The End

This is my seven hundredth blog and it will be my last. I have had a lot of fun one way or another getting my views into the ether but enough is enough. There will always be someone interested in the news and talking about it on WordPress. I am just relinquishing my daily take on the news and life in general. I still have plemty to and, you never know, may return at some point in the future. So, thanks to all those who have taken the trouble to read what I have said, greater thanks to those who have taken the trouble to send me their views and approval. Bye for…. well, we’ll see.

Afghanistan

Following the death of six young soldiers in Helmand province just a couple of days ago, there has been much discussion about what the British army is doing there and why. The French had the same sort of conversations when they lost a number of young soldiers in one disaster. There is a natural unwillingness, in any civilised nation, to see one’s young dying in a wind-blown, sandy country far, far from home. In the western world we do still have a belief in the sanctity of human life and so we find it very hard to understand how tribal leaders can still believe in a kind of Old Testament theory of revenge and honour killings. We find it just as hard to see any justification for what the army is doing in Syria to its own citizens. Afghanistan has been the graveyard of so many British ambitions for over a century and a half. If you want a trenchant account of the first British involvement read ‘Flashman’ by George MacDonald Fraser. It is a delightful distortion of history but is accurate in so many ways as to make it worth the reading for the history as much as for the story. Subsequent incursions into Afghanistan and encounters on the Khyber Pass only went to show how difficult it was and is to bring order of and western kind to that area. India and Pakistan have absorbed many features of the European heritage but Afghanistan has successfully resisted these changes and we, from the west, find it very hard to understand. We have now been in the area for over a decade and there looks to be no end to the tribal problems in the country. We have spent time and money training Afghan soldiers and police but still the odd renegade will kill his trainers. Foreign policy is a terribly difficult area of politics. If we see something going wrong abroad according to our standards, the public and press immediately want action. This has been the situation with Syria for some months. It is lovely if you get international agreement, as with Libya, but it is very rare. Much more often, the problems of one country are not seen to be the affair of others so long as they do not impinge on them. This is Russia.s view and you can see, after last weekend’s Presidential election there, why this is the case. They fear interference. Would we like other countries to interfere in our affairs if they felt that we were doing things wrongly ? I think not, and so you can understand why the Taleban will not easily come round to accepting any sort of government or why Hamas will not negotiate with Israel. Intervention in the affairs of others is the easy option – changing attitudes so that people will co-operate and tolerate each other is the hard way. Blessed are the peacemakers indeed. Bye for now.

The Younger Generation

Today I met two fourteen year olds on my bus journey from North Devon to Oxford. The second was a pupil at Magdalen College School and we conversed for a few minutes on his journey home. He was intelligent and spoke without demur about his school and where he had been educated before. He was obviously proud of his school but had some humility with regard to his ability to meet its standards. I was not impressed though by his wearing of the uniform. His tie was undone and his shirt hanging out. This, I know, is how the young like to treat the demands of uniform. However, he was also wearing a coloured bobble hat. This I found extremely odd and I do wonder if the school tries to exercise any control over how their uniform is worn. If you cannot persuade pupils to show some respect for it, there seems little point in the whole palaver. In contrast the first boy was a Croatian, returning to London on the bus after a few days with a family in Taunton as part of a European wide exchange. This boy, called Mikhail (if that is how you spell it in Croatia) was extraordinarily fluent in English and his correct use of our language would have put many an English teenager to shame. He understand what i was saying and we conversed about the contrast of England and Croatia, the history of his country and the development of towns and cities in mine. The only word which he failed to pronounce accurately was Bath, which he spoke of as Bat or Bart. He was an engaging companion for the hours of the journey. His mother was one of the teachers in the party but he did not go to any type of special school. His school for 6 to 14 or 15 year olds was of only 200 pupils and was for villages well away from the capital Zagreb. His knowledge and language skills put our children and educational system to shame. Even boys educated in the best independent schools at the top of the league tables (such as Magdalen College School) would have had difficulty keeping up with Mikhail. Michael Gove is trying hard, through encouraging academies and free schools, to raise the sights of many in the English educational system. I do wish that many teachers and educational administrators could have met my Croatian. It might well have made them realise that our best pupils want more. so much more, than they are being fed at present. So, I am here in Oxford for a couple of days. It is a chance to have a break and escape from the delightful but rather limited life in North Devon. I would not change where I live but would sorely miss any opportunity to escape to a place such as this. Bye for now.

Inspecting Schools

I have just returned from a meeting of as group of the governors of a local federation of primary schools. One of the issues that was reported on was a visit by an OFSTED Inspector. For ten years I was an inspector of independent schools and had a very varied range of experiences. In the first place there was the degree of welcome or not which one received. At one school the authorities were very unhappy that the original team had been all female. the fact that I was substituted at the last moment eased tensions and one of my roles for the visit was to placate the male senior staff so that the women could get on with the job. You never knew quite what to expect. However it soon became clear that trying to efface oneself through the week only added to the tension. It was far better and mor effective to be prepared to praise where you saw it as due, since this helped the staff and governors accept any criticisms which you did make. Things always do go wrong during an inspection and it is best not to take them too seriously – one maths teacher at a school I attended forgot a vital piece of equipment for her lesson and it was ruined (in her eyes). She was mortified. one could have blamed her but the sensible thing was to arrange to come back again the next day to allow her to re-establish her own credibility with pupils, inspectors and herself. I could little point in being unpleasant. It was always worth pointing out features of a lesson that went well whatever the overall judgement. The most difficult schools were those which were convinced that they were marvellous and that the report should reflect this. In such schools staff often tried to hard. It is actually never difficult to find something to criticise. In these aspiring schools they always want to dissect everything you say, being convinced that your judgements are too harsh. The fact that an inspector is supposed to make his or her judgements based on actual evidence of what occurred or is in some document seems to pass such perfectionists by. If children are finding it hard to attend in a lesson (probably because it is unsuitably organised) cannot be denied however keen the member of staff is to prove that all was well. The best schools to inspect are those in which the whole process is seen as one from which they can learn and hope to improve. All schools worth their salt are trying to get better and an inspection which points them in the right direction in that respect has to be valued. If inspectors only come in to find fault and show no appreciation of what are striving to do (even if unsuccessfully) it is unlikely that anyone will come away feeling that the experience has been of any value at all. Bye for now.

Israel and Iran

This has got to be the most serious international issue of the moment. Yes, the killing of civilians in Syria has been appalling and there is every chance that the politics of that country will change at any time and we may end up with a civil war of some duration and much bloodshed. The fact that there was a call yesterday for air strikes on Syria, from John McCain in the USA, will not help matters. However, in comparison, the possibility of Iran developing nuclear weapons is much more alarming. They have a foreign policy of such clarity and intractability that their owning nuclear weapons has to be alarming. They have made no secret of their desire to push the Israelis into the sea and destroy their country – and have backed terrorist organisations to further that end. No wonder the Israeli Prime Minister is talking about pre-emptive action. As long as Iran refuses to co-operate with the international bodies that look at nuclear developments there will be this fear in the air. Barack Obama is a man who prefers peace and the use of negotiations but what do you do if a country has no desire to negotiate ? North Korea has come a little step or two nearer the negotiating table because it is just not able to feed its own people. This will not be the case with Iran just so long as its oil can be sold on world markets. So, what on earth do you do ? Of course, they may be telling the truth and all their advances are for peaceful purposes but can we trust that view ? Israel certainly feels that it cannot. It sees all around countries that are going through political change – Egypt, Syria, Yemen, Libya and (perhaps) Bahrein – this in itself makes them feel uncomfortable. What will the new governments be like ? Will they want to persuade Israel or use force against that nation ? Add to that an Iranian threat of nuclear development and you can see why Netanyahu is so worried. However upset we are by jewish settlements on the West Bank and the defensive wall which they have constructed, can we afford to see a democratic country with a history of 60 years being overrun by other states with an intolerant religious philosophy ? Will that not be the green light to even greater religious problems in the west ? 9/11 looms large in people’s memories, for a very good reason. The Western world survives with an acknowledged belief in tolerance and the rejection of the religious narrowness of the early modern period of history. Are we to step back to that kind of world ? The fear has to be that intolerance, if allowed to dominate middle eastern politics, could easily spread right across the western world. There has to come a time when such intolerance may need to be resisted. Israel may be forcing us into following that path too readily but it could happen and their pre-emptive actions may then seem very sensible. So, there are threats on the horizon of which we all need to be aware. Bye for now.

Mozart – Epistle Sonatas

This morning I decided that I hadn’t heard these works for some while and so indulged. I started with the recording by London Baroque which features 14 of these little masterpieces played by a small group of just 5 players – two violins, a cello, a violone (alternative to a double bass ) and an organ. In this limited form they are quite edgy and even raw at times. So I am now listening to a version (with 17 sonatas) by Collegium Jaroslav Tuma. I had never heard of the group before but this version is more like Mozart as we expect to hear it – more polished and smoother but with plenty of rhythmic vitality. These are fascinating works since they are written, as is film music, with a particular duration in mind. All the early ones take from two and a half to three and a half minutes in the London Baroque version. The German recording allows a little more latitude – mainly through repeats. So, why are they composed thus ? It is simple really, They were there to fill a blank space in the mass with music. After the epistle has been read (and if there is no gradual plainsong or hymn) there is a procession prior to the reading of the gospel. This can involve the celebrant coming down form the altar into the body of the church with candles and incense. The Bible, reader and congregation have then to be blessed with the incense. All this takes time and would be silent but for works such as these.by Mozart. What fascinates me is that neither in some reference books I possess nor in the sleeve notes is the liturgy explained and so the epistle sonatas make little sense other than as short movements of quite jolly chamber music by Mozart. These are actually terrific pieces for an accomplished chamber group or for an amateur orchestra. They are not too difficult in a fuller version and would make good fillers in many an orchestral concert – yet they are rarely played, probably because of the church connotation, which is a great shame. The thing about Mozart that you wonder at time and again is his sheer fluency of imagination and mastery of technique in so many musical fields. His masses (rarely performed outside a small number of cathedrals) are all interesting and not too severe a test, and should be heard more. Anyway enough of all this; musically I have next to prepare a talk on the symphonies of Sibelius, which should keep me busy. Bye for now.

Music Nation and Poetry

This is the title of the Radio 3 extravaganza for this weekend. Apparently there are and have been hundreds of concerts all over the British Isles as a prelude to the cultural Olympics – if that makes sense. As it happened I was taking part in a concert last night in Barnstaple, with Artavian Baroque. It was a tribute to the two Elizabeths and so we sang madrigals from the end of the sixteenth century and pieces composed for the Coronation year of 1953. We were joined by a viol consort and I selected and read some poetry. I know what you are thinking, it all sounds like a concert for pseuds corner in Private Eye or an imitation of Professor Welch’s exciting musical evenings in ‘Lucky Jim’ by Kingsley Amis – Merrie England personified. It seemed to please a small but respectable audience. The madrigals, from the Triumphs or Oriana of 1601, were not perfect but did not collapse at any point.The modern pieces – Choral Dances from Gloriana by Benjamin Britten and songs by Ireland and Finzi went pretty well, except for the men only items which lacked conviction and, possibly, accuracy at some points. The viols had that soothing effect which they often do being well suited to calm, graceful pavanes. The poems I chose were a mixed bunch – one by Elizabeth I herself, a Ditty by Spenser, Ye Meaner Beauties of the Night and There is a Lady Sweet and Kind, for the early period. It was hard to find anything about Elizabeth II or the Coronation that was not trite so we had a poem by William Plomer (author of the libretto for the Britten opera ‘Gloriana’) called Another Country. Since it was published in the same year as the Coronation I snuck in an abridged version of the Introduction to Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas. The last poem was by Rudyard Kipling, about Elizabeth I in old age. It comes from Rewards and Fairies, a book scarcely read today but a terrific historical novel for children. So we made our contribution but I felt that this morning, at church, we did much more for music in this land. We sang Mozart;’s ‘Ave Verum’. Fortunately we had the help of two visiting musicians (if ever they come to visit the family I always drag them if I can) and so we were eleven. My goodness what a cracking sound they made. If a small village in North Devon can turn in a performance like that on one rehearsal I do not give up all hope for the future of serious music making in this land – despite people like the programme organisers of BBC 4 who, on Friday nights, give classical music one hour or so and then devote four hours to variants of popular music ! I shall continue the struggle for music worth performing and listening to from the great tradition of western music of the last 500 years. Bye for now.

House of Lords reform

This now appears to be a subject about which the Liberal Democrats can assert their identity in the coalition with the Conservative party. It is, historically, a very tricky and unrewarding area of politics. The House of Lords existed to give the influential nobles of the country a share in the law making process. In the period after the Glorious Revolution of 1688 the House of Lords was very powerful and most leading ministers sat there. At the time of Great Reform Act of 1832 there was the first hint that this might be about to change. The Liberals asked the King (William IV) to be prepared to create new peers if the die-hard Tories in the House of Lords would not let the reform pass; a reform I should add, only affecting the House of Commons. The reform passed. The next conflict was in 1910 when the House of Lords sought to refuse to pass Lloyd George’s ‘People’s Budget’. Once again the King (first Edward VII and then George V) was asked to consider creating many new peers to ensure the passing of the bill. This worked and it led to the Parliament Act which stopped the House of Lords interfering in financial bills passed by the House of Commons. The Lords, landholding aristocrats in many cases and all hereditary, decided that it was better to have some powers then to be swamped by new creations. In 1949 there was a further eroding of the power of the Lords. Whereas in 1911 they had been able to hold up non-financial bills for 2 years, this was now reduced to 1 year only. All these changes, slow as they seemed to many radicals, reflected changes in society and the social position of the upper classes. This became even clearer in 1959 when life-peerages were introduced. (They had actually existed before but only for law lords who used the House of Lords as their base of operations). Now it was possible for many more peers to be created because they would not be allowed to pass on their titles. The House of Lords became a retiring ground for politicians and a reward for the civilly virtuous. The problem has been that the these peers are now living for longer and longer and we have a huge and unwieldy House of Lords. The last Labour government managed to get rid of hereditary peers – they now have to be elected and do not have an obligatory right to sit. What do we do now ? The answer will depend on what you want a second house for. I like the idea of a reviewing chamber (however annoying at times for the government) but I don’t want a second chamber as powerful as the House of Commons. There is much talk of elections but do we really want that nationally ? My suggestion is simple – decide on a size of house that make sense (say 300 ?) and get the Lords to elect their own membership. The title Lord would still exist as an honour but we would have an active and workable second chamber. Bye for now.

Maths is Fun

Today we read on the front page of newspapers and hear plaintive cries on the radio about the state of maths knowledge and education in this country. Why am I not surprised ? Having taught elementary maths for over 25 years it strikes me as a repetition of much that has been said, again and again, in those same years. Maths has never been an easy subject to sell to pupils, especially secondary school teenagers. Most of my experience was with top juniors (years 5 and 6) but I did spend some time with years 7 and 8; a year with a prep. school scholarship set being particularly memorable. Have you ever seen the Winchester or Westminster 13+ scholarship exams in maths ? They are quite fantastically ingenious at times. I remember spending a rail journey from Oxford to York trying a particularly hard paper. You see, although I enjoyed teaching maths I was enthusiastic rather than qualified. Like many an arts graduate I had elementary maths ‘O’ level and no more. I had scraped through that at 15 and then only needed maths for economic history. Teaching it was therefore a challenge. I quickly found that they key was a combination of hard work and entertainment. Every day started with 10 mental arithmetic questions since this is the kind of maths that is so useful in everyday life. All the mixed ability class of 35 did the same questions – heresy I hear the educational pundits say. But no, we all covered the same material it was all a question of how you treated their response. I had a star system and you got a star for the week’s mental arithmetic if you scored more than you had the week before. The exception was that all scores of 48 or more qualified for the star. This meant that weaker pupils had a target within their capabilities, the average had a reason to progress and the best were kept up to the mark since, once they had attained a good standard, they had to keep it up. After break every day was maths so the pupils knew what to expect and to be ready. They were divided into five groups and I tried to be covering the same subject at five levels. On any given day a couple of groups would be consolidating with practice while I would spend ten minutes or so with each of the other groups explaining new material. Then the rest of the session (about another 20 minutes) was available for checking work and answering questions from all groups. This worked well. When I later had to devise a syllabus for a whole junior school I insisted that there had to be four elements – mental arithmetic, number practice, introducing mathematical concepts and problem solving. Without a balance between these elements the maths education would not be useful for the many needs for maths in the secondary curriculum. It was also important to allow for real mathematical ability – missing out questions when they were repetitive, having puzzles and unusual problems up your sleeve etc. Maths has to be taken seriously by pupils but made competitive and offer opportunities for projects and fun activities if it is not to bore the students. Bye for now.

Privacy

Thankfully most of us are not the subjects of intrusion by journalists from tabloid newspapers. Equally we are not likely to have the voicemail of our mobile phones hacked (did we use it). The Levison Inquiry is mainly about a world of which we are not part. However, were you or I to be involved in some sensational event, as an innocent participant, this could all change. Privacy is in the news today because of the introduction of a new, simple and universal privacy by Google. If you are, like me, one of the millions that use Gmail then it affects you. The French are not happy. But then they are not happy about any attempt to intrude on the privacy of any individual. They may be right but it has meant that they were unable to pursue ex-President Chirac for corruption for so long that he was unfit to be tried when he eventually went to trial. I also doubt if the French would have allowed the revelation of the expenses scandal of MPs had it occurred in their country. It is not an easy issue and finding the balance is the key. Goole want to be able to use what we search for and write about to determine the advertisements which we receive. I suppose that it all depends on whether you take any notice of the adverts. I cannot get worked up about it since I have a cynical view of the amount of privacy which we have in this modern world. If you use a mobile phone it is quite possible for the authorities to locate you. If you use a cash machine you can be traced equally easily. If you use Facebook you are opening yourself to all sorts of privacy issues which I realised when someone I know had to go to court because of an attempted blackmail using the site. Do you really think that, if Google have algorithms that allow it to read key words from e-mails and organise advertisements, then the security authorities are not just as capable of reading what you say every time you tap the keys of your computer and send a message ? I was intrigued a a couple of weeks ago that on the day when I wrote about torture the proofreading process for the blog took an enormously long time. Of course it could have been a blip in the system. I would suggest that the word ‘torture’ could well have alerted some authority and that the blog had to be read by somebody. After all, how do you think that they trace terrorists ? So we have limited privacy already and Google’s policy is just part of the whole. If you don’t want to be part of the secret state – use cash, don’t use a computer and keep your curtains closed at all times. Bye for now.