Never be so kind you forget to be clever, never be so clever you forget to be kind.

Lee Hurley@hleehurley.com · yesterday

The Times, one of the leading voices when it comes to 'protecting women and girls' calling a man who assaulted his young pregnant girlfriend, said he would rape the kids if he was a teacher and called for child sex abuse porn to be legal, 'brilliant'

Mediocrity. How the Party of Disraeli, MacMillan, Churchill et al must despair having this nonentity and truly stupid person as leader.

On my way back from two days of Sea Cadet Chaplaincy Training. A dozen clergy on a destroyer without causing an international incident, what are the chances?

Hugo of Willerby and the Natural History of Dragons. Notes from a cancelled lecture by John Macdebs. John attempts to untangle truth from myth. open.substack.com/pub/willerby...

Hugo of Willerby and the Natural History of Dragons

An ill-advised analysis unravelling some, but by no means all, of the mysteries and contradictions. John Macdebs

open.substack.com

And we should welcome that, in all the messy, complicated diversity that it brings. I'm just not quite sure how - and to what extent even whether one *should* - you can design a system that supports, values and understands each of those equally! There might be a Rawls-esque veil I don't get....

Social care and devo could go wrong but they're not intrinsically bad ideas. Selection at 14 is, however it's implemented. The only thing I'm claiming to know is that early selection leads to inequality, and there's good evidence for that.

If you’re a Gondorian soldier your experience with hobbits is a tiny guy shows up with a wizard and is immediately taken in the Steward’s counsel. He saves Faramir when the Steward goes mad. A second tiny guy arrives with the Rohirrim and kills the Witch King. The first one then goes on campaign …

More analysis of regional linguistic variations in fantasy please

Vituperative Erb@vituperativeerb.bsky.social · 4d ago

I’m having just done a rereading: (1) he shows up with Gandalf (2) they know he’s from way up North, so he’s like insanely well-traveled (3) the Westron in the Shire has dropped what was essentially a tu/usted distinction so he is speaking to Denethor the way like Prince Imrahil does

Excellent thread here

Carrie@carrieprimary.bsky.social · 3d ago

I see the ‘trauma doesn’t need different teaching’ is doing the rounds again. I don’t often comment because it’s a bit personal but the way some people talk about children really offends me. Some children have already experienced more in their wee lives than we ever will. Some children will have -

Horny individual is hornier, ‘cos drunk (10) Corker of a surface from the guardian quick cryptic.

Completely agree with this. I've always thought we should have a core academic curriculum to 16 that goes beyond maths/english/science. And yes maths to 18 is in principle a good idea (if the quals are designed right and it's funded properly!)

John Springford@johnspringford.bsky.social · 4d ago

Learned a lot from this. Also Sam's point about keeping options open reinforces the view that we specialise too early in *academic* subjects. Numeracy and literacy are very useful, but you can stop doing any maths/stats/humanities at 16.

Today's "I learned something" moment. youtu.be/sYdXa_yp0fc

Strings Don't Vibrate The Way You Think

YouTube video by minutephysics

youtu.be

This is easily the cutest description of practical magic you’ll read today:

Willerby@welcometowillerby.bsky.social · 6d ago

The Charm. A Willerby Story. What wouldn't you give for a magic spell that got you a parking space outside your kids' school every time you needed one? willerby.substack.com/p/the-charm

Bergen memorial (not sure what to) - really loving the collection of chaps they’ve assembled (that’s a very heroic stance that guy on the left has got).

For me the right answer is grow the economy and fund FE. What we're seeing here is governments (of both kinds) struggling to run the economy since 2016, and consequently looking for politically easier answers elsewhere - in this case, with the education system.

Ben Newmark@bennewmark.bsky.social · last wk.

Fwiw I think the right approach won't be found in formal assessment itself but outside it. We need more second chances, other routes to decent jobs and lives that aren't academic. Which I get is what AB like many others have tried is trying, but won't work because as @stephenkb.bsky.social says..

A Short, Unauthorised and Inaccurate Account of the History of Willerby. By John Macdebs. open.substack.com/pub/willerby...

Is this a good time to mention that in college my History of Translation lecturer (Michael Cronin) told us that one of the first vernacular translations of The Illiad was into Irish, and the translator had to give the main characters dogs because in Gaelic society a free man had a dog

Ferryboat across the fjords.

I fear for what I call The Inevitable Doom Loop of Vocational Education: - it starts off hard to get parity of esteem - loads of kids fail - it’s made easier - it’s seen as a doss and schools lump kids in to game outcomes - numbers drop - it gets cancelled

as a general rule, delaying specialisation to 16 + the GCSE being well specified exams are positive feature of England’s system

Sam Freedman@samfr.bsky.social · last wk.

The other issue with vocational at 14 is implicit selection. Well off families will ensure their kids do academic courses. This happens at 16 anyway but at least we give everyone a chance to get a set of academic quals.

As a side issue, textbooks fall apart prematurely because nobody wraps books in wallpaper any more. Disgraceful.

And good luck finding businesses to offer meaningful work experience to hundreds of thousands of 14 and 15 year olds. As ever a failure to acknowledge that our big challenge with vocational ed is our labour market.

Laura McInerney@missmc.bsky.social · last wk.

Don’t worry, I’m sure they’ve thought through how this will be staffed, funded, and the class size implications for GCSE options. They learned that from the last time, right? RIGHT? www.tes.com/magazine/new...

1. Babysitter or Bramblepicker? In the League of Gentlemen the Royston Vasey job retraining scheme was a joke because there were no good jobs in the area, hence the job seekers being offered a choice of Babysitter or Bramblepicker. This is a clever point about..

6.. finally, always important to remember English education is a success. Kids are more literate and numerate as a result of the changes over the last twenty years. These are the most important "employment skills" of all and anything that might risk this is dangerous.

Oh my goodness a thousand times this.

Anna Orridge@anna-orridge.bsky.social · last wk.

Please, architects and people who are in charge of planning decisions, stop creating schools with great big, very beautiful glassy atria which, in the absence of air conditioning or mechanical ventilation will inevitably turn into greenhouses when we get past 25 degrees.

It did not dry up as we walked, but the waterfalls were suitably splendid.

James Handscombe@jameshandscombe.bsky.social · last wk.

We’re waiting for the ferry to take us to the start of the hike. It’s trifling damp.

We’re waiting for the ferry to take us to the start of the hike. It’s trifling damp.

This has just won the prize for most disgusting breakfast ever. Looks like ginger cake - is actually “old cheese” - prized by Vikings for tasting no worse after three months at sea than it did before setting out. Norwegian friends - is this a big prank following the World Cup?

Dancing Ent Creature of the foggy forest. Madeira #landscapephotography ##landschaftsfotografie #fog

Fairytale landscape