Pupil bashes teacher unconscious in corridor attack

This article appeared on the NZ Herald's website today: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10732286

and I draw your attention to the following segment of the article, as follows:

Secondary Schools Association president Patrick Walsh said the attack was an example of the "disturbing trend" of increasing verbal and physical assaults on teachers by students.

Ministry of Education figures show 238 students were stood down in 2008 for physical assaults on teachers. And ACC figures showed 442 teachers needed treatment after assaults at school during 2008 and 2009.

Mr Walsh said the rising number of attacks was indicative of the breakdown of values in society and the influences of dysfunctional families and violent video games.

"There's also a general lack of respect among some young people towards authority figures."

Mr Walsh said he could not be sure of a solution.

No, I'm not sure of a solution either, but I could hazard a guess...  I am well aware of the problem and it is something that I have given a lot of thought too.

Having just moved from New Zealand to Rarotonga in my role as an educationalist I have had first hand experience of the differences in the attitude and behaviour towards adults and authority figures from children.  We conducted a workshop in one of the colleges here on Classroom and Behaviour Management and in my eyes it proved to be a waste of time because the teachers here, by and large, do not have the same behavioural issues to deal with as their counterparts in NZ.  Speaking with the Deputy Principal, a New Zealander who has just recently moved here from Huntly, NZ said he has had one boy sent to him in the first term and that was because his hair was too long!  Whereas back in NZ he would be seeing children daily.  From my most recent experiences as a Deputy Principal of a large North Shore Primary School I can relate to this comment.

Also, in a recent paper is an article about a gay senior male student at a male only Catholic School who is up in arms about not being able to bring his male date, a former pupil of the school to the school ball, despite there being a long held school policy that no ex pupil's or boys from other school's can attend.  It has now been blown up into a 'homophobic' issue and these boys have created a Facebook page with thousand's of 'friends'.   

Let me make this quite clear.  I don't have all the facts, but the school's policy is quite clear.  No where does it discriminate against homosexuals.  I have very close gay friends and family but I detest the media attention this boy has got and the ease with which he is able to brew up such using Facebook.  He should be expelled for bringing the schools name into disrepute! 

Patrick Walsh mentions the lack of respect for authority figures, and I add their rules as well.  This is a case in point.  Ok, so not being able to go to the ball and punching a teacher are examples on hugely different level but the principle remains the same. 

Some cry out for the 'rights' of the child, and in this case teenagers and even adults, but where are the voices for 'responsibility'.  They go hand in hand surely.  In fact, in my mind, it's only after you can accept responsibility that you should you be trusted with rights.  By that I mean the provision or 'bestowing' of rights on someone should be balanced with the ability of the recipient to accept such rights and behave accordingly.  


But back to the violence, I know the reasons for this are varied and complex, and the solutions are even more so, but that's not to say we shouldn't try.  Just some of the things we need to contemplate:

• More severe consequences for inappropriate actions (sensible sentencing)
• Stop the PC nonsense and agree that if you step outside of the realms on civil and legal responsibility you forgo your rights within the same system.
• Accept that humans brains do not fully 'connect' until aged 25 so certainly children and teenagers still require firm boundaries and guidelines, and are not fully capable of making reasoned, sensible decisions based on future consequences, and so consequently should pull their collective heads in!
• We have a problem with poverty.

That's just a few of the issues...  I do know that whatever measures are taken they need to be firm and toes need to be stepped on if necessary.  PC nonsense and trying to please everyone, especially those with the issue, won't solve anything.


So let's start by throwing this punk who hit the teacher in prison and telling the schoolboy who wants to bring his ineligible date to the ball to read school policy and pull his head in and comply or find a new school.

Bloody Tourists Parts 1 & 2

Part 1:

Rarotonga township (Avarua) opens out to a four laned road, two each way obviously, with a very wide medium strip, complete with path, benches, and trees down the middle.  There are the shops on one side and the sea on the other.  Now, it's fairly obvious to anyone who looks that the road that runs by the shops is one way because of the same direction of the diagonal parking spaces both sides of the road, and, well, the cars and bikes that use both lanes!  So what do I see this afternoon?  A tourist pulling out from a rental agency, and turning right into the far lane(second of two), and into oncoming traffic.  As she, yes she, was coming towards me I respectfully leaned over at her from my perch on my scooter and yelled "You're going the wrong way!"

And how did I know she was a tourist?  Because all rental vehicles, be they cars or bikes, have number plates that start with RA or RB (The R meaning rental I assume).  As a 'local' now I always keep a watchful eye out for those vehicles!  That, and her pasty white skin!

Bloody Tourists!

Part 2:

I was waiting in the queue to see a bank teller and was held up by tourists (accent this time but I won't say from where for fear of upsetting my American friends...doh!) arguing the point about the exchange rate and fees.  There was a team of them strategically placed around the foyer of the bank to maximise the chaos factor and were yelling at each other about their 'issues'.  Now, I used to work in Banking so I know how they operate, how they make their money, how they cover costs etc.  But that's not to say I am a cheerleader for Banking in general, but I do happen to know that the Westpac Banking Corporation, which is where we were, is a very large, world renowned bank with a reasonable reputation who doesn't partake in scandalous rate fixing or exorbitant fee structures to fleece their customers.  I do know that actually handling foriegn currency is expensive for banks to do because of the repatriation and stock holding costs etc.  (See I know a thing or two about this, but I shall cut a long story a little less long by not going into how FX rates work).  Anyway, point of the story, don't come half away around the world to a remote Island location, bringing foreign currency with you, then complain about things not being wholly to your liking on the exchange rate front, especially given the US Dollar is in the toilet at the moment.  I bet these same tourists are happy to go back to their, in my mind, hellishly expensive resorts and pay $6 or $7 for a beer, when I know where you can go to get Heineken for $3.50!  But I wasn't going to tell them!

Bloody Tourists!

Why'd the chicken cross the road...

...right in front of where I, and an oncoming car, were traveling?!  I think I may have mentioned the wildlife before so I guess it was only a matter of time before an incident occurred.  Thankfully not serious, but certainly a fright nonetheless.  I was riding home from work on the back road when I noticed up ahead a chicken making it's way out onto the road.  I also noticed a car coming the other way so thought it was tempting fate somewhat.  Sure enough, as the chicken made it's way to the middle of the road we both passed it and it became flustered and took to the air, as much as a chicken can, and flew straight into me, hitting me on the thigh and arm.  Being a highly skilled rider (!), and recalling something my Dad told me even before I could drive, I didn't swerve but just kept on going.  In my mirror I could see the chicken shake it's tail feathers, gather itself, and make it's way back to the side of the road from whence it came, none the worse for wear apparently.  Thankfully the collision was just a glancing blow so I too was fine, if just a little shook up.

And if that wasn't bad enough, I was traveling on the back road again last night when a dog ran right out in front of the car and missed us by a matter of inches!

Moral of the story?  Stay off the back road and stick to the main drag!

Supermarket Games No. 1

Janine and I had a very pleasant late afternoon walk down to the local Mania Foods Supermarket to get some essentials - 'womens hygiene products' and Coke - ok, so one essential and one treat, I'll let you decide which is which!

On the way there we admired all the various fruits growing from the neighbours trees and I got to planning a midnight raid...

Once at our destination, which is incidentally a combination of supermarket and a 'Magic Fried Chicken and OK Noodle Bar' (no such concerns about 'healthy' food branding here) we began playing the "I wonder where this product is made" game.  This game was developed out of an interest in, and awareness of, all the different branded products here.  Certainly the big 'inner city' CITC supermarket has the same brands as NZ, including Pams, but the 'suburbs' stores brands are largely unknown and many have smiling Asian people on them and foriegn languages that I don't understand.  So we got to playing our new game and it became quite engrossing.  A lot of biscuits, chips and the like from Fiji, frozen chickens from Brasil, cordial satchets from Chile, Arnotts biscuits from Indonesia, sugar from Thailand, soap and bathroom products from Malaysia.

But glad to say the flies were local!  Which is just as well as they are having a huge advertising campaign here to "Go Local".  Which is indeed what I'll do if I'm in the market for a ukelele, and funnily enough I am, and have started putting money under the mattress for an eight stringed $260 one, or perhaps a woven 'bible' bag, a statue of a Maori warrior (all of which have enormous appendages - what is with that?), or the local beer, which is more expensive than Heineken!

Janine playing Supermarket Game No. 1 at Foodland in town.

Of course Supermarket Game No 2 is to check the expiry dates of all food products.  In fact the beauty of that game is that it can be played elsewhere as well.  I bought some cold medicine from a chemist recently, advertised at $20, but got it for $15 because it had recently expired - I wasn't complaining!

It does make you think what happens to all those expired products back home and what a waste it is to bin them.  Perhaps they don't?  Perhaps they ship them over here!  The city supermarket actually has a back room that sells all the expired products.  We've bought curry powder, cereal, chips, and other things from there and have survived to tell the tale.  We do feed them to the kids first though to check whether they ok?  Which reminds me somthing similar I've recently heard people do to check whether the lagoon fish is ok to eat as there are issues around that.  They cut a small slice of fish and leave it on the floor and if the ants leave it alone then so do they - ingenious!

So having exhausted that game, and with purchases in hand, we headed off for home, stopping at the park enroute to pick some beautiful smelling frangipani's for the bathroom.  A wonderfully pleasant little jaunt, amde especially so knowing that tomorrow is another day off for Queen's Birthday.  God on you Liz!  My question is, when she finally passes on, will we get her successors holiday in its place.  I'd feel cheated if that wasn't the case!

To end I must add that we are infrequent Coke drinkers, being health nuts and all, but it's been one of those days, and nights, unfortunately.  The Rugby League Club next door had their prize giving last night and it was LOUD!  Thankfully they stop strictly at midnight as Sunday is the Sabbath and they honour that.  While sleeping through it the kids were up early this morning so damn it, we deserve a coke, or two!  Actually, I notice a bottle of rum on the shelf that father-in-law left here...

Till later, kia manuia