Reducing Disparity.

"The Greens will not support any package that includes cuts to the top levels of income tax or any increase in GST because these changes would exacerbate the differences between the rich and poor in our society."


Again we have fewer demands/expectations placed on those whose ethic, for whatever reason, is not work/achievement based - indeed we have systems arranged such that their life-styles can be maintained ... so they needn't feel bad about it, and the motivations of those who 'try' will be accordingly reduced.

The application of this 'reducing disparity' adage can be seen as having had considerable impact on our overall educational achievement - where an increasingly 'long tail' of non performance has been created, and quite sucessfully,for these 'non performers' do not feel bad about it.

'Tis A Hard Road Being The Perfect Model, Son.

All Blacks trained in risky business of a social life ... to avoid potentially embarrassing headlines and has hired risk management company Core Dynamics to educate players about the pitfalls of public life.
Sessions include role-plays and practical help, such as being shown what drug utensils look like.

Obviously Rugby Management, buoyed by their success at toilet training, at reducing that onfield pandemic of explosive nasal & other orificial clearance ... a pandemic more infectious and potentially dangerous than that 'scare-mongered up' swine flu ... are taking a further, brave step forward. Of course, as new players are included in the squad, this basic skills training will have to be an ongoing annual phenomenon.

... but really, as if many would not have known about drug paraphenalia.

... and then there are the rugby skills ... Oh dear ... so many well developed muscles and so few connected neuronal pathways. How, when under pressure, could they be expected to remember those sixty plus planned and rote learned moves?

Is the characteristic of immediate self-gratification really synonymous with being a good sports person? I would have thought it made a person more subject to performing emotionally, as evidenced by that 'dead, defeated look' in so many eyes when they were behind 17 to 3 ... sort of 'once were warriors.'

It would appear that Graham Henry is making considerable in roads into improving those basic social skills, those skills basic to social functioning, but....

Firefighters beat chemical blaze

Firefighters have extinguished a chemical fire outside a packhouse and orchard in Hastings.

The hazardous substances unit was called after 20kg of copper based fungicide was found near the pallets.
The chemical, believed to be used as a fertiliser, was extinguished and was put into barrels and taken away, Mr Dalton said.

Aha, I can just see orchardists using a fungicide as a fertiliser ... really sensible.

Oh Yeh.

One in seven primary school teachers were hit by their students last year, a New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) survey has found.
The study also found more than 50 per cent of teachers and more than 25 per cent of school support staff reported "aggressive verbal confrontations" with studentsThe responses of 67 principals, 150 teachers and 75 support staff were analysed.
The most common assaults involved students pushing, shoving or shouldering teachers, followed by "punched or struck with open hand" and "kicked or stomped".
Other reported being "scratched, kicked" and "hit by object".
Some of the attacks were not covered by the survey, so respondents wrote them in – one noted "spat in face", another was headbutted.
Year 3 students accounted for nearly 60 per cent of the assaults, and, nine times out of ten, boys were the ones hitting their teachers.
The most common event leading up to the attacks involved children contesting staff members' directions, followed by attacks resulting from attempts to restrain the children from hitting others.
Twenty per cent of teachers and support staff said they had been verbally abused by parents – often in front of their children.
"Parents are becoming an increasing problem, very verbal over very minor problems. (They show) very poor modelling for children," one principal said.
NZEI acting national manager Peter Monteith said violent students "seriously undermine the teaching and learning process." "The survey is a `wake up call' for everyone involved in education either directly or indirectly to ensure that our schools remain safe and effective in terms of teaching and learning," he said.

'White flight'

Some Christchurch schools are less than two-thirds full – and one is languishing at less than a third capacity – as the city's popular schools expand at their expense .... parents are deserting the eastern suburbs for schools with whiter, richer students.
This is probably quite a general phenomenon.
Unfortunately, fewer students means: fewer resources and fewer teachers - to maintain numbers they tend to enrol those kids that their counterparts don't want or have actively rejected. So more 'difficult to manage, difficult to teach' kids, teachers of lesser quality - coz who really wants to work under such circumstances - increasing focus on social behaviour which begats a greater need to focus on social behaviour and a 'necessarily' lesser focus on teaching and hence less learning.
Everyone knows, bar a lot of school teachers, that greater structure, formality, learning to fluency, are important in kids effectively remaining motivated and doing well at school ... and after all the reason for compulsory attendance is to 'acquire an education.'
'White flight' has connotations of 'running from something not white' that is aversive and has racist overtones.
'Good parenting' demands you place your kids where they can maximise their opportunity to do well educationally .... and this process will, naturally result in the 30% of non performers or failures increasingly residing under the one roof - zoning has not and realistically should not stop this occurring ... because really this is all indicative of a failing education system.

Smaller Class Sizes, Shorter Year.

Yeh, right. This will really really help our children 'acquire an education.'

"The main findings from Educationcounts were:
On an average daily basis, the 2006 survey indicated an overall absence rate of 11.5 percent with a truancy rate of 4.1 percent. In 2006, the overall absence and truancy rates were higher across all schools compared with 2004. Overall absence rate increased from 9% in 2004 to 11.5% in 2006 ,and truancy rate from 3.4% in 2004 to 4.1% in 2006."

Now I believe this transcribed to 43,000 absences/truants a week plus 30,000 stand downs/suspensions a year. This is a substantial reduction in class sizes ... not that smaller class size has ever been shown in the research to improve learning outcomes.

Māori and Pasifika students had higher truancy rates when compared with New Zealand European and Asian students, a result also noted in the 2004 report.

& I am sure that Ms Turei has little to add, simply endeavouring to enhance the notion of 'white guilt' for absolutely unacceptable behaviour - trying to 'gain mileage' out of the death of a two year old is 'pretty sick' cross culturally, in fact so unacceptable that attribution of blame becomes paramount.http://www.nzherald.co.nz/feature/story.cfmc_id=1501154&objectid=10448409

Sort of trying to sanctify the behaviour of/give credibility to those that have opted out of our education system ... I am sure to the relief of our teachers ... but it just keeps on happening, a cumulative phenomenon that with the burgeoning 'maori for maori' services in education and health has had the overall effect of these services doing a disservice to their own and continues to do so at an alarming rate ... and this from Gore to Whakatane, in fact many, many places.

... and what has happened about the mandate that all teachers be registerd by last year I believe it was???