was this one was how well they did at university. And — surprise! — the kids from the liberal high school with a great pastoral culture and no uniforms (or even a really a discernable dress code) did very well in comparisons.

That's useful but of…

Hebe

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 21:20:05 +1200

Not to pile on here, but … this isn’t a “philosophy of education.” It’s a regime of quantification masquerading as a system of value. It’s part of the same long, slow cultural tragedy that sees managerialism eventually destroying the ethos and, well, point of every institution it invades.
Absolutely agree;…

Lilith __

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 20:55:34 +1200

this isn’t a “philosophy of education.” It’s a regime of quantification masquerading as a system of value. It’s part of the same long, slow cultural tragedy that sees managerialism eventually destroying the ethos and, well, point of every institution it invades.

Lilith __

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 20:51:07 +1200

note to PM: Data are plural

I think for any Star Trek fan, there can only be one! Appearances can be deceptive, though!

Islander

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 19:53:56 +1200

It’s part of the same long, slow cultural tragedy that sees managerialism eventually destroying the ethos and, well, point of every institution it invades.

Ae, yes indeedy, many +1s

Caleb D'Anvers

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 19:44:10 +1200

my philosophy of education ... is, in a nutshell, setting clear educational aims and expectations and measuring the level of attainment relative to those stated aims and expectations. Makes assessment and evaluation of performance so much easier on a broad scale as well as an individual scale.
Not to pile…

BenWilson

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 17:30:55 +1200

the kids from the liberal high school with a great pastoral culture and no uniforms (or even a really a discernable dress code) did very well in comparisons.

Most of the guys and gals who went to Seddon, that I know, have done just fine. I was in zone, but…

Russell Brown

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 17:25:05 +1200

but yeah, we can’t keep calling thousands of students every few years to make sure they’re not in the slammer, living under a bridge or running for mayor somewhere.

I think the focus was this one was how well they did at university. And — surprise! — the kids from…

BenWilson

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 17:23:12 +1200

Not even a Clayton's version of it.

What exactly does everyone have against that campus at Monash?

BenWilson

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 17:19:04 +1200

I'm so exercised by this topic that I get all twitchy and shouty with very little provocation...

Do it! Twitch and shout, let it all out.

I feel the same, I have to stop talking on the subject in company.

Yamis

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 17:16:49 +1200

A few years ago when Western Springs College was losing students to certain other schools — causing it to consider the known success strategy of imposing a school uniform — one of the things that turned it around was research showing that its students did far better than many others…

Chris Waugh

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 17:00:42 +1200

What concerns me more than the juku (and in that wikipedia article they don't sound so bad... ) is the government taking a step towards a system where success and failure or almost mathematically defined and measured purely and simply by tests and schools are ranked. It's a sick system…

Will de Cleene

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 16:45:16 +1200

Next item on the agendum...

linger

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 16:27:33 +1200

>Data are plural (that’s what a good education does for you :) )

I think I actually knowingly committed that sin in the post.

No sin: in modern English, data is commonly (and IMHO correctly) used as a mass noun. As such, it fits into the pattern of many other…

Kumara Republic

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 16:16:43 +1200

Indeed. The last thing NZ needs is the 学習塾 model. Not even a Clayton's version of it.

Chris Waugh

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 16:14:59 +1200

I like the idea because it is compatible with my philosophy of education which is, in a nutshell, setting clear educational aims and expectations and measuring the level of attainment relative to those stated aims and expectations. Makes assessment and evaluation of performance so much easier on a broad scale…

Graham Dunster

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 16:12:35 +1200

+ 1.

Chris Waugh

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 16:09:32 +1200

A colleague and friend has his daughter in a kindergarten here in Beijing, and if you ask him about it, he's not happy. Lots of "sit down, shut up, listen, obey!", precious little letting the kids explore and discover for themselves. Like me, he's determined to get out of China…

Russell Brown

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 15:21:05 +1200

Most would agree with you here – what bugs many is that the National Standards were half-baked (if one is generous), then implemented all at once across all schools across all New Zealand. If this was an IT project, it would have ‘major fail’ written all over it.

There are…

Stephanie

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 15:16:58 +1200

Edited my post to remove my claim that NS do indeed have 'major fail' written all over them. I'm so exercised by this topic that I get all twitchy and shouty with very little provocation...

Stephanie

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 15:00:34 +1200

And it is really a work in progress – or a trial if you like.

dc_red

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 14:53:51 +1200

A few years ago when Western Springs College was losing students to certain other schools – causing it to consider the known success strategy of imposing a school uniform

Ah yes, the conservative educational version of pandering to the lowest common denominator. Sprinkle illiberally with same-sex classrooms and you have…

Stephanie

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 14:50:57 +1200

And I would say it's more than that – I don't simply trust my children's teachers (though just let me be clear – I do trust them). I visit the school, I talk to my children's teachers from time to time, I read the ERO reports, I read the material…

Russell Brown

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 14:46:46 +1200

You can work out ways you might ‘teach’ those things or facilitate them but at the end of the day you’d have to go back and interview every single student a few years after they left and get their opinion about how well you did.

A few years ago when…

Russell Brown

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 14:43:13 +1200

note to PM: Data are plural (that’s what a good education does for you :) )

I think I actually knowingly committed that sin in the post. It can be a hard line to hold, that one …

Stephanie

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 14:39:39 +1200

And just to add to the excitement, the Dom Post is indeed seeking data from Wellington schools on their national standards results. My sons' school received an OIA request during the last week of term for "all data sent by your school this year to the MOE relating to student…

sandra

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 14:36:10 +1200

erm ..

note to PM: Data are plural (that's what a good education does for you :) )

And how great would it have been to headline this one:

Who'd of thought?

Just been talking to a group of teachers, several of whom were going to be affected by the…

Kumara Republic

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 13:22:18 +1200

That philosophy might work for Auckland Grammar and Kings’ et al, which don’t…

Lilith __

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 13:16:37 +1200

How do you know a child is being ’educated’ if you don’t define what that education is and how that child is performing relative to that definition.

Because you trust the professionalism of their teachers. All my teacher friends are ADAMANT that they know exactly how their pupils are doing.…

Yamis

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 13:12:40 +1200

Could be part of the problem. I like the idea because it is compatible with my philosophy of education which is, in a nutshell, setting clear educational aims and expectations and measuring the level of attainment relative to those stated aims and expectations. Makes assessment and evaluation of performance so…

Jackie Clark

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 12:50:31 +1200

The philosophy o' education (no, I'm not being jaunty, the letter on my keyboard between d and g has been rendered unusable) is a many splendoured thing. I am a kindergarten teacher in the public sector, and this is our philosophy. I know it inside out, because I wrote it.…

Julie Fairey

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 12:50:20 +1200

Readers of the above may be interested in the observation that the Finnish system spends 30 times as much on PD for teachers than it does on student testing. I found this article very interesting and helpful in understanding the aims of education reforms like national testing, league tables etc.…

linger

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 12:41:04 +1200

I do remember some degree of "teaching to the test", especially for Scholarship exams — though, fortunately, this was not merely in terms of learning facts, but (mostly) in developing strategies for thinking about problems — which my teachers recognised as the best preparation for the range of possible test…

dc_red

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 12:33:58 +1200

Does anyone recall much teaching-to-the-test in NZ high schools during the everything-depends-on-your-end-of-year exam era for School-C and Bursary?

I was 'lucky' enough to go through towards the end of that era when up to 30% of the final grade could be internally assessed ... although some subjects like English remained…

Russell Brown

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 12:29:06 +1200

To the extent that these compete for time and resources, evaluation cannot be allowed to trump all other aims.

Which is what has happened in the US, as Jolisa has explained: the shift to "teaching to the test" has tragically dumbed down education itself there.

linger

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 12:15:59 +1200

If you're going to trust Wikipedia to define basic concepts without bias, care to have a look at philosophy of education ? Its scope is rather broader than you present it as.

Jake Pollock

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 12:05:14 +1200

First things first.

Seems to me that you're putting the last thing first.

Scott Chris

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 12:03:22 +1200

As Tom says, this is not a philosophy of education, but a philosophy of management into which the word “educational” has been shoehorned.

I disagree. Philosophy:

__Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with reality, existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy…

linger

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 11:52:08 +1200

Apart from the tone, what Tom was saying is the same as what I said, i.e. :
if you really think evaluation should be the number one priority of education, you’re ignoring a lot of what education is trying to do.

Scott Chris

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 11:42:40 +1200

And funnily enough it was uttered by a man gifted with much greater wisdom and insight into education than you.

And your point in saying that is?

linger

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 11:37:58 +1200

compatible with
… but does not entail!
my philosophy of education which is, in a nutshell, setting clear educational aims and expectations and measuring the level of attainment relative to those stated aims and expectations. Makes assessment and evaluation of performance so much easier on a broad scale as well…

Tom Semmens

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 10:53:56 +1200

my philosophy of education is setting clear educational aims and expectations and measuring the level of attainment relative to those stated aims and expectations.

Except this is not a philosophy of education. It might be a suitable summation of the career goals of an obscure apparatchik in the department of…

Scott Chris

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 10:39:52 +1200

Most folks at the Ministry I encountered weren't delighted with National Standards, and worked on rolling them out with an apologetic air.

Could be part of the problem. I like the idea because it is compatible with my philosophy of education which is, in a nutshell, setting clear educational aims…

Tom Semmens

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 10:13:41 +1200

John Key discussed them in that oddly passive way

I think studying the corporate semiotics of the way John Key speaks repays closer attention. In understanding why he talks in the way he talks, we can perhaps grasp why his government so manages to control the intellectual agenda of…

Rob Stowell

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 10:09:49 +1200

Key and his ministers have to have some degree of faith in those who are delegated the responsibility of developing and implementing the Standards and maybe that faith was a little misplaced. I still maintain that the idea is good
Most folks at the Ministry I encountered weren't delighted with…

Steve Curtis

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 10:04:02 +1200

sounds like the schools need an excel template or some such modern day marvel to input the data into

And what data would that be ?

As Russell says
"It is inconsistent, narrow and not subject to meaningful moderation. Even the standards aren’t standard – different schools have quite different…

tim kong

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 09:51:34 +1200

I think the greatest danger to our education sector is the fallout and insinuation from Key's comment: "the data is ropey".

This government won't blame themselves for setting up a vague system of measurement with ironically, no standard unit for measurement. Nor will they blame themselves for explaining no clear…

bob daktari

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 09:47:29 +1200

sounds like the schools need an excel template or some such modern day marvel to input the data into

Scott Chris

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 09:46:38 +1200

John Key’s government did. They rode it as a campaign slogan in 2008, shoved it through under urgency within weeks of taking office, refused to allow a trial, bullied schools and their boards into doing their bidding, ignored most expert advice and came up with something that barely relates to…

Ross Mason

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 09:29:49 +1200

But why can't schools write their data the same way and in the same formats? I thought that was what Nat Stds was all about. Sameness.

Hey! Youse schools!!

Keep sending in data that is "ropey", "patchy", "difficult to interprete" and "difficult to create anything coherent for parents".

Waaait a…

merc

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 08:54:07 +1200

"As usual, the left has underestimated Key. As he says, his Government is going boldly where no government has gone before. Others are struggling to keep up."
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/john-armstrong-on-politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=1502865&objectid=10816437
Where does he get those wonderful toys?

Alex Coleman

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 08:49:07 +1200

Gosh. Looks to me like he read Metro mag over the weekend.

If we can only get him to read Bat-Bean-Beam next.

Public Address

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 08:49:07 +1200

Discussion from blog post.