Can they be so blind?

Can they be so blind?

"Education, according to Dieter Lenzen, 

president of the Freie Universität Berlin 1994,

 "began either millions of years ago or at the end of 1770" 

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education#History "

So, my friends

which camp do you sit in?

Education has moved from the metaphysical to the physical.

We could have talked about it as a way, a means,

we might have discussed it from a philosophical point of view.

We might have talked about learning style

or teaching theory

or by curriculum

for, we are all teachers

and for that matter, learners too,

well some of us anyway.

but now education has become a 'good', it has currency,

a country can adjust it, have more of it or less of it.

However, 

"A little learning is a dang'rous thing;

Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring:

There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierian_Spring

and unfortunately

 "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Santayana

has our current government thought about this?

They seem not to have remembered the past,

or even the present!

Can they be so blind that they only see

everything from their own perspective?

We deal not with things, objects

 nor with outputs.

It is not even brains,

it is with minds that we work,

with people

Why would you want less for your people?

When you could have more?

NZ National Government begins again...aiming for 1770.

League Tables

League Tables

My apologies to people who are unable to see.

We call that blindness.

I used the word in my last poem, with scant disregard for people who are unable to see.

It is politicians who are the three wise monkeys here...

See no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil.

The politicians have no problem

sending the academic status of the students 

to the journalists of the press,

who have no problem using

their right to the freedom of the press.

The people will have no problem making 

their own assumptions about the information 

they find presented to them.

The students themselves have no say in the matter...

who looks after their interests????

politicians?

journalists?

the public?

Lawyers?

No, it is teachers, educators.

Trained, experienced, educated in the ways of children. People who understand the delicate nature of students and the learning they undertake.

Ignore the teachers at your peril.

 “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” 

― George Santayana, The Life of Reason: Introduction, and Reason in Common Sense

So why is the New Zealand education system adopting league tables based on "The Nation Standards" in the same week that the USA is broadening it's curriculum and assessing on "more than one test"?

New Zealand gets it wrong again.

This is bad for students education and teachers...and parents, grandparents, and wider society...even bad for the people who think they are doing "the right thing"

Tell all of your colleagues.