BBC Radio Scotland: the `named person` judgement

Lesley Scott of TYMES Trust (a supporter of NO2NP) and Tam Baillie, Scotland’s Commissioner for Children and Young People, discuss the `named person` scheme and Judge Lord Pentland’s judgment.

There is still no guidance on how the `named person` scheme should be implemented - including guidelines for sharing data -and how disputes between parents and `named persons` are to be resolved.` This is quite shocking given the scheme has already been rolled out in several areas.

As for health visitors, it is not true that everybody is happy with health visiting these days because it is now dominated by surveillance rather than support.

See below http://www.aims.org.uk/Journal/Vol16No3/HealthVisitors.htm 

The surveillance state

"Anyone found guilty of evading the licence fee is given a criminal record and can be fined up to £1,000. People who fail to pay the fine will be jailed.... In Scotland, around 80 per cent of travellers are currently being monitored...Those in Scotland who have refused to pay their fines or turn up in court are being prevented from leaving the country."

"An Insider for Glasgow Airport said in an interview with the Sunday Post: "Glasgow Airport is already rolling out the initiative."

"Police Scotland has detained a number of people who were planning to exit the country who have had warrants issued for non-payment of their TV licences and council tax. If a fine is outstanding, they are given an opportunity to pay it or they are arrested and prevented from leaving the country."

http://akashictimes.co.uk/brits-with-unpaid-bills-to-be-banned-from-going-on-holiday/

The government has outlined plans to sell the details of every single man and woman on welfare, it has been revealed. This information would include health records and IT literacy and debts. Under the plans, landlords, charities, the government and third party organisations would receive access to those records.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) said that those who fail to supply the requested information would be banned from claiming benefits.

Michael Gelling, chair of the tenants’ and residents’ Organisation of England (TAROE), described the government’s proposals as ‘dangerous’ and ‘too far’.

[I`m not sure if this will apply to the children in the families too.]

http://akashictimes.co.uk/govt-outline-plans-to-share-health-records-of-benefit-claimants/

Police upload data to facial recognition database

From the BBC:

"Police forces in England and Wales have uploaded up to 18 million "mugshots" to a facial recognition database - despite a court ruling it could be unlawful."

"They include photos of people never charged, or others cleared of an offence, and were uploaded without Home Office approval, Newsnight has learned..."

"The database complies with the Data Protection Act, police insisted." [Where have we heard that one before ?]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-31105678

From 21st Century Wire:

"Far from tracking criminals, the new system may eventually be used to track and monitor individuals who hold what authorities consider to be "anti-government views". This could range from anyone engaged in a lawsuit against the police or government, to anti-fracking activists, anti-big pharma, anti-GMO, anti-vaccine, parents who home-school their children, or even journalists who hold opinions that differ from the government’s official party line."

"Common sense and history dictates that once a system such as this is in place – no matter how many assurances central government Mandarins might give to symposium panels and media – there is absolutely nothing that can really prevent a centralized police apparatus from both over-using and misusing these power Big Data capabilities. It’s inevitable, and British police have said as much, with UK Chief Constable Mike Barton, of the Association of Chief Police Officers, boasting, "Everybody is very keen that the police enter the cyber world."

http://21stcenturywire.com/2015/02/03/its-official-britain-launches-big-brother-system-uploads-one-third-of-population-to-facial-recognition-database/

From Big Brother Watch:
 
"A survey conducted by the  NASUWT teaching union, has highlighted that teachers are being subjected to "permanent surveillance" through the use of CCTV cameras in the classroom."

"What is clear is that the surveillance experiment of the past twenty years has failed to reduce crime or improve public safety. Yet, schoolchildren and teachers across the country are now expected to accept surveillance for the formative years of their education and in the workplace."

"The Class of 1984, sheds light for the first time on the extent of surveillance within schools, highlighting that there are more than 100,000 CCTV cameras in secondary schools and academies across England, Wales and Scotland." [What is to happen to the data ?]

http://www.bigbrotherwatch.org.uk/  

Social workers in Carmarthenshire were too slow to act

"SOCIAL workers in Carmarthenshire have been criticised for an "abject failure" to check the welfare of a four-year-old girl amid fears of drug-taking and domestic violence, a damning new report claims."

"Concerns from the girl’s worried father were continually ignored by Carmarthenshire Council’s social services department, who took months before visiting girl at home - only doing so after a police tip-off...."

"The ombudsman also criticised the authority’s "abject failure" to respond to urgent calls to check on the girl’s welfare from a council in England."

"In the report, ombudsman Mr Bennett said it took several months before social workers visited the home, which only came after a police tip-off following a drugs raid."

"The report said social workers were too reliant on information from the girl’s school, which she had only recently joined and identified frequent moves by the family as a "risk factor" not recognised by the council."

Read more: http://www.southwales-eveningpost.co.uk/Carmarthenshire-social-workers-criticised-abject/story-25901458-detail/story.html#ixzz3QSiVw38t

Former archbishop awaits trial at the Vatican

"Two cases of child pornography possession were uncovered within the walls of the Vatican last year, along with numerous other crimes in the city state, the Holy See’s prosecutor general has announced."

"Following worldwide allegations of sex abuse by priests, Gian Piero Milano, the Holy See’s Promoter of Justice, said the Vatican was now taking action against paedophilia in the heart of the Catholic church."

"Unveiling the Vatican’s justice report, Milano stopped short of naming those accused of possessing child pornography. Holy See spokesman Federico Lombardi however identified Josef Wesolowski, a disgraced former ambassador, as one of the people facing charges."

"Wesolowski was stripped of his diplomatic immunity last year following accusations that he abused young boys during his time as envoy to the Dominican Republic. The Polish former archbishop is currently awaiting trial at the Vatican, in what will be the first sex abuse trial ever held at the Holy See."

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/01/images-child-abuse-found-vatican

In support of Thomas

From a Whole Load More:

"Today I planned to go to a CPA meeting as an advocate. Thomas is living in a specialist setting miles away from home and against his own and his family’s wishes. Lots of people are working together to support the family to negotiate an impossible system that is blocking every attempt to get Thomas close to home."

"This weekend his family noticed unexplained injuries. On top of that he was struggling with a chest infection that they knew was serious. Families know that stuff, born of years experience of loving and caring for their son, and we all know how important it is to listen, don’t we?"

"It seems that the lessons learned, Death by indifference, Connor Sparrowhawk, Nico Reed….. a list too long to name each individual, have not been heard. "

"Thomas collapsed on Sunday night and was given CPR. He has sustained massive brain injury, his heart and liver are hugely swollen, the medics are offering little hope. His family is with him."

"There’s not a lot more to say now except please share this story in support of Thomas."

https://awholeloadmore.wordpress.com/2015/02/02/thomas-fighting-for-his-life/

See also http://www.blogistan.co.uk/blog/mt.php/2015/02/03/thomas-rawnsley-abuse-separation-unexplained-injuries-heart-attack

Update: The worst has happened, Thomas has died. Mark Neary blogs about it. https://markneary1dotcom1.wordpress.com/

Can there be attainment without knowledge?

John Carnochan is a member of the Scottish Government`s Early Years Task Force. I do not think he meant to write `Yearly Years Collaborative` in his post, but who knows?  He discusses the education attainment gap:

There is the Yearly Years Collaborative recognizing the importance of the early years and the impact it can have on our entire life course. The Curriculum for Excellence includes specific reference to Resilience and Wellbeing, attempting to provide our children with as rounded an education as possible and help prepare them better for life...

The Raising Attainment For All programme developed by Education Scotland is working to close this gap in positive outcomes using Quality Improvement Science...There is a wealth of evidence indicating the best results for children’s education are achieved when their parents are fully involved.  Schools and teachers must include parents in their children’s education.

The most important 4 years of a child's life are up to age 3. [No I don`t understand that either.] Its during this time that babies and children learn those non-cognitive, or soft, skills that allow them to make good decisions about themselves and how to negotiate a successful life..  

http://respondingdifferently.co.uk/responding-differently/early-years

After reading that `awfulness` it`s refreshing to have someone writing in favour of subject knowledge in schools as the focus of the curriculum, rather than non-cognitive, soft skills. Dennis Hayes, Professor of Education at the University of Derby, points out that Secretary of State for Education, Nicky Morgan, has said that the Westminster Government has a determination to place knowledge back at the core of what pupils learn in schools. Nevertheless he believes her commitment does not go far enough. 

"She thinks about knowledge as instrumental – as important for some other reason, such as trying to create greater social mobility. Yet knowledge doesn’t "matter" in the way she presents the case for it. Knowledge is an end in itself."

"Teachers and pupils do not need government guidance about how to live – they need a real commitment to knowledge. All of the other social engineering initiatives, especially the requirement to teach "British values" will be counter-productive and will take away the emphasis on knowledge."

"If Morgan really wanted to undo the infantilisation of the teaching profession and ensure that a knowledge-based curriculum was possible for every pupil, she should adopt Kant’s motto and simply say to them: "Dare to know!"

https://theconversation.com/columns/dennis-hayes-114197

 
Unfortunately it will also require something to be done about the professors and Ofsted regulators who continue to have a powerful influence over teachers.
 
As for Scotland`s regulators, they are on their own sweet journey to excellence, soft skills, social engineering and all.  Having dismantled Scotland`s knowledge base in Curriculum for Excellence, their next task is to deal with the education attainment gap and one may wonder how that is to be achieved.  But having reduced education to a stupefying mundaneness, they have practically created a level playing field already.
 
Be that as it may, early intervention is the official answer to addressing the education attainment gap, of course. It is the answer to everything these days. How else are they going to introduce those eight wellbeing indicators and that resilience matrix? So the `named person` is sure to instruct poor parents on how to nurture their children`s brains in the early years with improved interpersonal skills and bedtime reading. That way nobody needs to look at what is happening in the schools.
 

Here`s Immanuel Kant`s opening lines of his essay What is Enlightenment as quoted in the article:

Enlightenment is man`s emergence from his self-imposed nonage. Nonage is the inability to use one`s own understanding without another`s guidance.

What happens when the guidance is imposed on you and you are not allowed to know ? 　

Margaret Thatcher was informed about Peter Hayman

　

"Margaret Thatcher, the former prime minister, was kept fully informed about an investigation into a senior diplomat who was embroiled in a paedophile scandal, newly-released secret documents show."

"Mrs Thatcher received a stream of memos from officials about the "unnatural sexual proclivities" of Sir Peter Hayman. The prime minister was carefully coached on how to deflect difficult questions about the affair after it was finally exposed by Private Eye magazine in 1980. "

"The documents disclosed for the first time that Hayman had been engaged in "sexual perversion" since at least 1966, when he was a minister in the British military government in West Berlin. The 37-page dossier set out how the then Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) decided not to prosecute the diplomat after he was caught with a collection of paedophile material in 1978...."

"The papers demonstrate Whitehall’s shock at its failure to detect Hayman’s activities earlier, and concerns that vetting procedures may need to be stepped up to prevent a repeat of the mistake."

"However, it remains unexplained why Hayman’s arrest for possessing paedophile material was hushed up between 1978 and the publication of the Private Eye story two years later."

"The file contains a memo in Mrs Thatcher’s handwriting to Sir Michael Havers, the then Attorney General."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/11381191/Margaret-Thatcher-warned-of-paedophile-scandal-secret-documents-reveal.html

Social services recommend a woman has a `therapeutic` sterilisation

"A mum-of-six could be sterilised after social services and medics have forced their way into her home and restrained her. The mum, who is in her 30s, has had her six children taken into care and the authorities want to prevent her from getting pregnant again with her partner, as they say it could put her life at risk..."

"Officials acknowledge that the rulings they want are "extraordinary" but say the woman's health and life could be at "grave" risk if action is not taken."

"But Mr Justice Cobb was told that the woman and her partner, who cannot be named, had repeatedly refused to co-operate or engage with medical and social services staff and a legal representative. She had said she wanted to be "left alone"...

"The judge told lawyers that he was dealing with a case of "enormous gravity".

"Lawyers appointed by the court to represent the woman's interests are backing the plan put forward by health and social services officials, and agree that the woman "lacks capacity" because her mind is "impaired".

"Health authority and social services bosses want the judge to declare that: the woman lacks capacity to make decisions under the terms of mental capacity legislation; declare that a "therapeutic" sterilisation is in her best interests - and authorise medics to sterilise her; to authorise her removal from home to a hospital; to authorise the deprivation of her liberty; and to authorise the use of forced entry and "necessary restraint".

"Barrister Michael Horne, who is representing the interests of the woman, said the issues raised had nothing to do with "eugenics".

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/mum-of-six-learning-disabilities-faces-being-5084084

The road to justice can be long and difficult. For those judged to be incapacitated it is impossible.

http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2012/jan/27/european-court-human-rights-judgments

Education for lifelong labour in U.S.A.

From Anita Hoge`s interview on Caravan to Midnight. 

Her journey began when her son came home one day and recounted that he had been given a weird test at school but he did not know how to answer the questions. The principal had taken the class down to a little assembly room and asked them questions like: "If you saw an old lady at the edge of the street, would you throw rocks at her or push her into the street?"

Alarmed, Anita Hoge saw the school superintendent because she wanted to see the test for herself but the meeting did not go well. She was shocked when the superintendent picked up a book and threw it across the room. "You and I are not going to be friends any more," she said. It was about a year before she saw any documentation and that was after being given the run around by various departments. The first document she saw was called Quality Goals in Pennsylvania and she learned that the goals being driven through the education system in Pennsylvania were all about the affective domain: attitudes, values, dispositions and beliefs.

After filing a complaint, she made a Freedom of Information request based on her own complaint, and that is when she was given a bundle of documents which supported the authority`s position; it included a copy of the test. The test consisted of 30 questions on reading, 30 questions on maths and an enormous 320 questions on attitudes, values, dispositions and beliefs. So now she had the evidence that this was actually being done in the classroom. These dispositions were all being scored; so there was an expected right answer and to graduate from High School a child had to have a minimum score on each one.

Anita Hoge goes on to describe the tests. They were presented as little hypothetical stories and measured self esteem, whether a child was internally or externally influenced. Would they go along with a group of children who were engaged in vandalism if the group happened to be their friends? They scored one if they would, and zero if they would not. Would they join this same group if they thought their parents would ground them for it? They scored one if they would, and zero if they would not. To obey their parents was not the right answer. What the testers were looking for was a willingness to join the group..

The information being collected included families. "Do you have books at home? What does your father do? Did your parents go to college? They were building up psychographics on individuals which could be matched to socioeconomic information," says Anita Hoge.

It has been a long 20 year journey for Anita Hoge and there have been many developments throughout this time. The Department of Education has the contract to collect the data on children and families in every State which links with the central Government longitudinal data system. The Government will have a psychometric dossier on every citizen which will include biometric information, iris scans, fingerprints, DNA profiles, all on one file. This data is going to be the new census. The data is identifiable and third parties such as corporations and voluntary agencies will be allowed access to it who are doing research - and they will not need consent.

Anita Hoge has obtained all the contracts which prove this.

She discovered that Pennsylvania had been used to benchmark the tests because the plan was that all States would be incorporated into the same educational plan.

"It was very deceptive," says Anita Hoge.  "People would say: don`t you want your kids to have good citizenship, honesty and integrity; don`t you want them to co-operate with others? And most parents would say yes. But what they were testing was compliance based on Skinner`s rewards and punishments - operant conditioning. They wanted children to move away from individualism towards collectivism."

"They were training children rather than providing them with an education. That is why each child had to be attached to a computer which is the perfect Skinnerian tool. For instance, train a dog to sit and it can perform. Then tell it to roll over and it will just look at you, because it has not been trained to do it. That is what is happening to our children. So they cannot think for themselves."

"There is no escaping these psychological assessments because they are embedded into subject areas. For instance, for a reading assessment a child might be given a story about a dove and an ant. The dove is a free flying spirit and the ant is an industrious worker who toils day and night. The first question might be: who are the two main characters in the story? So this is a straightforward comprehension question. The next set of questions might be: who would you rather be, the ant or the dove? Is there anybody in your family who is like the dove? Who is that? These questions are meant to test deeper learning, higher order thinking skills, or critical thinking. What that really means is that they are testing attitudes, probing values and dispositions. Any child who fails a standard will not be allowed to progress to the next stage and will be remediated. It does not matter how long it takes. As well as learning everything about the child, the Government will know about the family too."

In April 1992 the Department of Labour set out Learning a Living: a blueprint for high performance; that is, they laid out a plan that said every child had to meet particular outcomes which would meet the requirements for business. They also created a hypothetical resume which showed the personal qualities they were looking for - any child who failed to meet a proficiency level would not graduate and would be remediated. In this way education goals had merged with those of the Department of Labour. 

TITLE 1 grants used to be provided to the state to help poor children in their reading. The law changed so that a TITLE 1 grant follows any child who fails to meet a Common Core standard. Once in the system there is no escaping it. This is tied in with Obamacare because failing to meet a standard is now seen as a mental disorder which means interventions can by-pass parental authority.

"This is a decision making model which will determine what a child will be expected to do and it is central Government who  controls it."

A bill is being rushed through the Senate at the moment - all the details are on Charlotte Iserbyt`s blog (link below)  - which puts the final pieces of legislation into place. There is also a link to Anita Hoge`s interview on the radio show Caravan to Midnight.

http://abcsofdumbdown.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/update-on-reauthorization-of-esea.html 　

See http://alicemooreuk.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/bill-gates-and-common-core.html