Following the Vision
June 20th, 2007 by rbvandijk“Progress should mean that we are always changing the world to fit the vision, instead we are always changing the vision.” – G. K. Chesterton, 1908
I heard this on a podcast today and it reminded me of a statement made in this address where David Tuck, National President of the Head teachers in the UK stated that:
“We have: an overabundance, a glut, a surfeit, an excess, an embarrassment of initiatives. I don’t know what the collective noun for initiatives is, but in this instance I would like to suggest it might be a “lunacy of initiatives”.
In reading through his whole address there are a number of issues he brings up that certainly apply to New Zealand schools, especially with the constantly increasing political pressures for schools to deal with everything from obesity, “P” to road safety. I recall when teaching in the UK my school was in the process of being replaced by a privatised business academy, from visiting their website I see that they have still been having problems with ofsted (UK ERO) and although the buildings look impressive I don’t believe privatisation is the answer, rather I hope we can try and manage the changes better. So before testing reaches levels like in the US (I see there is serious testing for pre school) let us have these discussions as a education community.
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