With some notable and praiseworthy exceptions, the English speaking western media’s response to the death of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez has been little more than hysterical, hypocritical propaganda. For these states, with their increasingly questionable claims on democracy, justice and suffrage, to herald the end of a Chavez as the ‘death of a dictator’ is almost breathtaking in its doublespeak.

First the Hysteria

Firstly, let’s look at some examples of the hyperbole put forward in the TV, Print and Radio media in the twenty four hours since Chavez breathed his last breath.

The Dallas Morning Herald, in its editorial ‘Death of Venezuela Dictator Hugo Chavez’, writes:

“During his 14 years as president, Chávez fooled Venezuelans into believing he would improve their lives and strengthen their democratic powers. In reality, he accomplished exactly the opposite…Chávez squandered his nation’s vast oil wealth on socialist gimmickry.”

The Daily Beast (the online…

The idea of transformative learning came up in discussions today with partner organisations. This reminded me of Prof. Jack Mezirow, who is widely acknowledged as founding the ‘transformative learning’ concept and a worthy member of this blog’s ‘Educational Thinkers’ Hall of Fame’.

Mezirow first applied the label ‘transformation’ in a 1978 study of U.S.women returning to post-secondary study or the workplace after an extended time out of education. He built his professional reputation on developing an evolving Transformation Theory that tries to define the features and processes of learning and their implications for adult educators. His work has led to a transformative learning movement in adult education. Other great educational thinkers including Thomas Kuhn, Paulo Freire and Jürgen Habermas all influenced Mezirow’s work.

One of his main areas of work on transformative learning has been the division of knowledge into three distinct types:

• Instrumental
• Communicative
• Emancipatory

Educators…

Members of the NASUWT, the largest teachers’ union, will hold the first of six days of strike action beginning today (Thursday 28 February) at the Alec Reed Academy in Northolt. 

The action is in furtherance of the NASUWT’s trade dispute with the Secretary of State and the failure of the School to engage constructively on issues arising from the action short of strike action instructions.

The NASUWT action is jointly co-ordinated with action being taken by the NUT. Both unions have sought to ensure that the action they have put in place to protect the pay and conditions of service of members is pupil, parent and public friendly but the actions of the School have left the teachers with no choice but to escalate their action.

Chris Keates, General Secretary of the NASUWT, said: “The dedicated and committed teachers at Alec Reed Academy deeply regret that they have been forced by the…

Members of the NASUWT, the largest teachers’ union, will hold the first of five days of strike action beginning today (Wednesday 27 February) at the Mount Education Support Centre in Stoke on Trent. The action is in furtherance of the NASUWT’s trade dispute with the Secretary of State, and the failure of the service to respond appropriately to the NASUWT’s national action instructions, particularly in regard to teachers’ appraisals.

Members of the Special Educational Needs and Disability Service (SENDS) are taking action in response to the imposition of a new punitive performance management policy by Stoke on Trent City Council, which the NASUWT believes undermines teacher professionalism.

Chris Keates, General Secretary of the NASUWT, said:

“Teachers are not opposed to performance management policies which are professional, supportive and which support them to develop their classroom practice.

“Unfortunately, the policy adopted by Stoke on Trent City Council is punitive rather…

(satire)

Tesco has been voted the UK’s worst riding school and pony club in an annual poll of 11,000 consumers by watchdog Which?

Tesco was at the bottom of the table, scoring just 45% for the quality of its horses – most of which were found to be dead – and receiving poor marks for its lack of riding facilities in the fresh meat section and trained riding instructors manning its check-outs.

One dissatisfied Tesco customer said:

The overall riding experience at Tesco was rubbish – mainly because although there were plenty of horses available, all of them had been killed and cut up into mince meat.

Not only that, but the children’s pony club consisted of just a few packets of Monty’s Favourite Meat Balls in Alphabetti Spaghetti and a couple of Little Dish Laughing Lasagnes.

More than 11,000 Which? members rated supermarkets for the quality of their equestrian…

 “The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.”
― George Orwell

UK Education Secretary Michael Gove has unveiled his new History curriculum, and with it his plans to reduce the subject to a romp through the stories of Great White Men of the British Isles, and tales of the Empire. This confining of taught history to a tiny island in the Atlantic, albeit our own, is training a generation of school children for world that no longer exists, while denying them access to a thrilling world beyond their own doorstep.

The Importance of History

If I could write personally for a moment…I love History; it was my favourite subject at school.  I was fortunate enough to have an extraordinary teacher called Ms Attwood (I do hope she reads this) who brought the past to life such that I was inspired…

 

A charity for families with disabled children has published a report revealing children with disabilities are being illegally excluded from schools.  Whilst troubling enough, this news forms the crest of a wave of policies disenfranchising and impoverishing people with disabilities across the country.  In the 1950’s there were signs in British Bed and Breakfasts saying ‘No Blacks, No Irish, No Dogs’; in 21^st century Britain, perhaps disability is the new black.

 Exclusion, Exclusion, Exclusion

 

Disability charity, Contact a Family interviewed 400 families of children in England and Wales with disabilities or additional needs for their Falling Through the Net Survey.  They found more than half (53%) had been asked to collect their child during the school day because there were not sufficient staff available to support them; more than half (56%) have been told by schools that their child cannot take part in a trip…

(It’s not satire – it’s George Osborne!)

Oh dear. Looks like George Osborne has got his sums wrong again.

He’s only gone and left himself – well us actually – short after he undervalued the 4G mobile broadband auction by £1.2bn.

Regular readers of this blog will know I’m quite a fan of our Chancellor.

In fact – as this latest fiasco goes to show – I think he’s a bit of a genius.

With his immense balls-up over the 4G auction valuation – our George has gone one better than even his Tory Chancellor predecessors.

Because unlike them – this PROVES he knows NEITHER the price NOR the value of anything.

So come on all you Gideon doubters, admit it! How many other people would be able to blag their way into being put in charge of the British economy when they clearly can’t count and their only previous…