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MONEY
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FEAR
THE FEAR
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Sunday, 14 March 2010
Sunday, 28 February 2010
Candide
"I know also," said Candide, "that we must cultivate our garden."
"You are right," said Pangloss, "for when man was first placed in the
Garden of Eden, he was put there _ut operaretur eum_, that he might
cultivate it; which shows that man was not born to be idle."
"Let us work," said Martin, "without disputing; it is the only way to
render life tolerable."
The whole little society entered into this laudable design, according to
their different abilities. Their little plot of land produced plentiful
crops. Cunegonde was, indeed, very ugly, but she became an excellent
pastry cook; Paquette worked at embroidery; the old woman looked after
the linen. They were all, not excepting Friar Giroflée, of some service
or other; for he made a good joiner, and became a very honest man.
Pangloss sometimes said to Candide:
"There is a concatenation of events in this best of all possible worlds:
for if you had not been kicked out of a magnificent castle for love of
Miss Cunegonde: if you had not been put into the Inquisition: if you had
not walked over America: if you had not stabbed the Baron: if you had
not lost all your sheep from the fine country of El Dorado: you would
not be here eating preserved citrons and pistachio-nuts."
"All that is very well," answered Candide, "but let us cultivate our
garden."
And so ends Candide, a little book that has fascinated me for a number of years. It is short and witty, it is philosophical. But it is this last few paragraphs that I have always liked, out heroes have suffered and seen great suffering all over 17th century Europe, have engaged with various philosophies including the Leibenitzian optimism that we live with a benevolent God, which Voltaire fiercely disputes - if God is so benevolent why all the suffering. The Lisbon earthquake and the seven years war for example. In the end our hero Candide, resolves that gardening is the most productive pursuit of humainty.
"You are right," said Pangloss, "for when man was first placed in the
Garden of Eden, he was put there _ut operaretur eum_, that he might
cultivate it; which shows that man was not born to be idle."
"Let us work," said Martin, "without disputing; it is the only way to
render life tolerable."
The whole little society entered into this laudable design, according to
their different abilities. Their little plot of land produced plentiful
crops. Cunegonde was, indeed, very ugly, but she became an excellent
pastry cook; Paquette worked at embroidery; the old woman looked after
the linen. They were all, not excepting Friar Giroflée, of some service
or other; for he made a good joiner, and became a very honest man.
Pangloss sometimes said to Candide:
"There is a concatenation of events in this best of all possible worlds:
for if you had not been kicked out of a magnificent castle for love of
Miss Cunegonde: if you had not been put into the Inquisition: if you had
not walked over America: if you had not stabbed the Baron: if you had
not lost all your sheep from the fine country of El Dorado: you would
not be here eating preserved citrons and pistachio-nuts."
"All that is very well," answered Candide, "but let us cultivate our
garden."
And so ends Candide, a little book that has fascinated me for a number of years. It is short and witty, it is philosophical. But it is this last few paragraphs that I have always liked, out heroes have suffered and seen great suffering all over 17th century Europe, have engaged with various philosophies including the Leibenitzian optimism that we live with a benevolent God, which Voltaire fiercely disputes - if God is so benevolent why all the suffering. The Lisbon earthquake and the seven years war for example. In the end our hero Candide, resolves that gardening is the most productive pursuit of humainty.
Monday, 22 February 2010
Change forces
Its Monday morning, arrived in Nottingham from Cleethorpes thinking hard about discourse - school based, PD based discourse. This is all in these dual critical discourse analysis the Fairclough one: analysing discourse for power relationahsips and then there is the the Foucaludian tradition looking at historical development discourse. Either way the discourse analysis seems to me an appropriate theoretical analysis to view how sense is made of professional developement materials.
Then I get to the office and look up at Ian's shelf, there is a couple of books by Michael Fullan. My first though is why are they there? Ian, why are they there? But Ian is not her but I send him a message on Skype.
But I've been reading Change Forces
Lesson Five: Individualism and collectivism Must Hve Equal Power
Lesson Six Neither Centralisation Nor Decentralisation Works (Both top-dow and bottim up strategies are necessary)
Wow! thinks I this is just the sort of thing that I sent to the NCETM for my MKN report and here is the link between leadership and management literature and mathematics professional development and you know what I think:
Well I think, that in order to really make professional development materials successful the design has to feature some of these aspects. It has to feature matheatical task; pedagogy and practice and a new discourse of top-down bottom-up change and decentralisation and centralisation change.
Then I get to the office and look up at Ian's shelf, there is a couple of books by Michael Fullan. My first though is why are they there? Ian, why are they there? But Ian is not her but I send him a message on Skype.
But I've been reading Change Forces
Lesson Five: Individualism and collectivism Must Hve Equal Power
Lesson Six Neither Centralisation Nor Decentralisation Works (Both top-dow and bottim up strategies are necessary)
Wow! thinks I this is just the sort of thing that I sent to the NCETM for my MKN report and here is the link between leadership and management literature and mathematics professional development and you know what I think:
Well I think, that in order to really make professional development materials successful the design has to feature some of these aspects. It has to feature matheatical task; pedagogy and practice and a new discourse of top-down bottom-up change and decentralisation and centralisation change.
Wednesday, 10 February 2010
Professional Development of Maths Teachers
For a long time, 20 to 30 years, the professional development of teachers has adhered to the principle of beliefs and practices. What a teacher believes about teaching and mathematics is what they do in practice. This has been a common model for the design of professional development programmes and materials. However the link between beliefs and practices is not easy to determine, it is not obvious and not clear. Furthermore evaluations of professional development programmes do not demonstrate clear evidence of effectiveness of professional development.
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