Back to school blues

'September is the Monday of the year' says B sadly.

Sadness descends upon France, another summer stopped in its prime, another miserable return to the grindstone, the insults, the threats, the scolding, the pressure...

R began his return to school by enduring an hour long lecture by the Headmistress Mrs Scruton;  all  6 classes in his year assembled in a hall fitted with four microphones, so that when Mrs Scruton shouted 'TAISEZ-VOUS' it caused the children to clutch their ears in pain.  She then went through the same kinds of threats as last year, including repeating the chewing gum rule to make sure it sticks  and then she added three pages of new rules, which as R points out, are mostly as a result of the success of last year's pupils in getting round the old ones.

• Now all pupils must have their ID papers to get into the school on pain of immediate sanction (it was previously possible to borrow someone's ID to get out of school if you had forgotten yours, no longer...)
• The sanction for arriving without ID will be written in a special Book with a P-E-N (not on computer as Some Pupil has hacked into it and not in ID book as you have forgotten it).
• No teacher may take the ID book of any pupil for any reason and so there is No Excuse for not having it on you (I wonder how long it will be before they microchip the pupils?)
• Anyone in the corridor during class time must have a special coupon signed by a teacher giving permission, reason and duration of stay, on pain of immediate sanction.
• No pupil is to fall ill during the class and ask to see the nurse (unless demonstrably vomiting or pooing pants)  they must wait until break and make sure they miss break time to see the school nurse and will not be admitted at the end of break-time only at the beginning.
• No food (complaints that pupils were stealing one another's food, so ban food and end complaints).
• No showers, as pupils turn showers on dressed colleagues, fling open doors to expose colleagues, have water fights and all the other things males in groups do...
• No spray deodorants
• No magnifying glasses...or thick spectacles...and all the flints have been removed from the prison yard...leaving only a handful of sticks to be frenetically rubbed together.
• No earplugs (I jest you not)

Then she announced that 250 sessions of the School Discipline Commission (kangeroo court) had to be convened last year and this This Will Not Do, and that no child is to come to school hungry or suffering from lack of sleep, the school nurse will show no sympathy and will not be giving out food any more.

The hour long threats and rules session finished by reading out the class lists, surname, forename, class number...you had to listen to all the names until you spotted your name and made a mental note of the class.

'Did you lose yourself in your thoughts once you had your class?' I asked R

'I couldn't, because the microphones were booming too loudly' he replied. 'It was BORING'.

Our young neighbour T was in high dudgeon because she was in the last class to be read out;  also she was separated from all her friends and put in a class with people she did not like with a notorious teacher.   When she came round to our place her resounding shouts and squeals made me think she was arguing savagely with R and I intervened to avoid the drawing of blood, but apparently she was just talking 'normally' ie venting.  Everyone has been split up into different classes with a totally new set of teachers, which has made most of them rather miserable and disorientated.

The final fact of the first day, which thankfully only lasted 2.5 hours, was that they went to their classes where the new class teachers told them what books they needed and what forms to fill in and Mrs Scruton and her 'team' came round to each class to issue further threats;  all to no avail as everyone is bored stiff with threats and know that once the tiresome chest beating is over normal school life will resume.

I couldn't help noticing that R and his friends are all shouting and short tempered today  as a result of all the shouting-at that they received on the first day and will continue to receive on a regular basis.  R's friend M was locked down for 2 hours after school because on the first day, his mother had not furnished him with a regulation passport photo on his ID book.    He was beside himself.  They would not let him phone his mum.  Eventually his mum phoned the school, she beside herself and shouted them all down, quite right too, it's outrageous.

 R always laughs when he recounts his tales, he is a born survivor, but... sigh sigh sigh of frustration, there IS another way...counting days to next hols.

Meanwhile bombarded with 20 books to cover in plastic film, a job which causes grown mothers to weep, unless they buy Le Bon Eleve Crystal system with self-stick corners.  Any entrepreneurs out there, if you invent plastic covered exercise and text books, you will clean up in France and drastically reduce the national consumption of tranquilisers.

French Bac in English

I'm English, my son is bilingual, but this does not mean he will be able to pass the French bac in English with ease.  He will need to understand what the examiners want, and to practice how to produce it;  so I've been looking through some past papers   (bac is the equivalent of A-levels, taken at 17 or 18 years old).    

All candidates for the bac have to perform in a wide range of subjects (philosophy, language, sciences, maths geography history and more).  French students are not free, as British students are,  to drop subjects (including foreign language) when they take the bac and specialise in 3 or 4 preferred subjects.

You can pass your bac with or without 'mention'.  Mention can mean:

Mention assez bien (literally good enough, or quite good)
Mention bien (good)
Mention très bien (very good).

I feel I should get a 'mention tres bien' very good in English for the following reasons

• I am English
• I am old and wise
• I am gifted in English and once won the school prize for English Achievement
• The level of English can't be that hard given the wide range of subjects, surely?

I set myself the challenge of doing the English bac for the students who choose to specialise in language (rather than say, maths or the technical bac) and started with 'comprehension'- English comprehension, surely this at least is in the bag! 

I read the text which was two pages of a novel by Kate Atkinson.     I didn't understand much of what was going on, so I read the questions, and I didn't understand the questions, and as for the answers, don't even ask.

I went to find my reading glasses and tried again, but it wasn't any better.  The text was devoid of context,  and littered with obscure vocabulary, subtle psychology and irretrievable cross-references.

Luckily JC enlightened me on the logical and staged French technique.

1. Read the text
2. Read the questions
3. Re-read the text like a detective looking for clues to answering the questions.

After I did this I had some idea what was going on and set out to give a Mention Très Bien answer.

Here is the question, B's answer (the first time he has ever tried such an exercise with no teaching preparation, and in a short time -  I'm impressed).    Then my answer, and a standard answer from the book which would earn the candidate a 'mention très bien'.  

Question;  explain why Frank found himself unexpectedly tongue-tied (50 words).

B's answer:  He found himself tongue-tied because of all the prettiness of the bread and cups, which prevented him from talking about death and the different ways of dying.  He understood that 'the smell of death clearly had no place in the parlour of Lowther Street'. (line reference).

My answer:  Frank felt tongue-tied because the reality of war ('the smell of death', 'trench foot' and 'rats') was so different from his civilised surroundings, so unsuited to polite conversation, that he struggled to find something he could talk about.  Even the mention of the bad tea in the trenches shocked the sisters, so he knew he could not talk about his life as a soldier.

Model answer:  There is such a sharp contrast between the horror of what he has experienced and the softeness and cosiness of this environment, that he cannot find words to express himself and he remains speechless.  His world is far from this one, and he understands that there's no way for the women to grasp his everday life.  Moreover, the warm welcome makes him feel even more ill-at ease and embarassed.

REMARKS

Although my answer was well-written, logical and justifiable, I think I would just miss the mention très bien by not referring explicitly to the contrast between the soft and warm welcome and the cold and hard realities of war.

Another remark:  Sapristi Knuckoes (Goon Shows circa 1950)

Teenage Sons and Techno Temptation

The dark truth

I am the mother of a teenage son.  If you are the mother one of these you will understand why I sometimes find myself in front of the computer with a wild look in my eye, a mallet in one hand and a claw hammer in the other; why I sometimes wish new technology had never been born.

It starts at a tender age, for example 6 years.   The boy in question comes home from school and informs you that he wants an electronic thing (ET).  The type of ET he wants depends on what is in fashion.  He really really wants the ET, he needs to join the club of boys because everybody has one (except him).

It seems innocent enough at first, at last he is able to sit still and concentrate and you have time to peel the spuds, then cook the spuds, and finally redecorate the kitchen.   You decide to experiment to see just how far it goes before they snap out of it;  12 hours per day and they don’t.

With the arrival of the teenage years, if you let things run their course, your home is pervaded by the stench of virtual death.  Your son takes to hanging out with urban killers, gangland car thieves and hideous intergalactic robot killing machines.  Your son and his friends pass their time killing to beat them, killing to survive,  and will die at their hands on a regular basis. Watch your sons in front of the computer:  their jaws drop open, they jitter and grunt, stabbing out with blind fingers.  Disembodied voices caw from phone and Skype, “what the f***” and “I’m dead”.  Your son’s friends invade your home with concealed palm sized temptations, they invade on a virtual level too, things are downloaded and uploaded into your computer without your knowledge, nothing is secret and everything is known – to your son - but not to you.    They agree they are addicted, they agree with everything you say.  But ultimately, the temptation is too strong.    I am on a mission to stop the games, they are on a mission to let them in, it becomes another, quite hopeless, game.

Left unchecked, the gaming invasion can cause your teenaged son to forget everything: he will forget to talk, eat sleep and pick up his dirty pants.  The virtual world crushes all in its path:  imagination, conversation, bodily activity, tranquillity, passion, and availability for washing up duties.  It renders promises meaningless and truth a thing of the past.  Left unchecked I am convinced that I will one day find a skeleton seated before the screen, its jaw dropped open, its hand eternally clenching the mouse.

Is there a Way of Computing?


Looking for Hope

I’m looking for alternatives, I’m looking for something that will engage my son, take him out of the zone of killer games and mindless quasi-communication (hw r u? gd)  without opposing the forces, desires and creative abilities that are so obviously part of him.  Without trying to separate him from the exponentially changing technical world in which we all find ourselves...or lose ourselves.

  

Alternative Technologies

I bring news of great joy, an antidote.  I bring you the story of how the human spirit can surf the tidal wave of new technology and triumph, how faith in humanity allows us, (those of us who want to and are capable of it) to find creative and moral freedom in front of the computer.

Once upon a time Linus Benedict Torvalds, a Finnish American software engineer, had a good idea.   He created LINUX and gave it away.

“What is Linux?”  I ask my teenage son:  Words pour from his mouth which appear to have sense and syntax, but I can’t make anything of it,  I just can’t grasp anything…graspable.

“Yes, but WHAT is Linux?”  I ask.  “core, distribution, exploitation system, opensuse Kubuntu Lubuntu Wordy one…”  says my son, or something similar: my brows knit, I hold up my hand…

“But what IS Linux?”  I ask, making little grasping gestures with my hands.  My son becomes more than a little impatient with me. I become impatient back,  “I am a total technical ignoramus I live and function in a real world, I’ve always got along without virtuality until now, and so, for the sake of my generation,  please what IS this thing and also WHAT IS IT FOR so I know whether or not I need one?”

Phutting noises emit from his lips, his eyes roll heavenward, and he shouts a bit, using his new Version Two upgraded loud scratchy voice.  But eventually, with the help of a few diagrams which he sketches for me, I have managed to understand this much: 

It is my screen, the thing I see when I turn on my computer.  It is the interface between human me and the shadowy world of the Computer.  It translates the ungraspable binary world of the computer into something which I can see and understand and which offers me options which I can take up such as opening my emails.   Linux is the equivalent of Microsoft Windows or Apple Mac IOSX. 

Why would I want to change my screen view?

I can offer moral, technical and financial reasons, read on...

Linux and the Great Give Away

In the Microsoft story there are two pioneering players, one famous and iconic, and a co-founder with an unmemorable name (Paul Allen b.1953) who had lots of  ideas which Bill Gates ( born 1955) was able to put into action for profit.  In the Linux story, an inspirational character (Richard Stallman b.1953) helped a young amateur programmer called Linus Torvalds (b.1969) to start off on the right track. The right track is; give it away.

Richard Stallman, Freeware Inspiration

Linus Torvalds, Founder of Linux

Bill Gates Cofounder Microsoft

Paul Allen Cofounder Microsoft

The Linux story is told here, elegantly and succinctly, for people with not much time or concentration.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ocq6_3-nEw

To know more about the idealist, visionary and activist, Richard Stallman, (helpful mnenomics Tall Man, All Man, Stall (the baddies) Man) the bare bones of his story can be read here en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Stallman

What if we got rid of Them and Us, and we concentrated on Us?

What if we did things based on Need rather than Greed?

 The Alternative Way

Share your idea and give your software product to the world

Don't hog it and charge for it darling, here's why

When you share the world will be inspired,

Ideas will bounce and further ideas will be born

Humanity benefits (you are part of humanity after all)

Everyone is free to benefit from your product, and contribute to it!

You put in place laws so it is impossible to commercialise your product for personal gain

But you let people use it to improve or fuel their own businesses

You have a world wide network of creativity and solutions

You have a world wide network of friendly colleagues ready to help out

You are FREE from company restrictions and constrictions

From having unlimited good ideas crushed to protect a limited company

You don't need to be worried, mean and grasping, hiding from or attacking enemies...

Instead you are free to help others, humanity and yourself at the same time, as you choose

Linux rarely suffers viruses because everyone has access to ‘fill in weaknesses’ in the system to avoid viruses and solve them, de-bug, find solutions, upgrade and improve;  also there is no money-making exploiting power to ‘rebel against’ or ‘punish’ and so there are fewer attacks.  

Here are two examples of commercial interest taking precedence over human interest:  James Dyson when he cracked it with the bagless hoover, was turned down because companies were interested in selling hoover bags, and then there's a certain laboratory in the news lately, and the vital cancer data which it witheld... 

Linux is continually given away and shared, in a continual process of change and development, in line with life.

As Linus Torvalds says (pardon the grammar):  "The cyberspace earnings I get form Linux come in the format of having a Network of people that know me and trust me, and that I can depend on in return."  As Linus says;  "In my opinion Microsoft is a lot better at making money than it is at making good operating systems."  And:  "Any program is only as good as it is useful.

ETHICAL, EFFECTIVE, FREE AND FUN!

Back to Teenage Boys and IT

There seem to me to be certain principles at stake as we try to guide our children through a New Technology terrain is new to us and changing exponentially all the time.  Here is what I hold onto:

Our teenagers are going to be seduced by computers, as are we all, so it’s good to know how they work, mechanically, morally, technically, to make sure we are in charge of them, and not they of us.  To avoid being sucked into addictive consumerism. And there is endless educational fun to be had on this project that absolutely does not involve mindless killing games and can involve human discussion, physically making things and reading Linux magazines for example.

Learning about and installing Linux is an option for freeing yourself from Microsoft, its charges, its invasion of our computers, its technical problems and its underlying moral values which undermine creativity and promote over consumption.   Our teenage son as been an active participant and is now the family leader in Linux and has installed it in his father's computer and a family friend's computer. 

Exploring and discussing the world of ‘free ware’ is a wonderful topic!

Building a Raspberry Pi http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raspberry_Pi (small simple cheap educational computer kit)  is another idea.

Do you know of others, have you tried them?

Insisting that New Technology turns towards honesty, transparency, sharing, genuine creativity and faith in humanity seems to me like a vital mission for our children.

Education Link!

TRADUIRE

If you want an idea of what Steiner Waldorf education is all about, see this link:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leTIyWJWyY8.


It's from a wonderful film by Jonathon Stedall about Steiner in general, here you can find the education bits gathered together.

Here is the link for the full film, which is warm and uplifting and I recommend it highly http://rudolfsteinerfilm.squarespace.com/