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Gone to the doggerel (updated version)
ConDemNation:
A Garland of Scurrilous Rhymes, Parodies and Rants
To Greet our New Political Masters
Composed “In the Nation’s Interest”
O for a Jonathon Swift to prick our P.R. Politicians with his pen. Maybe those Lib Dems chosen to make a deal with the Tories thought they were discussing proportional representation. They weren’t: the letters P.R. only ever stood for public relations.
Here we humbly present some scribbling thoughts that you may in consequence be enlightened and relieved that you are not alone; whilst also being inspired by knowing that a standard of versifying has been set, below which you, esteemed reader, could not possibly fall.
Some of what follows is best sung with gusto, particularly the two parodies of The Red Flag. Can you detect the quotation from Fats Waller or the shameless theft from Milton?
Please join in.
Contributions from Anon are also welcome.
Just remember the motto of ConDemNation: ‘Bad politics begets bad poetry’. ... ...
download it: Gone to the doggerel Silly Policies for the Silly Season: Dressing too quickly in the dark
At the start of the 2010 summer holiday a friend sent me a doctoral assignment to look at. It traces and makes sense of the many changes of policy over the last thirteen years for the education and assessment of young people 14-19. The last section describing the current state of affairs uses the word ‘chaos’. Well, what word would you choose to describe the succession of mistakes and changes we have witnessed recently?
The privatisation of the railways was an astonishing leap for Margaret Thatcher’s government. Her adoption of the so-called free market ideology propounded by the Chicago school of economists had already led to the privatisation of British public utilities; but many of us thought at the time that surely no-one would be foolish enough to impose this religion upon our railways. We were wrong: she was; and we have had to go on living with the consequences.
Memories of this are prompting me to wonder where we might be heading with our universities... ...
The near future for the professional learning of educators: Who will capture it?
I want to proceed to address the question of who will capture the professional learning of educators. Here is the outline of the article:
1. Might it be the political parties?
2. Might it be the Select Committee of the House of Commons?
3. Might it be faith groups?
4. Might it be big corporations?
5. Might it be universities?
6. Might it be parents?
7. Might it be management buy-outs?
8. Might it be local government?
9. What group have I left out?