G'morning Vern,

 MM>Much the same problems here ... and being tackled by special
 MM>schools being run by their people - jury is out on efficacy.
 VH> We do the same here -- so we have all-black schools.  No improvement
 VH> noted.

I started this term's class of adult computer beginners last night 
- 30 people of at least 5 different ethnicities;  you have to 
forget all that and deal with 30 people if the course is to run 
usefully.   There is just no mileage in trying to do anything 
else.

 MM>Err ...  the junior high I'm on the Board of has got to the stage
 MM>where all our teachers have first-class degrees  -  but then this
 MM>is a top-income, top-income area (Ministry of Education here call
 MM>is a `Decile 10' school).   Doesn't make them all literate or
 MM>numerate, however, but it gets close.

 VH> That is what I call the Civil Rights Cause of the 21st Century -- the
 VH> disparity in quality between rich and poor districts.  Not until the
 VH> poorest districts reach the level where you are will we have equality
 VH> in education.

We're trying - involuntarily.  Our best teachers win promotion to 
higher positions in lower decile schools at the rate of 15-20% of 
staff per year.  The Board wrings its hand in anguish,  but if 
effect we help train up good teachers to move on into schools who 
need them more....

 MM> VH> Same here -- student loans are a bad idea.  I'd frankly rather make
 MM> VH> college free for those who qualify and keep up their grades.
 MM>I'll vote for that any day !
 VH> It makes more sense -- IF we can enforce good grades and not let them
 VH> dumb down the colleges.

Every now and then some enterprising smaller college here gets 
into degrees or certificates for astrology, iridology or such like 
- and sets off a witch-hunt of major proportions - very exciting.

 MM> MM>politcians and economists ought to be re-drafted into
 MM> MM>railway track maintenance....
 MM> VH>Do you have any idea of the carnage that would ensue
 mm> VH>on the railways?

 MM>Not on NZ Railways - these people sold it off to profiteers,  and
 MM>are now trying to nationalise the shambolic remnants;  putting
 MM>them to work straightening the wonky rails and rebuilding the
 MM>stock would be only just....

 VH> And you think politicians would make things BETTER? :-)

Hey ... everything is now transported by private road vehicles 
whose bosses want the railroads converted to tarmac  :-)

Shifting ballast and tapping track-plates would at least keep the 
economists and pollies out of people's hair - until the truckies 
and bus-wallahs make them redundant.

The redundancy courses offered by the colleges would then benefit, 
and after that hopefully the dismal `scientists' and wafflers will 
have acquired real skills as waiters or dish-washers...

Miles.
+--------------------Miles-Maxted-------------------+
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