Thank heavens my only Grandson - so far - Has started at St Pauls, London and will not be a victim of some of the teachers we have here. When his father was at intermediate, we were called in and told that he tested in the "bottom 5%" in his ability to learn. We eventually allowed him to leave school from the fourth form to follow a career - he had been offered a job by an employer who recognised his potential. He has an honours degree from London and a senior position that allows him to afford the fees for his son at St Pauls and a daughter at another public school. Quite a few refugees fro that profession escaped to the Probation Service during my career. It looks like that they are heading to the same position as the wharfies of old where you had to be a paid-up member of the Labour party to get into the union and work there.
Reminds me when I started high school. My best friend and I were among the new entrant 3rd formers sitting the entrance assessment test. The outcome of the assessment would determine which class you were allocated to. Miraculously, and much to my surprise, I was allocated the ' top' class. My best friend was allocated the " bottom" class. An enormous stuff up occurred as I knew my mate had very high academic and practical ability. Eventually he was allocated to our form class and prospered academically. He is now a Geologist for the South Australian government. Looking back I leant more from my weekly " Look and Learn" magazine tan anything at school, which I bought regularly from the bookshop next door to my fathers bicycle. shop As for me my older sister left school at 15. She drives a nice new Volvo. I drive a 13 year old Toyota
Last edited by Sgt Pepper; 11-08-2015 at 10:12 AM.
Actually - here is a great example for what's wrong with the union movement. The bullies at PPTA trying to screw up the career of a junior teacher, just because he dares to work for a charter school:
I guess it doesn't matter much, most of all this cash washing about, will end up back in the govt coffers. I assume they were given a tax invoice with that $100,000 kauri waka. (Oops, I'm sounding like a Nat). But only Nats like charter schools.
Regarding KiwiRail which we were discussing a few days ago, the CEO has written a few words.
Now if each truck trip removed from our roads was worth $75 in less aggro, with cheaper freight, less damage to the road surface, etc, and each urban person off the roads was worth $5 per trip, then the $210mill annual loss of KiwiRail to the govt doesn't look too bad at all. I'm surprised we weren't given some numbers to help with that analysis.
What's interesting is that we aren't in too different a position. In the rush for the big export sales, the smaller businesses, the ones that broaden the export and jobs base, have mostly been left out in the cold. Some of them have died of frostbite before they could get through their first five years, more than usual, and that's why the enterprise numbers dropped back before recovering over the last 2-3 years. I'm picking they'll drop back from the newly-regained 2008 levels that Labour achieved, and so will employee numbers.
National's answer to this situation so far has been that we 'shouldn't get into a negative funk' about it. Perhaps Mr Fixit, Steven Joyce, has a few radio/TV adverts in mind that'll miraculously prop everything up. Like everything else, marketing is surely the answer.
No, Mr. Joyce, sometimes a government just has to do the hard yards, and come up with some decent policy of their own. Something National has failed to do, for seven long years.
Comparison of annual GDP growth charts for Australia and NZ. Aussie have had more stable and higher GDP growth over the last few years, and haven't had a recession for 25 years.
Don't knock it, craic. There's sometimes a few laughs in those posts. And the occasional grain of truth, too, I suppose.
Good call, I get a lot of laughs out of it as well. I think El Zorro is trying the Crosby-Textor methodology if the narrative is said/written often enough we might start believing it :P
Or Craic, there is just too much to comment on in regards what National is doing very wrong. ;-)
Every day it is just one thing after another.
I wonder what we will see over the next few days. They are a wrecking ball that is out of control & incompetent.
EZ, that's what I have said on many posts, if you weigh up the cost of having these heavy trucks on the road including the amount of time lost by other road users being stuck behind these trucks rail is a great option for certain routes.
Key sounded shonKey on National Radio this morning. Apparently the process of doctoring up dodgy invoices is ok. What I didn't realize is that McCully has form for this sort of thing before, according to James Shaw. Back in the late 1990s McCully was forced to resign as a Minister for a similar scam in regards the Tourism Board. So John Key is ok with all this & fully supports McCully and what he has done. John Key is condoning allegations of bribery and fraud.
That's the sort of PM we need. McCully is making Collins look like a saint. The only real difference is that McCully isn't a threat whereas Collins unfortunately is.
Here is a summary of McCully's previous form when it comes to dodgy payments.
Murray McCully resigned from his Tourism portfolio in April 1999 after questions were raised regarding his handling of the resignation and subsequent payout of members of the Tourism board. These questions culminated in a report of the Controller and Auditor General that deemed these payouts "unlawful," although the report accepted that all involved had proceeded on the basis of advice and "their genuine perception of what was in the best interests of New Zealand’s tourism industry."
Hopefully you find my posts helpful, but in no way should they be construed as advice. Make your own decision.
Its a pretty sad indictment of the Right of politics that in the 'leading light' of democracy the US, Donald Trump is the lead candidate for the Republican nomination by some margin. I suppose it could be worse, we could have another Bush administration.
Hopefully you find my posts helpful, but in no way should they be construed as advice. Make your own decision.
Ah westerly, just help us to understand what you are saying.
I pointed out that PPTA is bullying Junior teachers who happen to work for charter schools. They are trying to prevent them from completing their requirements for teachers registration just due to them working on schools the PPTA is opposing for purely ideological reasons. Shows that they are not interested in the quality of teaching nor in the well being of students. Ugly union bosses just concerned about their left wing ideology and about getting more power for themselves.
You posted in response an article claiming that a charter school bought an apparently expensive waka for their students. I say apparently because i don't know the going rate for wakas. Maybe the money was a donation given to the school only for this purpose? Who knows, but even if the story is confirmed, do I fail to see why this justifies the PPTA to try to prevent basically all junior teachers starting at charter schools to gain registration with bullying tactics?
Difficult to understand for any right minded person, so I assume you need to be very "left minded" to see the logic behind it. Can you just help us to understand why it is o.k in your view that PPTA is bullying junior teachers to achieve ideological goals?
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"Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future" (Niels Bohr)
Originally Posted by craic
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