Posts by Margaret B
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To back up Tom's comment at 5.38pm, my mum always told me that if I could read and understand what I was reading I could teach myself (learn) anything. Now while that's a bit overly optimistic (I imagine I would learn welding much better by demonstration and practice than reading!) it does go to this idea that by learning how to learn and how to think* we can become knowledgable, skillful etc.
*Note: this is totally different from WHAT to think.
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If the AG has said that the Govt is going to refer the TSA to the Law Commission for a thorough review then would it not make sense to withdraw the Amendment Act that is being debated as I type??
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I can sympathise about the fact that advice is kindly meant but sometimes inadvertently annoying to the person on the receiving end.
Having had 14 weeks of morning sickness I did get a little sick (boom boom) of people giving me handy tips to stop it. I was nauseous and vomitting for 14 weeks and I am not (usually) a stupid person. This means by the fourth week of knowing the inside of the toilet bowl better than the tv screen I had tried pretty much everything there was to try, apart from medical specialist-type advice. If there was an easy trick to solve the problem then I think I would have found it, so desperate was I not to feel so endlessly ill.
I tried to be gentle with people persisting with their advice, but by about week 10 of the throwing up I was losing my patience with the "try ginger tea or having some dry toast first thing in the morning" advice. I know, I know, people meant well, but they were kind of insulting my intelligence at the same time.
I imagine it's going to be kind of similar with our baby if we have any persistent problems. (Who am I kidding, it's a child, of course there will be persistent problems!)
Giving advice is such a fine line - it's difficult to find that balance between pointing out the already obvious and sharing something that you genuinely think someone may not have heard about or tried yet.
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Well hopefully the ramifications of this (in a smaller sense) will be that those who have High Court bail hearings tomorrow will be bailed, and the rest can re-apply, and then we shall just see about what other charges the police bring, if any. I assume they can still choose to add other charges?
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On the issue of the "long tail" (ie the kids left behind) I'm pretty sure I saw something about some research released recently showing NZ was actually improving in this area. I shall see what I can find.
I'd also like to point out that education policy (curriculum, whatever) is not that only factor that impacts on the long tail. For example, transience is a major problem - children who fall behind at school have often been to a large number of schools by the time they hit secondary, as a result of moves of house. These moves can be a result of financial situations that require moving frequently, or symptomatic of an abusive household (some families will move their child to another school if teachers raise concerns about abuse), or any number of other things. Each time the child has to start again to a certain extent and it is difficult to pick up learning difficulties and address them when a child isn't around for very long.
So we need to factor in housing policy, social welfare policy, justice policy, and more, rather than just looking to our education system to resolve these problems on its own.
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Thanks so much Finn, I am without a radio and Scoop only has a headline with no detail.
Wohooo!
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Thanks for the timing update Stephen, much appreciated (and no doubt also by my employer, as I have been skimming various sites for more news since the clock hit 12.01...)
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Ok I am really confused about Kevin's posts.
On the one hand he says we should invest in excellence, but on the other he appears to be saying that we have a two tier system that is leaving people behind.
However he also says that we shouldn't pour/poor more into one child's education than another, in order to re-balance things. Assumedly this would apply equally to investing more in those at the top, as at the bottom?
And then there's appears to be the position that a) Govt should fix the system BUT b) the problem isn't the system it's the MINDSET and c) Govt should get out of the way and leave it to the bright people. Where did these bright people come from, I thought according to Mr Hicks they had all fled the country?
And please, please, no one take up the mention of Churchill, I had quite enough of that in that other thread!
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Um, wow!
Thanks so much for posting this Russell. I hope it is correct!
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Well this has been an interesting post and thread. What a remarkable post (and what a remarkable troll)!
Readers may be interested in this, which I am slowly reading my way through in preparation for the alleged arrival of my first child sometime in the next four months or so. I'm laughing on the outside at this point, but something tells me in six months time I'll be back with a rather different perspective...
I kind of expect that having a child will radically change my life. But knowing that in my head and understanding that in anything other than an abstract sense, well, they are too very different things. I hope I can reflect on the first few months (or longer!) with the humour and goodwill of Mr Haywood. Especially as I am really bad at dealing with stinky, gooey substances.