Tuesday, 24 February 2004

Don't close those schools just yet, Minister! The good folk of Pinehaven were handing out these at the protest: But I noticed that the one I was given was well past its 'use by' date. Methinks that there may soon be an unexpected boom in the number of children of southern Upper Hutt... 11:33:23 PM    comments? []

The protest It was fun: But it is late and I have been polishing up the electronic side of our submission. Based on the fate of our first submission I feel very negative about this effort. But I feel honour bound to do my best. So I still have to verify the cd's and check that the documents on them haven't been corrupted. So in the mean time you can read a little about our day in the sun on the Darkness Network. 11:08:09 PM    comments? []

To Russell Brown You commented: "The funny thing about the back-off on school closures is that that policy was probably well-founded too. It just pissed people off at a time when the government found it was pissing off altogether too many people." This comment shows that you really haven't looked at this issue in any great depth. There well may be a case for closing schools, but the approach chosen by Trevor Mallard created division, friction and opportunism amongst communities. If you ever take the time to examine his process a little closer you will find that it had almost nothing to do with educational outcomes and everything to do with trying work out which schools Labour could get away with closing. As a result whole communities have been shattered. And those that suffered the most were those least able to defend themselves: the poor, the rural - the small and the weak. The network review process does Labour no credit. It was (and still is) a festering sore on the New Zealand educational system. The only pity about it juddering to a halt is that people like you who have not taken the time to examine it in detail will never find out just how mired in hypocrisy this awful political process was. And now they have promoted its chief architect to overseeing race relations in this country. God Help us all. 8:07:55 PM    comments? []