There is a rejection of laws which increase the powers of employers, increases the working time of apprentices, increases the flexibility of contracts, fragilises the young.
I thought to myself, the more you are fragilised, the more you need to develop resilience.
The dramatic rise in the use of words: entrepreneur, resilience, personalisation runs parallel since the 1980's.
I sat there in the bunker feeling rather smug, smoking.
Not only I had got out of games but I was being paid to do so.
We hardly noticed the 'tac, tac, tac' above our heads.
Suddenly a flag was raised and we raced up the butts to reposition the targets.
The ammunition was live.
The target practice goes on...
In 2001, in the UK, 40,509 kids were receiving military training, including weapons training while at school.
The Ministry of Defence funds a 'youth organisation' whose aim is to:
"provide a disciplined organisation in a school so that pupils may develop powers of leadership by means of training to promote the qualities of responsibility, self reliance, resourcefulness, endurance and perseverance". but it acknowledges that one of its objectives is: "to encourage those who have an interest in the services to become Officers of the Regular or Reserve Forces"
Targeting Peace. "Establishing lasting peace is the work of education; all politics can do is keep us out of war." Maria Montessori
It so happens that I fell upon a report on French TV late last night into the concept of Altruism.
It highlighted an educational program which sought to reduce violence between kids at school through mindfulness training.
It featured an American academic Richard Davidson from Wisconsin.
It featured a French academic-become-buddhist-monk Matthieu Ricard.
If education is 'the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world' (Nelson Mandela) it is also a battlefield.
There are forces who have massive financial interests in maintaining education in its present state.
There are forces who have massive financial interests in maintaining violent conflict between people.
How can we counter greed?
How can we strive for peace?
Economists are not all convinced in the sustainability or desirability of current exchange systems.
“To put it bluntly, the discipline of economics has yet to get over its childish passion for mathematics and for purely theoretical and often highly ideological speculation, at the expense of historical research and collaboration with the other social sciences.” ― Thomas Piketty, Capital in the Twenty-First Century
I am convinced that we can not remain indifferent to the use of weapons in our societies...
I hear much talk about 'accountability' in education.
