Monday 21 April 2008

Why do we need wisdom when we have knowledge?

We live in an era when there is much knowledge but wisdom is rare.

Wisdom comes from analysis.

However more important than analysis is the need for criteria that form the basis for analysis.

As we pay so little attention to philosophy we rarely have a clear idea of what criteria are important to us and take the lazy view that if it's new knowledge it is desirable.

Tuesday 15 April 2008

Are we too afraid to talk to one another?



IS

  • communication between people degenerating?
  • our fear of other humans increasing?
  • eyeball to eyeball contact too threatening?
  • even the sound of another's voice too threatening?

We seem to live in an increasingly upside world. People write and read remotely across the world but do not talk or even look directly at the 'man in the street'.

When we do talk to a stranger we discover there is a warm friendly person there!

Repeatedly I'm finding that people who will email me avoid contact by phone.

Go on plunge in at the deep end - 01229 480347 (UK)

Note: My brain is not so hot between 22:00 and 08:00 GMT-

I may reply "Please try later" but it will be me and not a recording!

Geoff

Monday 14 April 2008

Is there an opportunity to avoid the chaos in education?

One idea I'm exploring is the time before 'schools' of any kind.

Inspired by floor 3 of the Baltic art gallery, Newcastle - a children's floor!

Is there a space in time where we can just call it 'growing up'?

Starting with birth for perhaps four years when groups of people get together in loose communities for mutual support and enjoyment.

People who are free and would enjoy meeting come together to 'do and talk' and maybe eat.

No one gets paid. Charges only to cover costs.

People are those who have time. Could be :

Youngsters

Parents

Retired

Not working

Those on holiday.

Suggest some loose activity - making pottery when people can chat, drink tea, watch the kids, kids watch the others, oldies give 'wisdom' and gain lively activities!

Anyone come across anything like this?

Probably common place in none western societies!

Is ICTOPUS actually damaging for your health?

I've just returned from a break away when for some of the time I sat and relaxed and reflected.

A thought struck me that perhaps having an organisation that has a magazine that claims to "Share Good Practice" is counter-productive.

I am reminded of Doctor Spock's reflections on his book - "The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care" to help young American Mums as they sought to bring up their children.

He came to realise that Mexican families who had not seen or ignored the book were doing a much better job than the followers of his book.

This hinged on their feelings of self confidence. Mexicans confident - Americans lacking confidence and feeling they always needed to consult his book to check that they were doing it 'right'.

There are possibly parallels with an organisation like ICTOPUS that tries to help Primary School Teachers.

True?

I shall be exploring this further!

Friday 11 April 2008

A very welcome ruling from the High Court

Sanity in my opinion has returned in the form the views being expressed by Lord Justice Moses and Lord Justice Sullivan.

They have ruled that the action of the Blair Government was contemptible regarding the BAE payments to the Saudis. They were giving in to blackmail.

Too often now the Government acts in a way that I find repulsive.

It is more important to me to be able to hold my head up high than live.

If I am killed by terrorists,

If I have to live in a hovel,

So be it.

There are many actions taken that I want something done about.

This is one.

Another is our support and involvement with Guantanamo Bay.

Prison without trial, is another, 24 hours should be the maximum.

If politicians want my support - they must take a stand on these issues.

Wednesday 9 April 2008

Why take risks?


I have come to the present conclusion (always on the move) that the most valuable learning takes place when we take the highest risk that we believe we can take.

Based on the result we re-assess ourselves, if we succeed our self-esteem goes up.

When we take great risks for us and we succeed then our self-esteem goes ski high.

Take a very 'safe' risk and it goes up very little.

Take no risk (do as we're told/watch tele) and it can go down and we become depressed and try to console ourselves that we are OK - Go out and buy something - eat something special, drink. (Is this why we're a consumer society, obese, drug dominated, sex crazed ?)

I'm beginning to understand why I hated the thought of safe social networking sites/clubs. They can present such a small challenge - we can play it safe with relationships that we can ditch if things go slightly unpleasant. Reading an educational magazine gives a warm feeling but unless we take the risk of trying, of standing up to a boss, teach a difficult lesson and win the students over, put into practice what we read, then we lose out and esteem goes down - our own and the people around us.

I realise I had a mother that had faith in me to go into risky situations - cross London on the tube at age 11 with one parent in Paris and the other in B'ham - no one I knew within 100 miles.

No wonder I've been a risk taker all my life.

What we really need are parents and teachers that know us well and are close enough to be able to set us challenges that match are present abilities. Rather the time spent cooking the parents a meal than spending an hour on a social networking site.

At present I'm all for supporting parents and encouraging them to take the well thought out risks their parents didn't allow them to take!

Risk facing up to their children and encouraging them to take real risks - that of a meal they prepared being a flop! (and being praised by their parents for daring to try)!

Saturday 5 April 2008

Why does an ICTOPUS blog need Policing?

From Heather Govier, secretary of ICTOPUS - (Who are they)?

- A newly revived organisation to support Teachers at the Primary Level.

"Hi Geoff,
Just to let you know – we no longer have a blog and we have decided not to do so on the grounds that we have not the manpower to police it. There are plenty of educational blogs and wikis out there for those who want to exchange ideas. That was never our central role – we provide a different service.
However we do publish a range of articles in our magazine and if you wish to submit one I will readily consider it for publication.
Heather"

I am sad that this promising organisation has the need to police its membership as they discuss articles that are written in its magazine.

I had hoped that the blog could become even more important than the magazine itself after all ICTOPUS promotes the use of Web 2.0.

The Magazine provides articles to promote teaching practice.

A blog could discuss the merits of this practice with supporting and cautionary comments. it would encourage teachers to think for themselves and apply what was being promoted in their own way.

Too long have teachers been treated as children that need to be trained and educated themselves and not as mature thinking adults.

Whilst I was at University (learning to practice my first career as a Chemical Engineer), people attended the Teacher Training College down the road.

The two organisations were run totally differently. At University the students were expected to behave responsibly - the result was that most of us gradually grew from irresponsible children from school into adults taking on responsibilities.

We attended lectures and Halls of Residence by choice with no monitoring of attendance or where we slept. If we failed our exams we were out.

Training College on the other hand had strict rules of attendance. One felt that their students could not be trusted to behave like responsible adults.

Many teachers moved straight from these colleges into teaching jobs where again they were managed and monitored in a way not found in industry.

This lack of being treated like mature adults makes it difficult for many of the teaching profession to have self confidence because many are not given the opportunity to think for themselves. This shows itself particularly when an OFSTED inspection takes place when excellent teachers turn into jelly and run around like headless chickens to put on a 'show'.

This is so sad to watch when often they could be educating their inspectors on how to teach. This was certainly the way I felt as a teacher- the inspectors had the opportunity to learn from me. But then I had the self assurance of having worked successfully in industry (Glaxo and Shell) and self employed as a Hotelier. The result was that my students excelled and I am being asked to write a book on how I taught.

ICTOPUS is perpetuating this lack of confidence and encouraging this ethos of dependency of children on Big Brother. I wonder how many of the team have experience of the world outside education where they have to be totally self reliant . . .

The earlier education Usenet groups never had moderators - we supported and kept each other in place in our discussions. Ian Lynch was a regular sparring partner of mine!

I look forward to ICTOPUS developing a more mature attitude.

All comments welcome here! None will be policed.

What a load of Rubbish !


And they say that we shouldn't allow our kids to access Youtube!