Last week, Australia found itself with a new Prime Minister, who happens to be female. Today the UN Economic and Social Council called for women's human rights to be a priority. http://tiny.cc/37rj0
On face value all looks well for the feminist agenda. However, it is with mixed emotions that I welcome Julia as the leader of our country. Mixed because of the apparent viciousness of her approach, the speed and severity at which she removed Rudd and was placed into power. Mixed because I feel so proud of her stamina, her passion and her dedication to our country. Mixed because already I think that women all over our nation are finding reasons to 'slag' her off or assess her against our 'standards of femininity'.
Already most links I have seen posted on facebook have been about her style, her fashion, her haircuts and her unmarried status. Why do we insist on lowering our intellectual standards, why is there so little discussion available in our social networks and on our TV which critically assesses her policies or her leadership strategies and an identification of how women everywhere can learn from her? Why it is more socially acceptable to discuss her choice of shoes?
I have heard many say she is a puppet, I have read arguments that suggest she has been voted in by the old men of the labour party in a desperate attempt a) stop the mining tax that was going to reduce the value of their investment funds, and b) to win an election they were so in danger of losing.
So is she the Sarah Palin of the 2010 Australian election? Or is she a Hillary Clinton? Will she just be politically cut off if she is not voted in? Will we then be in a situation where we have lost yet another senior female leader to the systemic attempt to portray her as an aggressive, angry feminist, who is bullied by male colleagues and who needs to get a better stylist in order to succeed in her career??
With all my heart I hope she truly shines.
Jx
Express your inner radiance!
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Monday, June 28, 2010
Our constant striving - a form of violence?
'There is a perverse form of contemporary violence (and that is) activism and over work...The rush and pressure of modern life are a form of violence. To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects, to want to help everyone in everything is to succumb to violence. The frenzy of our activism neutralizes our work for peace. It destroys our inner capacity for peace." Thomas Merton
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
The Bell Curve - let's throw it a curve ball...
I wonder who exactly is responsible for the travesty that is the 'bell curve'. The very assumption of 'average' gets my goat. That implication that 'most' people are just alright, 'most' people should sit in the common area and be just like everyone else, 'most people' are not exceptional, 'most' people do not excel! It is a ridiculously limiting elitist notion created by academics and neolithic philosophers who design evaluation programs to keep people in order, to maintain the status-quo, to control us and to stop us from all performing at our peak.
It prevents many who are brilliant from being recognised as such, and that is each one of us in our own way.
I propose a movement to remove the bell curve from our system entirely as it is artificially constraining individuals, holding them back, moving people with the potential and actual ability to be brilliant into this column of mediocrity.
It is underpinned by the principles of scarcity rather than abundance. It views the world as if there are a only a few amazing people, only the rare few who are outstanding, only a couple who are exceptional. It operates from the presupposition that there is not enough to go around, so we can only give bonus's and high marks to a few and 'most' people are not up to it and therefore do not deserve it.
The conversations I have heard recently about regrading marks to bring them down because you cannot have too many people in the top range is absurd and ridiculous, elitist and by it's very nature is the real meaning of 'degrading! I cannot believe that this practice is allowed to continue, never mind actually encouraged and seen as best practice.
Don't get me wrong, I strongly support the concept of work being evaluated and assessed (I had to rewrite that 3 times because I do not support people being evaluated and assessed) One 'Credit' mark does not an 'average' person make. And if someone has not done the work required, has not demonstrated competency and has not understood the concept, or communicated their knowledge or behaved in a way that indicates their application of that knowledge then their work should be graded honestly and accurately.
However the idea that in a team of 20 only 5% or less should receive high distinctions or high performance scores is a classist, old fashioned technique which actually fails to recognise the actual reality that in many cases 'most people' are actually performing in an outstanding fashion, and it ignores the truth that everyone is entitled to shine and if they do, then they do..and their work should not just be compared to their peers so they can be 'categorised', regardless of whether they are in a consort of geniuses or a group of individuals with different levels of academic or operational prowess.
No one should have their mark, score or grade downgraded to allow for a bell curve in any context. If you have a team of exceptional, outstanding and sparking employees or students, I urge you to think twice before you try and shape them into an artificially average bunch. For our future and for the children of the future, let's not limit our amazing human capacity, let's not artificially shove the bell curve over a ski jump.....
/ not ^
Stand Up, Stand Out and Stand ...for something!
Jx
Express your inner radiance!
It prevents many who are brilliant from being recognised as such, and that is each one of us in our own way.
I propose a movement to remove the bell curve from our system entirely as it is artificially constraining individuals, holding them back, moving people with the potential and actual ability to be brilliant into this column of mediocrity.
It is underpinned by the principles of scarcity rather than abundance. It views the world as if there are a only a few amazing people, only the rare few who are outstanding, only a couple who are exceptional. It operates from the presupposition that there is not enough to go around, so we can only give bonus's and high marks to a few and 'most' people are not up to it and therefore do not deserve it.
The conversations I have heard recently about regrading marks to bring them down because you cannot have too many people in the top range is absurd and ridiculous, elitist and by it's very nature is the real meaning of 'degrading! I cannot believe that this practice is allowed to continue, never mind actually encouraged and seen as best practice.
Don't get me wrong, I strongly support the concept of work being evaluated and assessed (I had to rewrite that 3 times because I do not support people being evaluated and assessed) One 'Credit' mark does not an 'average' person make. And if someone has not done the work required, has not demonstrated competency and has not understood the concept, or communicated their knowledge or behaved in a way that indicates their application of that knowledge then their work should be graded honestly and accurately.
However the idea that in a team of 20 only 5% or less should receive high distinctions or high performance scores is a classist, old fashioned technique which actually fails to recognise the actual reality that in many cases 'most people' are actually performing in an outstanding fashion, and it ignores the truth that everyone is entitled to shine and if they do, then they do..and their work should not just be compared to their peers so they can be 'categorised', regardless of whether they are in a consort of geniuses or a group of individuals with different levels of academic or operational prowess.
No one should have their mark, score or grade downgraded to allow for a bell curve in any context. If you have a team of exceptional, outstanding and sparking employees or students, I urge you to think twice before you try and shape them into an artificially average bunch. For our future and for the children of the future, let's not limit our amazing human capacity, let's not artificially shove the bell curve over a ski jump.....
/ not ^
Stand Up, Stand Out and Stand ...for something!
Jx
Express your inner radiance!
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Another day in Paradise
When you live in Scotland and the sun rarely shows itself, it can be quite easy to feel a bit down. However a wonderfully inspirational individual I connected with recently, who lives in Scotland, said to me 'the sun is always shining here, it's just that sometimes the clouds are in the way'.
How wonderful! Makes me contemplate what types of clouds might block out our internal light!
Rain clouds: filled with bucket loads of emotion we have not let go...yet
Fluffly clouds: filled with lost dreams and misty memories
Fleeting clouds: that are bright and almost see-through that might help us gain perspective
Living in Australia, the sun is out almost every day, but I wonder do I really see it?
How wonderful! Makes me contemplate what types of clouds might block out our internal light!
Rain clouds: filled with bucket loads of emotion we have not let go...yet
Fluffly clouds: filled with lost dreams and misty memories
Fleeting clouds: that are bright and almost see-through that might help us gain perspective
Living in Australia, the sun is out almost every day, but I wonder do I really see it?
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