Followed a link from a home ed group post to an article on the ecologist about education and then explored to see how much the magazine costs. Was deeply amused to see that they are still trying to drive ppl to the print edition – you get a free T-shirt if you sign up for that, but no goodies for signing up to the digital edition. Surely if they are serious about saving resources and so on they should be trying to get ppl to sign up to digital instead?
Irony
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4 responses to “Irony”
I’ve always thought that about the Ecologist, although I’ve found it impossible to find it in the shops, so I guess noone can buy the paper version anyway!
Re the article:
‘It’s true that this equipment is, ostensibly, being used for computerised class registers and libraries, in order to ease the bureaucratic headache of many schools.’
I would love to know what beaureaucratic headaches taking the register generates? In my day (!) the teacher called out our names, we answered, she marked it down in her book. And she knew what we all looked like, so there was no fooling her.I don’t know how many times a day they are required to take registers (fairly sure it will be at least two, but could be more than that in senior schools?) but imagine being a teacher in a senior school who sees hundreds of children passing by – I can see that a system could make it easier. But that’s devil’s advocate, because I think it should be achieved by having a teacher who gets to know the children – a fingerprint machine can’t tell if a child looks like they’ve got a problem and follow it up can they?
Well, having been a teacher in a very, very large secondary school (when I left, student numbers were approx 2200+ inc the Sixth Form), I can see the attraction of a fingerprint system. Schools are expected to take legal registers twice a day and also keep tabs on their students inbetween times (ie checking for students who turn up to registration and then disappear out the school gate/hide in the toilets), and also schools are under a lot of pressure to reduce Unauthorised Absence rates – H’s school will ring me by 10am if she’s not in school and I haven’t told them why already, this is now standard practice. Also, during registration, the reason for an absence must be recorded using a special code and there’s about 20 different code letters to choose from. So for example in the school I taught at, by 10am the admin staff need to have collated registration data from about 80 tutor groups, identified who is absent without reason, and rung them up. Being able to push a button and see an instant list on a screen becomes enormously attractive. This can (and is) done without fingerprinting – but then again, teachers are supposed to teach, not do admin tasks, and registering your presence onsite by sticking your finger on a pad as you walk in the door takes that admin task away from a teacher. Also, teachers make mistakes (and can be hoodwinked: “Is Steven here today?” “Yes Miss, but he’s just gone to see Mr Blogs about football practice” lies Steven’s mate. “Oh well, I’ll mark him down, but if you could tell him he really needs to be *here* for registration…” says the pressured teacher.), but (in theory!), fingerprint machines don’t, and can’t be lied to.
Doesn’t mean I like the syetem any more you do, but that’s why it exists.Forgot to say, the fingerprint system doesn’t remove the need for daily face-to-face contact with a form tutor – just removes the admin task the teacher used to need to do; one advantage of the teacher not having to fuss over the rregister is that s/he is able to pay more attention to the actual children in front of her…
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