Browndown Meltdown

Chipsdown

BROWNDOWN MELTDOWN

 

There is an excellent article by George Monbiot in The Guardian today: ‘One financial meltdown, it seems, is just not enough for Gordon Brown’ (8th September, p.33).

Monbiot indicates Gordon Brown’s degree of responsibility for the current crisis of capital and his dysfunctional reluctance to attempt to place substantial restraints on banks and bankers’ activities – which have been ruinous for millions.

As Monbiot notes:

“So there will be no reckoning. There will be no firm restraint, no punishment, no measure sufficient to prevent a repetition of the crash. The only people who will not be harmed by the banking crisis are the bankers who caused it”.

See the article at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/sep/07/financial-meltdown-gordon-brown-g20

Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

Schools and Bonus Culture

Schools and Bonus Culture

 

 

It is not surprising that hand-in-hand with the business takeover of schools we find business-like reward schemes developing. Hank Roberts exposed an emerging bonus culture in schools in England at the Association of Teachers & Lecturers conference yesterday. New Labour Schools Secretary, Ed Balls, supports such a policy, it seems. See more from the stories below:   

 

 

Anthea Lipsett and Polly Curtis, ‘City greed and bonus culture ‘infecting state schools’’, 7^th April, The Guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/apr/07/education-ed-balls-bonuses-management

 

 

Daily Mail Reporter, ‘State school headteacher enjoyed £130,000 in ‘City-style’ bonuses, 7^th April, Daily Mail

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1168091/State-school-headteacher-enjoyed-130-000-City-style-bonuses.html

 

 

Graeme Paton, ‘Bonus culture ‘banking sickness’ spreading to state schools, ATL conference told’, 6^th April, The Daily Telegraph

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/5115832/Bonus-culture-banking-sickness-spreading-to-state-schools-ATL-conference-told.html

 

 

Alison Smith, ‘Secondary head picks up bonuses’, 7^th April, BBC News

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7987167.stm

 

 

Tristan Kirk, ‘Copland school defends bonus policy’, 7^th April, Harrow Times

http://www.harrowtimes.co.uk/news/localnews/4274063.Headteacher_attacked_for___130_000_bonuses/

 

 

Tim Ross, ‘A leading London headteacher who took home at least £130,000 in bonuses employed three family members at his school, a whistleblower claimed today’, 7^th April, London Evening Standard

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23672805-details/State+head+on+%C2%A3130,000+bonuses+puts+his+family+on+the+payroll/article.do

 

 

Kat Baker, ‘Schools criticised for City-style bonuses, 7^th April, Personnel Today

http://www.personneltoday.com/articles/2009/04/07/50199/schools-criticised-for-city-style-bonuses.html

 

 

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

Education, Indoctrination and Witch Hunting

Education, Indoctrination and Witch Hunting

 

 

It seems that Critical Pedagogy and radical educators are causing quite a stir in Australia, according to ABC News. There are the usual stories about ‘indoctrination’ of students by left-wing professors, the ‘evils’ of Critical Pedagogy and nonsense about the ‘neutrality’ of the classroom, of course. All this is to be expected – and we have seen this before (e.g. the Gould Report in the UK in the early 1980s, the ‘Dirty Thirty’ campaign in the US, Thatcher’s determination to end Marxist influence over teacher training at the University of Brighton and periodic digs at Marxist professors from the media in many countries over the last 40 years).

 

 

In these times of capitalist crises, the stakes are a bit higher than usual. What is also noteworthy is the extent and intensity of the debate that the ABC News item has generated. The right are not getting it all their own way, and spirited defences of Critical Pedagogy, radical educators and radical education can be found in the debate ensuing in the ‘Comments’.

 

 

See: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/10/17/2393795.htm

 

 

Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas is at: http://www.flowideas.co.uk