Thoughts on the Millennials

They're a different breed

It’s great to be back in harness again.

Last week I worked in a rural “High School Top”. These schools are generally large primary schools in townships lacking the population to warrant a separate secondary department.

Usually, they work well with the primary section of the school, as there are resources available (such as science labs and home economics facilities) over and above primary schools.

I have two students on my caseload at this school, one of whom uses crutches to get around. The school is typical of many in the Queensland bush – built on concrete stumps with elevated walkways linking the various blocks.

A few years ago, a lift was installed which gives this student (and any others who might turn up in wheelchairs) access to the upper floor classrooms.

Unfortunately, this particular student’s home classroom is separated from the lift (and the rest of the school) by a small flight of stairs – three steps in all. This student has to negotiate them, and can do so because they have handrails each side, but there is a risk in this that has to be managed. The student is ataxic, which means that she has a fair bit of difficulty establishing stability relying only on her crutches.

Her Physio has shown her a method which involves her giving the crutches to another student to hold whilst she goes up and down the stairs using the handrails. When I took her through the process the other day, accompanied by a couple of her good friends, I was given a lot of advice by one of them.

This was interesting, and is indicative of the self-confidence exhibited by youngsters these days. I actually found it useful, as this kid was smart, and she had lots of good ideas. She was careful how she put them forward, usually prefacing her suggestions with “I’m not a professional, but……”

One piece of advice I rejected was that her friend with a disability use the handrails only when going down the stairs, as falling up the stairs was less dangerous than falling down. I guess when you’re eleven years old; the whole W H & S regime is a foreign country.

it’s very real, and litigation often follows any student injury at school.

These kids look after each other very well, and it’s a credit to their maturity and the way they’re managed at school. I hope they carry these attitudes on into adulthood.

Charlie Tells it Like It Is

Charlie Teo’s obviously been reading this blog.

He's not one to suffer fools gladly, and usually speaks his mind with honesty and clarity.

His Australia Day speech echoes a persistent theme I’ve been posting about for some time.

Yet we still have both political parties completely unable to come to any agreement about asylum seekers. If it didn’t involve the lives of vulnerable people it would be funny.

As politicians, of course, they have recognised that for a significant minority in this country hate and loathing are powerful tools, so they use that understanding to wedge each other.

If two sides in any political dispute are applying the wedge – nothing moves, and nothing ever will.

A bi-partisan approach? Pigs might fly.......

The Real Alan Jones

Nothing left to say, really, except perhaps "true colours".

Perhaps he's watched too much Grahame Kennedy, although at least gra-gra was funny.

(Warning - Mute the sound if you're at work or not using headphones).

Busting Rupert’s Firewall

You can’t help feeling sorry for Rupert.

His hard-wired tendency to accumulate dollars is being threatened by Google, or at least he believes it is.

I don’t buy newspapers. Apart from the fact that very little of what is printed these days is remotely digestible, you have to part with hard-earned over the counter, and the bloody things are full of naff advertisements.

To my way of thinking, anything containing advertisements should be free. This principle holds for free-to-air television after all.

For a while, I was mug enough to buy a couple of subscriptions to The Oz and The Age to read them on my iPad. I must have been dreaming.

It ain’t necessary, dear reader, because you can access everything in The Oz for free on-line. I’ll explain the simple steps –

1. Get on to the Australian Home Page.
2. Find the story you want. They’re all there. Most have the firewall symbol near the top, indicating they are behind the firewall.
3. Highlight the first few words or the first sentence of the story, and paste them into your search engine. I use Google. I haven’t tried other search engines, but it may work for them.
4. Hit the search button. The story will appear in its entirety.

It works every time.

I'll experiment with other firewall protected newspapers and let you know how I get on.

 Subversion rules!

Thanks Heaps

Blot is on holidays, so posting on his twaddle is impossible.

Timmeh, however is not – possibly he worries that any absence would be undetectable, and he might be replaced by a robot.

His fears are well-founded. Given the monotonous and predictable contents of his postings, modifying a software programme of the kind used by Telstra (for example) and using an App such as Dragon would do the trick.

The quality would also improve.

So in Blot’s absence I comment quite regularly on Timmeh’s place.

It reminds me a bit of the morning routine with our senile terrier. She’s a lovely old thing, and sleeps in the laundry in a plastic kennel thingie. At the advanced age of 84 (in dog years) she’s become very set in her ways, and dislikes being chased outside unless the sun is warm, and there’s no wind.

When a sou-easter is blowing, these conditions are frequently absent, so turfing her out is usually accompanied by a great deal of snarling and growling. It's only noise. She's almost toothless.

Prodding Timmeh's posts has a similar result, in a manner of speaking. He has an almost canine attachment to his territory, and defends it fiercely. Lately, he has resorted to deleting all my posts and linking them to some website or other. It reminds me a bit of a Blue Heeler I once owned. Even the metros amongst you would know how male Heelers mark their territory.

Now this could be amusing, except that it’s always the same website. He's obviously got an issue with  perseveration.

 So for your edification, dear reader, I’m posting screen shots of a few of the deleted comments here. You can check them out and discern what is so threatening to Timmeh’s (apparently) delicate ego. Let me know what you see as the problem, and I’ll try to be good.

I promise.

A couple of other interesting things have happened. Hits on my blog have gone up about 25% since he’s been deleting my posts. My on-line book sales (linked to my blog) have also picked up momentum. Read BOAB's review here.

I’m actually making money now – printing and production costs are covered by sales to date.

Maybe Timmeh’s worth a commission. What do you reckon?

Perhaps it would encourage him to take a holiday - only trying to help.................

More ABC bashing. Maybe they lost his resume?

This is a recurring theme - Peacock envy perhaps?

Some people can't abide my tag. Not my problem.

You know the drill - click to embiggen.

It's Chronic

 The current media enquiry has drawn plenty of comment.

Some believe that it is an attempt to muzzle News Limited. I doubt it, as the relationship between government and media is not so simple that it can be described in terms of Right and Left. Bias is always in the eye of the beholder.

Anyone who believes that media bias can be eliminated by regulation has been living under a rock for a long time. Ownership is a problem – that’s what needs to be sorted.

Back in the seventies when I was looking for units to finish an Arts degree, a degree which I completed purely for the hell of it after picking up the Education qualifications needed for my specialisations, I did a couple of Journalism subjects. That experience was sufficient to disabuse me of any notion that truth and accuracy has anything to do with modern Journalism.

We were taught at U of Q that it was the “story” that mattered, although an emphasis on accuracy gained through thorough and careful research was promoted. These days, the media cycle has accelerated to the point where there is simply not enough time for this.

As far as I’m concerned, bias is less of an issue than quality. A clear example of this is the sloppy work revealed by the case against Bolt last year. Read Justice Blomberg’s ruling to gain an insight into the very poor quality of the “journalism” exposed in that case.

These excuses for journalists operate at a range of levels, including provincial newspapers.

The local rag, the Toowoomba Chronicle, is a fine example.

A few years ago, the Chronicle published a front page story about a school Principal of my acquaintance who had to manage an incident when one of his students was accidentally killed in the street in front of the school. This little boy’s dad (driving his work truck) was dropping him off, and the child was run over trying to retrieve his school bag which was on the back of the truck.

The child was killed instantly, but the principal (a colleague of mine) was one of the first on the scene and attempted resuscitation until emergency services arrived.

He had first to deal with the attempted resuscitation, then the inconsolable father, and then manage the critical incident. He did a magnificent job. One of the smart things he did was to phone neighbouring schools and request than any non-teaching staff available be sent to his school to help. As a principal in a nearby school, I was non-teaching, so the deputy, myself and the Guidance Officer all travelled the two kilometres to his school.

We were quickly and efficiently organised, and I found myself looking after a group of year seven kids, one of whom was the older sister of the child killed. This child was removed to a staff room and the teacher I replaced was given the task of looking after this girl and the little boy’s older brother there, until out-of-town family could be organised to help.

It was an extraordinarily difficult day, and this principal’s performance was amazing. At various times, he had to manage police, emergency personnel, grieving parents and staff, and traumatised children, all in the full glare of local and state media who were on to the story from the get-go. Actions of some of the media I personally observed on that day could only be characterised as ghoulish.

This principal continued to provide strong and caring leadership during the immediate aftermath of the tragedy, organised the school community’s participation in the funeral, and assisted in the inquiries that followed.

Slowly, the school community got back to normal. But for this principal, nothing was ever the same again. About six months after the incident he was diagnosed with PTSD. He had cared for everyone except himself.

He went on sick leave, and after many unsuccessful attempts to get back on the rails was forced into involuntary retirement due to his health. He went through his own private hell during the aftermath. I understand some of it, as I tried briefly and unsuccessfully to help.

He was in his forties, married with four kids, so his payout wasn’t sufficient to live on. His lawyers took out a civil action against the father’s compulsory third party insurance in an attempt to provide an income for him and his family. The resources of the bereaved family were not targeted in any way – the insurance company was sued.

The local rag published a front page story under the headline “Ex-principal sues dad who ran over own son”.

This was published with an unflattering picture of the principal. He appeared obviously distressed and unkempt. I’m not sure when or where it was shot, but it has all the hallmarks of a picture taken in ambush.

The fact that the insurance company was being sued, not the father, was hidden in the guts of the story. The whole piece was designed to shock, and therefore to sell, a fine example of gutter journalism.

I wrote both to the reporter who wrote the piece and the editor, but my letter was ignored. In my letters I pointed out that both family and principal had been traumatised by the incident, and the crude publicity would clearly exacerbate their distress. Much later wrote to the press council, but they maintained that no laws had been broken, so it was OK.

Meanwhile this rubbish continues.

The current beat-up is about an alleged snub by the mayor of a local man who lost his wife and son in the 2011 January flood. The formula is the same – pick a target, create public outrage, and sell lots of papers.

The paper is a disgrace. No wonder it’s known locally as the Chronic.

And the Press Council? It’s totally useless.

I Don’t Wish to Know That

One of the things I found diverting during my brief and unspectacular military career was the use of a number of unique and whimsical catch phrases.

The phrase in question was often applied in a context where someone, generally a bright-eyed and bushy-tailed recruit, had responded inappropriately to a suggestion question or comment, from an NCO.

The response was invariably “I don’t wish to know that”.

This same response could well be used in connection with a report in today’s Fox News about aspirin.

Many people (myself included) with a family history of cardiovascular disease are prescribed a daily low-dose aspirin as a precaution.

The study emanating from St. George's, University of London, found that long term use of aspirin can lead to ulcers and bleeding. On the other hand it averted cardiovascular events in one in 120 people over six years.

OK – so aspirin needs to be used with care. I’m not entirely sure that this is actually news, or that it is entirely new information to the GPs prescribing aspirin.

So why is it reported breathlessly by Fox news? It’s not news, not consequential in the sense that the risks are well understood, and not likely to cause mass fatalities.

So – as someone who will continue to take my daily low-dose aspirin with full knowledge of the low level of risks involved – all I can say is I Don’t Wish to Know That.

In any case, whilst neither are great, an ulcer is always preferable to a heart attack.