22 Mar 2007
Migration
Was sitting on the train on the way back from Southampton this week, when I saw an interesting letter in the newspaper about migration. It was from an academic (who's the subject of a petition to his university calling for him to be removed) defending his views on migration, and explaining how his membership of the Galton Institute and Migration Watch had nothing to do with his teaching. All quite interesting... but it got v interesting when I looked at the name and realised he was one of my undergraduate tutors.
He did teach us demography, but I don't remember any objectionable views. The only thing I can remember in relation to migration was that for our finals he sent us some recent papers about the EU decision to encourage mass-migration to address the ageing population structure. He may have suggested it was a bad idea, I can't remember. But the academic I remember and the one in the paper really don't correspond. He was the most traditionally 'academic' tutor we had, and barely seemed to function in the real world. He was late to our first meeting because he'd just got off the plane from somewhere important and exotic, and turned up wearing cycle clips and a cycle helmet (had he cycled from the important/exotic place we wondered?). He gave us references for our essays at top speed off the top of his head, and his office was so messy that a pile of papers in braille (very thick pile, A3 pages) were lost in there for a whole term. He seemed entirely inoffensive, except for the excessively fat text book that he'd written and which he expected us to have read and absorbed in its entirety.
So when do political views become so offensive that they shouldn't be allowed? Are political views relevant to your job? And when both sides of a political argument say they have evidence on their side, how do you judge between them? I have no idea whether this guy is racist or not, but I do know that he'll have evidence (good or otherwise) to back up his case.
http://education.independent.co.uk/news/article2341342.ece
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17 Mar 2007
no disaster
Pleased to report that the 666 birthmark on my back wasn't revealed to the group today. It was actually good to renew my acquaintance with someone I knew when we were undergraduates, and we both politely refrained from mentioning the ex-friend. It left quite a gap in the conversation though, bit of an 'ignore the elephant in the room' situation. On the plus side, she said 'yes I was a bit surprised to see you here, I remembered you being with the jesus army. You always were a bit of a heretic though." I may not be that keen on being thought evil, but am always pleased to be called a heretic - I like to keep people on their toes! And to be fair, I may have been with the jesus army last time we met, but she was going off to be a nun. So we're probably about equal in the oddness stakes.
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16 Mar 2007
Evil edna
I'm going to a church related workshop tomorrow. Quite looking forward to it, except that I've found out I slightly know one of the other people going. This would usually be quite a good thing, but the context in which I know this person is a bit... complicated... She's the friend of an ex-friend. A very ex-friend. And will therefore have heard exactly how evil I am. When meeting a group of new people it's always good to know that one of them thinks you're the anti-christ - adds a little extra adrenaline to the procedings. I'll let you know how it goes - I'm planning to develop selective amnesia if necessary.
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Strange...
My head of department just wandered into my office "just to see if I was allright"... this is v strange. Am usually lucky to see him once a month and he doesn't generally even speak if I bump into him in the corridor. Kept expecting him to get to the point and ask me to do something/give me a deadline/tell me my last article was rubbish but he didn't... He didn't even seem to have much to say. V odd. And leaves me a bit paranoid, thinking, what was all that about? Suppose it's just about plausible that he was just being nice...!
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Friday, 16 March 2007
Friday, 9 March 2007
09-15 March
15 Mar 2007
communication skills
Had 'communication skills' training yesterday. Personally I think it was misnamed (this is becoming a regular theme) and should have been called something like 'making me feel even worse about presentations than I already do' training. Normally on the kind of things you have to introduce yourself to the room, sometimes the trainer thinks they're being radical and unusual by getting you to introduce someone else. Yesterday we had to introduce someone else by standing at the front and giving a presentation about them. Each presentation was followed by a discussion and the dreaded 'feedback' about your presentation. We were also asked what we would do differently next time (book into a different course?). This exercise was quite unique in that it managed to turn something I can usually manage quite calmly and happily into something that had me in a cold sweat hyperventilating in the corner as I waited anxiously for my turn.
We were also told things like 'if you're nervous make sure you prepare well, are confident in your subject, and check out the venue'. This helpful advice was followed up by making us do an ad hoc presentation about cot death, a subject we knew little about, with no time to prepare, and an overhead projector (guaranteed to bring me out in a panic because I know from experience that everyone can see the transparency shaking as you desperately try to get it lined up). We were running short on time, so we didn't get any real feedback about this presentation, except to make the point that you give a different presentation to different audiences. Well, yes.... but I think I could have grasped that point just as well without the accompanying anxiety.
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14 Mar 2007
Update on the world's biggest boy
Ok it's not an update on the boy himself (except to say that they never really worked out why he was so big but were very suspicious of the mum), but an interesting fact... There are sumo wrestling clubs in Russia. Enough of them apparently for one to be described as 'one of the best Russian clubs'. (Though I suppose technically just 2 clubs would be enough to give one of them that title.) Am I the only one that finds Russian sumo wrestlers a weird thought?
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13 Mar 2007
the biggest boy in the world Current mood: geeky
I have a confession... instead of reading about the philosophy of education (don't ask...) I'm watching the documentary "the world's biggest boy". It's about a 7 year old boy who weighs 16 stone. Now obviously that's v large, but I disagree with their title. I bet there are 14 year old boys who weigh more than that... and is 'biggest' really the same as 'heaviest'? What's their evidence? Moments like these make me realise I really should get out more and think less.
Now back to the philosophy of education... when is schooling education and when is it indoctrination? Answers on a postcard...
22:06 - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove
10 Mar 2007
house hunting Current mood: restless
Spent most of today snooping round other people's houses. Mrs Defying Gravity Senior (henceforth known for reasons of brevity as mum) has decided to move house, so I joined her for a spot of peering into under stairs cupboards and garages to judge 'the storage space'. Mum find it especially annoying when people on TV home decoration programmes walk in and say things like 'I don't like the carpets' - apparently one shouldn't be that shallow and should instead inspect the quality of the plaster - so we were both trying really hard to find positive things to say. Not knowing much about plaster, after 'mmm it's a nice space' I pretty much ran out, possibly leaving more than one estate agent wondering why my mum was dragging her sulking adult daughter around houses with her. Actually I was kind of wondering that myself...
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09 Mar 2007
Mission accomplished
Phone marathon successfully accomplished, although I'm certain that I've missed the one person who actually read the notice and was able to attend, and will have to grovel apologetically on Sunday. Can't be bothered to go to the church just in case tomorrow, grovelling will have to suffice. Mission was made significantly more difficult by 3 things:
1. I was trying to text and watch celebrity fame academy at the same time as phoning round - multi-tasking has never been a particularly strong point of mine, although as a child I occasionally managed to eat dinner, read a book and watch tv at the same time...
2. I hate telephones. Don't know what it is, but am slightly phobic. Frequently give thanks for email and text - a couple of decades previously I really wouldn't have had any friends due to my inability to phone people unless I feel like I've got a good reason. Good as in 'serious misfortune is going to befall someone unless I talk to you and no other type of communication will do.'
3. Numbers 1 and 4 on our landline phone don't really work. You have to push really hard several times with a fingernail, and invariably it thens presses it twice and you have to start all over again. So if you have a 1 or 4 in your number there's even less chance you'll get a call from me. You also have to get the speed of button pressing just right - too fast and it gets confused, too slow and it forgets what you were doing. As you can guess, it's not a v high tech phone and we're not really land line users. Last month our line rental and broadband came to £28 and our call costs were 36p. Tonight's saga has at least convinced me to go out tomorrow and buy a phone that works - and who knows, it might even convince me to use it.
8:15 - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove
Friday night excitement
OK, so it's Friday night finally. What excitement do I have in store this evening? Yes, that's right, I'm phoning every person on the welcoming team at church to tell them not to turn up tomorrow to the non-existent meeting that was accidentally publicised in the parish magazine. I foresee that none of them will have noticed it in the magazine, and telling them about it will lead to great confusion and protracted phone conversations about what the meeting would have been if it had ever been going to happen. I don't know how I cope with the excitement of my life sometimes...
19:09 - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove
communication skills
Had 'communication skills' training yesterday. Personally I think it was misnamed (this is becoming a regular theme) and should have been called something like 'making me feel even worse about presentations than I already do' training. Normally on the kind of things you have to introduce yourself to the room, sometimes the trainer thinks they're being radical and unusual by getting you to introduce someone else. Yesterday we had to introduce someone else by standing at the front and giving a presentation about them. Each presentation was followed by a discussion and the dreaded 'feedback' about your presentation. We were also asked what we would do differently next time (book into a different course?). This exercise was quite unique in that it managed to turn something I can usually manage quite calmly and happily into something that had me in a cold sweat hyperventilating in the corner as I waited anxiously for my turn.
We were also told things like 'if you're nervous make sure you prepare well, are confident in your subject, and check out the venue'. This helpful advice was followed up by making us do an ad hoc presentation about cot death, a subject we knew little about, with no time to prepare, and an overhead projector (guaranteed to bring me out in a panic because I know from experience that everyone can see the transparency shaking as you desperately try to get it lined up). We were running short on time, so we didn't get any real feedback about this presentation, except to make the point that you give a different presentation to different audiences. Well, yes.... but I think I could have grasped that point just as well without the accompanying anxiety.
10:44 - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove
14 Mar 2007
Update on the world's biggest boy
Ok it's not an update on the boy himself (except to say that they never really worked out why he was so big but were very suspicious of the mum), but an interesting fact... There are sumo wrestling clubs in Russia. Enough of them apparently for one to be described as 'one of the best Russian clubs'. (Though I suppose technically just 2 clubs would be enough to give one of them that title.) Am I the only one that finds Russian sumo wrestlers a weird thought?
0:00 - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove
13 Mar 2007
the biggest boy in the world Current mood: geeky
I have a confession... instead of reading about the philosophy of education (don't ask...) I'm watching the documentary "the world's biggest boy". It's about a 7 year old boy who weighs 16 stone. Now obviously that's v large, but I disagree with their title. I bet there are 14 year old boys who weigh more than that... and is 'biggest' really the same as 'heaviest'? What's their evidence? Moments like these make me realise I really should get out more and think less.
Now back to the philosophy of education... when is schooling education and when is it indoctrination? Answers on a postcard...
22:06 - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove
10 Mar 2007
house hunting Current mood: restless
Spent most of today snooping round other people's houses. Mrs Defying Gravity Senior (henceforth known for reasons of brevity as mum) has decided to move house, so I joined her for a spot of peering into under stairs cupboards and garages to judge 'the storage space'. Mum find it especially annoying when people on TV home decoration programmes walk in and say things like 'I don't like the carpets' - apparently one shouldn't be that shallow and should instead inspect the quality of the plaster - so we were both trying really hard to find positive things to say. Not knowing much about plaster, after 'mmm it's a nice space' I pretty much ran out, possibly leaving more than one estate agent wondering why my mum was dragging her sulking adult daughter around houses with her. Actually I was kind of wondering that myself...
19:19 - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove
09 Mar 2007
Mission accomplished
Phone marathon successfully accomplished, although I'm certain that I've missed the one person who actually read the notice and was able to attend, and will have to grovel apologetically on Sunday. Can't be bothered to go to the church just in case tomorrow, grovelling will have to suffice. Mission was made significantly more difficult by 3 things:
1. I was trying to text and watch celebrity fame academy at the same time as phoning round - multi-tasking has never been a particularly strong point of mine, although as a child I occasionally managed to eat dinner, read a book and watch tv at the same time...
2. I hate telephones. Don't know what it is, but am slightly phobic. Frequently give thanks for email and text - a couple of decades previously I really wouldn't have had any friends due to my inability to phone people unless I feel like I've got a good reason. Good as in 'serious misfortune is going to befall someone unless I talk to you and no other type of communication will do.'
3. Numbers 1 and 4 on our landline phone don't really work. You have to push really hard several times with a fingernail, and invariably it thens presses it twice and you have to start all over again. So if you have a 1 or 4 in your number there's even less chance you'll get a call from me. You also have to get the speed of button pressing just right - too fast and it gets confused, too slow and it forgets what you were doing. As you can guess, it's not a v high tech phone and we're not really land line users. Last month our line rental and broadband came to £28 and our call costs were 36p. Tonight's saga has at least convinced me to go out tomorrow and buy a phone that works - and who knows, it might even convince me to use it.
8:15 - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove
Friday night excitement
OK, so it's Friday night finally. What excitement do I have in store this evening? Yes, that's right, I'm phoning every person on the welcoming team at church to tell them not to turn up tomorrow to the non-existent meeting that was accidentally publicised in the parish magazine. I foresee that none of them will have noticed it in the magazine, and telling them about it will lead to great confusion and protracted phone conversations about what the meeting would have been if it had ever been going to happen. I don't know how I cope with the excitement of my life sometimes...
19:09 - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove
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