Wise advice on Bullying

Kate Winsett is quoted  in the Independent today as saying:

"I'm not the kind of parent who jumps down the next parent's neck and says " My kids are perfect andyours is an arsole" "

"I believe in kids working out for themselves."

This I believe needs to be the role of every parent and teacher. Support and encouragement to stand up for themselves.

As a kid and later as a teacher I found this really worked.

Support and help the victim to stand up for themselves.

Trying to "stamp out bullying" doesn't work. This is what a bully thrives on - they are used to dealing with negative criticism. This is after all why they are bullies.

Does Hunters Hill Open Air School mean anything to you?

It does to me - I was there, 1942 to 1945.

This school set me up for life. Thanks to Miss Maguire, Miss Buckley, Finkey, who helped me grow up.

More to follow of a biographical nature.

 Some this is true when I was there, some not.

 

My three years at the above school age seven to eleven, led me to :

1. be fit for the rest of my life, having arrived three stone underweight and mentally withdrawn

2. go through Five Ways Grammar School, Birmingham in the A stream and on to Birmingham University to obtain a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering, then Convert Farm Buildings , then become a teacher and who knows what next  . . .

3. enjoy wild life, the building of dens and walks in the countryside and the love sledging not to mention peering up the school teachers skirts at siesta time when we were obediently 'sleeping'.

4. enjoy adventures : I ran away three times at the age of seven and got home the last one much to my mothers shock as I appeared at the window at 8am. A journey by train which included setting off in the opposite direction to that intended.

5. love sticking up for myself and taking on any bully in sight

Miss Maguire was my favorite – who, at the age of 10, I kissed for a dare in the middle of the night. - Well my lips touched her hair and she woke up as I tried to pull the covers lower so as to reach a bit of skin. "Who's that" she cried  - but I was out of the door by then. Next morning I was viewed with interest by the staff - having owned up in response to the cry.

The stuff that memoirs are made of!

Bringing up children

I was fascinated by this review of the differences in the way the French bring up their children to that in Britain and the States.

I'm all for helping children to learn how to deal with frustration and give their parents an easier life - aren't you?

Dealing with gang culture

This approach impresses me.

Like most things that work it demands commitment over a long period.

It also requires a lot of hard work from the police and supporting services. How can this be done if staffing is cut?

With a government that appears to want quick fixes and with a fickle media that follows the topic of the moment, do we have people of character who will take an issue and pursue it long after it is out of the headlines?

This is my main criticism of most politicians: they don't appear to stick at a task and see it through.

Too often we see headline grabbing people who are good at impressing the mass superficial readership of the media.

Perhaps this is where blogs may offer an alternative though I would prefer in depth reporting that is found in papers like the Independent where a few issues are worked on regularly and persistently:

An attitude of patient chipping away at a problem and praise for every single action that improves a situation in the long term.

Mark, what we have seen happen in our schools is the eroding of good teaching. Far too many good teachers resigned during the last fifteen years because they were being thwarted from teaching well by artificial aims that produced quick results.

League tables became the criteria of measurement - fine as long it stayed as a measurement but when it became a goal then the system of good teaching needing patient steady perseverance became eroded.

People with experience and initiative threw in the towel and found more satisfying work elsewhere and were replaced with keen but pliant people who went through the motions, lacking experience and support from more mature colleagues.

Teaching is a hard profession - the most difficult years are the first. The system is so overstretched there are few experienced colleagues available to support.

Of the local schools, Dowdales in Dalton impresses me but a lot of teachers there may carry a very heavy work load.

I need more hard facts from statistics to continue otherwise I'm writing about impressions and not reality. My quick search of Google failed though I now know that the answer will be buried in the UK National Statistics web site .

I have every sympathy with the teachers

Before you criticise - try to find out what it's like to be a teacher these days.

People who are familiar with what is involved with this career will realise that its not one that you can do well for more than 30 years. It's not one to stay in until you retire if you started young.

I believe there are statistics that show that when teachers retire they don't live much more than five years because they are exhausted and their bodies collapse.

It's a job people do because they get a lot of satisfaction from struggling against the odds doing a job that parents often don't do - giving students a purpose in life. In doing this it takes a lot out of the people that do it well.

Lets support those that give so much to the community and can give our children so much of their energy and sense of purpose.

Many of the problems in education are with the system ruled by politicians who have no idea what makes a good teacher.

Government behaviour like the present will discourage people from staying in teaching. Those with the qualities we admire will often find an alternative career doing something in society that far more satisfying than dealing with young people that are totally switched off because of an oppressive system.

If your children have a poor school, it could be that the excellent teachers have left during the last twenty years.

Should everyone have the opportunity of an education

Yes.

Now by education here I include training.

But for me the real and important meaning of education is not training not learning to be an engineer, writer, doctor, media studies or whatever.

No for me it is being encouraged and taught to think and question. Most important it is being helped to learn how to learn.

At my degree ceremony I remember distinctly being exhorted by the wise person (I think it was Anthony Eden) :

Now I had demonstrated the ability to learn, to  consider my degree as the beginning of my education not the finishing post.

Ever since then I have continued to learn and do so even today - in a very determined way.

However I do not believe there is any obligation  for a student to earn more money than to fulfil his obligations.

Some very wise young friends of mine are deliberately earning the least  possible money in order to live the life they have chosen. In some cases this means only working one , two or three days a week so as to spend time on other none earning activities.

Others work hard doing a job they love that brings in very little - maybe below the minimum wage per hour.

I chose to work like this for fifteen years with a lot of enjoyment.

It is difficult to judge what a student is learning.

The fact that they don't even gain a degree of itself may not be a mistake. If they have learnt an important lesson in the process of failing this could be enough.

I am reminded that for most of my life I have been able to teach myself all I needed. The only reason to go back to universtity was to gain another qualification. In the process I learnt some useful things but also spent much time kicking against what I was being taught and going my own way. This is perhaps why I was refered to as an exceptionally good teacher by someone who has a lot of respect in education circles.

For me the student owes the country nothing other than to think carefully and thoroughly once he/she has fulfilled any obligations he has undertaken.

If he choses to earn no more money and yet is a burden to no one then he is doing us all a great service by living amongst us.

This can be his part in helping his country - a very important part.

Take a look at this

This to me is the ultimate in education.

Note the rubber mattress.

In these days of being supercareful, thank goodness there are adults will to take the risks of encouraging youngsters to push themselves to the limit.

Has education money been spent wisely?

My experience suggests not.

"Driving up standards" - the cry of the politicians - was, I believe, counterproductive in the dead end secondary school that I taught in.

In practice, the struggle to achieve as high a number of high grades as possible, can be a disaster.

Fine if you're one of those that are just below a "C". You get all the help possible to drag you over the boundary wall to success. If however you are a potential E or below and seen as an impossible task you can easily be cast aside and treated as a nuisance that may stop the rest climbing up.

You can be encouraged to get on quietly failing in your own little corner and be left to rot.

Youngsters in this position often give up completely on formal education and switch to developing antisocial skills - something they can learn to be good at.

Students that were enjoying education and feeling good about themselves in year 9 suddenly at year 10 change their attitude and become 'unmanageable' - fulfilling their predicted role of being a failure.

Part of this problem is to do with the National Curriculum introduced in the '80s. Boys for instance were being taught hand skills which they could become very good at. Yet these skills weren't rated under the new curriculum and were taken off the syllabus. Instead the students were expected to solve problems in a nonsense mechanistic way:

"Right three ideas and show why two are rejected and the third is good"

Not in their range of thinking at all.

By contrast cut a piece of wood at a right angle so that it's 147.3 mm long - no problem plus or minus 0.1 mm.

This I think, meant that students were taught that they were failures. They carried this into 'adult' life developing their antisocial abilities by mixing with each other in activities that hit out at the establishment that had called them "failures".

Many people in adult life are now resentful of 'the system' - the one that they saw themselves failing at. They find it emotionally painful to stop and analyse where they are going so that many don't waste their effort in this direction.

They end up seeing themselves having little to do with those that appear to be succeeding in the system and resent associating with these "successful" people. Instead they can occasionally hit out against the smug bastards who make out they know where they are going.

Result : increased division in our society.

Blame the government system of education and not the teachers!

B & Q donate bulbs to Barrow and some come to Ulverston's public places.

These 540 bulbs need planting as soon as possible!

Passed on to us by the Ulverston Community Police Officers they are heading for Ulverston Pulci places.

The location is up to you.

At the moment the idea is to focus them on Mill Dam Playground where they will be followed up with plants grown from seed. Some will also go in the Gill Banks planters!

Want to get involved ? They could perhaps go in a patch of ground near you!

Strange ?

Did anyone else find this activity strange?

Four days closed, over 100 teachers, over 1000 able bodied students.

Yet the public are asked to come and help.

I nearly went to investigate but decided an older woman on her own up country lanes dealing with icy conditions was more of a draw.

I might have said something inappropriate to the "school bosses".

Best to stay away from controversy.

Any insights from anyone?
.

A strong challenge to educational thinking

"In a damning indictment of Labour's education record since 1997, the Cambridge University-led review accuses the government of introducing an educational diet "even narrower than that of the Victorian elementary schools"."

Reports the Guardian yesterday.



At last an independent group with considerable authority is speaking out. An exhaustive study that must be heeded.

As a former teacher in both primary and secondary schools, I agree wholeheartedly with their findings.

This is one area of Labour's policies that has been disastrous for young people and their parents.

At an early age children need to develop naturally in a positive stress free environment with as much contact with parents and friends as possible.

They have an abounding drive to find things out. This is how they learn to speak with all its rewards of communication. The last thing they need is to be regimented in larger groups. They need as much one to one interaction as they can get, to answer and develop their individual exploration of the world in a positive encouraging atmosphere.

Teachers who love education, know this, and are dismayed by government diktats.

Many of those that had a long experience of teaching found the new emphasis over the last ten years, unwillingly imposed from on high by Head Teachers, unacceptable to their sense of what was right.

Most of them who were proactive and had that highly valued quality of self motivation, got out of a spirit crushing system and found other jobs .This happened all the way from the classroom to the Head's office.

Coming before an election - will this register with the voters?

The Liberal Democrats have been consulting with teachers and concerned parents for the last few years and will have a well thought out policy. I don't trust the Conservatives one bit with their "bring in the army" approach.

"Zit Down"

"Don't move.You vill zit quietly ant listen to vat I zay"

"You vill learn vat is good for you"

"No questions allowt"

"Vat is dis - Vy? Vy? Vy?"

"Vee know vat iss bess for you"

Know wonder Ulverston kids misbehave as they occasionally do. Try experiencing their 'learning' environment at Victoria High.

Teachers turn into bullies when they are themselves put under pressure.

Keeping my fingers crossed for the future!

Education - Have Labour reasons to be proud?

I would argue - definitely not.

Training yes, perhaps good; but this for me is not education.

Labours view is to cram our students with information that they regurgitate on request. I call this training.

For me education is inspiring young people to have a goal in life. For this one needs enthusiastic inspiring teachers. Without the inspirational element - it's all a waste of time.

If young people don't know what they really want to do other than having a means of earning money, then as a society, I believe, all is lost.

I suggest that his is why such a lot of binge drinking goes on. You often come across people that wake up to the fact at forty, that they aren't doing things they really enjoy. So they quite their jobs and do something completely different. Often people feel trapped because they have incurred financial commitments that need a high salary that they can't support.

By contrast there are a few people who have stopped and asked some pretty hard questions.

I met a woman like this yesterday selling her wood craft products. She has developed a whole different lifestyle and it shows in the bowls, benches spoons and wood flowers that she makes. They are full of life and enjoyment - there is a sense of fun throughout. For much of the year she lives in a 'tent', surrounded by the love of her life - trees. She spots the ones that will yield beautiful shapes for her products. This person has obviously thought deeply about her way of life and appears to be having a ball. All because she has stopped and thought things through. She has a very clear philosophy of life.

Yes, the most important subject that people can do at school is philosophy. This is not a dry subject.

It's beauty is that it does not provide answers, unlike many other subjects it poses endless questions about what is important to us. What is it that gives us pleasure, contentment ? What are the most important things in life? When you got these sorted out then depression and a lack of direction is but a fleeting experience.

Yet this subject is not on any school national curriculum except as I suspect as a dry subject in the sixth form ,considering what previous philosophers thought. In the hands of an inspired teacher this can infact come alive.

As I understand it, other countries put philosphy of the kind I'm talking about as a compulsory subject from an early age. Is this why for instance France has such a well adjusted society ? In his book "French Philosophy in the Twentieth Century" available on-line, Gary Gutting discusses the privileged role of philosophy in the French educational system.

For me there needs to be a distinction between people with a religion that states the "we have the answers - do as we tell you" and people who have a well thought out philosophy that is in the process of finding answers for them ( and only for them because no philosophy can be 'right' - it is only right for the individual as far as they have thought things out). These people will never claim to have found any answers but a lot of important questions. Their answers are constantly under review and the best they can come up with at the time.

Make any sense to anyone?

Note I suspect that those that can only offer smart alec remarks to a serious subject, find it difficult to be serious about anything - and probably haven't got round to sorting out their philosophy of life.

For more edifying comments on this topic try the West Gaz Forum under News and the above headline.

Schools - well maintained buildings ARE important

Looks grand.

But what does it look like inside?

In a recent article regarding a visit of Councillors to Victoria High we had some significant comments reported:

First
"Cllr Airey told Monday’s meeting that the success of UVHS being taken out of special measures in March must be followed-up by tending to the school learning environment.

He said: “I was shocked and amazed by the state of some of the buildings."

Second

Town councillor Janette Jenkinson would welcome any county council support, but was less convinced about the importance of buildings.

“I would like to state that it is not the buildings that create a good education,” she said. “It’s the teachers and staff.

“But yes, it would make a difference.”

Having taught in Victoria High recently I cannot agree with Janette Jenkinson.

With paint peeling off the walls and a drab environment from years of neglect it is difficult to be positive.

None of us would put up with this in our own homes. The message coming across to all that enter this school in its present state is that no one cares.

Janette reflects a sad view amongst the Conservatives that this is an area where spending money is not important.

It is.

It reflects the view of County Cllr Pauline Halfpenny that Dale Street should be closed. She put the boot in at a vital point in the decision over the school and failed to support Wendy Kolbe at a crucial meeting last year.

James Airey is a man that always, in my hearing , talks sense. I will be voting for him in the coming election for County Councillor. (I am definitely NOT a Conservative but of the people available for election, he is the best choice - I always vote for the person and not their party)

There was no comment reported from County Councillor Kolbe on this issue. How hard has she fought to get funds for the school?

I aim to first consult the school and then have a early meeting with Moira Swan, who I already know, to get some support for UHVS.

Children will have a fantastic time tomorrow, Sunday

If they attend the drop in Printfest workshop in the Coro from 10.00 to 12.00 .

They can print their own pictures and with expert help, easily come up with some lovely designs to take home. All for free, I believe!

Some parents have travelled all the way from Stockport to attend!

Ed Balls talking nonsense about discipline

It's very sad and worrying when politicians stand up and talk rubbish on television.

Ed Balls claims that discipline is improving.

If it is, it's because we have some brilliant teachers who are managing to make their lessons interesting in spite of the straitjacket of the National Curriculum, SATS and the 5 A-Cs GCSE testing.

For the most part the interference of the government in education over the last twenty years has lead to many problems.

A good teacher, supported by imaginative management can subvert to dictates of government and achieve quality education. However many teachers do not have the confidence to challenge the way they are being required to teach. Few schools have Heads who have the confidence to take on the Government thinking.

As a person that came into teaching at 53 I was able to teach the way I chose and thus achieve very good results. In a sink school where all the problem children in the borough were sent(Hainault Forest High,Redbridge, London) I was able to teach with few discipline problems. This is because children enjoyed their lessons. They liked being challenged with imaginative projects where they were encouraged to express themselves.

I was never given promotion by the management, but on the other hand because I was able to produce the results , I was left alone to teach the way I wanted.

What goes on in many lessons is training rather than education. The former kills off initiative and enthusiasm it leads to many disruptive pupils who feel they are failures and leave school hostile to 'the system'.

Unrest in Education

Finally the teachers have had enough of testing and are taking on the government.

It's been a long time coming but all enthusiastic teachers and heads will be behind this rebellion against SATS.

The Government have for the last ten years adopted a very simpleminded approach to raising school standards. They thought that by measuring the performance of schools this would improve education.

In fact this has had quite the opposite effect. Teaching has switched all its emphasis to getting good results in the SATS. Education - inspiring students to want to learn, to want to find out for themselves - has gone out of the window.

In the early days many enthusiastic and inspirational teachers got out of the teaching profession. They objected to being told how to teach their subjects and being capable people they had no trouble finding alternative employment.

The thought was that by setting standards this would make poor teachers teach better. This doesn't work in practice. Instead of improving they find ways of appearing to do so. They make it as easy as possible for pupils to get through their exams by providing ready-made worksheets for the students to fill in. Their heads dictated that the borderline students had extra coaching so that they achieved the magical C grade. Those that were clearly at E and below would be kept quiet if possible or even encouraged to stay away from school because they saw themselves as no-hopers and became disruptive.

In many schools the teachers that are left are without fighting spirit and conform to the requirements of their management. They follow mindnumbing lesson plans that follow the National Curriculum. They are depressed and produce uninspiring lessons which follow a tried and tested mediocre level of 'success'.

At last the teachers have had enough which is brilliant news for all of us. They should be encouraged vigorously!

Modern Education

I still act as an education consultant and was shocked yesterday to find that 15 year olds in one school were being spoon fed by their teacher in order to help them with their work - something that has become second nature to many teachers as they seek to get them better grades in their studies - this will help the school and teacher but is rotten education for the students.

They were being told that they could write to me for software for their projects.

However the teacher wrote the message to me for these year 11 students to copy.

Surely they could have done this for themselves.

This was a task they could surely done for themselves ?

How will these young people be able to cope when they leave school and later home if they haven't been encouraged to do simple tasks like this for themselves.

What is being put first is the success of the school in achieving high exam results , so the kids are not being encouraged to think and do for themselves.

As I sometimes say: YUK.

GEN II - South Ulverston

I discovered this Furness Skills Centre as I went door-to-door in South Ulverston.

"What's down there" I said to myself. The area used to be The Elms - operated by Glaxo also for training! (I was taught how to speed read but never got the hang of this)

I got myself given a conducted tour to workshops giving training in electrics - both wiring and circuit electronics (there's a job there - designing personalised control circuits - play a recorded "Shut up" whenever the dog barks; turn the sprinklers on, play rule Britannia, and dig a hole to New Zealand whenever it rains)

Then they have a milling machine and two lathes but they don't reckon that there's a future up here becoming a toolmaker. I would disagree - these guys are the most sought after skilled craftsman in the UK and could help a small business set up with an injection molding business, manufacturing useless plastic gadgets that we could export to China.

Finally a welding and sheet metal shop. I was disappointed to hear that Gas welding was being dropped because this is the stuff of the small business with flexible tools.

Their good news was that they plan to relocate within two years to somewhere else in Ulverston where they hope to have bigger premises including high tech CAD and CAM. The former is the modern day equivalent to the drawing board, leading to skills that would suit somone working from home for a company in Tasmania. The latter makes many things by just being supplied with a computer drawing : trouble is that the computer is only as good as its programmer - for complex jobs a skilled toolmaker would be far more reliable.

So Councillors, make sure this training facility stays in Ulverston and if you live here get in there if you can.

Please add comments to put me straight on all this if you are knowledgeable.

Letter sent to the Guardian

The source of this problem amongst young people, and its solution is reached, I believe, by following a series of simple steps of logic.

Why do youngsters carry knives? It’s part of their gang culture, it makes them feel good.

Why is this? Aggressive gang culture has always been part of growing up – Romeo and Juliet. Young people find identity as they move from children to adults. Eventually one hopes they grow into free thinking adults with their own different personalities. Few of us get there.

Feeling good comes from activities that boost self-esteem..

The opportunities for children that don’t identify with ‘the system’ to gain this, come from the regard given them by their mates.

Schools and Families provide the culture, for many, of dissatisfaction with the system.

In Schools rather than encourage the fascinating voyage of discovery of how the world ticks, children are taught what they need to know. The teacher is at the helm when it could be the pupil. We all gain far more self-esteem if we make a discovery than if we are told. The emotional impact is vastly different.

Some Families harbour much anger and little contact with society as a whole - resentment abounds - it's always someone else's fault. The feeling of disadvantage is prominent – unaffordable housing, a rule bound and often corrupt society that ignores the views of the less articulate. A high level of depression and wish to escape through drugs - coffee, cigarettes, alcohol .. .. .. heroin

In Schools, education is at present back-to-front. The learner could be in charge of choosing the direction of the education voyage. We start life asking “Why?” but this is discouraged in most of teaching.

“Be quiet, and listen” , is the order of the day.

"You have SATS to pass" - Standard Assessment Tests at 10, 14 and at 16 -the dreaded 5 A-Cs at GCSE

With this environment those that remain curious and don’t choose to listen but want their own answers fail to get recognition by the exam system and fail to gain self-esteem. They abscond from 'the system' and truant where they find self-esteem on the street corner.

Here they seek it through status in peer groups. High status comes from being ‘hard’. To be hard – carry a knife.

Problem solution – Change the education system. A.S.Neill had the answer and founded Summerhill. The result is free thinking adults with self-esteem from finding out for themselves.

Emotionally damaged youths carry knives. Sadly, SATS encourage a back to front philosophy. Sadly,governments of the Thatcher and Blair era, try to regulate by passing laws rather than come alongside society and changing attitudes by mutual respect. Sadly, emotionally damaged kids become inadequate parents who avoid responsibility for the children they get as a result of their self-centred behaviour.

July 7 - Letter to the Guardian on Knives

Use of knives amongst young people

The source of this problem and its solution is reached, I believe, by following a series of simple steps of logic.

Why do youngsters carry knives? It’s part of their gang culture, it makes them feel good.

Why is this? Aggressive gang culture has always been part of growing up – Romeo and Juliet. Young people find identity as they move from children to adults. Eventually one hopes they grow into free thinking adults with their own different personalities. Few of us get there.

Feeling good comes from activities that boost self-esteem..

The opportunities for children that don’t identify with ‘the system’ to gain this, come from the regard given them by their mates.

Schools provide the culture, for many, of dissatisfaction with the system.

Rather than encourage the fascinating voyage of discovery of how the world ticks, children are taught what they need to know. The teacher is at the helm when it could be the pupil. We all gain far more self-esteem if we make a discovery than if we are told. The emotional impact is vastly different.

Education at present is back to front. The learner could be in charge of choosing the direction of the education voyage. We start life asking “Why?” but this is discouraged in most of teaching.

“Be quiet, and listen” is the order of the day.

With this environment those that remain curious and don’t choose to listen but want their own answers fail to get recognition by the exam system and fail to gain self-esteem.

They then seek it through status in a group of peers. High status comes from being ‘hard’. To be hard – carry a knife.

Problem solution – Change the education system. A.S.Neill had the answer and founded Summerhill. The result is free thinking adults with self-esteem from finding out for themselves.

I have been very successful, as a teacher, in promoting self-esteem with projects in the UK which put the student in charge of the learning, see www.tygh.co.uk/students yet at present my most enthusiastic followers are in . . . . . Thailand – thanks to the internet !

Emotionally damaged youths carry knives. Thank you SATS for encouraging a back to front philosophy.