The Spectre Returns

In the last few days, a real heaviness has come over our house. I’ve felt a bit numb and a genuine sadness in my soul. Debbie, my wife, has certainly gone into her shell, seeming less confident and happy, apologising more. It all just feels a bit sad. It’s the spectre of the new term that is haunting us.

Debbie is an experienced teacher in an academy in Portsmouth. Our girls are 5 and 7 and going into years 1 and 3 respectively; so they get the holidays. For me the holidays are a joyful time, whether I’m working or having a week off. If nothing else, there’s a relief, just a lifting of the daily grind of, before my work, getting everyone to school which just brings a peace to us all. The joy of being able to not be authoritarian and constantly driving 2 youngsters who are oblivious to time by the hands of a clock. But now, here it comes again.

I really hate this system. I hate the way we are pushed to live by it, I hate what it does to me, and I hate what it does to my family. I hate, almost every day, pushing and battling with my little ones to get them to school. I hate that inside I break every time my little one cries that she doesn’t want to go to school today, she’s so small, she just wants to play and dream, I just want her to play. I hate however many hours of my pay just being earned for them to be with a child minder after school. I hate that there’s no burden of evidence that proves starting education or testing earlier brings any more future success, just stupid, stubborn ignorant old thinking. I hate this system of education and what it does to my wife and teaching friends as their self-efficacy and passion is eaten away directive by directive; target by target and budget cut by bloody budget cut. This conveyor belt of education. I hate what it does to the teachers delivering it but more the soulless march into societal and economic usefulness that it pushes our children towards; no room for dreams or quirks. I hate the politicians who with no qualification or right mess with these systems, causing havoc at their whim. I hate the curriculum and constant testing, comparing and ranking one beautiful little soul with another, that they are somehow ahead or above or behind or below. Screw you. What is the point in a testing system where at the age of 16 only an A* or possibly A will suffice. Where schools, sorry, academies, have been set against each other to recruit the smartest and most likely to prosper while free to quietly exclude (read inclusion) or push out those who will only bring the average down or who bring emotional baggage to their budget lines. Where the media will pronounce on a whole year of students comparing them with those years who went before. I am appalled that despite years and years of messing and tinkering in the name of fairness and progress all we’ve ended up with is the most divisive and disempowering system of education you could possibly try to design in a nation such as ours with it's knowledge and experience. I love education. I am grateful for the opportunity to learn and grow, and to those who dedicate themselves to it, especially those who try to shield their pupils from as much of what is passed down from the arse of government as they can. But, ultimately, this system is very little to do with teaching. Real teaching breeds rebellion and challenge, even to itself. It develops thinkers, not automatons; creativity and invention not verbatim answers to nationally standardised questions. It doesn’t teach you just to pass a test but to be able to debate the value of testing. Never mind a GCSE in English if in its place we get something of meaning to say. I genuinely dread what awaits my girls as they grow into this mess, and the pressure they will be put under to achieve and the scaremongering they will be subject to. If only there were another way.

So for now it feels like the wolf is at the door again, Monday is coming.

“There is no way to help a learner to be disciplined, active, and thoroughly engaged unless he perceives a problem to be a problem or whatever is to-be-learned as worth learning, and unless he plays an active role in determining the process of solution.”

― Neil Postman, Teaching as a Subversive Activity

Boycott the Band Aid 30 Single - If you care about giving - Part 1

Did that get your attention? Well all I ask is for your time to explain why I believe it. 

To this point, I have spent the majority of my working life working and volunteering for charities. I believe in the spirit of charity and giving. For me, giving is a very personal thing, done respectfully, in the understanding of a need, done with purpose and joy and where possible, sustainably. 

It seems to me that in the last 20 years the very nature of giving has changed for many people in so many ways. We have allowed ourselves to become accustomed to telethons and charitable events that tickle our fancy and entertain us, or tug our heart strings with sad music and images, ultimately, so that we will open our wallets and give cash. We have become used to massive charitable brands that we associate with goodness and a sense of wellbeing, Children in Need, LiveAid, Comic Relief. All cleverly designed to winkle out another £10 from your hard pressed wallet. 

Tonight on X-Factor, which should tell you all you need to know, you will be subject to the world premiere of the new Band Aid 30 song. A rehash of a rehashed single from the 1980’s hastily thrown together by a bunch of millionaire musicians who have ‘donated their time for free’ to get you to raise more cash for the fight against Ebola. Well that is a good cause, but here’s my rub. If it is cash that is needed to combat Ebola then here are some stats that might make you think again about letting yourself be manipulated into downloading the new single, especially if you have already given. Here are just 6 artists featuring on the new single and their total estimated worth. One Direction - £70m; Rita Ora - £1.3m; Paloma Faith - 1.9m; Olly Murs - £3.2m; Emilie Sandi - £5m and to top it all U2 worth an estimated £535m. Here they stand before you, worth over 600 million pounds between them asking you to give cash to save the poor people of Africa. You know what, do one. I am sick and tired of the arguments justifying the percentages of their wealth that rich people give each year. We live in a time of austerity and ultimately £1 is £1. If you still have over 1,000,000 of those pounds and you’re asking people who have no, or very little, savings to give, then you’re a hypocrite. If it is cash that will save Africa, then between them, these guys, and the others on the track, could do it; tomorrow. 

The thing is, the British public has already donated over £5,000,000 to the fight against Ebola, we have sent medical resources worth more than that, and some of our brave troops and medics are over there right now fighting it. The British public - YOU - already donated over £35million to Children in Need this weekend. 

I am not saying don’t give. I’m saying give in a responsible way to a charity that you think is meeting a need you believe in, in a way you believe is right. Be empowered, the money that comic relief raises, is the money you raise. Take back the initiative from celebrity / popularist culture.. Use your cash wisely, don’t be conned into giving by being made to laugh or cry by millionaires and soap stars, it demeans and patronises you as a person and despite what they may try to make you think, charities don’t just need cash, they need you too. 

Give from your head and your heart, charities need your time and a relationship. Charity usually works best small and local. Instead of giving once or twice a year to these behemoth charity brands (who then distribute your money through a wasteful bidding process and with targets that tie up time and resources - Pt2) and give regularly to a locally based charity undertaking work you care about. A youth or community agency, a library, a charity in a different community abroad that works in a way you believe in. Get to know the people and I guarantee your giving will  mean more to you, even if it’s only a couple of pounds a month. 

So go and give, but be involved, Don’t fall for the myth that money alone is the cure. Money is always needed, but you are too. Don't let the rich make you feel guilty about giving, they have their own issues to deal with. You are of worth, when you can, give, but get out and get involved. 

Choice

Thinking about the role choice plays in our lives. The more you follow the paths it takes in your thinking, the more you realise how important it is.

Choice is the difference between democracy and dictatorship; employment and slavery; sex and rape; sacrifice and theft; faith and religion; freedom and oppression; hope and hopelessness; forgiveness and bitterness; relationship and not.

There is always choice. Even when we are not in a place, or empowered, to change all our circumstances, we can still choose to begin to change the things we can and, for now, accept that which we can’t. We can choose to change the way we think about our circumstances, or at least, choose to think about the way we think about our circumstances. We can choose to seek others advice and then choose whether to take it. We can choose to expose ourselves to new experiences not knowing how they will change us.

True relationship and community are individuals mutually making the choice to sacrifice or modify their own choices for the benefit of those they are committed to. If forced into this sacrifice, its not relationship or community.

It is when we can’t see or don’t know what to do with our choices that we can become depressed and frustrated. It is then that we should choose to seek others for advice or perspective.

I believe that God is pro-choice, He invented it. He created us independent and laidened with choices. If He didn’t, that means no relationship, no faith, no freedom, no forgiveness and no hope. All these things are rooted in choice.

Many of the questions and challenges about God are rooted in the freedom of choice He gave us. Why is there war? – Someone’s choices: Why doesn’t God step in and stop suffering and bad things happening? – It takes away choice: Why doesn’t God make people love Him? - That’s not love: Why is there evil in the world? – Well, strangely, that is what gives us the choice.

Jesus lived by choice. He chose to submit His choices to what God wanted, that’s relationship. God didn’t make Jesus do anything; Jesus chose to be in community and relationship with God. We can do the same.

Why are people who choose to be in relationship with God described as free? – Because God believes in choice and provides the best options for those choices - If you choose to take them.

Giving and receiving

A man I greatly respect once told me this. “Justice is when you get what you deserve; mercy is when you don’t get what you deserve and grace is when you are given what you don’t deserve”.

To understand where we are today, we must pay homage to where we came from. The benefits and social security state that we have today, including the NHS, emerged from a Victorian, philanthropic, ‘Christian’ value base. Genuinely well meaning men (as there were few women in places of power then) gave from their own wealth to support the poorest people in society from the worst that nature and industrialization could throw at them. This unofficial movement eventually emerged into law in the 1940’s through the Beverage report. This created a national health service, national insurance, benefits and pensions for all. They sought to impose a national minimum for all. Most people would agree, this sounds good, however, I would argue that we need a careful look at the values behind, and indeed a radical overhaul of, the system that so many now rely on.

William Beverage gave three guiding principles, one of which was this:

Policies of social security "must be achieved by co-operation between the State and the individual", with the state securing the service and contributions. The state "should not stifle incentive, opportunity, responsibility; in establishing a national minimum, it should leave room and encouragement for voluntary action by each individual to provide more than that minimum for himself and his family".

I write this piece out of an increasing frustration towards those who, either knowingly or through generations of ignorance, believe they have a ‘right’ to long term benefits and support from the state for their entire income. Also, a growing hatred of the system which has now evolved from the early days of the welfare state and not only encourages reliance on itself, but stifles, even opposes independence or indeed more importantly, interdependence.

I do believe in helping people. I passionately believe in showing love towards others around me by giving time, skills and material help to those that need it. The person I give to does not have the right to these, it is my prerogative to give, or not. That said, we have as a nation, decided, through our democratic system, that it is a good ideal and value to corporately look after those who have little or less. We have, though, gone way beyond the bounds of ‘Christian giving’ and charity that the system was founded on. We have now ventured into the realms of some sudo-humanist, pride-driven, individualist ideal. We provide for all, giving everyone the right to live unaffected by others around them in an individual bubble, expressing themselves as they wish, whilst their community / society goes on blindly supporting their lifestyle and bad choices with no influence.

In our quest towards individual human rights and the individual’s right to express themselves, we have forgotten that nobody has the right to grace. Nobody has the right to charity. We have removed the unpopular concept of ‘charity’ and its ugly reliance on other people so as not to hurt or embarrass those receiving the gift. We have sanitized the benefits system and removed all concept of benefits being the same money, earned, and then given up through tax and spending by those others living in our communities. I firmly believe that the stark difference between ‘pay day’ and pay day should be brought home to everyone in the community. This may be the only way we are able to shame (another deeply unpopular/unfashionable word these days) those who are able but choose not, into once again contributing to society.

I have no problem with my money going towards those who meaningfully contribute or try to re-engage with society. Indeed, I have been there myself. Similarly, those who in biblical times were referred to as ‘the widow and the orphan’, who genuinely have no other source of income or hope of one, to whom benefits are essential.

Must we have a system so open to abuse? One where people shout down phones and demand their right to benefits? One where people can spend their benefits on a Blackberry, fags, holidays and booze? I wholeheartedly support the capping of benefits to families and, indeed, would like to see it reduced even further. The equivalent wage is over £35,000 per year, where is the incentive to contribute there?

I do not believe that everyone has the state enforced legal ‘right’ to an income, certainly not by the criteria currently used. However, I also believe that no-one should go without. We need to re-engage as communities, to learn to support and to accept the support of others. We must relearn that we are all interconnected and it is the loss of this reliance that has led to so many of the social breakdowns that we see today. We also need to learn to be strong and reject those from our systems and communities who willfully refuse to contribute to the society that is supporting them. It is this interdependence that we need to re-establish, we need to re-learn how to give and share. We need to re-learn how to receive support. We need to re-learn how to acknowledge the cost to both sides. Just as strong, disciplined, Asset-driven parenting produces a future generation more likely to be socially successful, so we need to do the same with our benefits. Action, consequence and grace.

The Yoofs have gone mad! Or are our chickens just coming home to roost?

Listening or watching some of the images coming out of our major cities over the past couple of nights, you may be forgiven in thinking that the world has gone mad. The rioting sounds more akin to French famers or Middle Eastern teenagers than our green and pleasant land.

I love working with young people and young adults and I will not condon the personal choices made by all those involved in the recent disturbances. However, we too, all, have contributed to what has led to these riots.

For too long we have allowed our children to be known as youths. For too long we have allowed cynical marketing and government policies to define young people as a social group with its own culture. For too long we have tried to bundle all our young people through a narrow education system where the only ways are success or drop out. For too long we have marginalised young people from the work place and dispensed with jobs and roles that allow them to access the experience they need. For too long many parents have allowed their children to grow up without boundaries or discipline and allowed our young people to be brought up by themselves and professionals, like me, and the underlying victim mentality that that brings.. For too long we as a society have believed the hype about ‘young people’ and this is the inevitable result.

Young people are not capable of handling the freedom we have given them, without the boundaries and upbringing which allows them to make sensible decisions. They are a mirror shining back on us the experience and learning they have received.

What we are seeing now in London,  has no political cause. No great moto or movement behind it. It is a rabble seeking after the consumerism and go get it attitude that we have allowed to develop in our country. It is a mass eruption of frustration and disengagement that would not exist in a society that truly valued and understood equality. However, it is their choice and they must take responsibility for it. 

Seeking something unseen

I seek something I have yet to see,

How can I seek something I haven’t seen?

How can I yearn for something of which I have no knowledge?

An idea, yes; a principle I have seen I can, so, I must have seen this?

Some part of me, something in me, must have seen this place, this thing,

this fellowship for which I long.

I seek something I have yet to see,

How I long for it to leap out of my heart and into my head, that I might understand it.

To leap into life within me,

filling me from the front of my brain to the depth of my heart.

Yet, it does not, not yet, it stays as a feeling,

a definite, indescribable feeling, that I am called to seek.

I seek something I have yet to see,

My God, You have put a desire in me,

It is becoming stronger, almost conscious and almost tangible.

It becomes clearer, but I have yet to grasp it, yet I know it speaks of You.

Within this thing I long for is something of You, for it is powerful yet loving,

It is glorious and scary, but it is fulfilment.

In this thing I am yet to define, there is a call.

Maybe it’s message is in the searching,

Maybe I’ll know it’s fulfilment before its unburdening.

Maybe it’s the face of my Lord, His character, His presence?

Therefore, I must persevere; I must breakthrough so that God may share this thing.

What can I do? What do I mean ‘I must breakthrough’?

I must seek and want; I must push on, not with demand, but obedience.

With patient desire, longing, pleading for it.

For if this thing is of God, it will be good. It will be honourable,

and it is right that I should seek.

And, as I knock, He will answer, and as I seek, I shall find.

Most important of all, if it is His will, it shall come to pass!

Dear Lord, speed your word to me Lord, please, speed your word to me.

© N Scott 2006

Reading 'Love Wins' by Rob Bell. Interesting, certainly not a Universalist!

Will review soon.