NUT vote against the Army!

But who cares? Did anyone ask this bunch if ignorant people, who could not teach their way out of a paper bag what they thought?

No.

So who cares?

I don't.

The NUT are an anachronism in much the same way as Arthur Scargill's NUM was. Useless and pointless, devoid of thought. Where they differ if course is that at one time the NUM had relevance, the NUT never have.

Iain Dale has this, the BBC going overboard on positive coverage of the NUM has this, this, and this.

NUT Plan to help black boys achieve

Now I have some problems with this. In short the NUT have published a "charter" on the issue.

It deals with a cycle of low expectations, by pupil parent and school which is failing black boys.

There are many studies which show a vast chasm of under achievement by black boys when compared with any other community, whether they are Chinese, Indian white or what ever.

Well, there have actually now been studies that look at achievement of white pupils from similar socio economic backgrounds to the black children we are talking about, and they actually do marginally WORSE.

There was a study by the Department of Education that showed that black children are punished more and praised less than anyone else. This apparently is institutional racism, (by members of the NUT).

I would guess that if you did the same study for white children of a similar background you would actually find similar. There is something in some teachers psyche that thinks the poor scruffy children are the source of all problems in schools. They aren't racist, they are just stupid, the teachers who are like that, that is, and I have seen a few.

Now if you read this article from the BBC and substitute black for poor white, black and gypsy, it does make some sense as do some of the proposed remedies. All you need to do is strip out the Guardian reading racism and stupidity.

There is a cycle of low expectations to low achievement that causes all sorts of problems. It isn't helped by teachers unions such as the NUT thinking that employers are the enemy and that they only want to teach academic subjects to pupils regardless of whether the pupils are interested or not, resulting in a lot of disaffected children who then become difficult to teach. (You can see more on that here).

For more on education see here, or the NUT see here.

NUT, are they Nuts?

I must say it is fascinating watching the reports of the NUT conference. Some of the speeches set out clearly what is wrong with our education system, namely the people making the speeches.

Take the speech about diplomas providing cheap Labour. Apparently they suit the aims of employers whilst not meeting the needs of children.

What a bizarre statement. We have children leaving school who can't read or write properly because some of these people try a one size fits all policy and then they have the temerity to argue that teaching pupils in subjects that both interest them and provide a job is letting the pupils down by not meeting their needs?

Have these fools not seen who are in our prisons? People the education system has failed, who have no prospects, can't read or write properly and can't get a job.

The NUT don't want to examine their own mistaken ideology over the years, they just want more of the same. A one size fits all system which aims to send people on one path whether they want to go there or not.

The BBC has this.

More on the lunacy that is the NUT conference later.