Dd's laptop has a virus and is currently in the care of a nice, kind PC doctor. The virus is a piece of "scareware", a trojan which adopts the guise of anti-virus software (AV Security Suite). It informs you that your computer is being attacked and then links to an extortionately expensive software package which purports to remove the threat (which they'd created in the first place!). The main hint that it wasn't genuine was the number of big typographical errors on every page.
This happened to our family's "digital native", so she spotted that it was a scam straight away, but I decided to post about this in case it alerts anyone else who might be too busy to stay alert to these cons. I reckon that I might just have absent-mindedly clicked on the links and possibly made things even worse.
Meanwhile, dd, sans laptop, is catching up on a lot of reading!
Saturday, 3 July 2010
Thursday, 24 June 2010
A Two-Tier Education System?
There's a much debate in the media about Michael Gove's proposed free schools. Now, I've no particular axe to grind on this policy. After all, why set up a school with all the capital expenditure and systems and contracts of employment that this implies when you can really individualize your child's education by stepping outside of the system altogether? It seems unnecessary to bring in yet another type of education factory, even if it is a tiny bit more small scale and artisanal.
But I am absolutely stunned by the sheer hypocrisy of the likes of Ed Balls in suggesting that the creation of these schools will "create a two-tier education system". What planet is the man living on? Oh, sorry: he's living on the planet where his family are safely within a decent catchment area, where schools might not be exciting places which encourage genuine learning but at least you're likely to get through to the age of 18 without having been beaten to a pulp for being ever so slightly different.
The reality for those of us in the real world is that the education system is already deeply tiered. There are lots of wealthy people who can happily tout their egalitarianism by keeping their children in the state system because they can afford to buy a house close to decent schools. The rest of us have to put up with education factories which fail 50% of their pupils. DD could have ended up in a comprehensive where the proportion of pupils gaining 5 or more A*-C GCSE passes is 43%. The school down the road, nearer to the more expensive houses, achieves 84%. Now, meaningless as GCSE league tables are in the wonderful world of home education, for a large sector of this country passing the requisite number of exams is the definition of gaining an education. In that case, I'd reckon a system that permits one catchment area to achieve almost double that of its poorer neighbour is already two-tier.
For real equality of opportunity, we could look at the implications of Paula Rothermel's research, which highlights these two surprising features of home education:
Socio-economic class is not an indicator of achievement levels: whilst the home-educated children outscored their school counterparts, those from lower socio-economic groups outperformed their middle class peers. Figures indicate that at least 14% of the parents in the home-education sample were employed in manual and unskilled occupations.
In this study, parental level of education did not limit the children's attainment. At least 38% of parents in this study had been educated at comprehensive schools and at least 21% had no post-school qualifications. Whilst 47.5% of parents had attended university, at least 27.7% of parents in the study had not.
So children with parents of lower social class and lower parental education levels (children who everyone knows tend to have lower attainment in schools) actually do NOT suffer any lower attainment when educated at home.
In which case, I can see there's only one way forward for those who'd like to see the end of a two-tier education system: get the children out of the schools which have become hothouses for accentuating social difference.
But I am absolutely stunned by the sheer hypocrisy of the likes of Ed Balls in suggesting that the creation of these schools will "create a two-tier education system". What planet is the man living on? Oh, sorry: he's living on the planet where his family are safely within a decent catchment area, where schools might not be exciting places which encourage genuine learning but at least you're likely to get through to the age of 18 without having been beaten to a pulp for being ever so slightly different.
The reality for those of us in the real world is that the education system is already deeply tiered. There are lots of wealthy people who can happily tout their egalitarianism by keeping their children in the state system because they can afford to buy a house close to decent schools. The rest of us have to put up with education factories which fail 50% of their pupils. DD could have ended up in a comprehensive where the proportion of pupils gaining 5 or more A*-C GCSE passes is 43%. The school down the road, nearer to the more expensive houses, achieves 84%. Now, meaningless as GCSE league tables are in the wonderful world of home education, for a large sector of this country passing the requisite number of exams is the definition of gaining an education. In that case, I'd reckon a system that permits one catchment area to achieve almost double that of its poorer neighbour is already two-tier.
For real equality of opportunity, we could look at the implications of Paula Rothermel's research, which highlights these two surprising features of home education:
Socio-economic class is not an indicator of achievement levels: whilst the home-educated children outscored their school counterparts, those from lower socio-economic groups outperformed their middle class peers. Figures indicate that at least 14% of the parents in the home-education sample were employed in manual and unskilled occupations.
In this study, parental level of education did not limit the children's attainment. At least 38% of parents in this study had been educated at comprehensive schools and at least 21% had no post-school qualifications. Whilst 47.5% of parents had attended university, at least 27.7% of parents in the study had not.
So children with parents of lower social class and lower parental education levels (children who everyone knows tend to have lower attainment in schools) actually do NOT suffer any lower attainment when educated at home.
In which case, I can see there's only one way forward for those who'd like to see the end of a two-tier education system: get the children out of the schools which have become hothouses for accentuating social difference.
Tuesday, 22 June 2010
Getting my blog mojo back
I've had a bash at redesigning this blog in the hope it'll encourage me to blog more. Time will tell whether or not it's worked. For now, I'm enjoying the brighter colour scheme. Apologies to those of you who (unlike me) aren't colour blind ;-)
Sunday, 30 May 2010
Johann, I'm Only Dancing
Yes, that IS the name of the latest CD by Red Priest . Yesterday we did a 100-mile round-trip to see them at Swaledale Festival . It was a really worthwhile journey despite lousy weather which dampened the Dales' bucolic charms, especially for poor gran who was struggling to negotiate the puddles with her bandaged leg.
This group is just spectacular. All brilliant musicians who specialize in historic performance, they take the spirit of the baroque at its most literal and, where necessary, happily reinvent and improvise. This was really evident in this tour, where a recorder-led quartet is taking on the work of Johann [geddit?] Sebastian Bach, despite the fact that Bach didn't compose for recorder. And it's absolutely marvellous stuff - familiar old warhorses like the Brandenburg Concertos, Toccata and Fugue in D min, and Badinerie take on a completely new life that's genuinely exciting while retaining a core of authenticity (the Swingle Singers it ain't!). DD is, of course, a very serious young recorder player and was lucky enough to be sitting directly in front of recorder genius, Piers Adams. She watched his technique like a hawk and every time he picked up a different instrument, I could see her mentally building her new shopping list.
But, above all, it's the spirit of fun and the interaction between the musicians that stays in your mind - sparkling talent demonstrated with the lightest of touches.
Playfulness is the word that springs to mind - the sheer pleasure of being really good at something, experimenting with and enjoying it for its own merits, rather than following tramlines towards a safe definition of standardized recognition. Pretty much an analogy for educating otherwise - no wonder we love this group!
This group is just spectacular. All brilliant musicians who specialize in historic performance, they take the spirit of the baroque at its most literal and, where necessary, happily reinvent and improvise. This was really evident in this tour, where a recorder-led quartet is taking on the work of Johann [geddit?] Sebastian Bach, despite the fact that Bach didn't compose for recorder. And it's absolutely marvellous stuff - familiar old warhorses like the Brandenburg Concertos, Toccata and Fugue in D min, and Badinerie take on a completely new life that's genuinely exciting while retaining a core of authenticity (the Swingle Singers it ain't!). DD is, of course, a very serious young recorder player and was lucky enough to be sitting directly in front of recorder genius, Piers Adams. She watched his technique like a hawk and every time he picked up a different instrument, I could see her mentally building her new shopping list.
But, above all, it's the spirit of fun and the interaction between the musicians that stays in your mind - sparkling talent demonstrated with the lightest of touches.
Playfulness is the word that springs to mind - the sheer pleasure of being really good at something, experimenting with and enjoying it for its own merits, rather than following tramlines towards a safe definition of standardized recognition. Pretty much an analogy for educating otherwise - no wonder we love this group!
Thursday, 6 May 2010
Election day
Well, I voted. I didn't spoil my ballot paper with scribbles or "None of the above" (my default position since Iraq dispelled all my illusions). The party whose policies chime best with my own (increasingly anarchistic) views didn't field a candidate in my constituency, so I was left with a choice between the big 3 and the scary ultra-right. So I voted for the party/candidate on the ballot paper that looked likely to do least harm. Who knows, maybe millions of other disillusioned old party loyalists might have done the same?
Weirdly, I've come to the realization that I've become a single-issue voter: I really want a hung parliament because a government that has to heavily negotiate over the big things is less likely to try and mess with home education. Selfish? Probably. But ... look at the alternatives, none of them too pretty!
Dd observed the voting process and was shocked at how quickly a voter's duty is discharged. She's looking forward to staying up to watch the results - gonna be a looooooong night. All the older HE kids seem to have really discovered politics this time around. Who knows, we may have a future prime minister among them?
Weirdly, I've come to the realization that I've become a single-issue voter: I really want a hung parliament because a government that has to heavily negotiate over the big things is less likely to try and mess with home education. Selfish? Probably. But ... look at the alternatives, none of them too pretty!
Dd observed the voting process and was shocked at how quickly a voter's duty is discharged. She's looking forward to staying up to watch the results - gonna be a looooooong night. All the older HE kids seem to have really discovered politics this time around. Who knows, we may have a future prime minister among them?
Tuesday, 20 April 2010
Meaning from movies
Today, dd and I watched the feature film "Gandhi". She was visibly shocked at the scene depicting the Amritsar massacre. Afterwards, she summed up passive resistance in one comment: "They didn't give the British Empire what it wanted - rioting and violence - so it was obvious to everybody that the rulers were unjust".
So good to see how children can grasp historical meaning without being presented with a textbook list of easily digestible bulletpoints.
So good to see how children can grasp historical meaning without being presented with a textbook list of easily digestible bulletpoints.
Wednesday, 7 April 2010
All washed-up
Time for a huge sigh of relief - the draconian home education clauses of the CSF Bill have failed to make it through the "wash-up". My boundless thanks to those, like Graham Stuart and Lord Lucas, who've supported us in our fight to retain fundamental rights and to all those wonderful home educators up and down the country who've been the best mutual support system anyone could hope for.
Anyone who knows our family will understand that we tend to view everything through a musical lens, so what should be the soundtrack to these momentous events? I toyed with The Pogues' "Fiesta" but it's now obviously the property of Harry Hill. I looked for a decent YouTube vid of "Freedom Jazz Dance" to no avail. In the end, I decided that a bit of vengeful gloating would do. Here's something from His Bobness dedicated to His Ballsness:-
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)