Leaving Copan Ruinas

Time to leave. Didn't manage to see as much of the ruins as I would have liked. I did like the layout and presentation of what is there as a world heritage site. From
250AD to 900AD the city dominated the region, in effect it was the Mayan ‘Capital’.

It is more significant now because of the hieroglyphics and sculpture rather than the scale of the structures, so perhaps they were just plain lazy as builders and didn’t like lifting heavy objects up that high. Stylish and nicknamed the Paris of the Mayan world as a result Copan is meant to be a real sight. The area has been inhabited for about three millennia according to archaeologists who established the names of former kings to have been 'Waterlily Jaguar' and 'Smoke Imix' who sound more like DJs than anything else. I don’t know how they came up with their names in the Mayan kingdom but they sound a bit daft to me. The 13th king was called ‘18 Rabbit’ and his successor was called ‘Smoke Monkey’ which strikes me as a little odd – 18 Rabbit is bad enough but Smoke Monkey is possibly worse. Maybe the Mayans did spend too much time on the pottery, sculpture and art and not enough on building tall buildings and thinking up decent names for their kings. Who am I to rock the boat? Apparently Smoke Monkey didn’t make a big impression on the kingdom archaeologically, so perhaps he made all his subjects eat smoked monkey during his reign (738 – 749AD). His son apparently commissioned buildings which are the most impressive, his name was Smoke Shell, which makes smoked monkey seem quite appetising.

I wonder what Pete and Dud would do if they could see Copan now? The last two rulers were called Yax Pac (Sunrise or First Dawn, 763 – 820AD) and the final U Cit Tok whose power came to an end following defeat in battle in 822AD. I wonder if there was a loss of faith of the Mayan’s who supported their king after First Dawn started what may have been little more than a programme of gentrification aimed at beautifying a city when there could have been more substantial improvements which may have supported the quality of life in the area for his subjects. I guess there may have been an element of ‘let them eat cake’ but really I don’t have enough evidence to go on at this point. The guidebook, Lonely Planet: Central America on a Shoestring, indicates that the city broke its ecological limits in terms of its ability to support a population within the valley area. Deforestation on hillsides around fertile farmland led to flooding and large scale erosion. Presumably the last king had some form of impediment.

There is also reference to disease taking hold of the populations which is indication of the fact that the cities had grown to a size where they were large enough to propagate disease – a disease like measles apparently requires a population of over 100 000 within a city or dwelling, otherwise there will not be enough contact between people for the disease to become contagious. This gives rise to some diseases being known as the diseases of industrialisation, or more correctly perhaps, the diseases of urbanisation. What I think is interesting about this is that as I stated earlier in the blog is that there only seems to be reference to the diseases that were caught by the Mayans when Europeans first made their impact in the region in the sixteenth century. Personally, I think there are grounds to question what has been undertaken. Were they spread strategically?

Just had a little bit more de ja vu, and I really wish I knew what was going on. I think this is something to do with the memory inhibitor issue but I really can’t say. I assume that there could easily have been some influence but I can’t say what I think has genuinely gone on over the last few years that could facilitate this de ja vu feeling which makes me feel as if I’ve dreamt about such things.

Earlsdon Chronicles: Social ecology, norms and adjusting to south Coventry.

Having done a miniscule amount of reporting for the Earlsdon ECHO (if you fancy trying community journalism then this really isn't a bad place to start) I did wonder why everyone in the organisation did appear to look a little or a lot like people I already know, which connected to feelings of paranoia. It did surprise me until I started a closer comparison of individuals and realised that they only bear a superficial resemblance to each. As this was the case I imagine that there was nothing really to have been concerned about. There was no real conspiracy they were involved in.

If someone is paranoid it may be the type of thing that they would suggest and it should be challenged - norms should be set by a group and we are social animals who would normally function better when we have agreed to work collectively in a particular way, including discussing issues which may appear to be of a particular relevance to one individual and of no importance to anyone else. This 'functioning correctly' by modifying and respecting social norms is I guess partly what social ecological perspectives may suggest as being appropriate. If this is the case, bearing in mind the processes that could lead to greater stability, and reduced chances of schizophrenia, it would make sense to outline how people adjust to asylum seekers and within processes of citizenship and with anyone who may be in an especially high risk category of developing mental health problems.

This aside for a moment – do they look alike to you? Do individuals who don’t ask quite basic questions to establish trust end up feeling paranoid? Where do most people’s social norms stop on this – should we allow this to take place if it doesn’t take an excessive amount of time? Also, I find that there are issues which may be relevant to asylum seekers which have parallel the issues that may underlie the mental health problems that asylum seekers and immigrants may experience. For a while language didn’t feel fully connected to the purposes that it is intended for one becomes at sea with the community around. If this is the case then it will become a question of connecting to language to the same degree that everyone else in the social groups that you are part of to normalise – along with other forms of communication. This really does require some development as a research area, but there could be greater awareness of what means of communication are used and what degree of allowance can be made for the differences in language use that individuals have, that leave them accepted within social groups. This may contribute to the development of qualifications which may have health promoting benefits.

‘The Testicle Shadow’ – should we be compensating people in China?

Having seen the relatively recent changes in attitude towards the environment and the introduction of off-setting carbon impacts through payment into a fund which would support development work, presumably overseas, to offset the carbon impacts of travel, it has crossed my mind what real changes are likely to result from this action. What seems likely to be the major qualm I would have about these means of generating revenue is that this is a further means of taxing those who are probably conscientious enough not to cause unnecessary pollution through leisure driving whilst those who maybe do take a lot of leisure trips don’t get penalised. Others may criticise the project work undertaken as being unlikely to achieve the objectives that need to be met in terms of carbon balancing. But as an extra 'conscience tax' it is not suitable and could be incorporated into tax which is already paid on fuel - the government could offset carbon use for us without extra voluntary contributions and spread the burden.

Carbon off-setting as a concept is interesting. Perhaps there could be some change through having the right concepts in society which can lead to major changes in ‘culture’ and to an extent can change the way that we live and use resources. This to an extent does reflect the notion that if we change language we will change the way we think and act as a result which isn’t necessarily correct. However, having the right terminology in place may assist with saving the planet. The ‘ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT’ appealed to me to a degree when I was reading social policy several years ago, because it is a means of assessing environmental impact of individuals and areas perhaps even the size of London, which have an ecological footprint the size of the UK. There may have been a long history of selecting linguistic terms which were aimed at promoting greater care for the environment and were dropped into life through the mass media and the etymology of the situation may be interesting. The role of the government in supporting notions of equality despite differences in material wealth and reduction of environmentally degrading action is significant in this position and they may be in a position to sponsor the development of concepts through academic funding and then to develop links between academia and the media allowing an illusion of non-state-dominated social management to emerge. Having said that I tend only to come across the term in the Guardian and on Radio 4 so I presume that there aren't many page 3 girls offsetting their carbon impacts through their overseas photoshoots.

Off-setting carbon use may not be that poor an idea if only there were some way to get those who undertake leisure travel to pay up. Arguably, there is a meaningless distinction between work and leisure travel – leisure travel is important to our well-being to a great extent and maybe shouldn’t be taxed. It should perhaps be excessive leisure travel and excessive work travel when there was no alternative to the means of fossil-fuel driven transport used. Should an average family expect weekends away five times over the course of the year and do some carbon off-setting on trips that they take above this level? Maybe one overseas family holiday every year and then off-set carbon use above this level? Will this actually appeal to the self-crucifying middle classes who wish to thank the individuals overseas who they will never meet or know – how poetic. Perhaps what is wrong with most of this is that it’s all too nice. It needs national government action.

If there were greater threat relating to the role that we all play in environmental degradation then perhaps there could be a greater response. One means of doing this may be to consider the sacrifices that are put upon the population of China. The restrictions that limit family size may have a significant bearing on the impact of environmental damage each family inflicts. If you value your testicles, or those of your partner, then perhaps you should consider your civil liberties and the liberties that others are denied for the sake of maintaining environmental quality. You may think this is only a racist joke, however, there could be some very significant aspects to the need to consider the freedoms that we may experience in the west. Perhaps this is another reservation that I should state over this type of action – that the underlying issue in Britain of the government having fostered as sense of racial supremacy has not been dealt with and we get opportunity to ‘sponsor’ those who are less well off financially than our-British-selves. The multi-dimensionality of social exclusion does give some implication that the resource-poor/time-rich may have some approaches to living that we may benefit from as their resource-rich/time-poor counterparts. This implies that there could be means for a non-financial payback through spiritual growth or other means of relating to the world through expertise thatmay be gained from counterparts.

Maybe there could be a testicle tax on the types who have blatant disregard for the pollution they cause? We offer payment because of the size of our carbon emissions and the size of our ecological footprint and we should not perhaps be too ashamed of covering the cost of our testicle shadows. Perhaps one of the Blair Babes could suggest this to the likes of Jeremy Clarkson who appears to have little regard for the environment and the self-indulgent leisure driving habits. Maybe I should be given government sponsorship to sire some children owing to massive amount of cycling I’ve done….

Perhaps a Western man who can’t cycle should have a vasectomy at the age of twenty-one? Maybe this is one way of stopping parents doing the ‘school run’ and getting kids cycling again. I don’t know about you but I’m going to get my bicycle clips out early this year. Maybe the political parties should get on with offering to offset carbon use without any further voluntary contributions?

Healthy Liverpool – Will the Healthy City initiative influence the profile of the city during time the city is the European Capital of Culture?

There are a great many academic levels to approach the subject matter of ‘the city’ upon and I’ve had some involvement in several of them. There was my involvement ‘in practice’ within the Health For All initiative which was developed in Plymouth which led to the Healthy Plymouth project in the early 1990's. The Healthy Cities ‘movement’ tends not to be too widely known outside the public health and local government circles that have been the most significant proponent and as it was aimed primarily at these professional groups this doesn't necessarily indicate a failing. My involvement was largely dependent upon the Princes’ Trust having opened the door for me after I’d been on a course, that is the Princes’ Trust Volunteers. I guess I was involved to be, within an ecological perspective that is taken within the Healthy Cities movement, one of the white blood cells within the organism that the project can be and assist with the development of the other cells, or individuals, that function within the larger urban body. Clichés aside, there was to a degree mutually supporting relationships that ensured that those who were there because of qualification, I had recently finished a first degree, were benefiting from the street-culture issues that were brought in by the other members of the group.

On some levels the ‘Healthy City’ is only a fascinating concept which may only appeal to the academics who have an interest in this type of initiative, when on other levels it should have excited the community groups and individuals who may have some connection to it and they may have felt the equality of status that this initiative could have brought through. Each community group given some sense of equality of status as a functioning organ within the city-organism may be failed to materialise within some healthy cities and it’s not been a feature that has really ‘lived’ – most models and theories related to health promotion are lacking in some respects. The world health organisation designation of Healthy City status or accreditation may not mean a great deal beyond the immediate public sector staff who have worked on the many projects linked to the initiative.

On other levels, the city is the economic hub, with some areas in need of area-based regeneration, or a cultural backdrop to a range of cultural activities. It is a location of higher rates of crime and various forms of criminality and disorder than rural counterparts. And it is a competitive unit which forms a large part of a regions economic activity, that are each to an extent in competition with other regions of the UK, Europe and elsewhere further a field. It is an architectural and town planning phenomenon with various levels of action through from community participation to being a ‘design phenomenon’ with skyline features which may infuriate HRH Prince Charles and delight others. It also may have identity which can impact upon the life of virtually everyone who has lived or worked in the city.
There are sociological levels to life in the city that may make rural areas envious and environmental issues to grapple with that may make city folk ashamed. As an academic area the city is a significant social, economic, cultural, aesthetic and environmental phenomenon.

What strikes me most about the potential of Healthy Liverpool is that it does have some capacity to tackle an issue of the esteem that many Liverpudlians may be held in owing to the prejudice held against Liverpool as a crime ridden city or scousers as criminal in nature. There doesn't seem as strong an emphasis on tackling regional prejudice as there is on dealing with racial or national differences and I regard this to need re-examination. Perhaps, there could be reasonable to tap into the local pride that no doubt is strong in Liverpool and carry out a number of innovative community safety initiatives over the year of culture aiming to try to explore why the identity may have been associated with Liverpool and what the costs and benefits of tackling what can be dealt with – may be undertaken. There is an diverse theoretical background necessary to develop this type of initiative but interestingly, from a Healthy City perspective, the city has the resources to heal it’s identity and restore it’s equilibrium. Can they innovate social and cultural change on a large scale and shape the way that Liverpool is perceived on a national and international level over the next few years.

There are some very interesting issues which could be tackled in terms of the colonial heritage of the entire nation through this type of initiative notably the relationship between Britain and Ireland and also the role that Britain, with a particular emphasis on Liverpool, played in the development of slave trading: will the year of culture be used to reunite communities within the city in the manner a 21st century city may need to look to do? While there may willingly be a finger pointed at those from Liverpool over any scouse related prejudice, there could be a scar not on the conscience of the world but on the descendents of the wealthy who may feel some animosity from those who descended from the relatives of those who suffered in the potato famine in Ireland that British action contributed to significantly. Has this led to shame in those who control media images and they still sense resentment from the descendents of those who were subject to maltreatment from their fore-fathers? Are the population of Liverpool secondary victims of British history? Maybe the UKs national media-barons owe something to the likes of the average Liverpudlian and could assist in changing the profile of the city – with the city leading the process.

Yoof culture....are young people rejecting social values in a way which damages them?

So we've all been there, hit the teens, considered rebellion and gone through from there but why engage in this rather facile process that seems to mean so much at the time and so little later? Is youth culture and the potential to explore and integrate different cultures wasted on the young like youth itself? Youth culture and rebellion tend to go together hand in hand but what they reflect is a need to define self through separation from others largely by age - age seems to be the key factor in defining identity. Rejection of the fashions of the last era defines many attributes of the fashions of the current era.

There tends to be well marshalled boundaries that young people enforce with a result that almost everyone in their cohort is included or dropped for not participating in the group action - this has become a part of the make up of youth culture for over half a century. Are there the same derogatory terms applied to those who follow the values of their parents too rigidly as were in the 1950's such as 'square' etc? Do young people find a great deal about those who are moving straight towards capitalism and consumerism without any strong visible rejection of the values that hold society together rightly unsettling...? Are young people excluded for not engaging in fashions which are detrimental to their employment prospects and society in general...? How and why has this trend amongst young people to engage in youth cultures begun - has this speeded up social and economic change since the first teenage rebels hit the streets of Britain in the 1950's (because of anticipated change during one's lifetime)?

There are a multitude of ways teenage fashions including the rejection of the values of the previous generation could be healthy and improve social change in the West and a number of ways that social change could be unhealthy and create problems for people, including fragmenting family and community relations because of the need to define one's self and one's peers as 'different' from the previous generation and over engaging in this activity.

It is may be worth considering the values that may rejected in the light of social change over the period of a few centuries rather than a couple of decades as most youth culture often seems to be considered. Those values of the previous generation may only reflect a relatively minor blip in the transitions that are always taking place within human cultures and not of any great significance. Have the youth of the West been over sensitised to pick up on matters that they may wish to change because there are such major failings with the current establishment that they don't know where to begin? Maybe change and political action are not closely tied together within Britain at present - do the Labour Party have a significant role in shaping what matters to pick up on in terms of social change and lifestyle factors that the youth of the nation may be more interested in?

Have the 'youthful and dynamic' leaders of the major parties made any form of impact on youth culture and political engagement? Maybe they don't think as Aaron Antonovsky did that having a sense of coherence running through the life of an individual is that important and that life can be fragmented into different stages which may not naturally lead to a complete and whole individual? Are we in a post modern age where one's life may acceptably be classed as fragmented owing to the nature of opportunity and an individuals' well being not be questioned as part of this? Was Antonovskys' conceptualisation of a 'sense of coherence' taking place within a modernist perspective or not - health promoters please comment.

Gambling - is it a mugs game?

For years I’ve been really anti-gambling because I see it as being just a means of losing money. I guess if I was going to start I would wish to know that I had got an extremely good chance of winning and at present I don’t think the odds of any form of gambling are entirely geared towards what I class as being a means of damaging the working class population in a manner that they may enjoy. Interesting though it is to see the way that gambling is promoted as ‘part of our culture’ when a great many people don’t have the least interest in it as a social activity that involves potential financial loss.

I did wonder when I was considering how little interest I had in gambling that I may have other addictions which weren’t linked to the financial outlay that gambling entails. Maybe there could be some form of addictive personality which may be well documented in the academic literature but not have made it into mainstream culture at present. I state that and I think there is a strong chance that this will change with the forthcoming OCR Psychology A level in which addictive behaviours will make up a substantial part. The person who has advised OCR on this is Prof. Mark Griffiths who was a lecturer at University of Plymouth when I was an undergraduate there in the early 1990’s. I think he’s well positioned to ensure that the specification has wide appeal having won the awards he has over the last few years.

My actions that I now think have an element of addictiveness about them included writing nonsense letters to politicians, or at least what appeared to be nonsense letters. It is interesting what form of gambling this was – gambling of ‘public status’. This may act as a particularly unusual form of addiction to anyone who elects not to engage in such activity and has a calculated approach to life which entails low-medium risk and low-medium gain but stable likely outcomes: what I was doing was poorly planned social action based upon poorly calculated sums of social approval which didn’t lead to any significant growth in my social status. Perhaps this could lead to, if it has not already been represented in literature, a new layer of political correctness regarding what may be classed as the inappropriate behaviour of some – that they are conceptually challenged and lack the ability to plan and carry out a normal course of social activities.

Incidentally, this does create a sense of contradiction because this type of conduct would be classed as likely to be very costly financially as an individual may be far less employable – may be all forms of gambling involve some form of financial cost – maybe how antisocial behaviour could be considered. It is perhaps not that unusual a theory to present to excluded youth as a matter that they may gamble all their status in some respects or others by attempting to ‘win’ the approval of others, usually a small group or ‘in crowd’ – bullying may provide some form of example of this as a particularly badly calculated risk action. Wining in one currency, or with one group of people, may not be to the short-term advantage of an individual, but may make a substantial impact on an individuals’ wellbeing for a short time. If someone were to have undertaken such a longer term program of action and miscalculated through this period what risks were taking place and what wins were coming off there could be a sudden chance realisation of what was taking place to the majority. This may be a reasonable way of construing the sudden total loss of status that one may experience when having a nervous breakdown.

This approach also suggests that there is a means to define social behaviour that is non-addictive and of low risk which is likely to help establish an individual. Should social activity be defined in terms of the improvement of status by our politicians and should this involve means to control the population without their awareness of what social control is taking place? I guess a form of Marxist or Frierian conscientisation could be suitable to progress this agenda so healthily defined social action is carried out both bottom-up and top-down.

Maybe I should have been thinking more about the many forms that gambling may take and then recalculate what degree of cost I have incurred through avoiding placing a few pounds on the gee-gees. Maybe there is enough here to substantiate a slightly different approach to transactional analysis, which is not really being updated in the least here but perhaps a little refreshed. All transactions are potentially gambling and all addiction needs to be addressed. I wonder if this has great harmony with the current political elite?

Current debates in the education system - Without being personable you ain’t going nowhere

From notes made from a previous blog…..2007.
I heard a little of ‘Any Questions’ on Radio 4 last night and I must admit that I usually does feel right wing when I find myself agreeing with Ken Clarke - it’s not like finding out that you’ve just agreed with Benito Mussolini but it can be a little unnerving. He pointed out something that everyone tends to forget about in education debates and I will speculate why.

If you’re not up to date with what’s been happening in potential education bill, which looks like it’s going through, we are about to adapt the education system in order to offer greater choice to parents who need something interesting and exciting on their doorsteps when it comes to off-loading their kids on the minimal choice they have at present in terms of the local schools. This has led to the concept of the specialist school. First, it was the army, then it was sport as route out of poverty, then it was the grammar school. then it was music industry. There are obviously some routes out of the poverty trap for a chosen few or more. Governments throughout recent history have sought to find ways of making being working class less acceptable and being middle class the desirable way to live. What’s more they’ve defined middle class so broadly at present anyone in a menial job with little to no autonomy in their work could one day could one day be defined as being in the middle class bracket through having improved their quality of life by only a couple of significant measures.

When are governments going to stop lying to us about social mobility- in the US everyone is supposed to be able to become president if they are born there, which strikes me as one of the most totally abusive lies of all time, next to the lies of the importance of individualism in current debates on conservativism. In the UK if kids pass their exams they should be able to make their way up the employment ladder……no, if everyone else in the country is trying to do it too it becomes a lot more difficult. Social mobility is not for everyone and shouldn’t be seen as one of the goal of our time - what should be is to be acceptable working class in the sense that you’re not manipulated by market forces to a ridiculous extent and you don’t wish to manipulate anyone else. What happens when the class jump is not made - a sense of dejection and failure that could leave someone drinking for the rest of their lives . But hey, that’s great for the alcohol related industries in the UK and they do so well under Mr. Blair.

Having heard another snippet on Radio 4, an interview with a mother who had emigrated to France from an African country ( I believe she was black-African) I couldn‘t help but feel that we need to indicate a few things about social mobility internationally. She lived in what would be called a ‘sink estate’ in the UK on the edge of Paris, she was unhappy about the standards of the education her French born children were experiencing problems in their progress and they as they were being channelled into vocational courses. The mother was disappointed because she wanted her kids to make the class jump and presumably jump from social class five (unskilled manual) to social class I (highly skilled professional) - it‘s already difficult enough to make a jump from social class II (higher management). If she wants to dedicate herself to that it may be possible though this could, in effect, cause significant culture shock to the kids. It’s how difficult the social class jumps are that need consideration and the education system alone is not adequate - I’m a living example of such. What is possible is to be educated to a high standard and to organise your own life in a way that improves the quality of what you understand about the world - I guess I’ve become a Dharma Bum at heart. Another irony is that parents may wish their kids to become socially mobile without having the least understanding of the statistics that are presented to them when reports of increased social mobility are reported on the news nor of the social history of the country and the cultural context that this occurs in - there’s a simple presumption that good education will lead to social mobility - politicians are just so cruel. A carefully worded phrase from a politician that is technically accurate may mislead millions of people in poverty and there is little to no chance of this changing unless we consider acting on this collectively.

There is a phrase in the UK that means to be acceptable working class, and it tends to be heard less and less now, that someone is the ’salt of the earth’. As long as salt of the earth does not mean that it is an individual who is exploited working class who is manipulated by capitalism to a degree that they have rights that they can’t action it means primarily that they are a reasonable neighbour and will seek to uphold the law when it is not directly to their benefit - which puts them above the police in some respects - then it is a good tradition to look to continue - does Britain need more multi-culturally linked phrases to redefine the emerging largely ethnic working class in London as a crime free group? Please don’t let Dick Van Dyke degrade Cockney or British culture any further - we don’t deserve the harassment that a musical can deliver. Though it does seem to be the means of delivering harassment in the UK without being accused of nuisance behaviour - are you listening Rt. Hon. Charlie Clarke? Will he challenge our longest standing means of recourse? If you are American and you have issues with British foreign policy including our colonial past, please direct them straight at the organisations that delivered them not the British public in such abusive musical forms.

And what are the parents of the informed working classes doing while this debate goes on? Probably using the voluntary sector to ensure that their kids are personable and capable of dealing with long and relatively complex tasks. This is part of the rationale for the Duke of Edinburgh Awards Scheme and the Cubs, Scouts, Brownies and Guides so if parents wish to absorb themselves in this type of debate I can only wonder why it’s worth their while to do so - it strikes me as being labour intensive for the quality of the results that it could yield. It’s more likely to be the combined interest in having a good school being near to home, with that increasing the value of the property the parents own, with the need for their children’s needs, is Mr Blair attempting a dangerous, misleading double whamey that could leave his education policies in tatters - I don’t know. Ruth Kelly does make me feel like she’s the prefect around teachers when I see her with the Cabinet - she even dresses like prefects used to when I was at senior school! Is she just doing it to do my head in?

The debate is not really about kids, or schools for that matter, it’s about property and adding another feature to your dated semi - and, if possible misleading people into thinking that everyone can be socially mobile in order to make more cash for the alcohol industries. Tony Blair is doing estate agents and publicans an enormous favour. This is why as a bill it will probably require the support of Tories to push it through - it’s tarting up the local comp in order to stick a few quid on the house - carpet bagging mark II, me thinks.

There’s probably a better time investment in improving the conduct of many of the pupils in the area, if they can’t respond to basic instructions then they may need to attend some form of behaviour modification course - or the parents be selected for this improvement, after all it would be improvement I think if anyone who was a parent, or thinking of becoming a parent, would undertake a short course in behaviour management techniques - if behaviourism remains unpopular it will be at the expense of the country as a whole. Most of these matters could be dealt with during Junior school education and then everyone could have at least a slightly better Senior School near them - it’s the quality of the intake that matters in the sense that they are willing to operate within the ‘project’ that education offers: to focus on the matters within the syllabus during lessons and to relate those to issues outside the syllabus when appropriate. This as more important as being personable which everyone really wants more than a child who has passed exams. Without being personable you ain’t going nowhere. And Ken’s point that I agreed with- everyone seems to forget the importance of trying to get the best out of the ability of the young people who show signs of being able and willing to achieve - the potential of young people should never be less than central to the debate.