Iain sets off with an attempt to impress by referring to Ivan Illich’s ‘Deschooling Society’ which does, remarkably for 1971, talk of the use of advanced technology to support “learning webs”.
Given how things have turned out in Macwhirter’s career, he should have kept on reading until at least 1988, when Herman and Chomsky’s ‘Manufacturing Consent’ came out to direct him toward a more honourable career than corporate hackism, such as accountancy or house-painting.
Today’s story is full of nothing, just half-baked attacks on a decent man, evidence free. This is typical:
Did he spot the irony in that last phrase? Is he just too embedded now to see what he is doing?
No real people speak, no reliable data are presented. It seems like he’s just paraphrasing the outbursts of Alison Payne, former Conservative Party spin doctor, on Good Morning Scotland.
Surely, Anas Sarwar has an in-law who is a teacher, that Macwhirter could quote to prove he hasn’t just made this all up?
As for blending, this is really blended. It’s so blended it blends in. Jackson Carlaw and Richard Leonard and that wee Lib Dem guy, find it slips over very smoothly.
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
I see that Ms Eileen Prior of the Scottish Parents Council (I might not have that title exactly correct)has become a ‘go-to’ for quotes by BBC Scotland. Her comments might, perhaps, be edited by BBC Scotland to fit their agenda, but they tend to be exclusively condemnatory and offer no constructive proposals on how to approach solutions in a collaborative way.
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Is she real? The name and organisation just sound very 1960’s…
BBC are pandering to the ignorant, those who have no knowledge of the actual facts.
‘Weapons of Mass Instruction’ by John Taylor Gatto is a very good book, so is ‘The History of Western Education’. There are many.
‘Educational attainment’ ( exams, ie memorising then forgetting) is no substitute for creative thinking, for freedom to learn according to the persons own style, and really, what do kids need to know? Teach them how to survive runaway capitalism, how to make money if that’s what they want, how to spot a liar, especially in politics and definitely in the ‘news’ and ‘media’, and, always to ask questions.
Kids in near future will need to know how to survive climate change. Simple.
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I’m truly not sure (dear editor) it’s worthwhile amplifying the specifics here beyond the note which follows. There may be a more general piece to write sometime about how advocacy organisations – especially given their media access – utilise primary research findings in highly problematic ways!
I’m thinking Ms Eileen Prior mentioned here is the Executive Director of Connect, which is the trading name of the Scottish Parent Teacher Council.
It has recently conducted two online, self-selecting surveys of parents/carers’ views across Scotland on schools in lockdown and plans for returning in August. It seems to have obtained 1,578 and 5,500 responses respectively. There is a report on the findings of the first survey and an interim report on just 2007 responses to the second one. I haven’t found a report of the full second survey.
In any event, the statistical significance of any of this is highly problematic: this is more so when the respondents are segmented by their interest/knowledge of the three sectors of education in scope – pre-school/nursery; primary; secondary.
I’ve had a quick look at the campaign statement on the Connect web site and the messages it is giving out. And I’ve compared this with the actual (interim) results of the survey. Candidly there are certain ‘disconnects’!
Ms. Prior is expressive in her framing:
“‘Parents, speak up!’ We’re urging parents to write to their local councillors and MSPs to tell them what impact part time school will have on their family. We know parents feel strongly about this because we have now had 5500 responses to our survey on plans to return to school.’”
So there is certainly an aim to politicise matters – and apparently based on ‘strong’ feelings.
The campaign statement adds: “We strongly believe that parents, children and families in general are being TAKEN FOR GRANTED ..” (my emphasis) This is an interpretation but of what – the survey findings?
Candidly, there is a valiant attempt to airbrush out positives from the survey results. These are extracts from the interim survey report.
1) 77% of respondents say they have what they need to keep their children happy and healthy – an increase since the last survey (up from 64%)
2) 68% said they had what they needed to support their child’s school work.
The above suggest a need more careful interpretation the Connect reveals in this statement: “parents are reporting again and again that trying to do school work at home is impacting negatively on their family relationships and on their mental health”.
Also the survey finds:
3) parents’ feelings about children returning to school: 47% felt a bit worried and needed more reassurance/information, 24% were not worried, 10% were very worried
– candidly depending how I’m asked, I’m a ‘bit worried’ about lots of things!
4) 58% said communication between nurseries/schools and families was going well; 41% said it could be improved or was not going well
5) 87% would like to be consulted on how part time school will work
– depending on how asked, I’d want to be consulted on lots of things – even ‘everything’ of relevance to me!
Now let me restate the last sentence in point (4) on the matter of communication before commenting further:
“… 41% said it could be improved or was not going well”
Now given that most things in life could be ‘improved’, the key finding here is the ‘not going well’ bit – yes? But the survey data shows that JUST 6% of survey respondents expressed the ‘not doing well’ opinion. Why hide that?
Examples of this type of approach to advocacy – presented as based on primary survey data – only diminishes credibility. Of course, concerns about ‘diminishing credibility’ only matters – only occurs – with ‘exposure’.
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Apologies for my scrambled sentence. It should read:
‘The above suggest there is need for more careful interpretation than Connect reveals in this statement: “parents are reporting again and again that trying to do school work at home is impacting negatively on their family relationships and on their mental health”.
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“Honourable career………house-painting”.
John, you had better watch he is not a “house-painter” for the Mafia!
Like other Brit media hacks, he is good a “glossing” over facts.
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“Fionna O’Leary, 🕯
@fascinatorfun
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3h
Her first post lockdown night out in a pub -6th June
A week later
A healthcare worker + 15 friends + other customers at the pub + 7 members of staff all tested positive.
The pub reopens on Tuesday.
A Covid cocktail.
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Tweet from Kate Belgrave
Kate B
@hangbitch
Have to say that when it comes to making decisions re: my family member who is on the extreme risk list, Matt Hancock will be literally the last individual on the planet we will be taking advice from. I would actually give a chimp a hearing ahead of Matt.
Any polling on this, does anyone know?
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