tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2398385230099134530.comments2022-12-04T05:14:27.792-08:00Steve Paris' Paraphernalic PostulationsSteve Parishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14145787455201419082noreply@blogger.comBlogger17125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2398385230099134530.post-62473261925554832762014-03-23T01:24:18.943-07:002014-03-23T01:24:18.943-07:00Thanks Jim for all your comments and it was great ...Thanks Jim for all your comments and it was great to read how you and Dave made life better for that student!<br /><br />Sadly, the school we sent our kids to did the exact opposite. There's something frightening about unchecked bullying, when teachers know it's happening but do nothing about it. What is that teaching the kids and how are children who are targets of bullying supposed to make any sense of it all?<br /><br />What's worse is that this school attracts survivors of bullying by advertising themselves as a "safe, peaceful, natural learning haven", and informing potential new families that there is no bullying in their school.<br /><br />Check out this page from the website we created to document what happened to us:<br /><br />http://www.titirangisteinermessenger.com/TSM/Testimonials.html<br /><br />It's devoted to testimonials from other parents who experienced the same thing at that same school over the years. I would say the ones from MacDonald and the 2nd one from 2010 are of particular interest.<br /><br />We won by the way: we took them to Human Rights mediation and they signed a settlement with us stating that our daughter's accounts were honest, that there was bullying and that they didn't do anything about it - yet once that settlement reached the ears of the media, they then published an "open letter" on their site contradicting everything they agreed through mediation. And despite the fact that they told the Director of the Human Rights Tribunal that they would take the page down, it's still accessible on their website. Can you believe that?Steve Parishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14145787455201419082noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2398385230099134530.post-50842596293139029452014-03-22T17:37:14.696-07:002014-03-22T17:37:14.696-07:00I was a teacher in a coastal high school north-eas...I was a teacher in a coastal high school north-east from Newcastle - a new Year 7 (in NSW entry level junior secondary school) Exactly 20 years ago. Bright neatly-attired lad in a front row seat - hand wildly seeking attention to provide the answer whenever I asked a question in our preliminary introduction to Japanese class - but each time (not every time) I nodded to him - I noted that it was followed by some mumbled commentary from the rear of the room - the perpetrators never clear. I asked the boy to remain behind a moment after one class - and asked him if he were being bullied. "Well,…" It can't be allowed, I said. "Oh, it's all right, he said, "It's been going on since primary school. The secondary school drew on about four or five "feeder" regional primary schools. This bullying had followed him. I was shocked - and by his resignation. "Leave it with me, I said, we'll get this stopped! So, what to do? As a language teacher (one of two - small department without a Head Teacher) we were attached to a sympathetic deputy - one of the best I was to come across in over 25 years in the NSW state system - Dave. I went to Dave's office and explained the predicament. A plan was figured out. The next time we had a class - who should appear in the classroom doorway but Dave. A tall man - but friendly of face: "Good-morning Mr Kable. Good morning class. Chorus: Good-morning Mr L. "So, here you are - week two. I wonder how it is going for you all - from small primary schools - to this big place? Who is from Shoal Bay? Nelson Bay? Salt Ash? - and so on he went - through the names of the "feeder" schools - students raising their arms to indicate. All the time smiling and making appropriately positive acknowledgement of each of these contributing streams. He spoke of the alienation and of the culture of settling in to such a bigger school. That sometimes such can be "un-settling"! That sometimes, even, one could be led into uncomfortable ways of behaving! That - in any event - he was aware of such things - and of the many good things coming from this stage of the growing up process. That his office was an "open-door" office - that he would truly welcome any of them to come and see him - just to chat about how things were going. So welcome to secondary school - here learning Japanese (!!) Wow! Mr Kable - we had, what, French and Latin in our day - now Japanese! How the world was changing! Lucky you lot - his eyes smiling at the class - them smiling back. By the end of the day - as he later explained to me - four or five lads had been to see him - to say that they had been drawn in to a campaign of harassment/bullying against one of their class-mates - and didn't really know how to extricate themselves from that. Talking it over with the Deputy gave them that out. It ceased - the bullying.<br /><br />As a teacher I am aware that lots of torment goes on - but so much of it is below the radar - is missed. Especially in large classes. I was grateful I could help that lad - with the sensitive/intelligent handling of Dave - a win:win for us all. Senior English classes in other memoir-writing contexts had alerted me to the many regrets that those aged 17, 18 had for times when they were younger and had indulged in bullying themselves - or had remained silent on the side-lines. I do believe that eventually almost all of us grow up - though, nevertheless, the earlier one can stop this behaviour - clearly - the better for all. I saw it in classes in Japan. I always called any teasing for what it might well have been: "Ijime - [ee-jee-me(h)] even with a smile on my face as I waited for the inevitable: "Sensei: Just joking". Maybe so - but I was putting on notice that I was NOT unaware. This was at middle school.<br /><br /><br /><br />Jim KABLEhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07339366859747643036noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2398385230099134530.post-46173213730537183322014-03-22T16:39:25.165-07:002014-03-22T16:39:25.165-07:00Every year while teaching my students - middle sch...Every year while teaching my students - middle school, senior high, university - in Japan - we would sing Christmas Carols (O Come All Ye Faithful, etc) Christmas Songs (I'm Dreaming… Dashing Through the Snow - etc - many of them the same looping of songs being played in all Japanese shopping centres and malls throughout the month of December) and I would explain the three kinds of Christmases we were celebrating: The generally understood Christian version (as in your daughter's illustrations for her December school project) - though nothing written about it in the Bible; the historical provenance - winter solstice/Saturnalia - the promise of the sun's return (the Son's return?) and springtime re-birth (morphing into the Easter equivalence/other side of the coin) and the Santa Christmas of contemporary times - roping in X'mas trees out of central Europe/Germany (Thanks to Charles DICKENS, too) - Christmas cards from early Victorian England… its family get-together nature - the Aussie version I would tie in as well - against the traditional/seasonal nature of things - all topsy-turvy. And then draw in how it was celebrated in Japan - the songs in shopping centres as I described above; streets lit-up in incredibly beautiful style - Kōbe one of the most famous; Christmas cake (a sponge-cake covered in cream - resembling not at all the fruit-filled Christmas cake we know in Australia); and that X'mas Eve is seen as the single most romantic night of the year - when young people would hope to be with the one they love and when the decision to marry might be made. This was matched with Wham's (?) "Last Christmas" and a flurry of new romantic X'mas-sounding songs being released. My students all found it impossible to believe when I would explain that Christmas in the general Christian/Christian-influenced community carried no sense of romance. That Christmas was a time for families. In order to reveal this more completely/meaningfully - I would draw out the parallels between the Christmas we know and the Japanese New Year - just a week later - a direct parallel - families getting together, cards through the post, special food, visits to the Shrine, gifts (of money-filled envelopes) for those up till adulthood (age 20), special songs/music - decorations - and so forth.Jim KABLEhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07339366859747643036noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2398385230099134530.post-70959723265310135672014-03-22T15:45:03.614-07:002014-03-22T15:45:03.614-07:00Steve, Briliant summary of exactly what is wrong w...Steve, Briliant summary of exactly what is wrong with the Fibble (clever, that) - all of its inconsistencies. I was raised a fundamentalist protestant in the 1950s/1960s - there were no female "ministers" - wives, yes, all "help-meets" - Deaconesses (sic) to get the church cleaned, flowers arranged, unleavened "bread" made, foot-washing arrangements set up - play the organ - generally keep things humming along - but preaching - nope! There was no jewellery - the US influences would have seen wedding rings proscribed but that in our society the wedding ring was a kind of "protection" - hands-off - I'm already "spoken for" kind of aura. Food was exactly as you outlined - Leviticus Chapter 11 governed our diet. Not till I stepped away from it all in my late teens (the disconnect between what I was being told I had to do to reach the kingdom of god and what I saw those doing the telling actually themselves doing suddenly Saul-of-Tarsus-like becoming blindingly clear) did I eat bacon or pork/ham, fish with scales, oysters/prawns… I decided that I could nonetheless be a moral person without anyone or anything else telling me what to do. From a good 20 years later I had almost a further 20 years in Japan. Where I found another version of the Golden Rule which you have lifted from the Fibble as its essence best! "The World is a Mirror"! (How one looks/what one does - is reflected back. "Sekai-wa kagami") Along with two other sayings I had found in Japan I felt I needed nothing more as an expression of my life: "The World is Narrow" ("Seken-wa semai" - or It's a Small World - we are all connected once we get the conversation going - no "them" and "us"); and from a famous 16th-century tea-ceremony master: "One Time One Meeting" ("Ichi-go Ichi-e") that we treat each encounter as the one and only time - not to waste the conversation in trivial matters - but to get to the deeper things of our lives - and if the meeting with someone was with an old friend - there was always the sense that it could be the last chance to be with that person - so to treat it as such! In my last years in Japan - a kind of countdown to my return - to Australia - those three sayings guided my sensibilities very strongly - with new friends and with my classes, indeed, too.Jim KABLEhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07339366859747643036noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2398385230099134530.post-63751568540181057092014-03-19T01:59:47.045-07:002014-03-19T01:59:47.045-07:00I suggest you read this link in reply, http://www....I suggest you read this link in reply, http://www.christianapologeticsalliance.com/2012/10/30/does-the-bible-justify-abortion/<br /><br />(oldbrit2011)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2398385230099134530.post-62640845902074964632014-01-29T02:43:59.285-08:002014-01-29T02:43:59.285-08:00I thought I'd add a very interesting quote fro...I thought I'd add a very interesting quote from Numbers 5:11-21, for all those devout Christians who are so against abortion saying god would never condone it. Pay particular attention to verse 21:<br /><br />11 Then the Lord said to Moses,<br /><br />12 “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘If a man’s wife goes astray and is unfaithful to him<br /><br />13 so that another man has sexual relations with her, and this is hidden from her husband and her impurity is undetected (since there is no witness against her and she has not been caught in the act),<br /><br />14 and if feelings of jealousy come over her husband and he suspects his wife and she is impure—or if he is jealous and suspects her even though she is not impure—<br /><br />15 then he is to take his wife to the priest. He must also take an offering of a tenth of an ephah of barley flour on her behalf. He must not pour olive oil on it or put incense on it, because it is a grain offering for jealousy, a reminder-offering to draw attention to wrongdoing.<br /><br />16 “‘The priest shall bring her and have her stand before the Lord.<br /><br />17 Then he shall take some holy water in a clay jar and put some dust from the tabernacle floor into the water.<br /><br />18 After the priest has had the woman stand before the Lord, he shall loosen her hair and place in her hands the reminder-offering, the grain offering for jealousy, while he himself holds the bitter water that brings a curse.<br /><br />19 Then the priest shall put the woman under oath and say to her, “If no other man has had sexual relations with you and you have not gone astray and become impure while married to your husband, may this bitter water that brings a curse not harm you.<br /><br />20 But if you have gone astray while married to your husband and you have made yourself impure by having sexual relations with a man other than your husband”—<br /><br />21 here the priest is to put the woman under this curse—“may the Lord cause you to become a curse among your people when he makes your womb miscarry and your abdomen swell."<br />Steve Parishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14145787455201419082noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2398385230099134530.post-72320943957138905152014-01-09T23:44:29.433-08:002014-01-09T23:44:29.433-08:00Before anyone reads this and thinks "this is ...Before anyone reads this and thinks "this is all from the Old Testament, it doesn't concern Christianity, so we can ignore it", please read what Jesus said himself in Matthew 5:17-18:<br /><br />"17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.<br /><br />18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled."<br /><br />and also in Matthew 23:1-3:<br /><br />"1 Then spake Jesus to the multitude, and to his disciples,<br /><br />2 Saying The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat:<br /><br />3 All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not."Steve Parishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14145787455201419082noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2398385230099134530.post-29494582065942642122013-12-29T02:48:41.448-08:002013-12-29T02:48:41.448-08:00Would you happen to have a link perchance? :)Would you happen to have a link perchance? :)Steve Parishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14145787455201419082noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2398385230099134530.post-89518860167604681632013-12-29T02:27:39.156-08:002013-12-29T02:27:39.156-08:00There's also a great article on secular web ca...There's also a great article on secular web called The Fabulous Prophecies of The Messiah (or something like that)RMhttp://irreligious.orgnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2398385230099134530.post-82647958133007597662013-12-21T13:59:00.767-08:002013-12-21T13:59:00.767-08:00Love it. Thanks SteveLove it. Thanks SteveAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2398385230099134530.post-15759355482309599882013-12-03T13:54:13.212-08:002013-12-03T13:54:13.212-08:00Early days, mate. Early days :)Early days, mate. Early days :)Steve Parishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14145787455201419082noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2398385230099134530.post-57308837878928210282013-12-03T11:23:10.905-08:002013-12-03T11:23:10.905-08:00Even some video games do this to me, especially fi...Even some video games do this to me, especially first person shooters. But lately, the LEGO games are doing it more and more (they're using a splitting of the screen and rotating to show orientation -- oh: Perhaps I should mention this is the two-player co-op games.<br />-r<br />-=-CommonCormoranthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02633375815372273506noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2398385230099134530.post-50896975623811519622013-12-03T11:13:01.850-08:002013-12-03T11:13:01.850-08:00Am I the only one who comments?Am I the only one who comments?CommonCormoranthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02633375815372273506noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2398385230099134530.post-35783247608715647612013-11-29T09:23:49.417-08:002013-11-29T09:23:49.417-08:00As a huge fan of the series, I look forward to (ev...As a huge fan of the series, I look forward to (eventually) experiencing this game. Your review was a good vicarious experience for those of us who can't do so at this time.<br />-r<br />-=-CommonCormoranthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02633375815372273506noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2398385230099134530.post-40322372651954831662013-11-23T03:46:27.528-08:002013-11-23T03:46:27.528-08:00ExcellentExcellentCommonCormoranthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02633375815372273506noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2398385230099134530.post-38412502587423198462013-09-19T15:03:56.147-07:002013-09-19T15:03:56.147-07:00Fair and goodFair and goodDiskgrinderhttp://diskgrinder.netnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2398385230099134530.post-74844370565859565022013-06-27T10:34:31.586-07:002013-06-27T10:34:31.586-07:00Do you get commission through the links? (Just spo...Do you get commission through the links? (Just spoke on Twitter). Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01684507941884020592noreply@blogger.com