"The first thing to understand about the NUS is that it does not meaningfully represent students," says Free Radical, discussing Aaron Porter's announcement today that he will not be seeking re-election as the union's president.
Blunt and Disorderly is back with a post accusing politicians of treating the public as a rabid, xenophobic and vengeful mob: "We are not. We believe that human beings have inalienable rights that are not the gentle concession of Parliament, but inherent part of being human. We have duties towards each other and the community at large, and if we breach them, we should make amends. We should be punished, we should give back to the community, but never stop being part of it. We, the people, have some moral decency."
In a thoughtful post, phase.org signs up the late Douglas Adams to the pro-AV cause.
"The recent popular democratic movements in Egypt and elsewhere in the Middle East and North Africa would have delighted the late Edward Said," says Bazzfazz.
What If: Projects reports an encouraging development from London: "The basic need for food and outside space for socialising and recreation was developed into a proposal to transform formerly fenced off and neglected pieces of land into allotment gardens. The first Vacant Lot allotment garden was established in Shoreditch ... and has been published and exhibited internationally. Vacant Lot has inspired various similar allotment projects."
Clive Dunn's career, and his 1970 LP Grandad Requests "Permission to Sing Sir" in particular, are reviewed by The Downstairs Lounge. Do listen to Simone.
Three years ago I quoted Chris White, the bass player with the Zombies, on the way the band's LP Odessey and Oracle has come to be seen as a classic:
Even till the late 70s we were seen as a curiosity - a band who never quite made it - and then slowly in the 80s and 90s you found young bands quoting it as an inspiration. It's quite surprising to me to find that this album nobody wanted 40 years ago has become an icon. Some people have said it's their idea of the perfect album. It's all quite strange for us to be honest.
This is the first track from the LP. The harmonies are beautiful and the subject matter - a girlfriend in prison - was seen as being a little on the daring side.
We got wet and we got dirty but it was fun nonetheless.
early bird tickets from sistic
This eleven hour concert got everyone dancing and singing despite the heavy downpour of rain. Beer and whiskey, as always, were expensive at SGD4 a cup. It didn't bother us that much because music and alcohol go really well together.
expensive beer is expensive
plastic ponchos + rain = i
When Doug Belshaw invited me to write a blog post on the purpose of education for the Purpos/ed project I could see the importance of revisiting this vital question. Your own rationale for becoming an educator should reveal quite a lot about your own personal philosophy on education. For me, it's about making a positive impact on people's lives and inspiring them to learn.
Let's start with the word 'education'. One of the Latin root words is 'educere' which means to draw out (from within). If we practice education properly, we will see that it's not about getting students to perform to standardised tests that bear no resemblance to reality. Standardised tests allow governments to check on the performance of the school, not on individual learning. This is not education, it's schooling.
If we practice education properly we will also realise that it's more about learning than teaching. I often think about what I actually learnt in my school years. I was taught to read and write and to perform elementary mathematical functions so I wasn't ripped off when I visited a shop. But this was nothing compared to what I learnt through my own endeavours, in my own time - the science I learnt through my keen interest in the NASA Apollo Moon missions was far superior to anything I picked up in my physics and biology lessons. I wrote my own 'books', made posters of the moon and models of rocketships, knew all the planets, the star systems. Even now I can tell you the exact escape velocity from the Earth's gravity and can describe the physics of an eliptical orbit in fine detail.
My profound appreciation of music is more down to the long hours I devoted learning to play guitar in my bedroom until my fingers bled. In fact I learnt more about music by self-teaching myself guitar and watching films of my rock heroes than I ever learnt playing repetitive scales on a recorder in school.
I think you can see where this is all going. In school, my teachers (with one or two notable exceptions) actually failed to draw out from within me the desire to learn - to develop the aptitude I already possessed to become a reasonably good musician or the ability to convey my thoughts and ideas in a number of ways including writing and public speaking. I'm at the top of my game now, and I owe most of it to ..... me. Sure, others have inspired me to learn, but this has generally happened in the long years since I left school. All of my professional and academic qualifications were achieved studying part-time, after I reached 30. I studied for 3 degrees and a teaching certificate on the basis that I wanted to do so. I was interested, so it was well worth the sacrifice. And I keep learning now, as often and as much as I can, to stay as close to the leading edge of my profession as I can. Because I want to. I have it within me to do so.
School for me wasn't so much a waste of time, as something I had to endure to become who I ultimately have become. I left with very few qualifications. Some teachers inspired me but many were wide of the mark because they didn't have the time or the interest in me to see my potential. One told my parents: 'Stephen is a very sociable lad, but he will never become an academic.' I didn't have it within me, he assured them. 'Maybe he can find something useful to do with his hands' he advised sagely. Well, I did have it within me, but I had to draw it out of myself in the end.
Schools are not all bad news. There are plenty of good teachers who take time to get to know their students and try to find ways to draw them out. Dispense with the rigid, compartmentalised curricula, and the standardised testing, and let the kids express themselves more creatively through their own means (including the open use of personal technologies in the classroom) and school would be a place where people could be drawn out to achieve their highest potential. Take away government meddling and allow schools to govern themselves, and we might see some positive changes taking place, with children engaged more in learning, and actually eager to get into school every day.
So back to the original question - what is the purpose of education? It is to inspire students to learn to the best of their ability, to draw them out to be the best they can be, and so enable them to aspire to great things. Just make sure you don't confuse education with school.
Image source
I have it within me... by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Deftones' website just announced that they will also visit Manila for a concert!
The event is scheduled on February 12, 2011 (yep, the day after Taylor Swift Concert. meh) and tickets will go on sale beginning December 1. I'll post the ticket prices once they are up!
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In our earlier article, Add Music to Blogspot Blog, we talked about how music can be played in the background of the blog or through a hyperlink or music console player. Readers had requested for an option to play more than one song via a playlist. We have been looking at cross-browser music players that allow us to display a music playlist of selected musical pieces for Blog readers to listen
"The first thing to understand about the NUS is that it does not meaningfully represent students," says Free Radical, discussing Aaron Porter's announcement today that he will not be seeking re-election as the union's president.
