Climate science: child`s play?

Like the story of the Pied Piper, another group of children are being lulled into a state of passivity and led away

 

======================

If true, this is a shocking statistic, and some adults have much to answer for.

"One in five children are having nightmares about climate change, according to a new survey. Some 19% said fears over the environment were giving them bad dreams, while 17% said the issue was affecting their sleeping and eating habits. And 73% were worried about the state of the planet right now, with 58% concerned about the impact climate change would have on their futures. Four out of five youngsters said the environment was important to them. The poll by Savanta-ComRes for BBC Newsround of 2,000 children aged eight to 16 also found that two in five do not trust adults to tackle the problem."

Read more: https://metro.co.uk/2020/03/04/children-say-nightmares-climate-change-12345613/?ito=cbshare
 
As it is, although the simple story being presented to children is one that is settled and alarming, the science suggests climate is a complex phenomenon and there is no such certainty.

Mental health assessments

The government has announced "one of the largest mental health trials in schools, which will see 370 schools contributing evidence about the best mental health support and wellbeing practices for chidren and young people..."

"New mental health assessments for children entering the care system will be piloted in nine areas. Five approaches will be used in the trials – two focusing on increasing awareness in secondary schools through specialist instruction sessions and tools to increase understanding, meanwhile three approaches will include primary schools and take a lighter-touch approach with breathing exercises and mindfulness lessons."

https://dfemedia.blog.gov.uk/2019/02/04/education-in-the-media-monday-4-february-2019/

Meanwhile the Mental Health Foundation in Scotland is pursuing its `Make it Count` campaign, one of the aims of which is that all pupils will take part in a `wellbeing questionnaire once a term to identify and address problems early by 2020`.

That is, mental ill health prevention in schools is useful in the sense that it may be used as a justification for collecting personal data.

But charities and governments keep forgetting that data collection without informed consent conflicts with human rights.

Heading for data capital of the world

"Intimate details of pupils` private lives are being shared among teachers in the latest Big Brother storm to hit Scottish schools."

"Information about children`s sexuality, personal opinions and even how wealthy their families are have been entered into a database that can be viewed by teachers on their laptops. The move has been backed by SNP ministers, who believe it will help tackle the growing problem of bullying in our classrooms."

"But Dr Stuart Waiton of Abertay University in Dundee said last night that the new database smacked of `Big Brother in the classroom`."

"The senior sociology lecturer added: `It`s a concern that teachers and education departments are becoming increasingly preoccupied with the minutiae of pupils` private lives."

"`This scheme appears to be part of the Named Person framework, which focuses on the vague idea of wellbeing and puts the state in charge of assessing and monitoring it."

"But it only encourages teachers to behave as quasi-social workers or therapists. They would be far better off focusing on the job of educating students rather than acting as Big Brother in the classroom.`"

"The `pupil-profiling` scheme is being piloted at Wallace High School in Stirling as part of the Scottish Government`s national bullying strategy. Ministers believe pupils` personal information will help teachers decide whether a child is more likely to be a bully - or a victim."

"Wallace High has set up a scheme in which pastoral notes on pupils are distilled into mini data packages that are then circulated to teachers."

"The pilot project allows staff to view updated digests of every child`s story on their laptops ahead of each lesson."

"The Government says the new approach will `identify trends` and that its success will be measured by computer analysis of the data."

"But Alison Preuss of the Scottish Home Education Forum branded the scheme `petty statism`. She said: `This will actually stand in the way of teachers developing good relationships and empathy with pupils, which is the key to beating bullying."

https://www.pressreader.com/uk/scottish-daily-mail/20180822/281479277266340

Privacy breaches

And SEEMiS.

The NO2NP campaigning group has learned that "the SEEMiS app, operating in Named Person pilots despite the Supreme Court judgment, tells users to `override consent` as a matter of course."

"A video tutorial for the app told practitioners"

"To extract information you will have to qualify why you’re taking it out of the system. The system asks a user to confirm whether or not consent has been given to share information. By default, most of the time, you’ll be able to tick ‘I wish to override consent’. Otherwise, you’ll have to show that you asked for parental and child consent."
"Yes, you read that right," the group continues: "`Override consent` `By default` `Avoid having to show that consent has been given`. An eagle-eyed NO2NP supporter captured a screenshot of the tick box in question...and posted it on Twitter."

"Several hours later, the video tutorial and associated guidance were deleted. This tells us that somebody, somewhere, knew the advice was in conflict with legal requirements."

"But all of this raises a much bigger question: if the SEEMiS app is still telling non-statutory named persons across the country that they can override consent, is unlawful data sharing still going on?"

"And if so, what are the Government going to do about it?"

Read more https://no2np.org/named-person-database-encouraging-users-override-consent-default/

Who`s behind government policy ?

"We suffer the consequences, but who makes the policy?" asks Brian Gerrish on UK Column News, Wednesday 18 July 2018.

"And as we`ve just heard at the start of our news today the British government is descending into chaos. But somebody behind the scenes is still pulling the strings and making the decisions." 

 

"Let`s have a look at this organisation which was flagged up to us a couple of days ago: the Horizon Scanning Programme team.  `Horizon Scanning is about exploring what the future might look like to understand uncertainties better`. And the UK government is crowing about this in quite a number of places. So apparently it`s not about making predictions, but systematically investigating evidence about future trends. Horizon scanning apparently helps government to `analyse whether it`s adequately prepared for potential opportunities and threats, and this helps ensure that policies are resilient to different future environments`."

"So we`ve got a Horizon Scanning Programme team `coordinating strategic horizon scanning work across departments, drawing on insights from experts in and outside government to challenge our thinking`. So note there that we`re bringing in experts from outside government. Who are these experts? It`s not easy to see but we`re going to work on this and see whether we can pin some of them down at least."

 

"But here`s the Horizon Programme team responsible for `coordinating work between departments and input from those experts outside the Civil Service; creating communities of interest around specific topics; improving cross-government horizon scanning; developing networks to gather and share information; bringing emerging issues to a senior-level audience`."

"So this is really incredible stuff. It`s working on government policy but they say `well it isn`t really`. Let`s have a look at the detail. How does this thing come about? Well prior to 2014 we had a Cabinet Office Horizon Scanning Secretariat and we had a Government Office of Science`s Horizon Scanning Centre. They merged March. That produced the Horizon Scanning Programme Team."

"We`ve got a Steering Group which is the Cabinet Secretary`s Advisory Group. And if you don`t know what these organisations are, I`m going to say we didn`t until recently. Research it yourself because there`s a lot of questions to be asked here."

 

"So here`s the overall chair. It`s our old friend Jeremy Heywood, immensely powerful individual within government and the Civil Service; and the overall minister the Rt Hon David Lidington CBE MP. Now he`s the Duchy of Lancaster, treasurer, so that`s a very important role. Previously he was [with] BP and another pretty high profile global company. So what takes place in these organisations? Well we`re hopefully now starting to get a glimpse. But what we can say with certainty is that they are closely tied in with what was the government`s Behavioural Insights team and this was the British government using applied psychology in order to change the way people.... think and behave."

"And apparently this organisation has had its own ten commandments and so we`ve got a Dr John Carney here, the Principal Scientist within the Systems Thinking and Consulting Group of the Defence Science and Technology lab but he`s previously been Team Leader for Horizon Scanning."

"He had this to say: `Don`t think that Horizon Scanning is about predicting the future - this is a common misconception. The value of Horizon Scanning is using it to change mind-sets.`  So that`s a pretty powerful statement there that. These people, not all of them are in government, certainly not put in positions of power by a democratic process, but they`re working to change our mind-sets. We`re not actually told how those mind-sets are going to be changed..."
 
"But this is the sort of stuff they`re getting up to. And the bottom one here caught my attention. `Social attitudes of young people`. We can find one of their papers here. The interesting thing about this paper is that there`s no authors mentioned on it. So they don`t seem to want to say who actually put the thing together in any detail but down at the bottom it says in capitals: `THIS IS NOT STATEMENT OF GOVERNMENT POLICY`. Now this is a very interesting claim because of course this material is clearly being used as the basis of government policy ."

"So what sort of thing are they saying? They say `In some areas, we see little change in young people`s attitudes, behaviours and experiences compared to older generations. For instance, when we ask people of different ages what is important in life, we find remarkably little difference between generations. Similarly, we see little evidence of generational shifts in willingness to justify selfish behaviour, such as tax and benefit fraud`. What an amazing label to stamp on a future generation. `Or appetite for being involved in community engagement. These areas where there are few, if any, changes between generations remind us that we should not overstate the possible changes over the next 10 years in young people`s attitudes, behaviours and experiences`." 

"So clearly the government [is] working behind the scenes to change the way that young people think."

"And it goes on here. I found this staggering. `As well as shaping evolving attitudes, we would expect to see continued changes in the behaviours and experiences of young people in the next 10 years. One way that this could occur would be through an intensification of the trend towards longer routes and more complex routes to full adulthood and independence`."

Mike Robinson interjects. "What does that mean?"

"Well I`ve read it several times Mike. What I pick up from this is that they`re talking about delaying people becoming adult."

"But how can they delay people becoming adult when they sexualise them at ever younger ages and push more and more adult themes on to ever younger children?"

"Well that`s occurring at one end of the spectrum. Of course the other thing that`s actually happening is you`re seeing, for example, in social services documents that even when somebody`s got to the age of twenty one or twenty six they are still deemed to be under the control of the state. What I picked up from this is it`s almost like the state is expecting us to be children in the eyes of the state and anything they can do to increase the childish behaviour will continue." 

"If we go to the other extreme we could say that years ago we had people at the age of sixteen doing some really important work within apprenticeship. They had to turn up at work; they had to have the right tools, the right skills to do a skilful job. Many youngsters now at the age of sixteen are still effectively playing games."

"But who knows who devised the policy?"

"And on the back of that I`m going to thank this viewer for getting in contact with us. The email was this: `Dear Brian, Don`t know if this is of any interest ... The summer reading challenge in libraries this year is based on The Beano ... you know, Denis the Menace and Beryl the Peril ... but the staff have been told not to use the words PERIL or MENACE when speaking to the children! This disturbed me so I started to look into it`."

"It is all the work of The Reading Agency; and their partners include the British Council and the BBC. Funders include the Cabinet Offices` Social Action Fund and the Wellcome Trust .... There are evaluation forms and a family survey that staff seem to complete but details only available to staff`."

"Trawling around this site I found `The Public Library Universal Health Offer` from the SCL ... _{all very creepy ... SCL organise the `shelf help` books training young children in anxiety, depression, self harm, body image, eating disorders and bullying`."}

"And so it goes on. This is sort of part of the material this lady was looking at and I can see why she`s concerned about it. And let`s bring in the `Vision` of the Reading Agency."

"`Reading for pleasure enhances people`s literacy, life chances and quality of life. It is vital for our prosperity`. And number 2 here. `Libraries aim to be a force for social change through reading. They bring people recreation and pleasure, learning and literacy, health and wellbeing`. So we know this is linked up with the Cabinet Office and here we can now see that libraries themselves are aiming to be a force for social change."

Mike Robinson. "And they`re using childish material to do that."

"And they`re using childish material. And this was the second part of this presentation. I`ve just shown that first slide. And I couldn`t help but see this. `Libraries` reading work helps local authorities achieve key outcomes`. So this is nothing about assisting the individual. This is about assisting a local authority to achieve its outcomes and those outcomes have been set by the Cabinet Office and central government."

"And I`ll just end on this one, which was also sent to us. This is Rhonda Borough Council which is looking for somebody to fulfil a contract. They want a wellbeing game and the wellbeing game will be for 6 to 14 years. `This project will support school pupils to reflect on wellbeing. It will involve pupils reflecting upon their wellbeing profile and completing `real world` activities to help them develop within a wellbeing context. The main aim of the Wellbeing Game is through gamification to enable pupils to reflect on their personal wellbeing profile and to engage in the world of challenges that will help them build personal strengths and character. Pupils wellbeing challenges will then be linked to the virtual world to promote engagement. "

"With many young children committing suicide in South Wales I don`t get a warm feeling about that contract which is being offered particularly when we can see, or we`re getting closer to seeing, the real detail of the links back into the Cabinet Office itself and outside agencies that are helping the British government form policy."

See UK Column News HERE

Child Abuse, data and wellbeing concerns

Brian Gerrish, Mike Robinson and David Scott are in conversation on UK Column News, 29 June 2018, about the Edward Heath article on the BBC website. "Several people emailed to say: This is clearly a case of `thou doth protest too much.` So all of a sudden we`ve got the BBC and other outlets saying that Edward Health could not have been on the island - channel islands - therefore he could not have been involved in any abuse. And when you look for any substance to this story, this is simply claims from Ted Heath supporters and they say: `Never mind what the police did, we had a look at his diaries. It doesn`t show him there; he wasn`t there; so therefore he`s not guilty of any crimes`. So I`m going to label that with a question mark. BBC seems to be back on its old routine of protecting child abusers."

Normalising paedophilia 

 

"This one several people told me as well. Just incredible. Ted hosted a talk where a young lady took the stage and said, amongst other things, `Let me be clear here: Abusing children is wrong without any doubt. But a paedophile who does not abuse children has not done anything wrong.` As a result of the amount of correspondence to Ted, they`ve taken this video down. But really we`ve got a classic case here of promoting the normalisation of child abuse. Probably that gives a nice lead into David Scott."

Fresh Start Foundation

Mike Robinson: "David let`s start off with the Fresh Start Foundation because here`s Robert Green. We were talking about this [on] last Friday`s news programme here: Robert Green, outside the venue of the Fresh Start Foundation talk. That appears to have not happened."

"No, well it was cancelled at the last minute after discussions on Friday last week. We got a call that due to unexpected maintenance ... the meeting was cancelled. Initially there was a flood... So we went along to the hotel .... to try and see what state the room was in, to see if we could - because this was all very last minute - if it was possible to find a way round this.... to host the event there. They were quite hostile I would say. I`m not quite sure why. We`re customers who had payed a deposit and had been badly let down. So we weren`t treated particularly nicely ... There was no sign of a flood. There was no sign of water. There was one room which didn`t seem to have been used for a while with some plaster down the ceiling. It may have been to do with that; we don`t really know. But the line from the hotel was ... the ceiling had come down and they couldn`t let us use the room. That was unfortunate."

"We managed to book a room just across the road in another hotel... and we advertised that in an hour... You know that one was cancelled as well because they had maintenance going on... The aircom system was being worked on. So although the rooms were there and were empty and there was no sign of any workmen - there were workmen on the roof - so they were going to need access to those rooms. We couldn`t get there either. So that was jolly unfortunate. So at least there`s a lot of maintenance going on in the Aberdeen construction industry. So we`ll all be benefiting. So it`s not a zero sum game here."

"But we went off to the gazebo in Union Street and we had a meeting there and a nice meal afterwards and we had actually a very good day ... Under these sort of conditions people get to know each other that bit better. And a little bit of collective response to adversity never hurt anybody. So it was actually a very good day."

Peter Cherbi`s blog

The next topic refers to Peter Cherbi`s blog who is back on the case of Elish Angiolini, former Lord Advocate of Scotland, who was involved in Robert Green`s case. She has recently been appointed in order to investigate and report on how police complaints are dealt with in Scotland. Cherbi gives a number of reasons why her appointment is a very bad idea.

Read more HERE

Data sharing in Scotland

Mike Robinson: "The Public Commissions Committee. What`s going on here?"

"Well, Alison Preuss and Leslie Scott, my wife, representing the home educators and the Tymes Trust ME charity, have put out a petition together and have sent it yesterday to the Commissions Committee and this is to get an investigation, a public inquiry, into the human rights abuses that have happened in Scotland surrounding the GIRFEC legislation, or surrounding the GIRFEC policy; because GIRFEC, which stands for Getting it Right for Every Child, was a policy whereby information was gathered and shared by the state ... and intervention into family life by the state was generated as a result."

"Now there were certain problems with this and the whole thing was eventually ruled unlawful by the Supreme Court. Problems relate to, firstly, the lowering of the threshold for interventions into family life in which welfare is now known as wellbeing, and wellbeing means anything you want it to mean. It is entirely subjective. So what it gives is the power to state officials, based on a subjective whim, there`s no more to it than that, to intervene into family life, to share information, to investigate families, to investigate children and any associated adult."

"So that`s been going on since around 2013 and there`s a lot of harm; there`s a lot of families who have suffered these investigations and they`re traumatic and there needs to be some form of recompense; there needs to be some recognition of what`s actually gone wrong. And of course the policy`s continued to this day. The current data sharing policy from my own local authority is in this flow chart here."

"And what this says is: `Are you worried or concerned about a child or young person`s wellbeing?`... And if the answer`s YES. `Do I need consent to share information?` NO. `Share information.`"

"So all you need is a worry or concern, which is an emotional reaction or a notion about wellbeing which can mean anything. That`s the current policy in my local authority. So basically there is no data protection if you`re a child or a family with a child in Scotland at the moment. And...that then generates things which can escalate into child protection issues and child protection procedures where there`s no welfare issues; there`s just this assembly of wellbeing worries."

"So that`s what they want, an investigation to stop this, to allow those families who have been harmed some form of remedy; but also to actually inform the state about what is in fact lawful because there`s ongoing consideration of some further Acts to try and sort this mess out and these ongoing considerations don`t seem to be based on any understanding of what has already gone wrong."

Mike Robinson: "So this has had some mainstream coverage. I`ve got the National, as an example of this, but actually it`s had quite a bit of other mainstream coverage in Scotland, David?"

"Yes, the idea that human rights abuse has been happening is now getting through on the mainstream media quite solidly...."
 

More here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILoQdRzNUjQ

The Girfec Octopus

"Campaigners opposed to the Named Person initiative have hit out at the latest `bizarre` creation to explain the controversial scheme – Calamari SHANARRI, the wellbeing octopus. Children are being urged to knit the octopus and make up stories and rhymes about it as part of the Scottish Government’s Getting It Right For Each *Child (GIRFEC) scheme, which includes the Named Person initiative. Each of the octopus’s legs represents one of a child’s eight well-being indicators, which are also referred to in the Shanarri part of the name – Safe, Healthy, Achieving, Nurtured, Active, Respected, Responsible, and Included. The octopus has been developed by Crossreach, the Church of Scotland Social Care Council, for the GIRFEC scheme and to teach children to become confident, productive and responsible members of society."

"But a spokesperson for No to Named Person (NO2NP), which challenged the Named Person scheme in court, said: `Calamari SHANARRI` is the latest in a long line of bizarre resources relating to GIRFEC – the policy behind Named Persons.`It’s littered with jargon and recommends strange activities for young children which will be far beyond the understanding of most of them."During the court battle over Named Persons, Aidan O’Neill QC told Supreme Court judges that the legislation was so confusing, it was like wrestling with an octopus. It looks like whoever dreamt up this latest wheeze decided to take that literally.`A Scottish Government spokesman described the octopus as a `useful` addition to GIRFEC materials. A Church of Scotland spokesperson said the octopus was a `playful way to learn about the Scottish Government’s aspirations for children in Scotland`."

* Should be `every`

Read more at: https://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/kirk-s-eight-armed-gimmick-comes-under-fire-1-4741968

See petition PE01692: Inquiry into the human rights impact of GIRFEC policy and data processing

The quest for Big Data

Scottish kids are being taught to behave like performing seals:

 
"There is a furious row in Scotland just now about data gathering and information sharing."

"FOI requests have revealed that Police Scotland are running a Vulnerable Persons Database. If the Police think your 'well-being' is at risk then your details are added to the database so you can be monitored. There are, so far, 800,000 people on this database out of a population of 5.2 million – 15 % of the population."

"None of these have been asked if they want this attention from the Police and none were informed. In setting up this database they ignored a recent Supreme Court judgement that said the stockpiling of such data was illegal. They have, in another context, actually now admitted sharing data illegally..." 

http://positiveactiongroup.org/index.php?option=com_attachments&task=download&id=213

"Set up with the creation of Police Scotland in 2013, the system aims to provide a `holistic` approach to child and adult protection."

"It involves collating disparate pieces of information about a particular vulnerable individual into a single file - allowing officers to build a narrative about that person."

"At a supervisor's discretion, the file can be shared with other government bodies - for example health, social work or education - so that the person receives support..."

"Police Scotland has no policy for removing or weeding data from the VPD when it is no longer applicable - which the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) said breached the Data Protection Act."

"Det Ch Insp Conway said this was because the VPD was set up as an interim resource, which is now being used beyond its intended lifespan."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-41335762

"England has a National Pupil database which started out as an anonymous statistical tool on school performance. It now holds over 20 million highly detailed records on named children who are not informed how their personal data may be used, for what purposes, and by whom. And, yes, they sell the data to commercial entities."

http://positiveactiongroup.org/index.php?

Schoolchildren to be given psychological tests

PISA will test non-cognitive skills


[Ben Williamson `Code Acts in Education`]

"In recent years, the OECD’s PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) and PIAAC (Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies) tests have been the subject of extensive debate and research. New tests, such as the PISA-based Test for Schools to help schools compare themselves to international standards, as well as the expansion of its tests to include factors like problem-solving and well-being, have become available as the OECD has gradually extended its logic of measurement and comparison into policymaking systems globally..."

"Organisations including the global education business Pearson and the Nudge Unit have produced research summaries and guidance on developing SELS. The core idea behind many social-emotional learning and skills approaches is that the ‘non-cognitive’ aspects of learning are fundamentally linked to academic progress and to a range of social and economic outcomes, such as productivity, labour market behaviours and overall well-being."

"Moreover, many advocates maintain, SELS are malleable and can be improved through direct teaching intervention..."

"Terms used for SELS including ‘character,’ ‘growth mindset,’ ‘grit,’ ‘resilience,’ and other ‘non-cognitive’ or ‘non-academic’ ‘personal qualities’ are often used interchangeably and gain traction with different academic, practitioner and policymaking communities..."

"The data production expectations on schools, students and their families are, as the list demonstrates, extensive and extend well beyond the normal jurisdiction of the education sector into the extraction of information about homes, family relationships and parenting practices."

"The direct assessment will be delivered online using a centralized software platform for assessment of children’s SE skills. Notably, the OECD claims it will use log file data obtained during the test as additional indicators of SE skills."

"Log file information collected during computer-based international assessments has been described by Bryan Maddox as ‘process data’ collected about such things as response times and key strokes, which can be studied with ‘micro-analytic precision’ in the analysis of larger-scale assessment data..."

"This project exemplifies a form of stealth assessment whereby students are being assessed on criteria they know nothing about, and which rely on micro-analytics of their gestures across interfaces and keyboards..."

SELS: an investment opportunity

"Beyond the presumed scientific objectivity of personality testing, interest in SELS among government departments and policymakers is also due at least in part to the economic arguments made by its advocates."

"In the US, SELS are a lucrative investment opportunity under the banner of ‘impact investing.’ These ‘pay for success’ schemes allow investment banks and wealthy philanthropies to invest in educational services and programs and then collect public money with additional interest as profits if they meet agreed outcomes..."

https://codeactsineducation.wordpress.com/2018/01/16/pisa-for-personality-testing/

For a discussion on `grit` and `growth mindsets`:

David Denby (June 21, 2016). The limits of "grit". The New Yorker culture desk blog

David Didau (July 10, 2014). Grit and growth: who’s to blame for low achievement? blog

David Didau (October 24, 2015). Is growth mindset pseudoscience? blog

=============================

Here is an extract from Jane Robbins` testimony to the US House Committee on Education and the Workforce which covers a similar topic.

January 30, 2018

"The Commission on Evidence-Based Policymaking was created to pursue a laudable goal: To improve analysis of the effectiveness of federal programs. We all certainly agree that public policy should be based on evidence, on facts, not on opinion or dogma. So unbiased scientific research, for example, is vital for policymaking."

"But the problem arises when the subjects of the research and analysis are human beings. Each American citizen is endowed with personal dignity and autonomy and therefore is entitled to respect and deference when it comes to his or her own personal data. The idea that the government should be able to vacuum up mountains of personal data and employ it for whatever purposes it deems useful – without the citizen’s consent, or in many cases even his knowledge – conflicts deeply with this truth about the dignity of persons."

"Bear in mind that the analyses contemplated by the Commission go even further than merely sharing discrete data points among agencies. They involve creating new information about individuals, via matching data, drawing conclusions, and making predictions about those individuals. So in essence the government would have information about a citizen that even he or she doesn’t have."


"Our founding principles, which enshrine the consent of the governed, dictate that a citizen’s data belongs to him, not to the government..."

https://truthinamericaneducation.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/CEP-hearing-testimony-2018.pdf

The Wellbeing Web

"The web allows the practitioner to build up a picture of the progress being made in addressing wellbeing worries over the course of time. This provides a clear, visual picture of the child’s wellbeing development. "

"The wellbeing web can be incorporated into the child’s Personal Learning Plan. This ensures that you are incorporating the child’s voice into their development plan."

----------------------------

"It lets us work together with parents on different aspects of children`s wellbeing.."

It does not matter that the different `aspects` of wellbeing are as ill-defined as `wellbeing` itself. It is anything to get that `clear, visual picture`. (personal data)

See Dear Experts: Quit Telling Us How to "Correctly" Bond with Our Kids

And the latest from NO2NP　http://no2np.org/postcards-fringe-families-give-evidence-named-persons/

According to Seligman, big data is better than wellbeing surveys

"At the World Government Summit, big data made its debut in the Happiness Movement with Martin Seligman."

"Seligman opened his keynote speech with `Happiness is a plausible goal for our planet.` He went on to say `Happiness is the most you can expect for yourself, for your nation, and for the world.` He announced his preference for big data for use by governments. Seligman gave four reasons he feels that big data is a better source for information about a population's happiness and well-being than survey-based data. Survey based data, and subjective well-being indicators, are being used by the governments of Bhutan and the United Kingdom to inform public policy, and over 40 countries are now measuring the happiness and well-being of their people using surveys)."

"The four reasons Seligman gave are that measuring big data is non-reactive, unobtrusive, huge samples, and less gameable than questionnaires."

"Non-reactive means that the subject does not know they are being observed or that data is being gathered about them. The idea is that there is no interaction between the observer and the subject - the person from whom the data is being gathered. Unobtrusive, an aspect of non-reactivity, means the subject is not being directly asked, unlike in an interview or online questionnaire. Less gameable means the subject is less likely to lie, misrepresent or distort the truth. A huge sample size means lots of people provided data. A sample size is generally determined to be large or small relative to the population it represents..."

"Seligman used twitter and facebook for the big data examples given in his talk. He suggests that data collected from facebook and twitter are unobtrusive The question of whether a facebook, twitter or other social media user understands that they are being observed by parties other than those they choose (their facebook friends, twitter followers, or linked-in connections) and whether a user understands that their data is being gathered is not clear."

http://happycounts.blogspot.co.uk/2017/02/big-data-for-bigger-happiness.html

The multilateral Investment Court

"More than 280 000 citizens from across Europe have signed a petition against the plan, known as the 'multilateral investment court'."

"The Multilateral Investment Court would create a global court exclusively available to foreign investors to sue governments. According to the EU’s proposal investors could go to the new court using existing investment treaties which have proven to be dangerous to public policies aimed at protecting people and the environment."

https://act.wemove.eu/campaigns/no-global-corporate-court

The proposal for MIC and the drive for profit before people does expose the push for global happiness and wellbeing as the piece of nonsense it is.

Enhancing the gene pool while cutting future spending

"School officials in Palo Alto have unanimously voted to rename two middle schools that bear the names of leaders in the eugenics movement."

"The Mercury News reports the Palo Alto Unified School District Board of Education voted Friday 5-0 to rename Jordan Middle School, which is named after David Starr Jordan, and Terman Middle School, which is named after Lewis Terman."

"Terman was a former Stanford psychologist and Jordan was an accomplished scientist and Stanford's founding president."

"Both were members of the Human Betterment Foundation, a group that believed the human race could be improved through selective reproduction including forced sterilization."

"Pressure to change the schools' names started after a seventh-grade student at Jordan Middle School wrote a book report on Jordan and shared what he had learned about the school's namesake."

http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/03/17/palo-alto-eugenics-controversy-spurs-school-name-changes/

"7,000 men, women and children determined by social workers to be feeble minded or promiscuous were sterilised usually without their consent and it was perfectly legal..."

"Their reasons were based on a scientific theory called eugenics which became popular in the 1920s. Eugenicists believed that poverty, promiscuity and alcoholism were inherited traits. It was a simple theory with a radical solution. Sterilize those the state would have to take care of, and improve society`s gene pool."

"It began as a way of controlling welfare spending on poor women and men but over time shifted focus targeting more women and more blacks than whites."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nshj9rCTPdE

You know, there is something deeply familiar about the idea of controlling future welfare spending by intervening early. I`ve also seen that Eugenics image somewhere before.
 

Yes. Same concept as the Mindfulness Scotland logo from the organisation that is going to enhance the wellbeing of the people of Scotland.

I think we need to reflect on the meaning of the word `enhance.`

 

Mindfulness in schools

The UK Column News covered the subject on Wednesday and Thursday:

Brian Gerrish began by saying: "This is the All Party Mindfulness group in Parliament which has been working to get mindfulness into health, education, the workplace and the criminal justice system. Now most people [are] totally unaware of this. They set up the Mindfulness Initiative. It says it`s a charity; don`t worry, we`re independent; we`re non-profit making. But the man we really need to pay attention to is Lord Layard because with his team he is boasting that he`s already trained - we say reframed - 115 Parliamentarians and 80 staff by mindfulness. Now I believe that figure relates to at least a year ago, so we can assume there`s more."

"But this is the organisation and we`re going to ask today for help from our viewers and listeners to get on to that Parliamentary site wwwparliament.uk. Have a look at the people involved and if you`re in their constituency can you start asking questions?"

 

"Well this is the man himself, Lord Layard. He simply says [of his background] he`s London School of Economics and Political Science. As far as we can see he`s medically unqualified, particularly in the mental health field. But his main current interest is how better mental health could improve social and economic life and his work on mental health includes publishing the Depression Report in 2006 which led to the establishment of the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT). He co-edited the 2012 World Happiness Report.  So we`ve got, it would seem, a medically unqualified man simply coming out and telling us what we need for our mental health. I find this deeply, deeply worrying. And if we have a look at The Mindfulness Intitiative itself, here we can see how closely embedded it is with the Parliamentary system. This is one of the Westminster committee rooms, the Mindfulness Initiative."

"And we called them today to say: `Are there any risks?` And they directed us to this page on their website which is `Is it for everyone?` And if I focus in on this what have we got here? Well, basically we`re seeing that:"

"On occasion, participants in medtation groups or retreats report unusual or unexpected experiences. This can prompt a variety of reactions, from curiosity at one end of the scale, to concern or distress at the other."

"So they are admitting here that mindfulness can cause... `distress`,  and they go on to say that people who are not fully qualified should not be giving this teaching.  But of course, this is psychotherapy which has no proper regulation anyway. So we said..  `Has the All Party Parliamentary group conducted risk analysis on mindfulness?` And we were told the answer was `No` but down here in the small print, part of the responsibility for this so-called risk, which doesn`t exist, is passed back here to the Oxford Mindfulness Centre."

"My goodness it get`s more interesting because they are visioning a world where mindfulness enables greater awareness, understanding, compassion, wisdom and responsiveness."

"How did we survive, Mike, for thousands of years without Oxford University and mindfulness? And if you really want to see the key part, they want to get mindfulnes worldwide. They want us to be able to realise our human potential which, of course, we couldn`t do without Oxford university. They want to embody mindfulness in all that we do and they want to be practising the change we would like to see."

"Who`s we?"

"I think that`s they."

"And we`ve looked on their website. No clear risk analysis on mindfulness although as we`ve seen harmful effects are recognised. We spoke to them on the phone and we`ve been invited to make contact by email to see what risk analysis they`ve done."

At this point Mike Robinson put forward the view: "There`s something that`s never really covered ...suicides in young people and I just wonder how much of this type of psychological manipulation  -  how much responsibility people like this have for this type of unfortunate result in young people?"

"...  they`re not clinical psychologists; they`re not trained psychiatrists where at least you have some regulation, some form of standards being imposed - these are psychotherapists. Anybody can do the course - put the plate up on the wall - then they`re going into schools manipulating the minds of youngsters. They have no idea if there`s any underlying mental health issue with any of those children. This is very very dangerous stuff."

 

"We`ve mentioned schools so we might as well bring in this. And thank you for viewers north of the border. Here we are: `Mindfulness in Scotland`. Not only is it going to be looking at enhancing the wellbeing of the people of Scotland but this is going directly into schools."

"I`ve just pointed out the little icon there because several people have contacted me this morning to say we think this is occult.  I have no way of knowing, but I don`t like the look of it. There`s a little person with roots growing up into a tree."

"The outstretched hands," said Mike Robinson. "You see the outstretched hands in so many of these sites in some form in their logo."

"Indeed. We`ll let other people research that ... Our point is, who are these people who are going into schools, playing with the minds of young children?  No risk analysis on this site either but when I went looking for who these people were - who is `Mindfulness Scotland` it brought me to a housing estate. There is no named individual. There`s no telephone number. There`s just an address - an email address - and the address is on a housing estate in Glasgow."

"So these are the people being given the responsibility to play with the minds of our children and young people. And as you say Mike we`re watching this dramatic increase in suicide rates amongst young people..."

Some people in the chat box suggested that the UK Column presenters did not understand mindfulness but as Mike Robinson said: "They have weaponised mindfulness for a political agenda and this is something quite different ..."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73qTuXXcdQI

I have noticed that Richard Layard appears in the World Government Summit publication The State of Positive Education in conversation with positive psychology guru Dr Martin Seligman.

Seligman says: "For the last two decades Richard has made it his job to take promising ideas from psychology and to persuade the British body politic to act on them. With David Clark, Professor at Oxford, he persuaded Parliament to allocate more than one billion pounds sterling to train thousands of new cognitive therapists to treat depression (Layard & Clark, 2014)."

"`I am going to take the Penn Prevention Program to the schools of the UK,` Richard declares as we walk the back streets of Glasgow on a break from a meeting in which we share the podium."

https://worldgovernmentsummit.org/api/publications/document/8f647dc4-e97c-6578-b2f8-ff0000a7ddb6

Named Person review won`t stop damaging state interference

"John Swinney missed his chance this week to do the decent, honourable thing and scrap once and for all the hated state guardian (named person) scheme."

"Instead he restated both his and the Scottish Government’s commitment to this authoritarian move against families and vowed to bring forth new legislation before the summer."

"Contrary to continued misrepresentation of this legislation, the named person is not a child protection measure."

"It is set well below that threshold of a likelihood of serious detriment to the child’s welfare and instead focuses on an, as yet, undefined concept of wellbeing..."

"The factors, which are known under the acronym SHANARRI, are that the child or young person is or would be: `safe, healthy, achieving, nurtured, active, respected, responsible, and included`. These factors are not themselves defined, and in some cases are notably vague: for example, that the child or young person is `achieving` and `included`."

"So the revision to the named person legislation will not address the existing subjective nature of wellbeing assessments that form the basis of named person and GIRFEC..."

"Over the last few years many families in Scotland have had to face the grave consequences of the conflation of these two distinct terms as the GIRFEC state machinery mobilises against them over practitioners’ gut-feelings and subjective judgments."

"The Young ME Sufferer’s Trust (Tymes Trust) has received calls to its advice line from Scottish families faced with such inappropriate and ill-judged interference from the state based on nothing more than wellbeing worries."

"None of the families we have advised have, on further investigation, been found to have been at fault, yet they have suffered the harmful and damaging effects of investigation and reporting to and by the state."

"Nothing in Mr Swinney’s statement to parliament was aimed at addressing this abuse of power and disparity in authority, that currently take place under GIRFEC, in which parents and families are seen not only as the source of all society’s ills but the very shackles that hinder their own children from achieving their full potential."

Read more at http://thirdforcenews.org.uk/blogs/named-person-swinney-must-think-again-as-the-fight-goes-on#UvIaoc7cj819gHVX.99

Mum calls for education officials to stop discriminating against her son

The Highland Council that the Scottish government keeps crowing about is still failing children:

 

"Youngster Daniel Gourlay was restricted to just one hour per week at Inshes Primary School for the past three years."

"The nine-year-old was even kept away from his last sports day."

"His mother Barbara Irvine is now calling for education officials to stop `discriminating` against her son and allow him the right to a full-time education."

"Daniel has been diagnosed with pathological demand avoidance."

"It means he is unable to cope in a mainstream environment, as change, loud noises and large groups can cause him to become distressed."

"As he is not classed as having learning difficulties he does not meet the criteria for a place at a dedicated special needs school."

"His education, until this month, was restricted to just one hour a week at Inshes Primary, which has an additional needs base."

"His schooling has recently been increased to two hours a week – one hour on a Tuesday and another on a Friday."

"Ms Irvine said: `Two hours a week is nothing. Daniel wants to go to school like his brother and sister. He’s a bright boy`."

https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/news/inverness/1183663/mum-accuses-highland-council-of-discriminating-against-her-autistic-son/

Doesn`t the `A` in S H A N A R R I mean `achieving` and the `I`  in S H A N A R R I  mean `included` ?

Or is this just meaningless gibberish ?

New Zealand conference on Positive Education

The New Zealand conference follows on from the World Governance Summit which is promoting Positive Education. The World Governance Summit`s report features Professor Martin Seligman, the guru on positive psychology who is author of Authentic Happiness and who was the keynote speaker at a conference in Glasgow (2003) `Towards a Confident Scotland.`

Positive psychology, from  the Centre of Well-being and Confidence in Glasgow, was criticised by Carol Craig some time after :

"Positive psychology was originally a breath of fresh air – a welcome attempt to round out psychology and make its tools and practices more helpful to those seeking respite from mental health problems as well as those interested in improving mental well-being. "

"But in recent years positive psychology has become increasingly grandiose – convinced of its unique ability to solve the problems of the modern world by boosting the subjective well-being not only of those in well-heeled, democratic countries but also developing countries such as China and India."

 http://www.centreforconfidence.co.uk/information.php?p=cGlkPTQwMQ==

In becoming so grandiose, she believes, positive psychology forgets the fact that its toolkit is extremely limited and it also ignores the structural elements that restrict individual and community well-being.

In other words, there is no recognition that politics, economics and government policies are responsible for the real life constraints that impinge on human flourishing.

Why is this important?

Can I suggest that we look at the Scottish government`s Named Person policy and their well-being indicators? A focus on well-being that is supposed to be there to prevent problems escalating some time in the future is ignoring the same factors that the positive psychology movement is doing  - politics, economics and government policies.

Can I also suggest that it is grandiose to think that the Scottish government/world government will solve the problems of the modern world by tweaking a few procedures in the nursery?