“18 hours a day and I am certainly not addicted…
Maybe there is some confusion though for the parent generation after all. The second article I read included an interview with, not a teenager, but with a young middle aged professional, a business man, who is temporarily out of work. This particular man alleges that he often plays computer games up to 18 hours a day, usually Second Life where he creates an existence more successful and therefore more personally satisfying than his first life. He maintains he can stop at any time. It is not like being addicted to cigarettes or alcohol, he affirmed. He claims to have several acquaintances with similar time allocations. But he has time for friends, partner, family. On 18 hours a day? Plus sleeping?
Imho url8 ttyl
Professional educators discuss at conferences trends they notice in the students over the recent years which coincide with the regular and frequent use of some of these technologies. This was happening at the ECIS conference in Nice before Christmas, too. They discuss the role of MSN and SMS with their ‘mobile speak code’ where letters or symbols replace fully spelt words and syntax, deliberate misspellings to shorten the time needed to write (‘imho ur l8 ttyl’). They note dwindling attention spans, the need for instant information and entertainment, the ability to process only sound bites with confidence, inability to process extended pieces of text, huge distractibility, the need for very short activities, minimal expressive vocabulary.
The first oil painting is no masterpiece
There are key issues here and they are being discussed in many a forum. Whether individuals are in denial of the power of these windows and how to combat this. Achieving a balance of recreational activities that includes regular reality checks. How to make attractive to the young face-to-face communication that is caring and sincere. How to inject more passion into real life for a growing section of the community. How to react to passive and made-by-others activities which for a small but growing section of society are threatening to replace the personal, creative hobby. Sounds old fashioned. Grumpy Old Man on a rant.Hobbies!But that is where passion is, and individuality, and creating and risking and being challenged. This is the home of Homo Faber, and through it bunches of pure pleasure. Even if the first oil painting is no masterpiece.
Monday, 20 April 2009
Dean’s Blog ‘If I were a crocus…’
Dean’s Blog ‘If I were a crocus…’
If I were a crocus I would give up too. Snow, sun, wind, frost, fog, on-the-terrace sunshine, rain, snow, sunburn etc etc. And that is before lunchtime. So the swathes of Cerulean blue and Cadmium yellow croci, or crocuses for non classical scholars, that edged the lawn, finally capitulated. Under this onslaught of the elements they have packed up and retired into their bulbs deep in the earth until next year. So? The point of a long, hard and unexpectedly winterish winter is to move on, into spring, and get practising and into the mood for summer. A few April showers are ok – Chaucer approved of them, too. ‘When that April and its showers sweet The drought of March hath pierced to the root’ he wrote with his English obsession with the weather. Interestingly enough, T.S.Eliot having soaked up the English climatic culture after 25 years in the US and anxious to fit into the local culture of his adopted home, also ranted on about ‘April is the cruellest month’.
Tropical shortie pyjamas
But enough is enough. You can overdo capricious and warmth makes the kids get ants-in-their-pants edgy. So that at the first spark of sun in the morning they decide to reduce to a sartorial minimum that can look like a set of tropical shortie pyjamas and then in the ‘Bise’-driven snow with wind-chill of minus 7 at break time, get boiling hot dashing about on the Red Top playing Killer Ball or soccer or something. After this they return panting to the classroom where it is 21 degrees centigrade min. Period 3 my G9 English class sounds like the understaffed casualty ward in Grey’s Anatomy, with full sensory sneezes, professional and comprehensive coughs, wide ranging throat clearing and methodical nostril renovation exercises taking the edge off the pathos of Juliet’s final goodbye to Romeo as he descends from her balcony. Iambic pentameters don’t have a chance. Romeo, I might add, is meanwhile dressed in warm woolly tights, a linen shirt and a sensibly baggy and lined, heavy weight velvet blouson jacket. And he could always unlace the removable sleeves when the sun came out. Dead practical and not a designer label in sight.
Withering teenage looks
So I’m outside on duty at lunchtime dressed in enough warm woollies that if I stand still I resemble an Oxfam jumble sale collection point and a kid in a skinny T shirt skids by as a colleague asks me if we are allowed to send him in to get more clothes on. And I think what a sensible duty companion I have. We don’t because I am too cold to be in the mood for one more of those withering teenage looks that says, ‘Duh! Like, you what?’
Meteorological myth
Later on in the week you can bet that many of these same kids have felt mildly unwell in class and even missed school for a day or even two with a bad cold or hacking cough or a painfully sore throat. And when that happens and I am feeling just fine, I register no Schadenfreude of course, but I do feel a little more morally justified in teasing the scantily dressed for being a zombie to convention and fashion and the meteorological myth that the sun is durable and hot.vv
If I were a crocus I would give up too. Snow, sun, wind, frost, fog, on-the-terrace sunshine, rain, snow, sunburn etc etc. And that is before lunchtime. So the swathes of Cerulean blue and Cadmium yellow croci, or crocuses for non classical scholars, that edged the lawn, finally capitulated. Under this onslaught of the elements they have packed up and retired into their bulbs deep in the earth until next year. So? The point of a long, hard and unexpectedly winterish winter is to move on, into spring, and get practising and into the mood for summer. A few April showers are ok – Chaucer approved of them, too. ‘When that April and its showers sweet The drought of March hath pierced to the root’ he wrote with his English obsession with the weather. Interestingly enough, T.S.Eliot having soaked up the English climatic culture after 25 years in the US and anxious to fit into the local culture of his adopted home, also ranted on about ‘April is the cruellest month’.
Tropical shortie pyjamas
But enough is enough. You can overdo capricious and warmth makes the kids get ants-in-their-pants edgy. So that at the first spark of sun in the morning they decide to reduce to a sartorial minimum that can look like a set of tropical shortie pyjamas and then in the ‘Bise’-driven snow with wind-chill of minus 7 at break time, get boiling hot dashing about on the Red Top playing Killer Ball or soccer or something. After this they return panting to the classroom where it is 21 degrees centigrade min. Period 3 my G9 English class sounds like the understaffed casualty ward in Grey’s Anatomy, with full sensory sneezes, professional and comprehensive coughs, wide ranging throat clearing and methodical nostril renovation exercises taking the edge off the pathos of Juliet’s final goodbye to Romeo as he descends from her balcony. Iambic pentameters don’t have a chance. Romeo, I might add, is meanwhile dressed in warm woolly tights, a linen shirt and a sensibly baggy and lined, heavy weight velvet blouson jacket. And he could always unlace the removable sleeves when the sun came out. Dead practical and not a designer label in sight.
Withering teenage looks
So I’m outside on duty at lunchtime dressed in enough warm woollies that if I stand still I resemble an Oxfam jumble sale collection point and a kid in a skinny T shirt skids by as a colleague asks me if we are allowed to send him in to get more clothes on. And I think what a sensible duty companion I have. We don’t because I am too cold to be in the mood for one more of those withering teenage looks that says, ‘Duh! Like, you what?’
Meteorological myth
Later on in the week you can bet that many of these same kids have felt mildly unwell in class and even missed school for a day or even two with a bad cold or hacking cough or a painfully sore throat. And when that happens and I am feeling just fine, I register no Schadenfreude of course, but I do feel a little more morally justified in teasing the scantily dressed for being a zombie to convention and fashion and the meteorological myth that the sun is durable and hot.vv
Wednesday, 18 March 2009
The Dean’s Blog ‘Windows – part one’
“I guess reality is just not my best window.”
This is, for me, an awful statement. It speaks of an experience of living quite alien to me. It was not said by one of your students, but it was a teenage boy; he was being interviewed about his perception and use of the various current technologies a few weeks back. What did the boy really mean? This first article explained that this particular boy said he functioned better in situations where he felt empowered to make important decisions. Our reality was just another window that usually closed for him late afternoon. It was not so tragic; as long as he functioned well elsewhere.The thesis was that as there are more worlds for the teen to get involved in then ‘reality’, the real one, may become less vital and less interesting compared with MMORPG games, the media world of ipod and mp3 as well as the ability to chat and react through msn, myface, myspace, youtube and so on. John Mangelaars, vice president, consumer and online, Microsoft EMEA, said, "Today's 'web generation' are increasingly living out their lives in the digital arena.” (Telegraph 10.02.09)
For us currently the Parent Generation…
As teenagers are anyway confused and confusing at the peak of puberty, their ability to judge the relative value of activities that absorb their focus and their sensory perception, may be weakened. This phenomenon is neither rare, nor is it surprising to the teen; only to the anxious parent for whom there is still only the real world with its social and financial stresses for which our offspring must be prepared as well as they possibly can be. And then for the current Parent Generation there are in addition films, books, TV and the web which we hold clearly as secondary –undoubtedly useful, entertaining and important in their place but we can prioritise them. There is little confusion for us. I exclude the male driving style exiting the carpark after watching a James Bond movie or ‘The Fast and the Furious’.
Moody and unpredictable months
So it follows that it may be difficult for us to understand and mediate successfully. Confiscating computer privileges at home may well not be the answer but a reassertion of parenting authority. Moving the computer to a communal space rather than letting it reside in the bedroom to be used till and at all hours may be more effective. However, a source of reassurance and confidence boosting for the teenage years should not merely be dismissed when the ardent aim of parents is to get through these dark, moody and unpredictable months(virtual years?) when the child is at times almost unrecognisable and the parent is aching to solve issues within the family. But what about the transfer of ethics from window A where the desirable culture is retribution, violence and license to speak and act without consideration to others, to window B where the code requires just the opposite?
Over 200kph on the autobahn?
It is perhaps a take on the old chestnut, ‘Do violent films engender violence in impressionable viewers?’ Do several hours at the console of sophisticatedly realistic driving simulation software, for example ‘GTA’, have anything at all to do with the allegedly growing number of young, male ‘Rasers’ who, willing to risk injury and death to themselves and others, race in a pre-owned EvoIX or WRX sti or M3 (the very cars that are popular in games) at, say, 100kph in 50 kph limits or over 200kph on the autobahn? It regularly happens in Kanton Zurich to the extent that such an act at such a speed now gets only one column inch in Tages Anzeiger. Unless, that is, there is total Blechschade or death. (The Kantonpolizei immediately take their license away but interestingly they are reporting that increasingly often these young males have already lost their license but go on driving nonetheless.) These rapid machines can easily be rented by kids in their late teens and early 20s. But then again maybe they would race and chase anyway, just the ‘guy thing’, of finding another adrenaline rush when testosterone kicks in, ‘boys in toys’ as it were.
A second statement made by an educated adult will stimulate the next Dean’s Blog.
.
This is, for me, an awful statement. It speaks of an experience of living quite alien to me. It was not said by one of your students, but it was a teenage boy; he was being interviewed about his perception and use of the various current technologies a few weeks back. What did the boy really mean? This first article explained that this particular boy said he functioned better in situations where he felt empowered to make important decisions. Our reality was just another window that usually closed for him late afternoon. It was not so tragic; as long as he functioned well elsewhere.The thesis was that as there are more worlds for the teen to get involved in then ‘reality’, the real one, may become less vital and less interesting compared with MMORPG games, the media world of ipod and mp3 as well as the ability to chat and react through msn, myface, myspace, youtube and so on. John Mangelaars, vice president, consumer and online, Microsoft EMEA, said, "Today's 'web generation' are increasingly living out their lives in the digital arena.” (Telegraph 10.02.09)
For us currently the Parent Generation…
As teenagers are anyway confused and confusing at the peak of puberty, their ability to judge the relative value of activities that absorb their focus and their sensory perception, may be weakened. This phenomenon is neither rare, nor is it surprising to the teen; only to the anxious parent for whom there is still only the real world with its social and financial stresses for which our offspring must be prepared as well as they possibly can be. And then for the current Parent Generation there are in addition films, books, TV and the web which we hold clearly as secondary –undoubtedly useful, entertaining and important in their place but we can prioritise them. There is little confusion for us. I exclude the male driving style exiting the carpark after watching a James Bond movie or ‘The Fast and the Furious’.
Moody and unpredictable months
So it follows that it may be difficult for us to understand and mediate successfully. Confiscating computer privileges at home may well not be the answer but a reassertion of parenting authority. Moving the computer to a communal space rather than letting it reside in the bedroom to be used till and at all hours may be more effective. However, a source of reassurance and confidence boosting for the teenage years should not merely be dismissed when the ardent aim of parents is to get through these dark, moody and unpredictable months(virtual years?) when the child is at times almost unrecognisable and the parent is aching to solve issues within the family. But what about the transfer of ethics from window A where the desirable culture is retribution, violence and license to speak and act without consideration to others, to window B where the code requires just the opposite?
Over 200kph on the autobahn?
It is perhaps a take on the old chestnut, ‘Do violent films engender violence in impressionable viewers?’ Do several hours at the console of sophisticatedly realistic driving simulation software, for example ‘GTA’, have anything at all to do with the allegedly growing number of young, male ‘Rasers’ who, willing to risk injury and death to themselves and others, race in a pre-owned EvoIX or WRX sti or M3 (the very cars that are popular in games) at, say, 100kph in 50 kph limits or over 200kph on the autobahn? It regularly happens in Kanton Zurich to the extent that such an act at such a speed now gets only one column inch in Tages Anzeiger. Unless, that is, there is total Blechschade or death. (The Kantonpolizei immediately take their license away but interestingly they are reporting that increasingly often these young males have already lost their license but go on driving nonetheless.) These rapid machines can easily be rented by kids in their late teens and early 20s. But then again maybe they would race and chase anyway, just the ‘guy thing’, of finding another adrenaline rush when testosterone kicks in, ‘boys in toys’ as it were.
A second statement made by an educated adult will stimulate the next Dean’s Blog.
.
Tuesday, 3 February 2009
Fire and Brimstone
Ok – this is going to be a bit random…no concrete walls, purple prose, car parks, DOZs or even Jemima this week. First I want to thank all you parents out there for the vast improvement to the drop off scene (whoops – sorry!) since I last wrote. I have only been able to use one single sticker, and that one slid off the window of the L**** Coupe because of the driving rain. Also, nearly everyone is using indicators to show which direction they are suddenly going to change to and most drivers are pulling up at the end of the DOZ to enable others to fit in behind. It is a cheering place to be other than the cold and gusting wind driving the damp, grey drizzle across the late Autumn…(Sorry, there I go again.) In fact, the only thing to report is a mum with an active phone in one hand whilst negotiating the bend by the crosswalk with the other hand at peak hour, maximum kid movement 8.30. She waved at me. No, I can’t remember which hand she used.
We have had some graffiti in and around the building and I need your help in getting the kids to see that this is not only criminal (something the equivalent of trespass and damage to third party property with malice aforethought in German) but antisocial and indeed selfish. Logos for football clubs are the rage at present. My message is that we call the professional painters in and the bill goes home. Have I caught anyone yet? Yes. Has the bill gone home? It will. Indeed, I learned that graffiti of this sort is appearing all over Zumikon and the Gemeinde has contacted the ICS Administration. It has appeared in areas close to the school as well as others that our students and to be fair other people not connected with the school, use regularly.
Moving on to another quite unrelated topic that is pretty dull – we are also in danger of having a plague of stickers appearing all over the school’s doors, door handles, walls, windows, pillars and so on. They are difficult to remove and waste a good deal of our hardworking caretaking team’s energy and time. So if you happen to see your child taking a sticker or two to ICS please step in. And that leads on smoothly and logically to setting fire to things.
There are basically two sorts of things you can set fire to in school, cigarettes and other things. I am referring to the latter. Too many children are bringing matches or cigarette lighters to school. They are banned for obvious reasons. Young children in grade 6 – that is not a typo - have been caught. They have had an uncomfortable conversation with either Mr. Hall or with me. One incident was potentially extremely dangerous and might have led to serious injury if indulged in for another minute or two. Please rest assured we will continue to take a hard line for the sake of your children’s safety. I would ask you to do what you can to check they are not leaving home carrying these things; does that mean a Front Door Frisk? Yes, absolutely, if that is what you judge to be needed.
The school buses; this I have never mentioned before so, can of worms, let’s go. The drivers are all trained, tested, qualified and experienced. This is a great relief to you and a cause for peace of mind. As part of their training they must bring the bus to the soonest possible stop if a child leaves its seat or releases its belt at any point on the journey. Sometimes your children leave their seats or release their belts. This is despite knowing they should not do this. The driver will normally warn them not to do this again. If they do, then the name and incident is passed to Mr. Penny or to me. I will email you with the facts as related by the driver of that bus. We tend not to contact you the first time. You have to trust our judgement on when to bring parents in as we do not want to worry you at too early a stage when it is a school matter nor do we want to leave you out of the loop. However, recently parents have taken the school to task for the timing of their being told rather than focussing on the issue that their child created in the first place. My message is simply let’s work together on this for a positive outcome that will benefit all the constituents of our community.
Finally, yes, I did have strong words in English and then in Schwiitze-Tuuetsch (sp?) with the driver of the Asian food delivery truck that blocked the entire DOZ the other icy, foggy morning. All our supply companies have been instructed and have agreed not to deliver to the school between 8.00 and 8.45; if they arrive earlier on no account are they allowed to enter the school drive but must circle the block until 8.45. But occasionally a rogue delivery ignores this and that was the case. This one assured me he would not do this again. Thank you for your patience that nasty morning!
We have had some graffiti in and around the building and I need your help in getting the kids to see that this is not only criminal (something the equivalent of trespass and damage to third party property with malice aforethought in German) but antisocial and indeed selfish. Logos for football clubs are the rage at present. My message is that we call the professional painters in and the bill goes home. Have I caught anyone yet? Yes. Has the bill gone home? It will. Indeed, I learned that graffiti of this sort is appearing all over Zumikon and the Gemeinde has contacted the ICS Administration. It has appeared in areas close to the school as well as others that our students and to be fair other people not connected with the school, use regularly.
Moving on to another quite unrelated topic that is pretty dull – we are also in danger of having a plague of stickers appearing all over the school’s doors, door handles, walls, windows, pillars and so on. They are difficult to remove and waste a good deal of our hardworking caretaking team’s energy and time. So if you happen to see your child taking a sticker or two to ICS please step in. And that leads on smoothly and logically to setting fire to things.
There are basically two sorts of things you can set fire to in school, cigarettes and other things. I am referring to the latter. Too many children are bringing matches or cigarette lighters to school. They are banned for obvious reasons. Young children in grade 6 – that is not a typo - have been caught. They have had an uncomfortable conversation with either Mr. Hall or with me. One incident was potentially extremely dangerous and might have led to serious injury if indulged in for another minute or two. Please rest assured we will continue to take a hard line for the sake of your children’s safety. I would ask you to do what you can to check they are not leaving home carrying these things; does that mean a Front Door Frisk? Yes, absolutely, if that is what you judge to be needed.
The school buses; this I have never mentioned before so, can of worms, let’s go. The drivers are all trained, tested, qualified and experienced. This is a great relief to you and a cause for peace of mind. As part of their training they must bring the bus to the soonest possible stop if a child leaves its seat or releases its belt at any point on the journey. Sometimes your children leave their seats or release their belts. This is despite knowing they should not do this. The driver will normally warn them not to do this again. If they do, then the name and incident is passed to Mr. Penny or to me. I will email you with the facts as related by the driver of that bus. We tend not to contact you the first time. You have to trust our judgement on when to bring parents in as we do not want to worry you at too early a stage when it is a school matter nor do we want to leave you out of the loop. However, recently parents have taken the school to task for the timing of their being told rather than focussing on the issue that their child created in the first place. My message is simply let’s work together on this for a positive outcome that will benefit all the constituents of our community.
Finally, yes, I did have strong words in English and then in Schwiitze-Tuuetsch (sp?) with the driver of the Asian food delivery truck that blocked the entire DOZ the other icy, foggy morning. All our supply companies have been instructed and have agreed not to deliver to the school between 8.00 and 8.45; if they arrive earlier on no account are they allowed to enter the school drive but must circle the block until 8.45. But occasionally a rogue delivery ignores this and that was the case. This one assured me he would not do this again. Thank you for your patience that nasty morning!
Ghosts
I am going to return to an old and favourite topic because, ever optimistic, I want finally to persuade some ghosts to be laid to rest.
The first ghost is that many things at ICS get damaged by students who show no respect for others’ possessions. Airers of this ghost are making dramatic (and serious) accusations against children attending this school with little evidence to go on.
Certainly, some damage is done but it is nearly always accidental and of no great financial significance. Certainly, teenagers could be more careful. But puberty’s hormone cocktail just makes this a very unrealistic focus of a school wide drive. In fact, a lot of kids, and especially boys, already feel very self conscious about their increased clumsiness let alone all the visible body changes they have to undergo alone.
Occasionally there is wilful damage. For example, a wall is given an addition of a football supporters’ emblem. So is a desk. A toilet is filled with toilet paper. But the broad view reduces the height of these incidents when placed against the usual school landscape. Tellingly, very rarely is a student’s work on display defaced and this must be noted. And no, we do not tolerate even these damages and yes, we follow them up and question people in or near the scene, investing a lot of time and effort in these enquiries. And yes, the Administration makes it very clear there are consequences ready for any vandalistic act. It is just that we very rarely have to enact these consequences.
Ghost 2: 'There is a good deal of theft from students and, indeed, it is getting beyond control.' The problem with this particular ghost means that this regular theft is committed, presumably, by your children; that the upbringing you give them is ineffective; that the social education we give them is insufficient. A sub ghost, a ghostlet if you will, is that ‘Yes, but my child was lead on by those other children who really are…’ But the same arguments can be raised about parental standards of upbringing and school standards of personal development if a child cannot say, 'No!' or an adult still not sought out or some other wise solution still neither known nor attempted.
Yes, indeed, bunches of objects go missing as I have written in a previous Blog series http://nickydarlington.blogspot.com/ Keys and ipods and iphones (and normal phones and rings and earrings and wallets and watches and bracelets and necklaces and precious keepsakes and huge gangsta blouson puffjackets, and trainers and track suits and shirts and sweaters and normal jackets; these are a selection of the items reported to Sandra Downie or Mr Hall or me as having been stolen.
Slightly smaller bunches of these items lie for weeks In Lost Property and in Sandra’s ‘LostBox’ in her office. Many are located in or on or behind the lockers (we are going to move these to more frequented areas of the school). Many are found in the rooms in which the owners last had a class and turned in to the cleaners. Several are found on and under the lunch tables at 1.45. Some have been loaned out and not returned or forgotten about or loaned on to a friend of the first loanee.
Yes, and some clearly have been stolen but this is a very small percentage and one that is not higher than other, similar international schools. And that is neither defensive nor complacent, merely context creating. Solutions are clear and present, well known and much repeated to our constituents, namely you and them. Here are the Golden Rules of Property Retention that are seldom followed
Do not bring expensive and/or designer artefacts to school. They are neither wanted nor needed. This is just common sense and a question of what is appropriate.
Lock valuables away in lockers.
Buy large, solid, recommended padlocks.
Never leave something tempting in you jacket or bag and then leave these lying around.
Place valuables in the Tresor at the foot of the stairs in the Academy opposite the boys changing rooms.
Hand them in to Sandra for safekeeping.
Remember to collect these valuable items afterwards.
Go check in Lost Property.
Go check in the LostBox.
Label your clothes.
Be able to identify your phone, calculator, wallet or watch because your own clear but special sign is on it.
Report it missing (not stolen) as soon as relevant steps are taken.
If it is likely there is in the community a child tempted to steal then we must try not to put temptation its way.
New Year’s resolution? For the sake of your children’s reputations and our school’s honour, let’s give this a try.
The first ghost is that many things at ICS get damaged by students who show no respect for others’ possessions. Airers of this ghost are making dramatic (and serious) accusations against children attending this school with little evidence to go on.
Certainly, some damage is done but it is nearly always accidental and of no great financial significance. Certainly, teenagers could be more careful. But puberty’s hormone cocktail just makes this a very unrealistic focus of a school wide drive. In fact, a lot of kids, and especially boys, already feel very self conscious about their increased clumsiness let alone all the visible body changes they have to undergo alone.
Occasionally there is wilful damage. For example, a wall is given an addition of a football supporters’ emblem. So is a desk. A toilet is filled with toilet paper. But the broad view reduces the height of these incidents when placed against the usual school landscape. Tellingly, very rarely is a student’s work on display defaced and this must be noted. And no, we do not tolerate even these damages and yes, we follow them up and question people in or near the scene, investing a lot of time and effort in these enquiries. And yes, the Administration makes it very clear there are consequences ready for any vandalistic act. It is just that we very rarely have to enact these consequences.
Ghost 2: 'There is a good deal of theft from students and, indeed, it is getting beyond control.' The problem with this particular ghost means that this regular theft is committed, presumably, by your children; that the upbringing you give them is ineffective; that the social education we give them is insufficient. A sub ghost, a ghostlet if you will, is that ‘Yes, but my child was lead on by those other children who really are…’ But the same arguments can be raised about parental standards of upbringing and school standards of personal development if a child cannot say, 'No!' or an adult still not sought out or some other wise solution still neither known nor attempted.
Yes, indeed, bunches of objects go missing as I have written in a previous Blog series http://nickydarlington.blogspot.com/ Keys and ipods and iphones (and normal phones and rings and earrings and wallets and watches and bracelets and necklaces and precious keepsakes and huge gangsta blouson puffjackets, and trainers and track suits and shirts and sweaters and normal jackets; these are a selection of the items reported to Sandra Downie or Mr Hall or me as having been stolen.
Slightly smaller bunches of these items lie for weeks In Lost Property and in Sandra’s ‘LostBox’ in her office. Many are located in or on or behind the lockers (we are going to move these to more frequented areas of the school). Many are found in the rooms in which the owners last had a class and turned in to the cleaners. Several are found on and under the lunch tables at 1.45. Some have been loaned out and not returned or forgotten about or loaned on to a friend of the first loanee.
Yes, and some clearly have been stolen but this is a very small percentage and one that is not higher than other, similar international schools. And that is neither defensive nor complacent, merely context creating. Solutions are clear and present, well known and much repeated to our constituents, namely you and them. Here are the Golden Rules of Property Retention that are seldom followed
Do not bring expensive and/or designer artefacts to school. They are neither wanted nor needed. This is just common sense and a question of what is appropriate.
Lock valuables away in lockers.
Buy large, solid, recommended padlocks.
Never leave something tempting in you jacket or bag and then leave these lying around.
Place valuables in the Tresor at the foot of the stairs in the Academy opposite the boys changing rooms.
Hand them in to Sandra for safekeeping.
Remember to collect these valuable items afterwards.
Go check in Lost Property.
Go check in the LostBox.
Label your clothes.
Be able to identify your phone, calculator, wallet or watch because your own clear but special sign is on it.
Report it missing (not stolen) as soon as relevant steps are taken.
If it is likely there is in the community a child tempted to steal then we must try not to put temptation its way.
New Year’s resolution? For the sake of your children’s reputations and our school’s honour, let’s give this a try.
Pants
Well, what is suitable? How do we know? By what do we judge? How do we cater for everyone’s cultural view? Is it just a question of aesthetics and personal predilection, fad n’ fetish, one generation reminding the other of its mortality (and dead lack of cool)? Does it actually matter?
‘What is he rabbiting on about this time?’ you may well be pardoned for thinking.
Well, somehow we accept rabbits’ behaviour in their own cultural context – we know and accept what they are like. But put humans en masse and opinion leaps to the tongue of the many as we observe what they do and what they wear to do it and air our considered opinion to anyone who has the misfortune to be nearby and not hearing impaired. We adults go broadcast then.
‘Making out’, ‘hitting on’, or ‘canoodling’, ‘snogging’ or ‘courting’ depending how far back your particular generation goes. It gave offence in the time of Chaucer and does so today. One litmus test is does what you happen to observe two humans doing make you feel uncomfortable? Another is whether what you see is appropriate in the context, here of study and learning amongst many cultures. Or again is it acceptable in our host country because if it is then what is the problem? Does the fact it is in a school that two teenagers are clearly showing affection make the difference, or any difference? Is it relevant to argue that you don’t see teachers cuddling and canoodling? This normally brings snorts of…well…hilarity and horror in more or less equal parts. Is it a relevant metaphor anyway since our upbringing and professionalism would prohibit open displays of luxurious affection on the campus?
The decision we have made in the secondary school is worth stating, for our parents and our students. If two people’s behaviour causes onlookers discomfort then it is not ok. Then one should intevene. Then I do intervene. So does Mr Hall. So does Mrs Zwart; we are in agreement. And so we try to explain exactly why and try to ignore the look of incomprehension at the irrelevance of the argument. It is a rule. So there. 'Private life has the word ‘private’ and what part of ‘private’ is causing you the problem? Break it at your peril. For the greater good. Move on.'
And then there is this extraordinary habit of boys their jeans totally below their…erm… gluteus maximus, for which they were never designed so they look plain silly. Going up stairs behind one there is a strange and unlovely view of the current underwear of choice. And when running they need one hand to keep the jeans from falling down! Ridiculous! In my day… This is a rant and I am not going there.
Did I hear one of you say, ‘Just ban it?’
‘What is he rabbiting on about this time?’ you may well be pardoned for thinking.
Well, somehow we accept rabbits’ behaviour in their own cultural context – we know and accept what they are like. But put humans en masse and opinion leaps to the tongue of the many as we observe what they do and what they wear to do it and air our considered opinion to anyone who has the misfortune to be nearby and not hearing impaired. We adults go broadcast then.
‘Making out’, ‘hitting on’, or ‘canoodling’, ‘snogging’ or ‘courting’ depending how far back your particular generation goes. It gave offence in the time of Chaucer and does so today. One litmus test is does what you happen to observe two humans doing make you feel uncomfortable? Another is whether what you see is appropriate in the context, here of study and learning amongst many cultures. Or again is it acceptable in our host country because if it is then what is the problem? Does the fact it is in a school that two teenagers are clearly showing affection make the difference, or any difference? Is it relevant to argue that you don’t see teachers cuddling and canoodling? This normally brings snorts of…well…hilarity and horror in more or less equal parts. Is it a relevant metaphor anyway since our upbringing and professionalism would prohibit open displays of luxurious affection on the campus?
The decision we have made in the secondary school is worth stating, for our parents and our students. If two people’s behaviour causes onlookers discomfort then it is not ok. Then one should intevene. Then I do intervene. So does Mr Hall. So does Mrs Zwart; we are in agreement. And so we try to explain exactly why and try to ignore the look of incomprehension at the irrelevance of the argument. It is a rule. So there. 'Private life has the word ‘private’ and what part of ‘private’ is causing you the problem? Break it at your peril. For the greater good. Move on.'
And then there is this extraordinary habit of boys their jeans totally below their…erm… gluteus maximus, for which they were never designed so they look plain silly. Going up stairs behind one there is a strange and unlovely view of the current underwear of choice. And when running they need one hand to keep the jeans from falling down! Ridiculous! In my day… This is a rant and I am not going there.
Did I hear one of you say, ‘Just ban it?’
Thursday, 6 November 2008
Snow already again yet.
Snowflakes drifted out of an unwashed grey sky and began to suffocate the familiar shapes and colours of the school playground…etc. etc.
It is time to talk about snow again the weather has hinted rather unsubtly, whilst we were still in October and on summer tyres. Snow always raises controversy the moment a child gathers some and begins to shape a sphere. At this point a polemic develops amongst the adult sections of our community as to whether snowballing is a good thing or a bad thing. There’s no room for grey between this black and this white. The kids need no such debate, of course; most head straight to the white stuff or away from it, minds already made up.
The question is whether snow is dangerous. In the past few years folks from North America have tended to answer ‘yes’ and Europeans to answer ‘no’. In Europe humankind has more or less domesticated snow and with its unique talent turned it into a money-spinner and an expensive one at that. Snow is a source of fun over here. We can turn it into heaps of sport and recreation forms. We tend not to get combination of the quantities and the vast terrain mix that produce danger. Unless we are pretty stupid or vastly unlucky getting lost in a white wilderness with consequent treacherous disorientation and hypothermia is an experience we can avoid. Off piste skiing when avalanche risk notices have been posted is the main and rather too frequent example of the stupid.
On the campus of ICS the real risk is of a snowball in the face which can be very nasty. So what do we do about this? We have a policy at present that allows children to throw snowballs once they enter the secondary school. But we stipulate and monitor closely certain conditions. The Field is the only permitted snowball area, so that a child who does not want a close encounter of a cold kind can roam the rest of the campus in peace (and warmth). Those who go on the Field know that there will be snowballing. Members of staff are at the edge of the Field during breaks and are ready to intervene or even close the Field if the play gets too rough. As soon as the temperature rises and the snow gets soft we lock the field and snowballing becomes but a dim memory, for this is when snow becomes icy and the resulting snowballs are too hard for friendly play. Further, ganging up on children or snow fights involving much younger kids against much older and stronger are not allowed. Nor is face washing, nor is the deliberate making of icy snowballs. If Jemima were to break one of these rules she would be sent inside for the remainder of the break with a stern warning. So you can see the teachers are busy and mostly unappreciated out there getting cold whilst protecting safety.
But wouldn’t it be easier just to ban snowballing? Yes, it would; and all body contact sports and roller blades and climbing frames and kickboards and skateboards… you see where this is leading: the elimination of outdoor education’s relevance to the IB learner profile. The ICS does not have a prohibitive philosophy or mission statement; rather it is an enabling one. So children need to have the time and space and permission and supervision to learn about fair play and safety and consideration whilst at the same time working off all that surplus energy. They need a break from lessons and classes and walls and instructions in the middle of the day. They need and deserve fun.
But this is so unfair on the girls, someone irately commented last year. Well, no, not really. Lots of girls are out there on the Field joining in. They also gather are on the perimeter egging their favoured boy to deeds of greater gallantry. Remember, too, that everywhere else is snowball free. Remember that the days of safe snowballing could recently be counted on the fingers of two hands. Finally, remember this policy is not set in concrete. The situation is discussed each year and change therefore is always possible.
It is time to talk about snow again the weather has hinted rather unsubtly, whilst we were still in October and on summer tyres. Snow always raises controversy the moment a child gathers some and begins to shape a sphere. At this point a polemic develops amongst the adult sections of our community as to whether snowballing is a good thing or a bad thing. There’s no room for grey between this black and this white. The kids need no such debate, of course; most head straight to the white stuff or away from it, minds already made up.
The question is whether snow is dangerous. In the past few years folks from North America have tended to answer ‘yes’ and Europeans to answer ‘no’. In Europe humankind has more or less domesticated snow and with its unique talent turned it into a money-spinner and an expensive one at that. Snow is a source of fun over here. We can turn it into heaps of sport and recreation forms. We tend not to get combination of the quantities and the vast terrain mix that produce danger. Unless we are pretty stupid or vastly unlucky getting lost in a white wilderness with consequent treacherous disorientation and hypothermia is an experience we can avoid. Off piste skiing when avalanche risk notices have been posted is the main and rather too frequent example of the stupid.
On the campus of ICS the real risk is of a snowball in the face which can be very nasty. So what do we do about this? We have a policy at present that allows children to throw snowballs once they enter the secondary school. But we stipulate and monitor closely certain conditions. The Field is the only permitted snowball area, so that a child who does not want a close encounter of a cold kind can roam the rest of the campus in peace (and warmth). Those who go on the Field know that there will be snowballing. Members of staff are at the edge of the Field during breaks and are ready to intervene or even close the Field if the play gets too rough. As soon as the temperature rises and the snow gets soft we lock the field and snowballing becomes but a dim memory, for this is when snow becomes icy and the resulting snowballs are too hard for friendly play. Further, ganging up on children or snow fights involving much younger kids against much older and stronger are not allowed. Nor is face washing, nor is the deliberate making of icy snowballs. If Jemima were to break one of these rules she would be sent inside for the remainder of the break with a stern warning. So you can see the teachers are busy and mostly unappreciated out there getting cold whilst protecting safety.
But wouldn’t it be easier just to ban snowballing? Yes, it would; and all body contact sports and roller blades and climbing frames and kickboards and skateboards… you see where this is leading: the elimination of outdoor education’s relevance to the IB learner profile. The ICS does not have a prohibitive philosophy or mission statement; rather it is an enabling one. So children need to have the time and space and permission and supervision to learn about fair play and safety and consideration whilst at the same time working off all that surplus energy. They need a break from lessons and classes and walls and instructions in the middle of the day. They need and deserve fun.
But this is so unfair on the girls, someone irately commented last year. Well, no, not really. Lots of girls are out there on the Field joining in. They also gather are on the perimeter egging their favoured boy to deeds of greater gallantry. Remember, too, that everywhere else is snowball free. Remember that the days of safe snowballing could recently be counted on the fingers of two hands. Finally, remember this policy is not set in concrete. The situation is discussed each year and change therefore is always possible.
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