Before we start reforming education...

We need to do a lot more observing, and thinking about it, and observing again, and thinking about it, and listening to people who know and thinking it again, coming to terms with WHAT IS, and a lot less imposing from the top down of ill thought out, one sided unfeeling ideas resurrected from the past in the desperate hope that we can improve things and have an education system we are proud of.

Some clues for example:
What is a child, at each age and stage, who is he, what does she do, what are they doing, yes, what is are they really doing, what is going on, what does he want, what goes wrong, what does she bring with her, what is wonderful..? (observe think observe read, get guidance think observe).

What does humanity need, how is it evolving, what problems are there to overcome (there are a few), think observe, read, get insight, observe think observe...(need not greed).

Diet Avoidance

I am encountering Resistance.  The Resistance to the Diet is Strong.  There must be another way.  I am trying another way.

YYYEEEEEAAAAAAH It's the Middle AgeD Plumpies YA GROOVE compilation CD which B has just burned for me to my particular specification:   each track chosen for its ability to make you Move IT, and move IT frenetically, IT being the thing that does not usually move, the thing that makes you get on up, takes you to the bridge and strongly encourages you to Shake your Money Maker grrrr get mad baby wham bam bam shooby shooby.


Sideways soundtrack Wine Safari http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVhf5Pab5Kw

Bebo Best and the Super Lounge Orchestra "Dolce Vita" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCW4bkg0xag

Buddy Rich  The Beat Goes On  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQmn876Vygs

James Brown Like a Sex Machine http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOD-M7WZkZQ

Louis Prima Just a Gigolo (the only slight cool down)  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIRIsKG95lg

Louis Prima King of the Swingers http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmlEzmc_97Y

Peggy Lee Manana http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ew7zJvapoCc

The Champs Tequilla  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tG6P2rBU-ho

I would like to show you a video clip of myself making a total spectacle of myself with no shame and visably shedding pounds as this seems to be what is required nowadays to get page views or friends on Facebook, but I have not yet worked out a way to video myself from a slimming angle with heavy editing a possibility.

Good job I've only identified 8  of these tracks because this is

JOY  OVERLOAD

Machines, my problematic relationship with...

I went to see a machine today to get 2 health certificates which I need for tomorrow.  The machine was working perfectly well before I arrived, and for the whole time I waited patiently while it delivered sheet after sheet for the woman who got in there just before me.

At last, my turn.  I ordered my certificates.  It delivered one.  Then it asked me to be patient for a long time and an even longer time and the longest time and then it told me it couldn't deliver and asked me queue up to see a real person or try again.  I tried again, I tried again.  The lady behind me and I had a little chat about it, I tried again and it crashed, taking me back to the main menu as though I didn't exist and refusing to talk to me.  This is the story of my life.  The lady behind me moved into position.  Her certificates were delivered as requested.  I took this personally.

I grabbed a queue ticket number 32.  I was called up to speak to a real person.  It was a real French person so I had to wait for some time while she claimed she couldn't help and accused me of having ordered one already, but by pleading my case long enough she printed one for me.   Human Beings Triumph Over Machines, hooray, hooray and the crowd roared!

INSPIRATION for Meeting The Challenge of Education

I’ve just watched a very beautiful film about Rudolf Steiner, about the challenge he faced and the challenge he passed to each of us, (those of us who want or feel able to pick it up), a film looking at this extraordinary man as « Not just a thinker, but someone who contributes practical solutions in three major areas, education, medicine and agriculture ». That is Steiner-Waldorf education, Biodynamic agriculture and anthroposophical medicine.  (The Challenge of Rudolf Steiner by Jonathan Stedall   rudolfsteinerfilm.squarespace.com).           

I love the way this film is thought out, written, narrated and presented, and it includes beautiful footage from many countries, so I am going to use some of the words from it to give a brief introduction to Steiner Waldorf education, with a few words and photos of my own.

Preparation for life in its fullest sense, head heart and hands…

Head heart hands and tummy, making  bread

Grape harvest leaves its mark

What ploughing really means

Study of life alive and growing

Three distinct phases of childhood, with three distinct approaches...

Steiner offered insight into what you teach and when, in recognition of distinct six/seven year phases in child development.  The curriculum is designed to introduce subjects when they resonate and correspond to where the child is at in his/her development.

Where milk really comes from...

The first seven years

…concentrate on play, imitation and rhythm, stories are told heart and soul rather than read.

Dexterity of the body will translate into dexterity in how they think and create.

Learning all about sand: pouring, moulding - gravity, volume, you can touch it!

Counter the erosion of childhood

Much of what children do in a Steiner Waldorf school is to counteract what is increasingly recognised in the world as the erosion of childhood, a concern which extends far beyond the Steiner Waldorf movement.

Growing up…and growing down !

« Steiner picture of  child development is not only children growing up and thereby learning the ways of the world, but of ‘growing down’, bringing into life their own unique biography – this needs time, it takes time to build a firm and strong foundation so that each child can not only then face thte world as it is, but also then develop the strength of character to change it, maybe ! 

Study and Do

We can be told about something, we can think something, but studies show children learn better and more profoundly when they put their learning into practice -  with their whole being :  try it out, make, create, play, experiment, dig, cut, nail and hammer, music and drama…

Class teacher

Children have the same class teacher for 8 years, ideally creating a bond between teacher and pupils which goes way byond the actual knowledge imparted. 

Celebrate childhood…

What attracts parents to Steiner Waldorf  Schools ? Jonathan Stedall asks an experienced teacher :  "parents sense that what’s there is wholesome and good for the children, and they are looking for childhood, with all the light and joy that childhood brings, quite often they are seeing, in many schools children in a way trying to be moulded into something that isn’t child friendly ;  they see that in the SW school we celebrate childhood, we try to bring things which really nurture and nourish and feed the children, where they are actually at."  

Results ?

Another experienced teacher says, « I have to live with no results ! Children and young adults are continually growing.  To see a young person only as the result of the summation of his/her exam results is a slight on the individual…as adults we know we are still developing.  As teachers, whatt we do is allow them to go on to the next phase of study, it’s nothing to do with a « result ».

Nourished !

After 20 years of teaching a teacher says he sees that at the end of schooling that his students « really are free afterwards, they are not coming out having to believe in any particular belief system, but they have been nourished as human beings… »  IT MAKES ME HUNGRY JUST THINKING ABOUT IT!

Inspiration
Educators and educational directors, and most particularly those in France, could take inspiration from this film.  I know Steiner Waldorf schools aren't always perfect, and sometimes the original truths and principles have become twisted into dogma, but I feel convinced that these sorts of principles are the right starting point, and it's so much easier to go on when you have started in the right place.

Here's another inspired educational reformer, fully alive to his humanity and funny too, dear, dear Sir Ken, BRING ON THE LEARNING REVOLUTION!
www.ted.com/.../sir_ken_robinson_bring_on_the_rev...

http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_changing_education_paradigms.html

French Collège: observable psychological effects

French Collège:  complete mind and body control

What is the general effect of living out your school life under such conditions?

Shades of Grey

Everything is organised, dictated and controlled, all you have to do as a pupil is to turn up and comform.  There is a certain institutional reassurance to be gained from this if you are a pupil who can conform adequately;  pupils do not have much opportunity to disrupt the class or bully other pupils, or get behind in their work without anyone noticing, or think for themselves, and each day is much like the same day the week before.

They learn:

• Not to think for themselves
• Not to have any ideas
• Not to have any idea what creativity could be
• Not to seek solutions to problems
• To accept passively without giving, without asking
• To wear clothes from the following pallette:****
• Not to stand out
• Not to exhibit or feel individual differences
• Not to help or hinder anyone else
• To focus on self and ability to conform/perform 
• Pay no heed to the success or failures of others or of any 'group'

Peter Gumbel points out a
"characteristic that is immediately apparent to every foreigner who has contact with French schools : the dictatorship of the classroom. A culture that is unforgiving, demeaning and sometimes humiliating. A culture that has made a cult out of high-pressure evaluation and yet gives only short shrift to the notion of individual motivation. A culture of excellence, certainly, but one which pushes down the weakest students rather than giving itself the mission of lifting them up. A culture that thinks nothing of giving 0 out of 20 to a poor paper but can’t bring itself to give 20 out of 20 to an excellent one. A culture of worthlessness, in short, that is the diametric opposite of the grandiose promises of the republic. "

And for those who cannot conform?

France has a school failure (echec scolaire) rate of 15 - 20 percent.  This is terrible.

French College: Security Measures

French Collège:  Complete Mind and Body Control

Principle Number 2:  The Challenge of Security 

The Challenge

• The school is legally responsable for keeping the child on its premises, and must ensure that the child does not leave the premises without permission.
• There are 600 pupils
• The teachers do not know the pupils (by and large , for reasons see below)
• Every pupil has a different timetable:  on one particular day, some start at 8.30, others 9.30, others 12.30, some leave for lunch, others stay, some finish at 2.30, others 6.00pm and so on.  
• The pupils do not wear uniform.  So no-one has any way of knowing if 11 - 14 year olds are on the street, which school they come from or whether or not they should be there.   

The Security Measures

Perimeter Fence, one guarded entrance/exit

Foolproof ID papers:   children carry identification with them at all times.  The ID has a photo, so that no child may assume the identity of another for practical reasons, the ID contains instructions from parents, sealed in plastic, so no child may arrange for someone to impersonate his or her parent/legal guardian (parent phone calls are not accepted as legal evidence as they could be impersonated).  It contains a timetable for checking that lessons are indeed over.  This information is checked by a teacher guarding the perimator fence and gate every time a child tries to leave.

Why teachers do not know the pupils (by and large)

• High turnover of teaching staff is a national policy
• Classes are mixed up each year (divide and rule policy?)
• Teachers are subject teachers, their job is to transmit their subject lesson (dicted by the state timing and content) to a succession of classes, to mark work and keep numeric records of those marks.
• There is no opportunity, reason or encouragement for getting to know their pupils in their job, it would be considered at best as irrelevant to their job of transmitting classes, and at worst counterproductive.
• There is no dividing down of the 600 into sub-groups where getting to know each other as teacher-pupils could take place.
• If a class teacher did get to know a child, he or she would probably not indicate this by any behaviour, in the name of professional integrity and fairness to the other inmates.
• The 'class teacher' is a subject teacher who has an administrative task to perform for one group of children which you could call a class.  This class teacher does not have any pastoral role and the class has no particular identity other than this administrative grouping.

Exceptions:

• If you child has been 'noticed ' for nonconformity in one of the designated compulsory work or general behaviour specifications
• If the termly or yearly calculation of a pupil's marks adds up to an interesting number, high or low

Collège: je suis ma note

Au Collège, Controle complete du Corps et Esprit

Principe numero 1;  Tu es ta note

Jusqu'avant de partir pour l'école ce matin R m'a dit:  "Demain c'est le grande contrôle d'histoire, tu va voir la note*  En fait tout le monde devait reviser pendant les vacances, mais comme je n'etait pas à cette ecole, je n'avait pas les fiches de revision et donc, je ne pouvais pas reviser."

"Mais, tu a dis au professeur que tu n'etais pas la l'annee dernière?" dis-je.

"Il n'écouterait pas" réponds-t-il.

Il m'a donné la même réponse pour la question  "tu leurs a dis que tu es moité Anglais?"

R sourit à chaque fois qu'il dit "Ils n'écouteraient pas", car il sait tres bien que c'est un jeu, la vie de l'école est un jeu et les profs te regarderais à travers si tu prennais trop au coeur des choses comme:   différences individuelles, relations humaines, jugement de ton comportement, capacités ou performances...mais non, ce qui conte est LA NOTE!  

Tu n'est qu'un chiffre, tu es quelque chose sur vingt (ou 10 ou 5), pas d'importance qui tu es, ou tu te trouve, jusqu'a quelle point tu a essayé ou si tu as vraiment compris.  Ce qui conte est la conte des notes.

*Ici l'outil de gestion des notes destiné aux parents. 

Matières Devoirs ANGLAIS LV1 Mme L... ANGLAIS LV1 stagiaire anglais ARTS PLASTIQUES Mme J... ED.PHYSIQUE & SPORT. Mme CM. EDUCATION MUSICALE M. A... FRANCAIS Mme B... HISTOIRE & GEOGRAPH. Mme B... MATHEMATIQUES Mme DURST S. PHYSIQUE-CHIMIE M. NAVARRO L. SCIENCES VIE & TERRE M. BARBIER J. TECHNOLOGIE M. DUGAST J. VIE DE CLASSE Mme DURST S. DM racisme f 1,50 /5

Aucune absence - Aucun retard (no absences or lateness)

R viens de nous emmener une fiche avec le nom d'une site  http://www.0780031m.index-education.net/parent.html et un mot de passe pour accéder au bilan évoluatif de R à n'importe quel moment: ses notes pour des contrôles petites et grandes, des devoirs, les retards et absences (et s'il est filmé par le camera de sécurité entrain de se gratter le nez).   Le seule contribution de R, il peut choisir la couleur de l'affiche, il a choisi "fraise".

Voila son profile initiale.  Evidemment, on a un peu de travail à faire.  Il me rassure qu'il n'a pas compris les consignes exactes et précises des devoirs et qu'à partir de maintenant il es sur le cas.    Il faut comprendre que la note dépende non sur la compréhension, la créativité, l'originalité ou autre choses, il dépende uniquement sur l'abilité de l'enfant d'obéir aux instructions à la lettre sans rien questionner.

Théoretiquement cette page du site est destinée aux parents.  Tous les élèves peuvent facilement voir le mot de passe sur la fiche de communication bien avant leurs parents.  Il est sûre que notre jeune voisine de 12 ans par exemple, vérifie ses notes tous les jours et parfois plusieurs fois par jour et elle est très embetée si quelque chose descende.  Mais c'est normale, si tu es ta note, et ta note n'est pas bonne, tu es qui alors?   

On Your Marks, Get Marks, MARK!

French Collège, Complete Mind and Body Control

Principle number 1;  You are Your Marks

Before leaving for school this morning R said to me:  "Tomorrow it's a really big history test, you'll be able to see the marks.*  We were supposed to revise during the holidays.  But I wasn't at the school last year and I didn't have the revision sheet so I couldn't revise during the holidays..."

"Well, have you told them you weren't here last year?"

"They wouldn't listen"

It was the same reply for have you told them you're English?

"Life is a game, boy. Life is a game that one plays according to the rules.” Mr Spencer in Catcher in the Rye, Salinger
R is smiling each time he says "they wouldn't listen".    He knows it's just a game, boy, school life is just a game.  Teachers would look at you askew for being so potty as to take anything seriously...human relationships, individual differences, judgement of your behaviour, abilities or performances...no what counts is the MARK.  

You are nothing but a number, you are a something out of twenty, (or 10 or 5) and it doesn't matter who you are or where you're at, how hard you tried or how much you really understand.  What figures is your figure.

Here is an example of quality mark surveillance - do they do this now in England?

Matières Devoirs ANGLAIS LV1 Mme L... ANGLAIS LV1 stagiaire anglais ARTS PLASTIQUES Mme J... ED.PHYSIQUE & SPORT. Mme CM. EDUCATION MUSICALE M. A... FRANCAIS Mme B... HISTOIRE & GEOGRAPH. Mme B... MATHEMATIQUES Mme DURST S. PHYSIQUE-CHIMIE M. NAVARRO L. SCIENCES VIE & TERRE M. BARBIER J. TECHNOLOGIE M. DUGAST J. VIE DE CLASSE Mme DURST S. DM racisme f 1,50 /5

Aucune absence - Aucun retard (no absences or lateness)

*We've just received a special password for R's surveillance records...on the following snappily named site:  http://www.0780031m.index-education.net/parent.html.
we can access his records at any time on what marks he got for homework, and tests large and small, and whether he was late or absent (and whether he was caught on the security cameras picking his nose).  The one choice R has in this matter is the colour of the screen, here he has chosen "strawberry".

Here I present R's initial profile.  Obviously it needs working on a bit.  After trying to persuade me that 1.5 out of 5 was a good mark, and then that it didn't matter, he finally confessed that he had not understood the minutae of the instructions for the homework, and promises next time he will be on the case...hmmm.

This page is meant for parents, although all the pupils see the information sheet with the password, and I know for a fact that our 12 year old neighbour for example, checks in on her marks every day, often twice a day, and gets very upset if anything has dropped. You are after all your mark, and if your mark is not good, who are you?