Wednesday, 16 August 2017

#Charlottesville - The Neo-Nazis #Evil

Are you a Nazi supporter or not.

That’s a question I ask you now.

Let’s have a history lesson shall we? The Nazis didn’t have power in Germany over night and nor did they have the German war machine built in a week.  It took time to gain power, it took time to gain a rise in popularity and numbers.  All of it took time.  Adolf Hitler even went to prison.  The Nazi party was very much a far right.  They hated Jews, lefties and the democratic government that wanted to continue peace with Europe at all cost (including the continued squeeze on financial repercussions from surrendering WW1).

The Nazi party had gained support and even launched the “Beer Hall Putsch” which was their attempt to gain control of the government.

He got 5 years.  5 years for committing an act that would have given most people a death penalty – Treason.

Through the usual politics, he was released after only serving 9 months – pressure from the Nazi party.  Due to the popularity of the Nazis and Adolf Hitler (although they lost the Presidency to Paul Von Hindenburg) was made Chancellor.  In the hope it would bridge the gap between the parties and perhaps relax the Nazi hate.  It didn’t work.  Shortly after Adolf burned an important Reichstag building for calling general elections.  It wasn’t long till the Nazis had won the majority and shortly after that Hitler took total power.  The German democracy had been slowly beaten away during this entire time.  All of this didn’t happen over night.

Where was the German population?
Where was the silent German people?
Where was the anger at the removal of this democracy?
Where was the protests and even the violence to prevent this?

Gone.  All of it.

The result of sitting idly by allowed the Nazis to gain power through hate of its European neighbours, hate towards anyone that wasn’t German and an almost completely unified Germany all behind the Nazi party.  Not all of them wanted it but it was support it or fear for your life.  It’s too late now isn’t it.  No one believed it, no one saw it coming but it happened and now it’s a part of our dark history.

This is what people are afraid of.  Freedom of speech allowed the Nazis to shout vile hate to anyone that wasn’t Pure German.  What happened next? 

Germany would build its war machine while Europe would continue to discuss peace.
Germany would annex Austria because the Nazis believed they were effectively “Pure German” while Europe continued its peace talks.
Germany would invade Czechoslovakia while still Europe continued to talk peace.
Germany would invade Poland and the France/Britain would declare war.

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When it begun it didn’t take very long for the Nazi push to take Europe and operation Dunkirk to begin.  The Nazi generals took chances and risks, they pushed forward while the Europe forces would be cautious and perhaps over confident in their lines.  In well under a year the Nazi forces had taken Europe.  Britain had been given the chance to surrender – it didn’t.  At this stage the United States had not got involved.  That’s right – they too was a silent nation that did nothing while the world was falling to evil.  The same evil that we see today with Islamist Extremists, the same white supremacists, Nazi lovers and even some one who walks in to a school with a machine gun.  All evil.  All extremists.

Here we are again, people willing to sit by and say nothing, do nothing – don’t give them attention and just ignore them.  Is that what you would say in Germany while the far right rise to power?  Is that what you would say when the Nazi’s murdered millions of Jews? Is that what you tell the war veterans who watched their friends die fighting for our freedoms?

This entire thing has shown who you truly are.  Either a good person willing to do what is right or a bad person prepared to ignore the darkness.  The same people who say we shouldn’t do anything are those who hide while war breaks out.  Those who truly become cowards at the sight of war.  I am ashamed to call you friends and yes some of them are my friends who have openly spoken about it on Facebook.  That it is “both sides”.  It’s not.

The Anti-Nazi protestors are angry, some of them may be idiots just wanting a fight but the protests themselves are against the worst kind of human beings.  The mass murderers.  If they deface a statue that represents slavery of the Confederates? So what.  That pure symbol of white supremacy should never have stood.  Let me put a statue up of a man that abused your child or raped your daughter.  A convicted man where there was no doubt – let me have a picture of that man and declare  my love for him.

Once upon a time these groups would hold their secret gatherings and even wear masks to hide their identity.  They didn’t want you to know they were your sons, your daughters, your loved ones or even your neighbours.  Now they are open, they are showing their faces and not afraid to do so.  If you honestly want to protect these evil people.. you are a collaborator of evil.  You are the ones who stood by and allowed the genocide to occur and mass murder.  You are the ones who should be disgusted with yourself.  Next time you talk about the lefties – just remember they didn’t commit mass genocide nor plunged the world in to a war costing 80+ million lives.  I can’t stand the far left who are snowflakes and daisy pushers.  They too are the ones that would have surrendered to the Nazis when Britain was offered the chance but that was the right decision – to fight for freedom.  Just like the people are fighting the Nazis today – fighting for freedom.

Truth is I don’t care if you are a right or a left, there’s morally right or not.  A man who believes he’s a white supreme but doesn’t act on it in any way is entitled to it.  If he decides to protest and shout for more members it’s a problem.  This isn’t freedom of speech when it’s vile hate.  I can threaten to rape your children – that’s hate and a threat – I should be locked up.  I can think it though and one will know the tale.  If you spend your life stating freedom is the same as evil….  You should look at your self.




Monday, 10 July 2017

Education: Be consistent and concentrate on learning


It’s time education slowed down and became consistent once more.  The last time education had the least amount of problems, high staff happiness and generally things ‘prodding alone well’ was when we had consistency.

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General current issues:

  • Fear of being critical of education from within
  • Self-ambition and opportunism is more important
  • Teachers only knowing education and nothing more
  • Getting younger and younger – University fresh


The above could be good or bad but I am going to rate them as issues.


Fear Factor

This is an issue being raised by quite a few tweeters.  There is a general fear of criticising education in general or certain types of schools/people but why is there? Why should some be afraid to say something bad just to get their job hanging over their head – it’s disgusting.  It creates a deluded culture among staff in schools that we can’t make mistakes and everything is perfect.  The fact of the matter is behaviour, uniform and general problems exists in schools.  So why is there such a grey area where nothing can be said about schools?  We do it a lot to our own Government.  We criticise politicians all day and every day – even the Education Secretary who we all effectively work for.


Ambition

I’m often seeing people who want to move up the chain as quickly as possible.  This creates a culture of those who in all honesty – kiss ass.  They may not be good at the job, they talk the jibba jabba and may not even be qualified.  I once witnessed someone become a Head Teacher in a Trust that had no experience in being a Head Teacher but because she was in a circle – she got the job.  This job was not advertised externally or internally but because this person spoke the right way to the Head of that circle.. the job was given.


Teachers

I’ve known so many teachers over the years and many of them over a certain age of 40+ had previous experience of all kind of jobs.  You name it – I’ve probably known them.  They were: ex-military, police, doctors, fireman, miners, business owners, engineers and so forth.  Now the majority of them even those in their late 30s have all lived one life – University > teaching.  They’ve not gained experience in other jobs.


And to top it off the teachers are getting younger.  We’re now seeing them not much older than sixth formers which creates less respect for the position and also a more ‘friend’ culture among the kids.  Students are not your friends they are learners.


Now the IT

There’s no consistency between schools and nor is there in a trust let alone one year 7 leading to the Year 11s.  I’ve often spoken to students through the years and asked them if there’s a consistency – no it changes all the time.  An opinion that is echoed from the staff.  All those sales reps I talk about play a part in this – promising the world but never give you the whole story.


Education: Salespersons, Seminar providers and Trainers.  Check out the link if you want to know more.



The kids need consistency and so do the adults.  A system that changes the least while still providing the usual updates is the system that works.  It becomes reliable, with the least amount of problems and it creates a consistent approach from staff which translates down to the children.  They may not love it, they may not like it but it means you can’t blame grades or performance levels on IT.


We seriously need to consider aiming for a consistency.  When you purchase a device stop looking for WHAT you can do with it but instead KNOW what you plan to do with it before you purchase it.  This is the common mistake.  You also need to think can it make your life easier, can it cut costs and provide a better school environment.


I’m a member of multiple forums and follow a lot of staff in education.  You kind of get a pattern that people don’t like IT.  Do you realise that the majority of decisions are not made by us?  They’re made by the Deputy Head and Head Teacher – often against the advice of IT.  I always say test, practise and trial with any purchase of software.  I often tell people to ask teachers what they think.  With upgrades to Windows 10 I know our choices are little – Apple, Linux (Free), Google (Free) or Windows.  I may not like moving to Windows 10 but I know we’ve got little choice.


So how can we keep it consistent? Stick to the basics which I’ve covered in other posts:


Post about Costs of ‘Free of IT’ – A useful post to see what you should have with IT



Bit more about that post:



Bit more about Education needing to open it’s eyes:



Some costs regarding IT



The University Model

For anyone that’s been to Uni or spent time there it’s interesting to see how things have changed.  Universities stick to what works with lectures and assignments with one major difference.  A lot of these materials are accessible online through a simple portal.  This portal gives access to class assignments, materials and email.  Some portals even provide access to software.


None of this is innovation in 2017, none of it is creativity or about interaction with students.  It’s all about providing them with 24/7 access to everything they need to complete their work.  So why are schools not focusing on this? Instead they spend tens of thousands on ‘pretty’ ideas that offer no learning benefit.  What’s the learning benefit of having 24/7 communication with the tutor? Or the ability to email them throughout the day? What’s the benefit to learning when students can access their entire course and assignments online anywhere in the world?


It’s all simple and basic but all about one thing – Making things easier for learning.  Then again in schools you have more younger teachers who want to get that promotion or pay rise which goes back to my previous statements of ambition.


Universities have to cut costs and stick to what works.  Not go down the route of being fancy it’s also another reason why laptops/PCs are still being sold because students will tend to buy productivity for their work over an expensive Apple Mac or cheap tablet.


Stick to the basics.