guen13
28-12-2010, 10:30 AM
I don't know if this is of any significance but listening to David Icke and Project Camelot lately and getting into all this 'connecting the dots' business, one of the many things that struck me over the last few months were remarks about autistic children. This is because I teach in a kindergarten in Hong Kong. Well, a few years ago, I was asked to attend a seminar at one of the universities here in HK. The subject was on 'Globalization and Education' and I forget who the speaker was but it was some American education official (EU or US govt, not sure, but he actually pulled out that NWO map!). I wish I could remember his name and details, but at the time, I thought the whole thing so ludicrous I threw away the information and dismissed it. Anyway, the audience was composed of teachers, from kindergarten teachers to university professors, and by the end of this seminar, you should've seen the confusion! It is only now that I realize it was probably something very important. What really struck me about this seminar was that I felt he was not talking to us as teachers but rather telling us what we had to do in order to stay in the 'business' of teaching. By the end, it just felt bizarre.
We were told that the globalisation of education is a Global Initiative fundamentally connected to the financial and political systems around the world, and IS what they mean by the 'No child left behind' policy! From what I understand, they were saying that it was already in place in countries such as the US and Europe and (as he says, "whether you like it or not...") will happen in Asia and the rest of the world. The justification for this policy apparently is to ensure an ‘accountable and quantifiable’ quality of education for every child; again "no child left behind".
All very well, but then he goes on about how children are our future, and that the only way to ensure an efficient workforce in the future is to make sure they are efficient; to maintain a competitive edge! By the end, all I could see was a production belt of little generic robots! There were just so many things that felt wrong; for example, what about cultural differences, what about the social and emotional aspects of child rearing, what about the parents, what about the teachers? Simply put, he was saying that we had to change our dated perspectives on teaching, that we had to think of ourselves as 'service providers' (which we found quite offensive). And he didn't mean just us teachers either, but also the parents! Thing is, these past few years, we are seeing a lot of changes in the educational system; and not for the better! But that's too long to get into here.
But the thing that I found most odd was what he said about autistic children. That autism is on the rise; I believe he said it was 25% and rising... though he gave no reasons on why this is happening, or why he seemed adamant that it will continue to rise (?). Hmm… strange. So basically, he was saying that autistic children would no longer go to special schools because there would be too many of them, that this would be the norm in the future. Therefore they will be incorporated into normal schools, and that all teachers would have to acquire the skills to accomodate the rising autistic population!
I don't know if anyone thinks this has any significance, but I would really like to hear people’s views on it, especially teachers out there who have had a similar experience.
We were told that the globalisation of education is a Global Initiative fundamentally connected to the financial and political systems around the world, and IS what they mean by the 'No child left behind' policy! From what I understand, they were saying that it was already in place in countries such as the US and Europe and (as he says, "whether you like it or not...") will happen in Asia and the rest of the world. The justification for this policy apparently is to ensure an ‘accountable and quantifiable’ quality of education for every child; again "no child left behind".
All very well, but then he goes on about how children are our future, and that the only way to ensure an efficient workforce in the future is to make sure they are efficient; to maintain a competitive edge! By the end, all I could see was a production belt of little generic robots! There were just so many things that felt wrong; for example, what about cultural differences, what about the social and emotional aspects of child rearing, what about the parents, what about the teachers? Simply put, he was saying that we had to change our dated perspectives on teaching, that we had to think of ourselves as 'service providers' (which we found quite offensive). And he didn't mean just us teachers either, but also the parents! Thing is, these past few years, we are seeing a lot of changes in the educational system; and not for the better! But that's too long to get into here.
But the thing that I found most odd was what he said about autistic children. That autism is on the rise; I believe he said it was 25% and rising... though he gave no reasons on why this is happening, or why he seemed adamant that it will continue to rise (?). Hmm… strange. So basically, he was saying that autistic children would no longer go to special schools because there would be too many of them, that this would be the norm in the future. Therefore they will be incorporated into normal schools, and that all teachers would have to acquire the skills to accomodate the rising autistic population!
I don't know if anyone thinks this has any significance, but I would really like to hear people’s views on it, especially teachers out there who have had a similar experience.