Sunday, March 30, 2008

[surveillance] doing well, thank you

Thanx Banxy

Englisc Fyrd summarizes some of the latest moves:

* CCTVcore.co.uk reveals how the government plans to roll out a mugshot database. You can read the article here.

* The idea of a database containing naughty children's details has been touted for a while. Tony Blair was for the idea, but it seems said database is coming closer to fruition to help with "spotting future offenders". This is London reports on it here.

* The Telegraph reports that CCTV is slowly creeping into schools, their article here details the complaints from the Association of Teachers and Lecturers who fear school rooms are becoming Orwellian. The article reports that:

"Schools are believed to have first installed classroom CCTV four years ago, with an academy in Middlesbrough using cameras to monitor pupil behaviour and protect expensive equipment."

I could go on and on but you'll need to read for yourself. However, there's more from David Farrer:
But BAA says the fingerprinting at Terminal 5 has been installed under orders from the Government.

It says a working group, which included the Home Office's Borders and Immigration Agency, decided it was the "most robust system" to protect Britain's borders.

Truly wonderful. And let's never forget this, from December 2006:

Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act

11 comments:

  1. They always going to watch you, the introduction of the S.M.A.R.T card here sounds like a good idea but it isn't very widely accepted.

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  2. I'm not sure if CCTV in classrooms would be such a bad thing, given the behaviour problems we now have. And some parents should get a look at just how their little angels behave in school.

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  3. No, no a thousand times etc.

    Welshcakes. It is a good thing to spy on children? Honestly, what kind of planet? I do despair.

    James, have your other commentators no memory of being a child? I have more than enough memories of badness happening and having escaped, merely, what happened to yourself because my parents taught me to stand up for myself i.e. ask, questions, do not accept that authority is right and then I look at Welshcookie's response and see where it all went wrong.

    Here it is, darling, straight up from someone who has gone through your system: in your time you did not teach, you prosetylised, you did not fight against indiscipline in the classroom, au contraire, you
    argued that children should be able to make their own mind up, they should by some process of osmosis learn. You stated that, somehow, children were gifted to learn.

    Let me point out how it actually should work in this old world of ours.

    Teachers should teach. I know that sounds so simple but that is what they are there to do. D'accord?

    If you cannot control a class that means you do not have the attention of the pupils, ergo you should not be teaching. QED.

    And that dear, means that the kids have cottoned on.

    Am I being patronising here? Got it in one.

    I have had numerous conversations with teachers when they say 'it's not our fault. Really?

    You are little compared to the pupils?

    No.

    STB.

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  4. Welshcookie replies:
    You know very little about me so I don't know how you can make all these judgements. I never proselytised but taught and , I hope, guided and inspired. Many of my former students would bear that out. Do you think I didn't agonise over all the changes that were brought in? Over the idea that simulation was better than knowledge? Do you think I didn't work all the hours god made and more to try to make it better for my charges? Do you think I liked being threatened with knives and being told to f off all day? As for "if you can't control a class... " have you ever tried it?
    Now, again, I don't mind having my comments argued with and torn to pieces, but I do bloody well mind being talked down to.

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  5. Well I think people expect far too much from teachers. What goes on away from the class room does have bearing on the kids behaviours in class. It is not just a teachers responsibility to teach the children, parents need to smarten themselves up and get involved in the lives of their children. I say have the cameras in class, watch them and yes be interesting what reaction of some parents be when they see how the little darlings behave. I remember what it was like being a kid, was no angel but the things that teachers have to put up with today far exceed anything we ever did or dreamed of. Cctv would also help protect the teacher from any allegations if they arose.

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  6. Nunyaa and Welsh - see where you're coming from but with STB and Rob here.

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  7. Some of them kids are out of control and will do and say anything, they get believed over a teacher who very well is innocent, it's not just for the protection of the kids, but also the teachers. I don't see it as spying on kids not when they in a classroom. Agree with Welshcakes here, like to see anyone else try and control a group of wayward kids. Easy to say in theory but not so practical.

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  8. Ah - re-read STB's comment and it does fall into the red zone in terms of this blog's comments policy.

    My comment agreeing with STB was concerning the notion of cameras only.

    Re the comment on Welshcakes, I really must remonstrate. Both you, STB and Welshcakes both have been two of my most valuable readers and I would not like that to end.

    We really must stick to the issue and not the person making the comment.

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  9. I don't think scotstoryb lives in the real world. Teachers would love to teach if pupils behaved appropriately. Just one disruptive pupil can ruin a whole class. And I respect the views of Welshcakes as a teacher who can speak from personal experience.

    James, I agree that people should make comments in a civil manner without being unpleasant.

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  10. James,

    First. my apologies to Welshcakes. I was OTT.

    Second, apologies to yourself re policy and to the others I offended.

    I am more angry that this society's answer to everything is to remove sanctions then, when that fails, to impose CCTV with the inevitable escalating sanctions that follow.

    STB.

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Comments need a moniker of your choosing before or after ... no moniker, not posted, sorry.