Skool Daze

It has been an inordinate amount of time since I last posted. To be honest the blog kind of fell by the waste-side what with third-year and the general feeling that I was merely talking to myself. However, now that I have more time on my hands and very little intellectual or spiritual expression given my bar-job and waiting out the six months I have until I go travelling I thought I'd start it up again, particularly as I have more time to discover new music and also to discover (and get angry about) new depths of the ConDems' pitful attmepts to run the country. They've been in power for about 100 days and yet have had SO many awkward 'climb-downs' even a jaded Labour supporter like yours truly is dumbfounded.

As if the Queen's Speech wasn't vague enough they keep releasing (potential) policy and then rescinding it - graduate tax anyone? The tax is a particular bug-bear as it's essentially a lifestyle tax, something imposed to curb certain socio-cultural practices (i.e. smoking, drinking - both of which carry their own taxes). Apparently education and attmepting to better oneself, whether in terms of affluence or enlightenment is something parts of the coalition thouroughly disagree with. However, when it comes to education it is their ideas for schools which concern me most. I wasn't greatly in favour of the Labour's 'Academies' or their support for 'faith schools' but at least the former were only designed to bring new energy to the lack-luster results of deprived areas (though i'm always suspicious of pirvate-sector involvement) it was not intended as a scheme to be rolled out everywhere merely to increase the disunity in our current education system and its standards. This is all predicated on the ridiculous idea that parents know better than professionals what their children should be learning. The truth is that most of them have forgotten the lager-part of what they ever learnt at school and that they are more likely to be prejudice as to which subjects should be taught. This for me means the disappreciation of the Arts and what they have to offer becuase they don't have an immediate use or demonstrate a strong connection with one particular career; securing a career for 11 year-olds seems an oddly prevalent obsession of the middle-aged,(ok so I'm an Arts graduate myself and thus prejudiced but what is politics if not a game of interests?) becuase they don't have an immediate use or demonstrate a strong connection with one particular career; securing a career for 11 year-olds seems an oddly prevalent obsession of the middle-aged. What's more is that PSHE and Citizenship (and their ilk) will inevitably be further down-graded. No matter how much I loathed and ridiculed the latter two whilst I was taught them they have an important place. If nothing else teenagers and young-adults have the right to full access to information concerning sex, beyond scientific reproduction, the potential health risks and indeed the emotional side of conjugial relations. As our society becomes more bureaucratic and as community ties are understood less and less in terms of geographical position, young people need to be taught about the legal and politcal systems and more importanty those liberal democratic values (the various freedoms, sexual equality etc etc) that underpin our society. Their rights and responsibilites in a society dominated by electronic communication (look at me ranting over the internet ffs) need to be outlined. No matter how lame the videos are.

These things are lost in faith schools and I feel would be further jeopardised by so-called 'free schools' over which the state would have limited control of the curriculum. Now I realise that my Napoleonic vision of a centralised school system where all kids learn the same thing at the same time is probaly out-dated and unrealistic but schools of whatever colour need the impartial, independent scrutiny of the state and to ensure that, no matter how uncomforable priests, parents or imams are made by it that kids get the proper access to information ranging from contraception, the rights of the individual to a proper understanding of the theory of evolution. The Channel 4 programme 'Faith School Menace?' which aired last night was a thought-provoking one. I personally disagree with Richard Dawkins over many things, but he's got it baout right here. If we are going to have state-funded faith schools (or 'free-schools' God forbid) they need proper regulation, something that is clearly not happening given the science teacher's inability to field questions about evolution (I haven't studied science in about 5 years but still know that the theory holds we didn't evolve from chimpanzees themselves but the both of us from a comman ancestor!).

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This is totally stolen from Joe Oliver byt the way but I love to see that Judas Nick Clegg get his comeuppance:

http://politicalscrapbook.net/2010/08/nick-clegg-childrens-centre-visit-video/

I hate the Lib Dems even more than the Tory's because either they're deluded and believe that all these cuts are necessary or they are just too afraid to out themselves as Neo-Thatcherites like Gideon and the Gang.