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Sean @shocktigan.bsky.social · 1h

CW: violence, sexual assault

Finally got round to listening to Blood Work - it’s really engaging/informative and I think you should listen to it.

And before #edusky says ‘what’s violence got to do with education?’ -

Education is part of society and as society gets more violent so does education

Metropolitan Police officers assaulted autistic boy

14 March 2012

Metropolitan Police (Met) officers assaulted a 16-year-old boy with severe autism by forcing him into handcuffs and leg restraints during a school trip, the High Court has ruled.

School abuse: 'Rape culture' warning as 8,000 report incidents

28 March 2021
Updated 29 March 2021
More than 8,000 allegations have now been made by school pupils on a website gathering testimonies of sexual violence and abuse.

More than 5,800 teachers responded to NASUWT's latest UK-wide Behaviour in Schools survey, which found that in the last year:
• 20% of teachers surveyed have been hit or punched by pupils and 38% had been shoved or barged, with 25% of teachers experiencing pupil violence at least once a term.
• More than 60% of threats of assault with a weapon come from pupils of primary school age.

"With more than 80% of schools in Gaza damaged or destroyed, it may be reasonable to ask if there is an intentional effort to comprehensively destroy the Palestinian education system, an action known as 'scholasticide"" the experts said.
The term refers to the systemic obliteration of education through the arrest, detention or killing of teachers, students and staff, and the destruction of educational infrastructure.

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Sean @shocktigan.bsky.social · 4h

I feel like Polanski articulates a materialist politics quite well, far better for example than the soft left alternative of Burnham/mainstream whose repeated refrain of ‘radical realism’ seems pretty vapid/easy to roll back on

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Sean @shocktigan.bsky.social · 4h

I have been consistently impressed with Polanski’s ability to anchor his message in an accessible and relatable form of materialism.

It feels like he is building off Corbyn’s approach which sometimes lacked this kind of analytical substance.

See:

youtube.com/shorts/toDBK...

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Sean @shocktigan.bsky.social · 5h

Yeah exactly, I’m not saying my son is a fluent reader but he’s started saying things like c-a-t, rather than cat!

It mistakes decoding for reading. What about all the other aspects of reading (comprehension, creativity, enjoyment etc)

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Sean @shocktigan.bsky.social · 6h

I also know someone whose reception age son is a fluent reader already and I feel really bad for everyone involved.

The teachers are stressed because he *has* to do phonics but refuses to, and he’s confused because he doesn’t see the point and doesn’t need them to read.

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Sean @shocktigan.bsky.social · 6h

Good analogy.

My son is currently unlearning words at primary school so he can relearn them phonetically.

Someone is benefitting from this process, only it’s not his teachers or him.

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Sean @shocktigan.bsky.social · 7h

We don’t teach children to read anymore. We teach them phonics.

Evidence shows teaching phonics doesn’t help with reading. It just helps with learning how to do phonics.

I wonder why the v small expert panel who introduced phonics back in 2012 were so keen on it?!?!

#edusky

Education uncovered headline:

Ruth Miskin Literacy makes nearly Bio million profit in four years - taking cash pile for its sole shareholder to approaching @15 million

From a 2012 TES article

The National Association for the Teaching of English (NATE) is unhappy that synthetic phonics guru Ruth Miskin - whose company sells training courses to schools - is the only primary literacy expert on the Government-appointed advisory committee.
Its unease is compounded by the fact the only two serving primary heads on the committee are self-proclaimed users of Ms Miskin's synthetic phonics reading scheme -
Read Write Inc.
Ms Miskin and the Department for Education deny any conflict of interest, saying the review will not be recommending teaching materials or schemes of work.

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Reposted by Sean

Wooferendum Black Bloc @trufflehog.bsky.social · 18h

I AM BEGGING ANYONE TO TAKE COUNCIL FUNDING SERIOUSLY. Seriously, wring some answers from the greens or YourParty.rar.exe whenever it becomes a real boy.

And also not to fall for "Pride in Place" nonsense Labour PR stunts: www.podbean.com/ea/pb-jhsdx-...

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Sean @shocktigan.bsky.social · 17h

Loads of council services have been privatised by the back door also - so a good chunk of the money being spent is probably lining shareholder pockets rather than providing looked after children with dignified living conditions

Kiran Stacey @kiranstacey.bsky.social · 21h

EXC: English councils will still be poorer in 2029 than they were in 2010, according to the IfG.

Report finds councils are increasingly providing social care and little else. Libraries, youth services, parks, all falling by the wayside.

www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

English councils to remain poorer than in 2010 despite funding rise, says report

Exclusive: Impact of austerity cannot be undone by end of parliament despite above-inflation funding, analysis finds

www.theguardian.com

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Sean @shocktigan.bsky.social · 18h

My diet has been ‘girder-rich’ ever since I started drinking Irn-Bru in 1998 so I don’t see what the fuss is about tbh

paris martineau @paris.nyc · 1d

my latest investigation for @consumerreports.org is based on months of reporting and 60+ lab tests of leading protein supplements

we found that most protein powders and shakes have more lead in one serving than our experts say is safe to have in a day (🧵)

www.consumerreports.org/lead/protein...

Protein Powders and Shakes Contain High Levels of Lead - Consumer Reports

CR tests of 23 popular protein powders and shakes found that most contain high levels of lead.

www.consumerreports.org

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Sean @shocktigan.bsky.social · 19h

I’ve been upping the lead in my diet recently and I’m really starting to see results

paris martineau @paris.nyc · 1d

my latest investigation for @consumerreports.org is based on months of reporting and 60+ lab tests of leading protein supplements

we found that most protein powders and shakes have more lead in one serving than our experts say is safe to have in a day (🧵)

www.consumerreports.org/lead/protein...

Protein Powders and Shakes Contain High Levels of Lead - Consumer Reports

CR tests of 23 popular protein powders and shakes found that most contain high levels of lead.

www.consumerreports.org

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Sean @shocktigan.bsky.social · 1d

Good to hear Harry Potter is sounding like it’s on the decline!

Maybe it’s destined to be one of those things a small number of millennials cling onto well into their 50s and 60s - only to be told off by their children who think it’s offensive garbage.

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Sean @shocktigan.bsky.social · 1d

‘In this house we only read the classics,’ I say to my son as I dust off a battered copy of the Final Fantasy 7 instruction manual from 1997 that I found in the attic and hand it to him

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Sean @shocktigan.bsky.social · 1d

Yeah 100% you can’t even make the ‘separate the art from the artist’ argument (not that I am doing that either)…it’s racist and classist as shit and really badly written!

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Sean @shocktigan.bsky.social · 1d

I know it’s a slightly separate issue but now my lad’s gone to primary school I’m waiting for the day he comes home talking about Harry Potter - I’m amazed at how schools just blithely and unproblematically celebrate it as a piece of fiction

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Sean @shocktigan.bsky.social · 1d

Sorry to hear this. I was really shocked when I first went into a secondary school about 6 years ago and realised the MAT were providing teachers with PowerPoints and schemes. The admin stuff was bad when I taught in the gove years but has really ramped up

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Sean @shocktigan.bsky.social · 1d

My 7th most conspiratorial take is that a lot of ‘professional class’ jobs (teaching/nursing/social working etc) were rid of their relational aspects and turned into primarily administrative roles in an attempt to soften them up for automation by something like AI

Sean @shocktigan.bsky.social · 1d

Capitalism only values *output*.

Within this context, learning is reduced to merely providing an answer.

True education cannot be replaced by AI because it is *process based*.

It’s about exploration, creativity and struggle. Not just shortcutting our way to the answer.

#edusky

University of Southampton Educational Psychology Doctorate @suedpsy.bsky.social · 1d

An interesting report by OUP surveying 2000 13 to 18 year olds in the UK this summer www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

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Sean @shocktigan.bsky.social · 1d

Capitalism only values *output*.

Within this context, learning is reduced to merely providing an answer.

True education cannot be replaced by AI because it is *process based*.

It’s about exploration, creativity and struggle. Not just shortcutting our way to the answer.

#edusky

University of Southampton Educational Psychology Doctorate @suedpsy.bsky.social · 1d

An interesting report by OUP surveying 2000 13 to 18 year olds in the UK this summer www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Pupils fear AI is eroding their ability to study, research finds

One in four students say AI ‘makes it too easy’ for them to find answers

www.theguardian.com

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Sean @shocktigan.bsky.social · 1d

When the AI bubble bursts i’ll be all like ‘see we should have never introduced AI to schools’ and everyone look at me and say - ‘what’s AI? We were just talking about these new quantum hamsters that Silicon Valley genius Randy Magnanimous says will make children 20% more emotionally literate’

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Reposted by Sean

Prem Sikka @premnsikka.bsky.social · 1d

UK faces highest inflation in G7 this year and next, IMF warns.

Biggest cause is profiteering led by energy, water and food businesses. No govt checks it.

Real average wage stuck at 2008 level. 1% have more wealth than 70% of the population combined. Govts needs to remove cash from the rich.

UK faces highest inflation in G7 this year and next, IMF warns

According to fund’s World Economic Outlook, Britain is on course to average 3.4% this year and 2.5% in 2026

www.theguardian.com

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Sean @shocktigan.bsky.social · 2d

Maintaining my beef with phonics today!

Trying to be a good institutionalised parent this morning, teaching my son phonics by identifying the letter ‘g’ and sounding it out as the first letter of his name, only to realise in the context of his name ‘g’ should sound like a ‘j’…

#edusky
#edpsychs

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Sean @shocktigan.bsky.social · 2d

Great to finally see a Marxist-Leninist presence in the small North Yorkshire town of Skipton 🫡

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Sean @shocktigan.bsky.social · 3d

POV: you are trying to have a nice chat with yr neighbour

A preying mantis looking at the camera/you

Sean @shocktigan.bsky.social · 3d

(CW: sex/death/structuralism)

How #psychology understands anxiety:

Neuroscience: My amygdala is overactive.

CBT: My thoughts don’t match up with real life.

Lacanian Psychoanalysis: I DON’T KNOW IF THIS GIGANTIC PRAYING MANTIS IS GOING TO HAVE SEX WITH ME THEN EAT ME ALIVE, OR JUST WALK PAST.

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Sean @shocktigan.bsky.social · 3d

Yes 100% - I also think there’s been a sustained attack on teacher agency/professional independence that has contributed to this.

Eg. Teachers should have the freedom to use methods other than phonics if that doesn’t work for a certain child.

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