The Weekly Rot

He said teachers are disconnected from the real world. The real world is the one in which real people pay real mortgages and real rates and real GST.
In Economics we talk about the real economy. It’s the economy in which real things are produced such as butter, wooden tables and education.
They call it this because teaching about apostrophes, tying kids’ shoelaces, teaching kids to not hit each other, coaching sports, turning society’s little children into educated, well-mannered adults... is real.

You’ll have heard about the flooding in Pakistan. It’s the Indus River that’s causing it. Upstream the Indus River flows through India, through Jammu & Kashmir to be exact.
You’ll have heard of Kashmir too, I’m sure. Some believe it should be part of Pakistan. Some think it should remain part of India.
The United States says it’s a dispute to be settled by India and Pakistan, meaning there’s no oil or minerals there.

The government says it can’t afford to give teachers a four per cent pay rise. This is incorrect. The correct thing for them to say is, ‘we choose to not give a four per cent pay rise. We choose to spend government resources in other ways.’
Four per cent would simply counter the effect of  inflation. It’s not a real pay rise. It’s an increase in the amount of dollars so that they can continue to buy the same things they could before.

Research has shown that boys are taught better by men. 
I think I’ll just let that settle in for a while. Hasn’t the weather been strange for this time of year?
And the All Blacks, do you think they can sustain their form through to the World Cup? I can’t help feeling it has as much to do with rugby as the America’s Cup gravy train had to do with yachting. Snouts and troughs and fast-talking MBAs. 

It’s winter again. I didn’t notice exactly when it happened. I suppose my mind was on other things: National Standards, truancy, neat handwriting, non-gender-specific language in my reports even when I’m writing about a boy who has a gender, and Kyrgyzstan.

The arrival of winter isn’t something to be trifled with, which brings me neatly to the essence of winter. Trifle.

 I get very angry about child abuse. I was abused as a child. By the government. In the school dental clinic. Every six months the summons arrived in the mail. Like probation but without the welfare payments and counselling and the meal tickets.

There was no anesthetic. There was the smell of meths and the sound of squeaky nursey shoes and that aggressive flapping sound of a starched white apron. The pursed lips, the folded arms and the hate-filled eyes.

Violence directed at teachers is not a new thing. Anyone dealing with teenage boys has had to deal with aggression. How we respond afterwards is different now though.

A family group hug? Tears will flow from suitably embarrassed parents who will no doubt be entitled to ACC compensation or WINZ support or perhaps a New Year’s Honour. The teenage boy will stare sullenly, grunt occasionally and fold his arms. He’ll not try to share his feelings.

I wonder which ninny first blurted out ‘it’s not the child, it’s the behaviour that’s wrong’ and thought it was profound.

Olinale Ah You bashed, kicked and stomped on his victim, killing her and was found guilty of murder. According to the ninnies, he wasn’t bad. Only his behaviour was bad.

Good morning. How was your holiday? Mine was excellent, thanks for asking. I went to Leh and Shey and Lamayuru. Delhi first and then into the Himalayas with my woolly hat and fleecey jacket made from recycled plastic fizzy drink bottles.

Leh is the principal town in the Ladakh region. It has Christian churches and Buddhist temples and Islamic mosques and cows wandering the streets and the people aren’t shooting each other, which is reasonable. And it has freshly baked flat bread.

We don’t need a Salem national standards witch hunt. Schools aren’t broken and the vast majority of teachers are better than really really good. And most of our schools are jolly-well excellent especially when we compare them to every other country’s schools. And the vast majority of our schools are using data to help the kids’ learning, not that numbers and trends are the most important thing schools do.