Saturday, October 16, 2010
Katharie Birbalsingh "Resigns" Her Teaching Job.
Remember the teacher who stole the show at the Conservative Party Conference? Her name was Katharine Birbalsingh.
She was suspended from her job for having spoken at the conference by the same head teacher who played host to Tony Blair's 2001 election launch announcement. She was later reinstated, but this morning it has emerged that she has resigned her post - or should I say more likely been resigned from her post.
Archibishop Cranmer has the STORY.
Please watch the video above if you didn't see her speech. The woman is an inspiration and she highlights exactly what is wrong with our education system. ANd now she is lost to it. The leftist educational establishment wins again.
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18 comments:
She's not 'lost to the educational system' (unless she wants to be, of course). She's simply lost to that particular school, who frankly didn't deserve her.
An aspiring new independent school with something to prove would be stupid not to snap her up.
What a ridiculous state of affairs. I don't follow education matters closely, but this lady is very clearly a teacher of considerable vision and would appear to be just the sort of teacher we want teaching the next generation of Britons.
Is there any mechanism for the Dept of Education to overrule the Headteacher and Governors, or are they utterly at liberty to hire and fire at will?
She should sue. Might be interesting if there had been labour party pressure.
Support her via the re-opened Facebook group - http://tinyurl.com/3yd7rj3
Adrian Huston
Founder of Group
I imagine she thought to herself, why should she fight her own Head and Governors, when there will now be plenty of schools keen to have her and to support her.
It's the kids and parents of the school she has left we should be sorry for - and not just for losing her but for what her going says about the school itself.
The reason why the Left love the public sector (and hate the private) is that the public sector is accountable only to itself.
Most people dream of being paid as much as possible to do as little as possible. Public sector unions seek to achieve this via something called "the taxpayer".
In order for the scam to work they need to get the right (or should I say the wrong) sort of politicians in power. The Labour Party is essentially the political wing of the public sector trade unions.
They get votes by promising benefits that are going to be paid by somebody else. They call this "social justice". Labour Members of Parlimant (like all Guardian readers) are very keen advocates of redistributing other people's wealth into their own pockets.
Because its core voters are public sector workers, a Labour government will increase taxes in order to expand the public sector.
All that public sector workers ask in return for the money they demand from you is that you have no choice about what services you receive.
Did taxpayers for example ask that educational standards across the public education system be reduced in order that nobody is judged a failure? Nope.
For a Socialist having the freedom to spend your money on (for example) the school of your choice is deeply wicked. Far better to have a system in which everybody is forced to pay them for a system in which everybody does equally badly.
Of course not everybody does equally badly. Some of the Leftists who run the system do very well indeed. Indeed some can afford (despite their high taxation) to send their children to private schools. Because of high tax rates however many of them can only afford to do only by avoiding paying the taxes which they expect others to pay. Tony Benn and the Miliband brothers for example have all successfully avoided paying Inheritance Tax.
Now we can preserve the noble principle of equal mediocrity for everybody. As long as those in poverty learn not to strive for more, but to cling to to the ankles of those who do, and for those who are impolite enough to make an effort, not to do so well that the rest feel bad about it, we can all progress at an equally tectonic rate.
This is progressive politics, the progress of a car with a handbrake on, the progress of a ship at anchor, the progress from the 1st world to the 3rd world.
The state will provide for those for whom it's all a bit too much like hard work. We don't need intellect, excellence or entrepreneurship. If we get back to the good work of nationalising the workforce and printing more magic money to pay them, we won't need any of those contrary "wealth creators" at all.
Only by educating children out of foolish notions like "achievement" and "success", and returning to punitive taxation to punish those who insult progress through subversive activities like creating jobs and trade, only then can we truly achieve a future mediocre for all.
I'm not au fait with the inner details here. It seems the Right-wing press are; know the politcal leaning of everybody else involved'; etc., etc.
I know of only two things:
In 40-years teaching, much of that in London schools and colleges, taking time off to attend a political conference would not have been acceptable.
Going into public, into the press, denouncing my employer, bringing the local authority, the institution and my colleagues into disrepute, would have been unprofessional, against my contracts of employment, and a disciplinary-offence, irrespective of the content of what I said, where I said it, and the political complexion of my employers.
Good luck to Miss Birbalsingh - a wonderful blogger and an inspirational woman.
Perhaps a letter writing campaign would be of value? Does anyone know any background information about the school governors which could be of general interest?
I worked for a Conservative controlled London Borough after leaving university in 1974. Soon after starting I wrote a letter to our local paper re my old - not in the LB I worked for, and nothing to do with my work area. It was barely published when I got a phone call from the Borough Engineer's secretary telling me that as a LA employee I was expected to be apolitical and any repeat would lead to disciplinary action. What are the current rules applicable to public sector employment?
I'm afraid she is indulging in the old game of using limited examples to make generalisations about the whole. It is just not supportable to say that problems in certain inner city schools mean that all "ordinary" schoolchildren are being failed by the system.
She didn't even mention that OFSTED had recognised recognised her school as a failing school - so clearly the system had recognised that something was going wrong in that particular case.
Katherine Birbalsingh's blog was one of the most moving that I used to read. She was clearly the sort of teacher any decent pupil would have changed classes to be taught by. The destruction by the left of the British education system is one of their worst crimes and the perpetrators should be held to account.
Sign her up Toby Young.
"I know of only two things"
That would explain why you do not know that she asked permission from the school before going to the Conference.
As for your
"denouncing my employer, bringing the local authority, the institution and my colleagues into disrepute"
that tells you all you need to know about how Leftists such as yourself view "public services".
No, Thorpe, we Conservatives believe in allowing Headteachers to determine what is best for their school. I am not saying I agree with the stance her school has taken. She was absolutely spot on at Conference and deserves to be lauded. However, The Government overriding a school's decision? That's pure Labour all the way and exactly the kind of thing she is against.
A rather less melodramatic account can be found here:
http://redrag1.blogspot.com/2010/10/red-rag-tory-teacher-tory-conference.html
I have a feeling she's going to be just fine.
She is going to write a book about her experiences as a teacher in inner city London. I am shocked. Thanks for the link Jimmy. This news clearly invalidates any criticisms she has of the current State education system.
Ms Birbalsingh is a breath of fresh air. Her comments cut to the heart of what are,sadly,common failings in our educational system. No doubt many other teachers think much the same, (I personally know of two)but are afraid to voice their concerns.
I loathe the way the word "Liberal" has been hijacked by the modern Left, and emptied of the meaning it once had.
Just think about the liberal reforms that brought about universal schooling. Just think of the ragged schools set up by people like John Pounds of Portsmouth, that infused their charges with a desire for achievement and instilled in them strong moral values.
Liberalism used to have an optimistic view of mankind, which believed that with effort and discipline people could excel, irrespective of background. Today's left display all the pessimism of the anti-enlightenment Tories of yesteryear.
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