Actually, I was reading the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell in the very year 1984. I thought it was a scary and a strange book. My conclusion was that this will never happen in reality, that someone would be able to control us so much. In my opinion, I thought it was a utopian world Orwell painted in his novel. Today I read in NWT that Swedes are registered in a variety of databases and registers. Not even the data inspection knows how many there are but they think it’s a hundred.
One has to remember that the society in 1984 was quite different than today. We still used money when we were shopping instead of paying with cards, as we more or less, do today. If we wanted to buy, for example, some kind of tickets we went to the place were they sold tickets and bought what we wanted. Today, a lot of people buy tickets through the Internet. As a matter of fact a lot of things are bought and sold through the Internet. Computers and mobiles development had not yet begun and the fear of terrorists was in its infancy. Nobody had heard of the words SMS, MSN, YouTube or reality shows.
On the one hand, my belief is that the more technology a society develops the more vulnerable it may be. If we return to the credit cards it developed ATM´s, a machine were you can withdraw money from your bank account. This resulted in that people started to be robbed at the ATM,s, which in turns led to that surveillance cameras became important. There are also criminals, who are trying to get over code numbers on credit cards and who empties these peoples personal bank accounts. Also when people disappear, you can make use of surveillance cameras, ATM withdrawals or any purchased the disappeared have done to try to locate the person.
On the other hand there are people who believe that we live in a surveillance society which impinge on human rights and we can’t go anywhere today without being under some form of surveillance. Go to your local store or your large super store, and somewhere there is a camera recording your every movement. Go online to shop, exchange emails, visit web sites, the chances are strong that someone is watching, whether it be your employer, a company seeking to profile online people, or a hacker who might have taken over your computer.
All in all, I think these different aspects leads to a society which needs to take a step forward according to humanity and technology. The technology is here to stay and will be further developed. It’s nothing we can do about that but I think we can discuss what kind of society we want to live in which is important to me because I don’t want our human rights to be forgotten among all surveillance stuff.
However, I’m not really concerned about the surveillance in our society. There are a lot of educated people in the issue and there are laws who protect us, ordinary people. I think it’s rather good if we can catch criminals and personally, I have nothing to hide so, as a matter of fact, this issue is something like a non issue to me.
Britt-Marie
måndag 20 april 2009
tisdag 14 april 2009
At last, perhaps there will be grades in primary school!
The last general election in Sweden gave the country a new government, the Centre-Right Alliance. One of their major issues before the general election was education. They wanted to reform school because they thought the Swedish school was a muddled one, thanks to the Socialist government that has been in Sweden for many years. As soon as they got elected they started to change things in school, among other things they decided that parents have the right to receive written reports of their children’s academic progress, each semester from 1st degree. These written reports may look like grades. That’s up to every school to decide. New for this academic year are goals that students should have attained in the third degree in Swedish and mathematics and there are also national tests in these subjects. One proposal is that school student will receive grades in 6th grade but there has been no decision about it yet. I say; thank God for this proposal and I really hope that the Parliamentary will say yes to it.
First of all, the Swedish Curriculum and Syllabuses for compulsory school are based on goals. There are two kinds of goals, goals to aim for and goals that pupils should have attained by the end of the fifth and ninth year in school. These goals have teachers not been very good to talk about earlier. Neither the children nor their parents have had knowledge about them, or very little, despite that we have had this Curriculum since 1994. If the politics decide that there will be grades from 6th degree (and I hope so) it will force teachers to clarify the goals to parents and children, the goals then the grades are based on. Since schools now have national tests in the third degree it contributes to the effort to clarify the goals must start early, already in 1st degree. I have seen these tests and I have also experience from national tests in the 5th degree and I can tell you that the tests from third degree are much more detailed then the tests in the 5th degree and my belief is that when we have a new curriculum it will be much more detailed compared to the one we have today.
On the other hand I believe that grades also help students who are in need of special support. If a student may fail getting his or hers grades, the teacher must notify the parents and put into action all the way to help the student in getting his/hers grades. My experience of this is that school often wait far too long before students get extra help, in fact there are studies which shows this. School believes that students will be mature in their individual pace when in fact, for many students, there isn’t a maturity issue but a learning difficulty.
In fact, investigations shows that students wish to have grades earlier than today and that is another aspect why I want grades in earlier degrees. Furthermore, I think that students want grades earlier because then they will become aware of the goals they are supposed to study to. They think no different than grown ups on this issue. If you don’t know why you are doing what you are doing then it’s very likely that you feel confused which doesn’t facilitate knowledge learning.
However there are other methods which already today help teachers to clarify student’s academically progress. I have already mentioned the written report but there is also a document that each student should have, not just the students who are in need of special support. This document is called IUP (individual development plan). According to me, all methods which clarify students´ learning are good but despite that I’m convinced that grades in 6th degree will support students´ development better, because grades have a greater value comparing to other methods.
Finally, I believe we should ask ourselves the question, why we have schools? Is it not in order for students to learn?
First of all, the Swedish Curriculum and Syllabuses for compulsory school are based on goals. There are two kinds of goals, goals to aim for and goals that pupils should have attained by the end of the fifth and ninth year in school. These goals have teachers not been very good to talk about earlier. Neither the children nor their parents have had knowledge about them, or very little, despite that we have had this Curriculum since 1994. If the politics decide that there will be grades from 6th degree (and I hope so) it will force teachers to clarify the goals to parents and children, the goals then the grades are based on. Since schools now have national tests in the third degree it contributes to the effort to clarify the goals must start early, already in 1st degree. I have seen these tests and I have also experience from national tests in the 5th degree and I can tell you that the tests from third degree are much more detailed then the tests in the 5th degree and my belief is that when we have a new curriculum it will be much more detailed compared to the one we have today.
On the other hand I believe that grades also help students who are in need of special support. If a student may fail getting his or hers grades, the teacher must notify the parents and put into action all the way to help the student in getting his/hers grades. My experience of this is that school often wait far too long before students get extra help, in fact there are studies which shows this. School believes that students will be mature in their individual pace when in fact, for many students, there isn’t a maturity issue but a learning difficulty.
In fact, investigations shows that students wish to have grades earlier than today and that is another aspect why I want grades in earlier degrees. Furthermore, I think that students want grades earlier because then they will become aware of the goals they are supposed to study to. They think no different than grown ups on this issue. If you don’t know why you are doing what you are doing then it’s very likely that you feel confused which doesn’t facilitate knowledge learning.
However there are other methods which already today help teachers to clarify student’s academically progress. I have already mentioned the written report but there is also a document that each student should have, not just the students who are in need of special support. This document is called IUP (individual development plan). According to me, all methods which clarify students´ learning are good but despite that I’m convinced that grades in 6th degree will support students´ development better, because grades have a greater value comparing to other methods.
Finally, I believe we should ask ourselves the question, why we have schools? Is it not in order for students to learn?
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