Open mike 12/04/2024

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, April 12th, 2024 - 25 comments
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25 comments on “Open mike 12/04/2024 ”

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  1. Tony Veitch 1
    12 April 2024 at 6:19 am

    Pat Newman, who’s forgotten more about education than Seymour has ever known, describes his (Seymour’s) attendance plan as: “as much use as tits on a bull.”

    To avoid Baldrick, the nodding head, start at about 3.30 in.

    https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2024/04/principal-slams-government-s-new-truancy-plan-as-useless-calls-for-cross-party-action.html

    He (Newman) makes a very good point about consistency in policy, (and making it teacher driven) just like happens in Finland.

    • Robert Guyton 1.1
      12 April 2024 at 7:58 am

      Truancy won't be arrested.

      Seymour will change the way truancy is defined.

    • ianmac 1.2
      12 April 2024 at 9:50 am

      Has anyone asked the Seymour expert just how exactly will publishing attendance figures reduce absenteeism?

      • dv 1.2.1
        12 April 2024 at 9:53 am

        AND has any one asked Seymour what is the cost of the truancy follow up.

      • AB 1.2.2
        12 April 2024 at 10:13 am

        It's the application of the purifying fire of Market Forces. If the parents of prospective students see that a school has low attendance figures, they'll send their kids elsewhere. The school will get a poor reputation, property prices in that zone will take a smallish downward hit. Teachers will not want to work there. The school’s problems will worsen. The market opening for charter schools is widened a little bit. Piece by piece the ultra-libertarian dystopian jigsaw falls into place.

        • Graeme 1.2.2.1
          12 April 2024 at 11:45 am

          This could have unintended consequences for Seymour and his mates. for some schools, absenteeism is very much parent driven.

          https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/cheap-flights-taking-priority-over-schooling-rector

          Otago Boys’ High School rector Richard Hall said the school’s biggest issue with attendance was parents who took their children on holidays for family reasons during term time.

          He said it could be to see relatives post-Covid-19 and sometimes cheaper flights seemed to take precedence over sending pupils to school.

        • Incognito 1.2.2.2
          12 April 2024 at 12:13 pm

          When the Right parents take the right kids out of the right schools for the right reasons that’s ok.

          When the wrong parents take the wrong kids out of the wrong schools for the wrong reasons that’s not ok.

          Seymour’s simplistic and cynical proposal is just a giant dog-whistle. In combination with the proposed voucher system it will widen the socio-economic divide, increase competition between schools for ever-dwindling government resources (read: funding) and create a dog-eat-dog environment, and pander to his Epsom voter base with their Koru membership.

          • Drowsy M. Kram 1.2.2.2.1
            12 April 2024 at 12:56 pm

            Seymour’s simplistic and cynical proposal is just a giant dog-whistle.

            yes Maybe, if Seymour was a parent… but I'm torn.

      • Phillip ure 1.2.3
        12 April 2024 at 10:41 am

        I see this publishing of weekly absentee numbers as a possible source of gambling revenue…people could bet on weekly totals..and it could be broken down to individual schools…best/worst schools..

        There are many permutations..

        And the odds of winning would be better than lotto…

        So..?

      • mpledger 1.2.4
        12 April 2024 at 12:28 pm

        In one respect it will be good. In the high decile schools, you'll be able to see the spikes in non-attendance around holiday times. People don't want to pay for peak-season flight costs.

        The real problem is that people will game the system. Kids with problematic attendance will be at school but won't be in class. They'll be doing something fun/non-challenging that keeps them in school but will have non-use/dubious use in qualifications (e.g. practical mathematics for sports). AKA Goodhart's law – "When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure".

        • mpledger 1.2.4.1
          12 April 2024 at 12:40 pm

          Actually this adage is probably more apt. Campbell's law: the more important a metric is in social decision making, the more likely it is to be manipulated.

    • Anne 1.3
      12 April 2024 at 10:38 am

      I love an expert – a real expert – who has the guts to tell it like it really is. That interview should be mandatory listening on every media outlet in the country.

      And I can just imagine the adjectives he would liked to have used to describe that slime-ball David Seymour. Slime-ball would have been one of them.

    • Tiger Mountain 1.4
      12 April 2024 at 11:02 am

      Pat’s great, a hands on advocate and practitioner for years.

    • Phillip ure 1.5
      12 April 2024 at 11:12 am

      That is an excellent/must watch piece of journalism from newshub..

      Lux-on and atlas Dave are given first dibs..

      (And the illustration of the dynamics/body-language between those two is enough reason to watch it…anyone not knowing their roles would think that atlas Dave is the p.m…with his nodding shaven-headed off-sider… fascinating..!)

      Anyway..they spin their bullshit..and then pat newman..a principal of 50 yrs experience…does one of the best takedowns I have seen..

      He shreds atlas Dave…and what underlines his message is that it is politically agnostic..

      He also pours buckets of excrement upon all the education ministers prior to atlas Dave…heh..!

      He defines politicians as being 'the problem'..

      Watch it..you will enjoy seeing your anger at these clowns articulated so well..

  2. ianmac 2
    12 April 2024 at 9:54 am

    Bernard Hickey and Cathrine Dyer from The Kākā by Bernard Hickey <thekaka+the-kaka-project@substack.com>

    Bernard has published an alarming paper on the "Antarctic heat spike."

    No doubt Luxon will appoint a new committee who will find that the slight warming of Antarctic signals a cooling of the planet.
    This might link:
    https://thekaka.substack.com/p/antarctic-heat-spike-shocks-climate?utm_source=substack&publication_id=102473&post_id=143491103&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share&utm_campaign=email-share&triggerShare=true&isFreemail=true&r=25honw&triedRedirect=true

  3. Mike the Lefty 3
    12 April 2024 at 10:10 am

    Big job layoffs in the public service over most ministeries. But not in Seymour's ministry of silly smirks – funny that!

  4. gsays 4
    12 April 2024 at 10:21 am

    I heard on RNZ a recommendation for a podcast.

    Things Fell Apart.

    Jon Ronson, a BBC 4 journalist looking at the culture wars. For a controversial subject I find him reasonably even handed. His voice is reminiscent of Julian Clary which I find helps.

    The first episode is the start of the anti abortion movement.

    Great half hour chunks of informative entertainment.

    • tWig 4.1
      12 April 2024 at 12:04 pm

      Yup, it's a great listen to find out, for example, how the 15 min cities conspiracy evolved. Entertaining and horrifying in equal measure.

    • Michael P 4.2
      13 April 2024 at 9:24 am

      "… anti abortion movement"

      I've always disliked the term anti abortion. I guess there's not much else that can be used. As it's written I would have thought most people aren't in favor of abortions rather they believe in the right to choose. You can be anti abortion and pro choice which is my position. In an ideal world it would be great if there were no abortions, but we don't live in an ideal world and a woman is the only one who has the right to make any decisions about her body.

      Except in the case of recreational drugs of course, where it seems a majority of the population still believe a person has no right to decide what they do with their own body.

  5. weka 5
    12 April 2024 at 2:21 pm

    Thread from Russell Brown on the closure of Public Address

    Bit of news this morning: publicaddress.net is officially retired. It's been dormant for a while, but I wanted to resolve it properly and the wonderful people at @cactuslab have tidied it up and locked it off. There's now a landing page there that sums it all up.

    https://x.com/publicaddress/status/1778540226396520779?s=46

    • AB 6.1
      12 April 2024 at 5:29 pm

      …journalists in Wellington who flat with public servants are partly to blame…

      Did EngLit grad Nicola ever read King Lear?

      From Act III – Scene VII.

      REGAN: Give me thy sword. A peasant stand up thus? [Takes a sword, and runs at the servant from behind, killing him]

    • Michael P 6.2
      13 April 2024 at 9:29 am

      "….aren't the end of the world…"

      Wow.

      I'd wager she's not a very empathetic person…

      Could have been deliberate phrasing knowing she's talking to Hosking's audience so mirroring their views.

      Which obviously doesn't change her lack of empathy.

  7. Patricia Bremner 7
    12 April 2024 at 4:49 pm

    Now Nicola, slashing those jobs, "cleaning up" allows that money to be spent on tax cuts.

    Show us the savings Nicola!! Savings are as real as your "rock solid" figures.

    Show us the costs again Nicola!! Lost tax take, lost skills and knowledge,

    lost confidence,

    lost small and medium businesses in Wellington,

    Yes Nicola, even your Landlords may not find tenants, and the knock on of not being able to claim your much vaunted tax cuts.

    A total bloody mess!!

    Stupid does not cover it, we know what is "rock solid", and it is not your planning.

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