my / superpower

Tags

2011, ambiguity, Batman, Beast, Buddhanature, Daredevil, dilemma, disempowerment, distrust, Dr Strange, emptiness, Hulk, identity, ignominy, ingenuity, insight, Kryptonite, naïveté, poem, presence, prohibition, release, Spiderman, stealth, Superman, superpower, Thor, tragedy, wisdom

 

 

 

                                               my
                                superpower

                I am not implacable like Superman
                                              which is both my own Kryptonite
                                and my own presence

                I am not grim like the Batman
                                              which is both my own Tragedy
                                and my own wisdom

                I am not angry like the Hulk
                                              which is both my own Ignominy
                                and my own stealth

                I am not strange like Stephen
                                              which is both my own Ambiguity
                                and my own naïveté

                I am not a human god like Thor
                                              which is both my own Dilemma
                                and my own ease

                I am not webbed in moral struggle like Spiderman
                                              which is both my own Disempowerment
                                and my own ingenuity

                I am not fore-sighted like Daredevil
                                              which is both my own Prohibition
                                and my own insight

                I am not mellifluent like the Beast
                                              which is both my own Distrust
                                and my own poem

                                no,

                                no

                                my super power
                                is far far greater
                                than all of these

 

 

 

^{————w}(O)rmholes_________________________________|—–

Batman wormhole: early evening
Daredevil wormhole: now, the verticals go down as well as they go up
disempowerment wormhole: tag cloud poem V – draft-ness
Dr Strange wormhole: Doctor Strange I – the trashcan tilted the better to see now the street
emptiness wormhole: tag cloud poem IX – haiku is awkward / the more that is left in / like uncombed hair
identity wormhole: need
naïveté wormhole: true nature
Superman wormhole: sit
superpower wormhole: exactly equal
Thor wormhole: song of irrelevance

 

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tag cloud poem V – draft-ness

Tags

1960s, 1970s, 2*, 2014, abandonment, America, being, Dad, dancing, Daredevil, dark, daughter, dawn, death, dedication, defeat, democracy, depression, desert, dialectic, discipline, disempowerment, distraction, divorce, dog, doing, doors, doubt, dream, dress, drips, dust, dwelling, identity, individualism, love, politics, poverty, tag cloud poem, wind, world

 

 

 

                                                                                                                Dad dancing daredevil
                                                                                                dark daughter dawn
                                                                                                                           DC death dedication

 

                                                                                 defeat democracy depression
                                                                                 desert dialectic discipline
                           disempowerment distraction divorce

 

dog doing        doors
                                                                              doubt dream dress
                                                                                              drips dust dwelling

 

 

 

^{————w}(O)rmholes_________________________________|—–

abandonment & Dad wormhole: the sounds the difficulty and the long long strands of liquorice
being & identity & wind wormhole: the en-gentled / end of a wan / writing retreat
dancing wormhole: Do Nothing Usually / Take Everything Regularly / Consider It All Clearly / And Step Aside It Waltzingly
Daredvil wormhole: Daredevil: Born Again (1987)
daughter wormhole: t w e n t y f i r s t c e n t u r y l i f e
dawn wormhole: the library, / you know …
dedication wormhole: let
depression wormhole: really
disempowerment wormhole: I don’t think I could do it anymore
distraction wormhole: may the supreme and precious jewel bodhichitta … // … take birth where it has not yet done so … // … where it has taken birth may it not decrease … // … but may it increase infinitely
divorce wormhole: what to do
dog wormhole: … still waving!
doing wormhole: ‘til death do us part
doors wormhole: multifarious: the Dark Knight Returns (1986)
doubt wormhole: transition
dream wormhole: the edges of my reach
love & politics wormhole: just saying, is all – III
tag cloud poem wormhole: tag cloud poem IV – C
world wormhole: my life is not your market

 

I don’t think I could do it anymore

Tags

2012, 6*, bureaucracy, career, communication, creativity, disempowerment, expectation, identity, managerialism, performance management, professionalism, question, recognition, resource, teaching, teaching craft, voices

 

 

 

                                              why
                do you ignore what I think
                                then tell me how to construct

                                              why
                do you ignore what I have constructed
                                then tell me how to communicate

                                              why
                do you ignore what I have cognitively modelled
                                then tell me how to be professional

                                              why
                do you ignore the craft of my plan and resource
                                then expect the art of communication

                                              how
                do you ignore the presence of what I think and create
                                then tell me that I am valued

                                              how
                can you work in education
                                and not see the psychology of what you wreak

                                              so
                tell me Principal Principle are you never tempted to get back into the classroom
                                ‘no, I don’t think I could do it anymore’

 

 

 

^{————w}(O)rmholes_________________________________|—–

career & teaching wormhole: the Big Stage
communication & performance management & recognition wormhole: Teaching career: much like Monet’s ‘Impression: soleil levant’
creativity wormhole: as they wish
disempowerment wormhole: Resource
identity & voices wormhole: in verse / question / m a r k ?
managerialism wormhole; teaching: which is it going to be, procedure or nurture?
professionalism & teaching craft wormhole: The Future of Teaching: performance or capability (‘oh, not ‘teaching’ then?’)

 

Resource

Tags

disempowerment, management, managerialism, resource, teaching art, teaching craft

It is unskilful to consider – and reject almost as one act – any piece of work and thought from a front line worker.   It is unskilful to appraise it as a whole, end-product.   It is unskilful to see it as insufficient simply because it has not arrived by strategy or management domain.   Its inevitable – inexorable – rejection (its dismissal, its en-irrelevance) will, equally inevitably, significantly damage the worker’s belief in the education system, it will damage their morale, it will damage their confidence.   Their belief, their morale, their confidence will become confused; there will be a despair of thinking that there was any ‘system’ or purpose in education altogether.   The system will be understood – experienced – to be systemically unable to incorporate the very thought, experience, expertise of the service it seeks to systematise.   It – the system – will demand and measure impertinent to the very service it regulates.   A school can only ‘see’ work as ‘ends’-defined (i.e. rather than ‘means’-defined), ‘solution’ rather than ‘process’, ‘result’ rather than ‘mechanism’ when viewed through a managerial model only.   This way of viewing makes things change within education, but not necessarily for the right reasons, because it centres the gravity of activity around the decision and not the resource itself.   To override the resource is a maniacal oversight and waste and produces work which lurches, which is often reluctant, and achieves no momentum.

Rather, any work offered should be seen as a forum/discussion/seminar/exploration, as a ‘let’s see’ rather than a ‘this is it’.   Any development needs to be holistic, recognising the inter-dependent origination of both management and the resource (both the yang and the yin) so that it can produce organic, stable, plan-able, fruitful, reliable work.   The manager strategises and integrates the resource, the resource innovates and practises.   Managers are rewarded for managing/strategising/integrating, resources should be rewarded for innovating/galvanising/catalysing – both of these above and beyond (and amid) the fundamental job of teaching.

A teacher ever was, and ever will be, a resource.   But controlling by over-ruling them, by disempowering their craft, by alkalising their endeavour will surely be a waste for the school as well as for them.   Use them and reward them as a resource, consult, explore, follow their discoveries and applications, then see how they can be managed across the school.   And what is the reward for being a resource?   Take them off a full timetable, it is an absolute killer for anyone that does anything more than just walk into a classroom and ‘DHL’ a lesson.

^{————w}(O)rmholes_________________________________|—–

managerialism wormhole: compromised
resource wormhole: Apologia
teaching art wormhole: a bit painful this
teaching craft wormhole: the Hothousing of Teaching

 

I offered you ignored

Tags

2011, 4*, career, disempowerment, identity, management, performance management

 

 

 

                I offered you ignored
                      you had far more important things
                      to consider eye on the horizon
                I explained you smiled
                      patronisingly you couldn’t ignore but
                      you couldn’t respond ‘not on message’
                I sulked you thought
                      I was OK took my noncommittal
                      as eccentricity
                I collapsed you failed
                      to acknowledge that there was
                      anything to account for
                I lost faith you listened
                      because you were told to
                      but reneged when I couldn’t show obedience

                I offered you ignored

 

 

 

^{————w}(O)rmholes_________________________________|—–

career wormhole: dance
disempowerment wormhole: two year / pre-cursor / flashing / on | off … // (… to 121212)
identity wormhole: chump
management wormhole: a bit painful this
performance management wormhole: there was a call and far from no response

 

two year / pre-cursor / flashing / on | off … // (… to 121212)

Tags

2012, 6*, breakdown, career, communication, depression, disempowerment, managerialism, tennis

 

 

 

                                   two year
                                   pre-cursor
                                   flashing
                                   on | off …

                                   I broach the problem
                                   I send the document
                      what have I got to lose

                      my complaints are nullified – pok –
                      and returned to me like tennis
                                   as usual

                      and we get nowhere
                      I return to work – despite myself –
                      but we get absolutely nowhere
                                   no one listens
                      whether they love hate or indifferent
                                   the serve

                                   is it me
                      have I got it all wrong
                      am I creating all the illusion
                      through all that I do and yet

                                   I know what I say
                                   I know what I feel
                                   I know why I do things
                                   I know what I see
                                   I know what I think
                                   I know what I write
                      and I know that I never get any of it returned
                                   in dialogue
                      I have thought and creation and action
                      in a world which seems
                                   fractured
                      from the world I operate in

                      and all the while I wander the corridors
                      and haunt the classrooms noticing that
                      even the sunshine has black cobwebs in it

                                   (… to 121212)

 

 

 

^{————w}(O)rmholes_________________________________|—–

breakdown & managerialism wormhole: obituary
career wormhole: a find
communication & disempowerment wormholes: through a cracked glass greenly

 

through a cracked glass greenly

Tags

2012, 7*, communication, disempowerment, glass, management, managerialism, performance, politics, results-led education, system, teaching art, teaching craft, value-led education

 

 

 

                           through a cracked glass greenly

                it’s bad enough
            I offer my thought and care
                and creation
                and you
            sweetly no edge completely
                side-blind me and
                expect of me
            to perform to your management
                which …
            … sorry Mark were you saying
                something?

                                          —o—

            there was nothing wrong with the tri-partite system
            nothing wrong with leaving before 16
            there was nothing wrong with selection
            there was nothing wrong with vocationalism
            nothing wrong with apprenticeships
            there was nothing wrong with the National Curriculum
            there was nothing wrong with O-levels
            nothing wrong with GCSEs GNVQs or Btecs
            nothing wrong with SATs
            nothing wrong with Assessment for Learning
            nothing wrong even with Academies

            it’s just that they all of them
            haven’t been done properly
            because Those Who Don’t Teach
            stand aside
            and see only
            the full stop

            but education is not
                the full stop
            it is not the words the syntax
                the grammar
            it is not the tense the parse
                or the propositions
            it is the communication
                it is the communication

            you don’t see by looking at your own eye lens
            you can’t bite your own teeth
            you can’t teach by plan and performance

                                          —o—

            don’t tell me to differentiate my outcomes
                I prefer to see where on the horizon
                we find ourselves
            don’t tell me to personalise my differentiation
                I prefer to hold eye-contact
            don’t tell me to act with the corporation
                I prefer to communicate
            don’t tell me to respond to OFSTED criteria
                I prefer to make the journey myself
            don’t tell me anything
                I learnt how to walk
            and I learnt how to talk
                when I was two

 

 

 

^{————w}(O)rmholes_________________________________|—–

management & teaching art & teaching craft wormhole: plaintive // plaintiff? // but not precious
glass wormhole: ‘staring through the glass …’
managerialism wormhole: I didn’t see it coming
performance wormhole: manifesto
politics wormhole: militant naïveté