We can and must teach a "Can Do!" culture.

Working with a group of teachers this week I was asked to share what I had learnt in over 40 years as teacher, leader etc...

I spoke about the importance of REVIEW prior to ANALYSIS and PLANNING because I am an evangelist for Action-Research and developing a REFLECTIVE profession...

I mused that we all make assumptions and that it's important to be open about what they are, if we are to plan our teaching and leading effectively.  I went on to hypothesise that assumptions, such as these, become beliefs when they are shown to be true, over time.

I then projected this slide:

It reads:

Show me a problem, a concern, a worry, or a barrier to improvement and success and I’ll find someone somewhere in the system who forgot to, didn’t, or couldn’t work out how to stop it, mitigate it, or cope with it. Then I’ll (want to) help them sort it.

I’ve learnt, and observed, that barriers to success, come down to a lack of capacity in individuals, teams and organisations to “review their effectiveness and plan to improve”.

So, I now believe that self-evaluation and planning is a critical skill, that can and must be taught.  It embeds the capacity to become independent and, later, interdependent.  It builds a “Can do” culture in families, schools and the workplace.  Crucially, it spreads a deeper and more powerful understanding of community, society and democracy.

On reflection:

I reckon most of my BLOG/rants have grown from this belief!  I often megaphone about colleagues, fellow citizens and those in authority who somehow missed something critical that was happening all around them.  Whether it is abuse, corruption, bullying, oppression, environmental ignorance or just unacceptable sloppiness across the board.

The phrase that epitomises the after effect of such lapses and suffuses the hollow excuses, even apologies, when they are offered, is, "These were unintended consequences".  This, self justifying utterance, is an acceptance that someone, somewhere, perhaps the speaker, did not think through what they were doing, or not doing, before they acted... Well, I think and shout, "They bloody well should have done!"

Am I being harsh?  Is this too simplistic?  Maybe I'm railing against apathy and, as I was once chided, "Baying at the moon".

I have come to believe that nothing can and will improve until an "action research minded" individual, or group, steps into the failing arena. My goodness - no it's their goodness - there are some warming examples of individual campaigners, sufferers, whistleblowers and heroes who have the strength and moral purpose to sand up for what they feel, know or believe is "right" and "just".

The hopeful bit

(So) The only way I can see of making any positive difference is by teaching our children that they can make a difference by thinking deeply and acting accordingly.  When educationalists, parents and community leaders teach in this way - we are building hope into the curriculum.  We are inoculating a generation against apathy and breeding thinking citizens who will be able to make judgements about their immediate and wider world. They will likely be interdependent and caring, rather than independent and selfish.

If you are like me and so many others I hear bemoaning the "current situation" around and about our lives, work and politics... I just ask that you do all you can to encourage the critical skills of: judgements based on evidence; analysis of critical factors, and prioritised action to weaken barriers to improvement and success.

Isn't this about, "Looking at what we are doing, with a view to doing it better next time?"

I repeat - Am I being harsh?  Is this too simplistic?  Maybe I'm railing against apathy and, as I was once chided, "Baying at the moon".

10 things we can resolve to do:

(or at least check out with reliable others whether we are right to consider such action)

• Whistleblow, report, challenge unacceptable behaviour.
• Praise and publicise good acts
• Refuse to buy goods and services from corrupt, or unethical companies
• Offer positive feedback and reviews for those who provide good products and sevices
• Recycle correctly and search for environmentally sensible products
• Pick up other peoples litter
• Use energy wisely
• Argue on behalf of those who are too weak, or vulnerable to make their own case.
• Gently (and increase pressure on a rising scale) challenge ourselves, and those closest to us, when we fail to act on witnessing unacceptable behaviour and actions (even if this is at some personal cost).
• Vote - always vote and weigh up the consequences of your vote on vulnerable citizens across our world.

Oh yes, PLEASE add comments below with your own positive suggestions... 

Corm

Corm

noun: a rounded underground storage organ present in plants such as crocuses, gladioli, and cyclamens, consisting of a swollen stem base covered with scale leaves.

My rhythm method of sense,

A doggerel rap in recompense.

Searching rhyme and reason,
You too? We too? #MeToo?

Is this a change of season?

It’s dark, it’s night, in bed and warm
I metamorphose from Leafman to Corm

Dying, shrinking, crisping to dry,
Oozing down sinews to earth,

A bud still longing for sky

Savil, Weinstein and Spacey rise groping

And Trump with his pussy hands hoping.

Lunging, looming and grabbing they scan

As we cringe, hide and wince,

They boast, "I am man!"

I curse them, the bastards. We know what they've done.

In their darkest of hearts they've dimmed down our sun.

Stunned, for while, we've lost our way.
They perverted and dirtied what it means to be male.
They took our affection away.

We were the romancers

The lovers, the dancers

The poets, the painters of light.

Applauding the best we saw hope in the rest,

Just wanting it all to be right.

Some search for solace in #Metoo they groan
Despairing but sharing, no longer alone,
In the frost, winter bleak, on the hills.

It's somehow less grim as, huddling in,

We whisper and moan of our ills.

Feeling some hope we sense the cold.

Oh, to be strong if not bold.
We turn ears to darkness to catch what they say.
Shivering we nurture our candles,
To warm us and show us a way,

Yes, you evil, oppressors, abusers,

We tell tales of how you have used us,

With non-smiling grins on your faces.

You sullied and bullied in your lip curling toils,

And raped through your countless disgraces.

As you bruised on thrusting, onward in stealth
Entitled by power, prestige and your wealth

We stood aside watching your swagger.

You predators, losers, big-headed braggers,

You pathetic, buggers and shaggers.

We will not lie down!

Well we do but it's gone,
That sense, in loving, as two become one,

The joy as we touched has been smothered.

So, we pause, take care and try to fathom

New wants and needs of our others.

It's time to take stock

Turn back our clocks

Before we're too numbed to see.

To when nothing but us consumed our love,
To those times when our loving was free,

We will stride mountains with hope

Feel awe on their slopes

And find our consensual

We'll know we are blest

And finally rest

On Desire Lines that lead to our soul

Maydays in June

Of Grenfell Tower and other scandals

Why we must Whistleblow a wind of change.

We lay them down in Grenfell Tower

Clad in unintended consequences.

Our very own refugees, lost friends,

Clutching copies of their unread letters,

Dark reproaches Posted to their elders, richers and betters

As dawn approaches.

This year is turning slow

As a thin moon cuts high clouds.

There's a cold wind tonight

After all the heat.

The Bishop’s abused

Shudder in nightmares. Still returning from a broken youth

Listening to Canterbury Tales
Clutching copies of their unread letters,

Collusions of Effusion, C of E Isn’t this the place where sanctuary should be?

How long do we have to wait?
More examples will follow

Some in anger, others in sorrow.
Remember Hillsborough?
The trial starts tomorrow
Only 28 years too late.

Insert here something about bankers

Rhyme it with wankers
  or Saville and Greville

Crisis with Isis
Jersey with mercy

Austerity with Money Tree

Oppression with depression

Warning with mourning.

Now, such verses sound hollow

All homework we learnt

By rote (not by heart) for tomorrow

Then burnt?

Might this rhythmic pattern of rhymes with no reason

Beat the intro to a season of treason?

Time for hunkering down, Backhanding the frown Nodding off to that silent prayer, "This too will pass..."
Repeat the epithets
"Head below the parapet"
"Save your ass"
"I will not grass..."

Too late, too late!

The strong, unbolted, stable Has unbridled hate.

No more high days, hay days

Are there only Mayday Maydays?

The thundering immensity of all this

Falls on deaf ears, bent shoulders, Aching hearts and dimming hope.

Who sees any lightening in our sky?

The first of us rise up

Bare teeth and gesticulate About “Our rights!”

And kick against the pricks.

Our chorus is rhetoric

That empty echo trick.

Rasp it out through sore throats,

Spit it out at scapegoats,

Print it on placards in full view

“For the many not the few,”

Or was that,

"We’re all right - Fuck you!”?

The second of us couch potato down

Watching, screens scrolling,

Eyeballs rolling, swiveling.

Keyboards trolling, driveling.

Surfing click and chips

Licking and index fingering.

The third of us just mutter,

“Democracy,” tut and splutter,
“That stupid delusion
Coalition of confusion
Pathetic illusion”.
Despairing as far-left and alt-right
Meet behind the continuum's back
"What we have you lack!"
Red and blue make a bruise
"Qui s'excuse s'accuse"

The fourth of us ponder,

Frowning, thinking it through.
And if we know of evil do we speak?
Too few do, too few. Would you?
In austerity don't argue with authority.

If you question, or dissent,

You'll be deemed troublesome and slow,

Less effective and efficient

And then, “Let go”.

The final indignity is,

“The politicians’ swerve.”

Loosening their limper grip

On a finely shredded nerve,

We hear them cry, "This is not what we meant at all

We were wanting to stand and serve.”

And see we let them free

For the current bargain plea,

A formal, public statement of apology.

Throughout,

The lonely wise looked up and saw,

At each and every moment too soon,

Beyond the moon,

All our reflections in all our sky.

Each of us a star, a prick of light mingled,

Interdependent, not one of us single.

They turned and asked us, “Why?”

Seeking answers, we vaguely recall...

“Love thy neighbour...

Above all to thine own self be true...”

“If you can keep your head when all around…

“No man is an island…”

“I have a dream...”

“Yes we can...

“Humanity is you...”

These bites are all sound

But do they speak to you?

Could there be hope after all?

The forecast is more wind tonight With a harder frost whoring in.

If we hug closer, safer, warmer, tight

Might we be less vulnerable and small?

Meanwhile in La La Land...
We bend over our youngest singing,

“Somewhere over the rainbow, way up high,

There's a land that I heard of once in a lullaby.”

Straightening, we leave them sleeping

Hearing our words repeating,

“Dreams that you dare to dream really can come true.”

So, let’s dare to dream and teach them

How to face the darkest hours.

We’ll set their moral compass

On those ivory towers.

We’ll demonstrate how to care

And when to be aware,

When others oppress, abuse,

With alternative facts, fake news.

We’ll say their lies are obscene

That grassing up is now green.

So, tittletattle, nark, snitch and tell tale

Whistleblow a wind!

Let our breath of life, be a righteous gale

Buffeting those who sinned.

A hurricane of hope speaking truth to power.

Let this be our learning

From the lesson of The Tower.

John Pearce June 25^th 2017

BIG BEAR HACKER IS MESSING WITH US!

Scary thoughts on the evening of January 6th 2017 - More of a BLOG but wanted to share thoughts...

BIG BEAR BROTHER IS MESSING WITH US! The Russian Bear is hacking about and scattering our social media trash bins to divide and misrule us...

1. How can it be true that Putin's people's hacked and released selected emails whilst also creating false news to favour #Trump's win in US Election and yet, tonight, so many are saying it did not effect the result? (Because no one dares to suggest a rerun?)

2. Is there evidence that the Trump win (or #Clinton's loss) was secured through Russian interference? The truth will come out soon - it's too big to hide but how long will it take? (My guess is after inauguration- when the most damage will be done...)

3. In the meantime, was the real purpose a trap to set #Trump against #CIA? If so, it appears (so far) to have succeeded... (But, it is still possible that Trump is playing a very clever sceptical twitter feed against a pragmatic set of actions he can only take in office... )

4. Is there any evidence that similar tactics, re false statistics and news were used in UK EU Referendum? Or are being deployed in the French and German elections?

5. Will the long term effect of "all this manipulation of social media" be a realisation that tribal politics is dangerously susceptible to "selectively leaked and falsified information" especially when it supports the tribe's views?

I'm coming to a committed view that the only way forward, for those of us who value thought through decision making in a democratic system, is to work to create an educated electorate who:

a) Think logically

b) Analyse good evidence and argument, before seeking opinions and coming to conclusions

c) Are wary of becoming consumers and publicists (slavish adherents) to others' thinking in cults, movements, political parties, and religions or ethnic, gender and sexual politics.

d) Seek knowledge from respected sources and

e) Are media savvy i.e. naturally triangulate all the evidence, information and possibilities they see before coming to informed opinions and decisions.

Hey ho - Happy New Politics!