General strike/protest

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Clint Planet said:
From the Grauniad, re IDS's Beeb interview:

"Key argument is damning: that Cameron and Osborne went after welfare because working poor would never vote Tory."

Well, well......
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Probably a strong element of truth in that. I mean all parties pander to the elderly as they know they vote more consistently than the young. Certainly far from ideal.
 
chrismpw said:
What motivated me to teach, my entire career, was a value/passion of my subject, and a drive to contribute to society.
My subject (science) should be seen as essential, since we live in a science based world and economy. However it has been reduced to simply a means of getting a c grade to look good on league tables. It is increasingly learned by students who are spoon fed to an exam, and aspire to little more than being unquestioning office fodder. Frankly I looked at self interested voting sheep who consent to this government's policies and looked at what society has become. We pay entertainers (singers, actors, sports people) more money than they know what to do with, while those that society truly need to function, the nurses, teachers etc are perennially set irrelevant targets, judged by clipboard holding fools to intimidate us into implementing government ideas, and paid a comparative pittance. In my resignation letter, I pointed out that 15 years of parents being told that they have choice, and schools are in competition for their bundle of joy, hyperactivity and allergies, has actually encouraged parents to think that they know better about education than the person trained to do the job. I have had so many arguments with parents about what set little Chardonnay should be in, it's untrue.

I'm digressing! The upshot is, I no longer value the society I have been contributing to, and feel it doesn't value me.... So bugger 'em!
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You do realise that the Tories aren't entirely at fault for the education system that is simply a means to get a "c" grade grade in an exam? You yourself say that it has been happening for 15 years. That isn't just a Tory problem. It is a problem with general changing attitudes of the public over generations. If you do see education as more than that, then you're likely to get further.
 
Bruce Wayne said:
Probably a strong element of truth in that. I mean all parties pander to the elderly as they know they vote more consistently than the young. Certainly far from ideal.
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Right on cue, the headline in todays Sunday Times Money section.

"What about me?"

"George Osbornes windfall for the over 50s."
 
Clint Planet said:
Victimisation of the vulnerable for political gain. Whodathunkit?
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I don't know if it's deliberate victimisation of vulnerable folks as much as cold-hearted politics. I mean there are parts of the country that wouldn't vote Conservative if hell froze over, so it's perhaps not surprising that the Tories don't tend to care too much for those parts of the country.

We like to think public officials are less self-interested than the rest of us, but when push comes to shove they are primarily concerned with getting re-elected.
 
WycombeToffee said:
You do realise that the Tories aren't entirely at fault for the education system that is simply a means to get a "c" grade grade in an exam? You yourself say that it has been happening for 15 years. That isn't just a Tory problem. It is a problem with general changing attitudes of the public over generations. If you do see education as more than that, then you're likely to get further.
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Of course, but just about every Tory move in education since they took power has been an own goal. The new curriculum is as turgid, pedantic, uninspiring and stuffy as Gove's pompous little mind, the new expectations in terms of academic achievement (by which schools are measured in the form of "league tables") are are absurdly overambitious, the new system of special educational needs provision is farcical, The KS1 and KS2 SATs test format keeps changing on an almost weekly basis, as if they're making it up as the go along, benefit capping has displaced many thousands of children from their own communities in breathtaking acts of social cleansing, the swingeing cuts are beginning to bite hard in terms of funding for support staff and resources (I spend about £40 of my own money on books each half term, give or take). And now we have the threat of compulsory academy status - a purely ideological (and antidemocratic) move which will undoubtedly create a more socially divided country in the future when the word "academy" will morph in meaning to something akin to the old "secondary modern."

Make no mistake, a massive teacher shortage perfect storm is brewing.
 
Clint Planet said:
Of course, but just about every Tory move in education since they took power has been an own goal. The new curriculum is as turgid, pedantic, uninspiring and stuffy as Gove's pompous little mind, the new expectations in terms of academic achievement (by which schools are measured in the form of "league tables") are are absurdly overambitious, the new system of special educational needs provision is farcical, The KS1 and KS2 SATs test format keeps changing on an almost weekly basis, as if they're making it up as the go along, benefit capping has displaced many thousands of children from their own communities in breathtaking acts of social cleansing, the swingeing cuts are beginning to bite hard in terms of funding for support staff and resources (I spend about £40 of my own money on books each half term, give or take). And now we have the threat of compulsory academy status - a purely ideological (and antidemocratic) move which will undoubtedly create a more socially divided country in the future when the word "academy" will morph in meaning to something akin to the old "secondary modern."

Make no mistake, a massive teacher shortage perfect storm is brewing.
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I am on the other side of the political spectrum to you, but I definitely agree with what you're saying about the education system. It really is ridiculous at the moment.
 
Bruce Wayne said:
I don't know if it's deliberate victimisation of vulnerable folks as much as cold-hearted politics. I mean there are parts of the country that wouldn't vote Conservative if hell froze over, so it's perhaps not surprising that the Tories don't tend to care too much for those parts of the country.
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It's cause and effect though, why will they not vote tory to begin with - because of the deliberate victimisation.
 
WycombeToffee said:
You do realise that the Tories aren't entirely at fault for the education system that is simply a means to get a "c" grade grade in an exam? You yourself say that it has been happening for 15 years. That isn't just a Tory problem. It is a problem with general changing attitudes of the public over generations. If you do see education as more than that, then you're likely to get further.
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"The last 15 years" is a comment targeted at the fact that this is when it became a major strategy and focus in education. Back then, as I recall, the tories were in stealth power, under the name of Tory Bliar. The malaise, if you like, started with the Tories and the National Curriculum in 1992. It was done to save money, make a reliable market for publishers, provide a statistical base by which schools can be compared and therefore ranked. Once a ranking system is established then teachers can be easily manipulated to teach exactly what a government wants, and implement its policies and values ... or face failing Ofsted, and have to live through a mound of punitive paperwork and meetings.
Another consequence of the NC, which was blatantly apparent to anybody involved in schools, other than the media and ministers, is that it would produce generations of people with the same narrow knowledge base and cause the loss of huge amounts and reduction in the diversity of knowledge from the population.

The changing attitudes of the public - this i entirely put down to Mrs Thatcher's regime. She encouraged people to shed any moral decency they may have in the pursuit of personal wealth. She encouraged greed and abhorred the concept of society, which is an entirely destructive and divisive concept for a pack animal such as humans to adopt. Of course, division is essential if you wish to control your population.

I thank you for the "you're likely to get further" comment - because, clearly after 28 years in education I appreciate your concern with my career development and your willingness to give advice to a total stranger you know nothing about. Quite simply though I have no further career ambition, as is is now a career that, because of government meddling from New Labour and Conservatives, I no longer share values with. I know exactly how I see education now - it is a political pawn for winning votes - it is a sacrificial lamb, where poor behaviour from delinquents with ASBOs can be blamed on schools, rather than blaming parenting (who outnumber teachers as voters, and therefore can never dare be alienated). Education is now a means of breaking the imaginative spirit of young people, distracting them with a grade, rather than teaching them to think, and turning them into unquestioning, well behaved future employees of corporations, who can be quickly saddled with debt so they dare never to speak out against their overlords, for fear of losing their job.

As soon as we all start to see the UK education system this way, and realise that it has been privatised beneath our feet, then the sooner people will wake up and start to realise we ought to start taking control, and demanding politicians stand in elections who will actually represent the interests of its electors, rather than pay them lip-service, while cosying up to the wealthy elite. Then, dear fellow, we'll all get further.
 
Pretty sure it was Jim Callaghan who promoted the idea of a National Curriculum in the late 70's, though it was enacted by the Conservatives. It was around the time of that William Tyndale primary in Islington was attracting headlines for the wrong reasons and the Black Papers were published.
 
chrismpw said:
"The last 15 years" is a comment targeted at the fact that this is when it became a major strategy and focus in education. Back then, as I recall, the tories were in stealth power, under the name of Tory Bliar. The malaise, if you like, started with the Tories and the National Curriculum in 1992. It was done to save money, make a reliable market for publishers, provide a statistical base by which schools can be compared and therefore ranked. Once a ranking system is established then teachers can be easily manipulated to teach exactly what a government wants, and implement its policies and values ... or face failing Ofsted, and have to live through a mound of punitive paperwork and meetings.
Another consequence of the NC, which was blatantly apparent to anybody involved in schools, other than the media and ministers, is that it would produce generations of people with the same narrow knowledge base and cause the loss of huge amounts and reduction in the diversity of knowledge from the population.

The changing attitudes of the public - this i entirely put down to Mrs Thatcher's regime. She encouraged people to shed any moral decency they may have in the pursuit of personal wealth. She encouraged greed and abhorred the concept of society, which is an entirely destructive and divisive concept for a pack animal such as humans to adopt. Of course, division is essential if you wish to control your population.

I thank you for the "you're likely to get further" comment - because, clearly after 28 years in education I appreciate your concern with my career development and your willingness to give advice to a total stranger you know nothing about. Quite simply though I have no further career ambition, as is is now a career that, because of government meddling from New Labour and Conservatives, I no longer share values with. I know exactly how I see education now - it is a political pawn for winning votes - it is a sacrificial lamb, where poor behaviour from delinquents with ASBOs can be blamed on schools, rather than blaming parenting (who outnumber teachers as voters, and therefore can never dare be alienated). Education is now a means of breaking the imaginative spirit of young people, distracting them with a grade, rather than teaching them to think, and turning them into unquestioning, well behaved future employees of corporations, who can be quickly saddled with debt so they dare never to speak out against their overlords, for fear of losing their job.

As soon as we all start to see the UK education system this way, and realise that it has been privatised beneath our feet, then the sooner people will wake up and start to realise we ought to start taking control, and demanding politicians stand in elections who will actually represent the interests of its electors, rather than pay them lip-service, while cosying up to the wealthy elite. Then, dear fellow, we'll all get further.
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Cool. Btw, I ought to clarify that I was talking about an average school pupil, when saying "you'll get further". I wasn't directly referring to you. Apologies for the confusion, I realise that it was ambiguous.
 
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