Alright! Is it only me but doesn't feel that every time we turn round we found out that if the government can't gorge us one way they are trying to get at us by gorging our children?
I am refering to the new curriculum that is now being circulated around the UK parliment. Apparently climate charge has suddenly upped and disappeared so we no longer need to teach our children about it until after they are eleven years old. Eleven!?! Have they no idea that by that point children have already laid down the basic framework of how they are going to view the world? The human affect upon our world has to be discussed from the moment a child starts learning science so that cause and effect, the consquences of our actions can form part of that framework.
What is more they don't even bother to make up for lost time between the ages of eleven and fourteen in the proposed science and geography curriculum. No, climate change and the wild weather it is causing is something to be swept under the carpet and then maybe it will go away so the people will stop asking their government awkward questions, such as "What happened to your promise to be the greenest government ever?"
To cap it off sustainable developement and global citizenship has also been downgraded on the draft of the new curriculum.
It appears that the government would love to raise a generation of young people who will continue pillaging the world resources with no mind for how it poisons the very air that we breath and will not care that people in Africa, Central and Southen America and Asia starve because climate change has caused floods/droughts/the movement of disease ranges that has destroyed their crops for decades at a go. After all they are not in England so why should we care?
We should care because they are human beings!!! They bleed red the same as we do. We share ancestory, genetics and a common human community! A common human family! Climate change does not just affect animal species, it also affects us!
Not only does the proposed curriculum fly in the face of the sense of common human decency, it is also in complete denial of the, and I quote, "Expert Panel's clear recommendations". It appears to me that the current government only takes note of the recommendations of the expert panels it SETS UP ITSELF if those recommendations fit the governments preferred view of the world - i.e. the world resources will never run out so we will encourage the people and therefore businesses to continue pillaging them for all they are worth so we can keep taxing our wage pack out of them.
It seems that on top of all the other responsibilities a decent parent has the government is going to add teaching them how to be well rounded, considerate people who understand how they consuming habits affect people on the other side of the world, people like the workers in that factory that collasped in Bangladesh.
However, I would say that this new curriculum is just the unavoidable result of the past changes to the curriculum. Having gone through the education system within the last twenty years (and still struggling to recover from the scars that it left me with) I know for a fact that, not only has the standard dropped from the standard expected of my parent's generation who were learning algerbra when they were eleven years old (I didn't start until I was fourteen), but the whole purpose of education has drastically changed between my generation and theirs. When my parents where going through school the emphasis was not on what you knew but rather on how you learned it. For example, in the mathematics O-level you could have a totally different method for, say, calculating percentages from what the curriculum had proposed. However, if the examiner, who would be a mathematical professor, could see that your method was sound and accurate you would still receive full marks for that question. What is more the examiner was more than likely to start teaching your method as an alternative to the curriculum method to those students who could not grasp the curriculum method.
These days you must use the curriculum method, even if you cannot understand and therefore misscalculate the answer because if you use a different method from the curriculum state one, even if you calculate the answer correctly, the examiner, who might be a English teacher if you are lucky, will still not give you the marks that question was worth. Why? Because they compare your answer to what is written on the answer sheet and are not allowed to award points to method that devate from the curriculum method, even if the answer is correctly calculated.
These days the emphasis is on what you know, not how you learned it and heaven forbid a child being taught to work out how they can apply their knowledge to a field different from the one they were taught in. That simply will not do. Why, if we encourage children to actually be intelligent then they might be able to see the parellels between history and the current situation. Such as the fact that the first thing any tyrant does when they are building they power base is to constrict education because ignorant people are easy to drive. If people are left ignorant then they will believe whatever you wish to tell them through the medium of mass media. However, if people are educated in an education system that teaches them how to learn a new thing every day then they will ineverably start asking questions. Once the questions start then the tyrant cannot answer them. When the people realise that there is no answer forth coming they start looking for answers and when they find them that is when revolutions start.
And I beg to differ with the point of view that says that revolutions are violent, evil things. I propose a new revolution:-
1.We disagree with how our government is exploting the natural world - revolution = research the origins of the products you buy. If they come from unsustainable sources don't buy them.
2. We disagree with how our government is encouraging pollution - revolution = walk, bike, catch the bus, car share on every journey that we can.
3. We disagree with how much pesticide is sprayed on our food - revolution = dig for victory! Grow your own! As much of your own as you can manage and buy organic food that is grown in your own country.
4. We disagree with how the meat industry treats animals - revolution = if you don't want to go vegetarain then buy your meat from your local butcher. They can't afford to buy meat from animals that have been transported live over hundreds of miles. What is more, if you walk to the local butcher you save in fuel the slight, and I do mean slight, increase in price.
There are a hundred and one things we can do, each and every one of us, to revolutionize the way we live and the world we live in and more importantly, the world we leave for our children. However, to do that we have to be able to learn about them. Tell me, who does it benefit if we are unable to learn?
For more information about the propsed curriculum see:
www.wwf.org.uk/blog/campaigns/national-curriculum-shouldnt-hide-the-truth-about-climate
One final note:
"In times of change, learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists." Eric Hoffer
Friday 31 May 2013
Tuesday 21 May 2013
Growing a Wanted Future
I was advocating in my last post owning and digging an allotment. However, you could fore go that expense and simply start on your own garden. Growing your own food can be really easy and you can even grow stuff that will help protect the rest of your crop.
Rhubarb leaves can be boiled and the resulting liquid, once cooled, used as a 100% bee friendly pesticide (as long as you don't spray it directly on to a bee). The stalks of said leaves can be cooked and eaten as stewed fruit, crumble or fruit tarts. The leaves themselves, once boiled, go on the compost heap. A word of caution! Never pick rhubarb that you or someone in your family has not planted! Wild rhubarb is poisonous all over and can kill an adult human if ingested.
Beetroot, although not to everybody taste, if planted next to cabbage or lettuces, will cover their existence with their smell and help keep away butterflies and their resultant caterpillars.
Marigolds will do the same thing as beetroot and can be picked, boiled, strained and their resultant liquid used as an anti-fungal on both plants and people. You spray it on effected plants and in cases of Athlete's Foot, use it as a foot bath on humans.
Sunflowers, although not a direct effectuate, draw in song birds in the winter by providing seeds and those song bird will come back in the spring and summer to collect the pests you don't want eating you crop to feed their own young. However, it is a good idea to cover soft fruits such as raspberries and strawberries with netting during the summer and autumn. Birds like soft fruits just as much as we do.
For the bees you want to attract to pollinate your crops and make them grow then the best hedge is an even mixture of rosemary, lavender and sage. These can be hedged really easily by cutting back three quarters of the years growth in October. This will result in a slow growing hedge but one that is super thick. The cuttings, in the case of lavender, can be dried and placed inside clothing drawers and wardrobes to keep away clothes moths. Rosemary and sage can be used either fresh or dried in cooking and make for excellent roasts when you sprinkle them over the meat.
Rosemary blooms in the spring and provides food for the early bees. Lavender blooms in the summer and in a good flower year, will literally hum with bees. Sage blooms in the autumn and feds the bees that are up late.
I understand that some of the crops I'm suggesting up above are not to every bodies taste so, if there is not any one in the family who likes them, then my suggestions would be a little table at the end of the drive and an honesty box. It might not make you much but it is money you wouldn't have if you didn't try. The boxes can always be bolted down and locked if you are worried about theft.
The up swing of all the hard work that it takes to make a cottage garden work is two fold in my mind. One you don't have to pay for a gym membership, you will have plenty of wait lifting in the back garden. Two you will have food on the table that you will know 100% where it was grown, what is in it and what was sprayed on it. Considering the side effects of some of the pesticides they use now, I say a reward like that is well worth the effort.
What is more it sticks two up at the industries that would take everything from our planet until she has nothing left to give and put nothing back in it's place. I'd say that growing your own food, also grows a future where the little man actually has a say in what is important in this world. Who doesn't wanted that?
Rhubarb leaves can be boiled and the resulting liquid, once cooled, used as a 100% bee friendly pesticide (as long as you don't spray it directly on to a bee). The stalks of said leaves can be cooked and eaten as stewed fruit, crumble or fruit tarts. The leaves themselves, once boiled, go on the compost heap. A word of caution! Never pick rhubarb that you or someone in your family has not planted! Wild rhubarb is poisonous all over and can kill an adult human if ingested.
Beetroot, although not to everybody taste, if planted next to cabbage or lettuces, will cover their existence with their smell and help keep away butterflies and their resultant caterpillars.
Marigolds will do the same thing as beetroot and can be picked, boiled, strained and their resultant liquid used as an anti-fungal on both plants and people. You spray it on effected plants and in cases of Athlete's Foot, use it as a foot bath on humans.
Sunflowers, although not a direct effectuate, draw in song birds in the winter by providing seeds and those song bird will come back in the spring and summer to collect the pests you don't want eating you crop to feed their own young. However, it is a good idea to cover soft fruits such as raspberries and strawberries with netting during the summer and autumn. Birds like soft fruits just as much as we do.
For the bees you want to attract to pollinate your crops and make them grow then the best hedge is an even mixture of rosemary, lavender and sage. These can be hedged really easily by cutting back three quarters of the years growth in October. This will result in a slow growing hedge but one that is super thick. The cuttings, in the case of lavender, can be dried and placed inside clothing drawers and wardrobes to keep away clothes moths. Rosemary and sage can be used either fresh or dried in cooking and make for excellent roasts when you sprinkle them over the meat.
Rosemary blooms in the spring and provides food for the early bees. Lavender blooms in the summer and in a good flower year, will literally hum with bees. Sage blooms in the autumn and feds the bees that are up late.
I understand that some of the crops I'm suggesting up above are not to every bodies taste so, if there is not any one in the family who likes them, then my suggestions would be a little table at the end of the drive and an honesty box. It might not make you much but it is money you wouldn't have if you didn't try. The boxes can always be bolted down and locked if you are worried about theft.
The up swing of all the hard work that it takes to make a cottage garden work is two fold in my mind. One you don't have to pay for a gym membership, you will have plenty of wait lifting in the back garden. Two you will have food on the table that you will know 100% where it was grown, what is in it and what was sprayed on it. Considering the side effects of some of the pesticides they use now, I say a reward like that is well worth the effort.
What is more it sticks two up at the industries that would take everything from our planet until she has nothing left to give and put nothing back in it's place. I'd say that growing your own food, also grows a future where the little man actually has a say in what is important in this world. Who doesn't wanted that?
Monday 20 May 2013
Dig for Victory
Continuing my blog series 'Proactive Society' I titled this one after the famous Second World War rallying cry for a very good reason - allotments used to form the greater part of the protected wild life land in Britain until modern times. Then with so called 'convience shopping' the number of allotment holders went into decline and we are now something of an endangered species. Now considering the growing number of food scandals of recent times (horse burger anyone?) and the fact that a lot of the pesticides used on our food crops have been shown to have carcinogenic qualities, I want to put forward an argument for more people to go out there and grow their own.
"But I don't have the time," you say. Excuse me? How many times are you down at the gym a week?
My allotment costs me fifty two pounds a year i.e. a pound a week. I am fairly sure that no gym in England has an annual membership of that much and not only does it work just about every muscle the gym does, it produces food as a reward for all your hard work.
To start with, especial if like me, you are having to break the allotment in from fallow you have to cut down the grass. The grass on my allotment is getting on for eight inches long now. You could use a petrol strimmer but that takes money (you have to buy the petrol) and it pollutes the atmosphere. Instead you can use a pair of garden shears. Crouching to do this uses legs, butt, back (lower, middle, upper) and arm muscles. You see? You have started your work out already.
You then need to rake all the clippings into a single heap. Keep these weighed down under an old jute bag and you can use them in the autumn instead of buying straw to bed in the more delicate plants. The act of raking again uses all of the above listed muscles.
Now comes the really hard part - breaking in the soil. This is the bit that all allotment owners dread. Having cut a square piece of turf the size of your spade blade, you have to lift it up and turn the spade so the turf falls back into the hole you just made upside down. This especially works the back and arm muscles and can result in some pretty serious back aches the next morning. The best time to do this work is either in the winter, when the cold will kill the bugs you have just dug up, or in the spring during the morning so the birds will have all day to take the bugs back to their nests.
The next job is to spread a layer of non peat compost over the allotment. You can make your own by - 1. buy a metal bin 2. drill small to medium sized holes in the bottom 3. filling it with all vegetable waste i.e. the potatoe peelings, the squishy tomatoe, the carrot that went mouldy in the bottom of the fridge. Thus not only do you not have to spend money on compost, you also eliminate food waste. It's not being wasted, it's going towards growing new food.
Once you have spread the compost over the allotment you have to dig it in. That's right, you have to break the soil all over again. Then, to add insult to injury you have to spread a second layer of compost over the allotment and dig that in. Believe you me, you are not going to run out of allotment based work out any time soon.
And while you are doing all of that you are providing a bug based banquet for all the local birds. Then comes the planting. That's right - it's back to digging holes.
"But I don't have the time," you say. Excuse me? How many times are you down at the gym a week?
My allotment costs me fifty two pounds a year i.e. a pound a week. I am fairly sure that no gym in England has an annual membership of that much and not only does it work just about every muscle the gym does, it produces food as a reward for all your hard work.
To start with, especial if like me, you are having to break the allotment in from fallow you have to cut down the grass. The grass on my allotment is getting on for eight inches long now. You could use a petrol strimmer but that takes money (you have to buy the petrol) and it pollutes the atmosphere. Instead you can use a pair of garden shears. Crouching to do this uses legs, butt, back (lower, middle, upper) and arm muscles. You see? You have started your work out already.
You then need to rake all the clippings into a single heap. Keep these weighed down under an old jute bag and you can use them in the autumn instead of buying straw to bed in the more delicate plants. The act of raking again uses all of the above listed muscles.
Now comes the really hard part - breaking in the soil. This is the bit that all allotment owners dread. Having cut a square piece of turf the size of your spade blade, you have to lift it up and turn the spade so the turf falls back into the hole you just made upside down. This especially works the back and arm muscles and can result in some pretty serious back aches the next morning. The best time to do this work is either in the winter, when the cold will kill the bugs you have just dug up, or in the spring during the morning so the birds will have all day to take the bugs back to their nests.
The next job is to spread a layer of non peat compost over the allotment. You can make your own by - 1. buy a metal bin 2. drill small to medium sized holes in the bottom 3. filling it with all vegetable waste i.e. the potatoe peelings, the squishy tomatoe, the carrot that went mouldy in the bottom of the fridge. Thus not only do you not have to spend money on compost, you also eliminate food waste. It's not being wasted, it's going towards growing new food.
Once you have spread the compost over the allotment you have to dig it in. That's right, you have to break the soil all over again. Then, to add insult to injury you have to spread a second layer of compost over the allotment and dig that in. Believe you me, you are not going to run out of allotment based work out any time soon.
And while you are doing all of that you are providing a bug based banquet for all the local birds. Then comes the planting. That's right - it's back to digging holes.
Monday 6 May 2013
Proactive Society
It seems that a lot of people are telling us what is wrong with society and the world in general. The Middle East is gradually blowing its people into hundreds of different bits, oil companies are polluting the atmosphere by burning of 'unwanted' gas, big companies are fouling up our food chain and the environment is on the verge of collapse. All in all, it seems that the little guys can't do much.
I disagree.
Yes, there is not much we little guys can do to change what is going on in the Middle East or to stop the oil companies caring more for bucks than for the world their children are going to have to live in but we can much a difference to the environment. What is more it can be done really easily and has a really nice profit which kicks back to the doer.
For example, Colony Collapse Syndrome i.e. the truly alarming rate by which our bee population is dying (no bees= no food= no us). This is not helped by the pesticides that some farmers are spraying on their fields, however an even great threat is the pesticides people are using in their gardens. What is more some people don't even realise that if you spray pesticides when the flowers are open the pesticide gets into the pollen and nectar, which the bee then takes back to the hive and makes into honey, which is harvested and you then eat when you buy a jar of honey from the shop. Would you drink the stuff that's in the pesticide bottle? No? Why then are you willing to eat it when you eat the honey?
What is more some people think that a lawn should just be green, no daisies, no dandelions, no clover. In short, nothing for a starving bee to eat. So out comes the weed killer and that will kill a bee just as fast as pesticide. One I much prefer a lawn that has daisies and clover, it is much prettier. Two the best way to kill a dandelion without weedkiller is to pluck off every flower head before it can seed. You keep doing that, it will keep trying to flower until it exhausts itself to death. So, if you have children whom you worry about because they seem to spend all of their time in front of the TV, then you have the perfect way to kill two worries with one stone. An offer of five pence per dandelion head every day is a brilliant way to kill off the dandelions in your lawn, get your children to spend more time out of doors and they can start learning the value of money by earning it in the bargain as well.
Now that leaves you with the problem as to what to do about the pests, the aphids, the black fly, the mildew bug. If you have a rhubarb plant then your problem is solved. Simply that the leaves, boil them in a litre of fluid for every two hundred grams of rhubarb leaf, strain off, put the liquid in a spray bottle and spray on the plants. It will only kill the bugs present and leaves behind no nasty chemicals that will kill the bees or get into the honey. What is more, contrary to popular belief the pulp that is left of the leaves can be added to the compost heap with no ill effects. However, do not eat it under any circumstance.
If you don't have a rhubarb plant, then buy one, plant it in a shady corner, leave it alone for a year, letting the dead leaves rot back into the soil and then the second year you have your supply of pesticide waiting to be picked. The stalks of the rhubarb also makes very nice, if rather tart, stewed fruit. So you have a plant that is pesticide and dessert in one.
Hey up, there's an idea for some farmer who is trying to diversify to maximise profit. You'd need a low lying, wet field, preferably well shaded by trees but you could plant a crop of rhubarb, harvest it and make your own pesticide. If it worked well enough, you could even sell it to people to make some more profit. That's worth thinking about, don't you think?
I disagree.
Yes, there is not much we little guys can do to change what is going on in the Middle East or to stop the oil companies caring more for bucks than for the world their children are going to have to live in but we can much a difference to the environment. What is more it can be done really easily and has a really nice profit which kicks back to the doer.
For example, Colony Collapse Syndrome i.e. the truly alarming rate by which our bee population is dying (no bees= no food= no us). This is not helped by the pesticides that some farmers are spraying on their fields, however an even great threat is the pesticides people are using in their gardens. What is more some people don't even realise that if you spray pesticides when the flowers are open the pesticide gets into the pollen and nectar, which the bee then takes back to the hive and makes into honey, which is harvested and you then eat when you buy a jar of honey from the shop. Would you drink the stuff that's in the pesticide bottle? No? Why then are you willing to eat it when you eat the honey?
What is more some people think that a lawn should just be green, no daisies, no dandelions, no clover. In short, nothing for a starving bee to eat. So out comes the weed killer and that will kill a bee just as fast as pesticide. One I much prefer a lawn that has daisies and clover, it is much prettier. Two the best way to kill a dandelion without weedkiller is to pluck off every flower head before it can seed. You keep doing that, it will keep trying to flower until it exhausts itself to death. So, if you have children whom you worry about because they seem to spend all of their time in front of the TV, then you have the perfect way to kill two worries with one stone. An offer of five pence per dandelion head every day is a brilliant way to kill off the dandelions in your lawn, get your children to spend more time out of doors and they can start learning the value of money by earning it in the bargain as well.
Now that leaves you with the problem as to what to do about the pests, the aphids, the black fly, the mildew bug. If you have a rhubarb plant then your problem is solved. Simply that the leaves, boil them in a litre of fluid for every two hundred grams of rhubarb leaf, strain off, put the liquid in a spray bottle and spray on the plants. It will only kill the bugs present and leaves behind no nasty chemicals that will kill the bees or get into the honey. What is more, contrary to popular belief the pulp that is left of the leaves can be added to the compost heap with no ill effects. However, do not eat it under any circumstance.
If you don't have a rhubarb plant, then buy one, plant it in a shady corner, leave it alone for a year, letting the dead leaves rot back into the soil and then the second year you have your supply of pesticide waiting to be picked. The stalks of the rhubarb also makes very nice, if rather tart, stewed fruit. So you have a plant that is pesticide and dessert in one.
Hey up, there's an idea for some farmer who is trying to diversify to maximise profit. You'd need a low lying, wet field, preferably well shaded by trees but you could plant a crop of rhubarb, harvest it and make your own pesticide. If it worked well enough, you could even sell it to people to make some more profit. That's worth thinking about, don't you think?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)