Monthly Archives: September 2005

General

What’s in a Name?

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There was an interesting article on BBC News Online today on the fallout from a debate that has taken place on the Times Educational Supplement website over judgements teachers make based on childrens names.

On one side are parents who have complained to the Department for Education and Skills over teachers pre-judging pupils over their name, however on the other side you have the teachers with the perceptions of which children would be difficult, from their point of view learned by experience.

Although some names come up on both lists, there are some names that seem to come up more often on the ‘good’ and ‘bad’ lists. The two lists of names are as follows – firstly the ‘good’ list:

Kate, Gregory, Sean, Charlotte, Jamie, Daniel, Lucy, Isobel, Ben, Sam, Harpreet, Imran, Asam, Alice and Joseph.

Now the ‘bad’ list:

Bobbi-Jo, Kloe, K’tee, Kristopher, Jayne, Wayne, Charlie, Liam and Ryan.

What is interesting is that just by reading the two lists, most people would be making a whole load of stereotypical judgements about the people, their social class, their level of education, even down to where they might live, so in some ways the teachers are only doing what anybody else would do.

So perhaps the question is whether the names are an indication of sources of problems, or whether the stereotypes many people apply as a result of the choice of name mean that we invariably push people towards stereotypical behaviour.

General

Typical Part 2

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So after the breakdown of our washing machine last weekend, today was the day the repair man was due to come. On the phone last week, the customer service agent had said he had booked an appointment for between 4pm and 6pm today, so Beth made sure she left school promptly, came home and cleared up the kitchen, and removed the various bits of kitchen cabinet that surround the machine, ready for what we thought should be a simple job. She then thought she’d check the messages, to find a message from the repair man from 10am saying that he had called.

Thankfully I wasn’t around for the resultant explosion, however another customer service agent got it. What made it worse was that firstly the agent last Saturday actually booked an 8am to 6pm appointment with a comment to request 4pm to 6pm, which eveidently didn’t happen, and then it seems there has been a spate of broken washing machines, and the next available appointment of any sort wasn’t until 24th October over a month away.

When I got home, I phoned up again, and by some twist of fate got the same customer service agent who had dealt with Beth earlier on. She has now passed our paperwork on up to her supervisor to get it moved up the queue, however it looks like I’ll have to work from home at some point if they can do an appointment sooner than 24th as they can’t guarentee a specific time slot.

Church, Movies & TV

No Sex Please We’re Teenagers Part 3

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Tonight we had the third and final part of “No Sex Please We’re Teenagers” on BBC2.

Although the programme closed with the graduation of the initial twelve young people, at the same time it was also a beginning, with the first meeting of a new group, and also showing visits into local schools to talk about the project.

The first part of the programme tonight was a sequence with one of the weekly meetings, taking place a month before the end of the project. Watching this I realised that in the earlier shows we hadn’t really been given a chance to see the group discussions – the kind of thing we do week by week with our youth group. What it did highlight is how well the group as a whole worked together, and the excellent relationship that Dan and Rachel had with the group. In the same way as any group you had some real outgoing personalities, and some quiet ones, Jenine being one that makes a big impression.

In fact, following on from last week, there were many more examples of how attached Dan and Rachel had become to the group over the four months, and the group had become attached to Dan and Rachel. However there was a funny moment, a real put the youth leader in their place moment, when Byron and Grace were asked about leading the next group and said it was better as everybody was around the same age – Dan and Rachel were just so old! (It actually mirors a discussion we’ve been having about how the Youth Leaders at St James are seen.)

We again saw the group meeting outside, this week including being taught Salsa dancing, where everybody seemed to have a great time. There was also an interesting sequence in the light of the discussions about teenagers and hoodies, where some of the group were taken along to a fashion expert and shown how what they wear affects how they are percieved.

Of the new group, we saw the first meeting, and also a longer sequence with one of the girls in the new group, who had a long term boyfriend to whom she had lost her virginity aged 14, and she was now worried that he was only interested in her for the sex. Having signed the pledge she then phoned him and told him what she had done. Whilst it looked like it might be curtains for the relationship at that point, with the boyfriend having problems with it, the programme caught up with her after the end of her pledge, to find that the period without sex had allowed them to get to know each other better, and ultimately strengthened the relationship.

Towards the end of the programme we saw what was possibly one of the hardest parts for the group, which was one of the last meetings, where it was confession time – had the members of the group stuck to their pledges. As Dan and Rachel explained to the group, many people watching would automatically assume that a bunch of teenagers couldn’t possibly really stick to the pledge. In a fairly tense moment for everybody involved, four of the group admitted that they had broken the pledge. However what is massively important is that because they knew that they would not be judged, and that they were loved and cared for by the group whatever they had done, they were able to admit their mistake, and move on. As was later highlighted at the ‘graduation’ they were being honoured for what they had achieved, the way they had grown. The fact that they made mistakes getting there was irrelevant.

Looking further afield, we saw changes in Dan and Rachel as well. Whilst initially the plan was for them to go back to their previous jobs at the end of the project, the success of the group has inspired them to go on, and we saw two of their school visits, one of which resulted in 100 young people wanting to become involved.

So as I said, an end, but also a beginning. The project moving forward can be found online at http://www.romanceacademy.org.

Church, Pictures

A Wet Youth Group

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Today we kicked off a new year of Youth Group with an afternoon at the Horseshoe Lake Watersports Centre in Sandhurst. The leaders didn’t actually venture into the water, however it wasn’t exactly a quiet afternoon. Beth and Cathy had to keep track of all the paperwork needed for taking a group of twelve young people out on the water, whilst Steve and myself ended up helping the girls to build their raft after the eight boys decided that it was boys versus girls for the raft building.

Having said that, Steve and myself did feel rather chuffed later on. When the boys raft was turned over, one of the barrels rolled off – they had tied the rope around the barrel, but not the logs – and the instructors said it wasn’t safe to use. The girls raft that we had helped to build held together as it was flipped over, and survived having all the young people on it to paddle around the lake, and was even in one piece when they pulled it out at the end. Steve and I were pretty pleased as we had started helping out after the instructor had given the instructions on how to build the raft, so to some extent were making it up as we went along!

Following on from the rafting, the young people had an hour out on the paddle boards. This took place in a separate part of the lake, giving them a chance to fall in as much as they liked. This also gave us leaders a break, so Beth fed the ducks, whilst I took pictures, and Cathy and Steve got the food together.

All in all, a nice way to start off the term, even if it was a little grey and cold. The young people certainly seemed to have a good time. We took a load of pictures during the afternoon, so if anyone in the group wants copies drop me a line.

General

Typical

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So, I’ve been thinking for a while that we needed a new PC to replace our aged PC, take the various bits of PC software currently cluttering up Beth’s laptop, and provide myself with a suitable platform for games nights.

Last weekend I finally found what I thought was a good deal, I knew both cars were insured and taxed, and that neither needed servicing for a while, plus no holidays to pay for, or big events. So I went in to Reading and ordered a new machine.

Then what happens this weekend? The washing machine breaks down… Typical.