warriorlibrarian.com Blog

Advocacy Blues and the Dark Side

Administrator — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 02:52:05 +0000

Until recently, persistence had connotations of “goal centred achievement”, “never say never”, “if at first you don’t succeed try, try again”. Slipping in under the cover of darkness is the new handbook, officially endorsed by the relevant state authority … and therefore recognised in the legal sense.

Launched (quietly) in August 2007 was the Unreasonable Persistence (Section 3.1) proscription. Notably, there is no indication as to who is to be the arbiter of “unreasonable”. And strangely, the same website still includes the instruction to “be persistent” when making a complaint.

As a Canadian reader of WLW noted: “I was particularly amused (and worried) by the Interim Practice Manual’s explanation that: “Some complainants have an unrealistic expectation that significant action will be taken as a result of their complaint, …”

Indeed. So what would be the point of raising an issue, unless there was at least some glimmer of hope in having the matter appropriately addressed? No matter how elegantly expressed, “Go away” is not appropriate, effective, rationale nor acceptable. So who does one complain to when the eratz Ethics Police aren’t interested?

Any and all suggestions greatly appreciated.

Serendipitous discoveries

Administrator — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 14:45:59 +0000

Just when you thought it was safe to venture back into the blogsphere, I eventually retrieved the ID and password for this blog. Not that previous efforts hadn’t been made, of course. But life being what it is (ie busy), it slipped down the “To-Do” list … to about #132. Which probably goes to show that The Fickle Finger of Fate has a greater influence in life than might be first credited.

Which brings me to browsing vs searching; researching, reading and surfing. Younger readers are more likely to select books which are prominantly displayed, whilst older and more dedicated readers target specific tomes. With researching, it is self-evident that the naive will cut-and-paste from the first reference that comes to hand; a more refined and committed researcher will analyse, synthesise, examine, reject and pass through many higher order skills before reaching the presentation phase.

Meanwhile, with surfing the ‘net, the joys of unearthing hitherto unimagined treasures via the browser remain unfettered for young and old(er) alike. As long as there’s enough bandwidth and one gives up sleep.

Sadly mistaken, or other agendas?

Administrator — Wed, 20 Sep 2006 05:12:27 +0000

Cal Burrant, writing the Forward in Connect Only: English teaching, schooling and community writes that [Australian] national literacy standards testing “… found that 90% of students are reaching agreed literacy standards” in the 15 year old age group.

Now here’s the weird thing, though. There are no national benchmarks for this ’15 year old’ age group, only the Year 3 (approx 8yo), the Year 5 (approx 10 yo) and Year 7 (approx 13 yo).

Also, the document above states that the benchmarks represent only the minimum acceptable standards as agreed by various bodies. Who knows what the Finnish ones represent? Or how the other OECD countries conduct their testing? Or indeed what how the other benchmarks are determined?

OK, it’s probably being surley of me, but personally I don’t think the fact that 90% of a significant section of the population (who notably within the next decade or so will be controlling the country) are able to understand only 20% of what they read, and be able to communicate in writing only 20% of what they think, is anything much to crow about.

A sticky wicket at The Office?

Administrator — Wed, 20 Sep 2006 04:51:43 +0000

Now here’s a curly one to ponder … what to do if you and a colleague have identical roles in different sub-parts of the same organization - but! “one of you” is doing twice the work for half the salary. Ask for more pay? Do less work? Change workplaces for somewhere more equitable, but a huge increase in travelling time and inconvenience? Sigh. Open for comment.

On the nature of Revolution

Administrator — Tue, 19 Sep 2006 03:18:26 +0000

On this morning’s commuter train, a Generation Xer was spotted wearing a Guevara t-shirt. Which gave much food for thought for the walk from the station to The Office.
Possibly many would disagree, but it seems that those who murder people for being rich are no better than those who exploit people for being poor.