Aotearoa Daily Kōrero 16/11/2023
Welcome to today’s daily kōrero!
Anyone can make the thread, first in first served. If you are here on a day and there’s no daily thread, feel free to create it!
Anyway, it’s just a chance to talk about your day, what you have planned, what you have done, etc.
So, how’s it going?
Thought for the day
What role do you think that education plays in the social thought?
This is a big nebulous question, there were various times in our past that questionable things were either directly taught or beliefs of the teachers were pushed on to young minds. Sometimes the questionable things were in the curriculum but often not.
This is a little driven by an article that I skimmed a few days ago, it was about Texas trying to push crap into their school curriculum. But also the way that various peoples were treated in textbooks around the world, when those textbooks were written by colonizing powers (especially British).
At the risk of sounding like I'm from one of the marxist instances, I think it's a vehicle for cultural hegemony. If that just means everyone learns the same stuff it's not much of a problem - though it's relevant to the kind of society we build.
The problems arise when the primary and secondary sectors are discriminatory. An extreme example is the old UK system where 11-year-olds would sit an exam that determined what kind of high school they went to. The schools for future factory workers taught very different subjects to the ones for white collar class. I know some people who are casualties of that system. They spent half a day a week practicing setting tables and writing menus.
We don't have anything like that codified in law of course but there are definitely shadows of it in the decile system.
The decile system is weird.
The idea seems sound, as some schools need more funding than others based on the communities they serve. I know in Taupo there is quite a difference between the schools, and converse to expectations the lower decile school is in worse condition then the higher one....when the system is supposed to have higher funding for the lower decide school.
Now is it purely because the community surrounding the higher decile school is able to give that much more money....I don't know.
Maybe a funding model based on each individual student would be better....much higher administration requirement, but it could be done. I don't know exactly how a school is funded, but the I know at least some of the budget is based on number of students. Is there a base amount to maintain buildings and grounds with an allowance for each student added on top...not sure.
I tend to think that the school curriculum itself is a product of the society, and so having or not having things in the curriculum that are not a direct skill probably doesn't make much difference. If Texas is trying to push crap into the curriculum, chances are the kids are already learning that crap outside of school. If they aren't, then it's unlikely to make much difference (think of religious education at school).
I'd argue parents have a larger role, and largely their views are reinforced by bubbles of social media (lemmy included). Parents decide who kids spend time with, and have a lot of influence over schools as well.
There is probably a lot of truth in your observation; but I see that there are specific groups trying very hard to modify the curriculum, there is a big role in exposing kids to ideas that are outside their familial roots, but also reinforcing those views that are put forward in the family.
The external religious "education" in schools push is a good example in NZ.
Couldn't sleep last night so I installed Linux on my phone, made it look like Windows 95, and played a bunch of DOS games.
I mean, what else am I supposed to do with all that free time? :)
That is awesome, what type of phone are you running this on?
It's a Galaxy Fold 4, so the large screen and 4:3ish aspect ratio really suits well for stuff like this. :)
Free time? Didn't recently start a new job? Are they not working you hard enough?
I'm still on training and technically, you could say that this is part of my training :P