THE GOOD TEACHER a updating of the GOOD SAMARITAN

English: A special education teacher assists one of her students. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Some time in the present there was a wealthy man called Bill, he was one of the richest men in the World, he had made his wealthy making and selling electronic devices. Bill was not a selfish man (entirely) He donated large amounts of his money to special causes, and his favorite one was education. However he was not happy he wanted to now how he would be remembered in history.
He happened to be attending a conference on education.

At this conference there was a special education teacher who was addressing the conference she was well known for her compassionate teacher and teaching each child individually Mrs C was very highly respected in her field.

During a coffee break Bill decided to speak to her and ask her advice.

“Rabbi (which in Hebrew means teacher) how may my place in history concerning education be fulfilled?

“By how much time you spend with your children and their education.

“Is that all” said Bill.

Then Mrs C explained to him with a story.

“There a child who was coming out of school after serving detention in a rough part of town, when he was beaten up by a band of kids, while he was lying on the side walk  a local businessman came driving by, he saw the kid but drove on. Then the local minister was riding his bike, he thought the gang might be still there but did call the police on his cell phone (they were too busy to come out). A short time after that a teacher was walking home (because his car had broken down) he recognized the child from the hall. He picked him up with help of a lady who was passing by, and took him home to his worried parents who had been concerned about the time. They brought him in cleaned him up, and sent out for pizza, meanwhile they talked. The teacher paid for the pizza and paid for extra supplies for the child, also he got him help with extra tuition which helped him catch up with the others. This motivated the parents to get involved in their child’s education.”

Then Mrs C turned to Bill asked him who was most helpful to the child.? “The one who helped him.” Replied Bill glibly

“Bill  sell your business and invest in education by building new schools paying teachers what they deserve and work in the class room with a kid that needs help, that is worth more than all the foundations funding charter schools around”

I dedicate this poor piece to my wife Catherine Cooper Cridland a great teacher and to the millions of dedicated teachers around the World.

 

I also dedicate this to inlaws Dr Richard T Cooper and Mary Cooper. Dick was a hard worker administator in the LAUSD and the Californian schools  Mary was a hard working teacher who inspired my wife.

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Vivre la Quebec Libre (The two Charles De Gaulle's Frenchman and Breton)

De Gaulle in 1961 at the Köln/Bonn airport. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)







Charles De Gaulle  Vive la Quebec Libre


Brittany has known two Charles De Gaulle’s. The famous General De Gaulle, Liberator and the symbolism of France and the French language. Then there’s the lesser known Charles De Gaulle uncle of the famous General De Gaulle born in 1834, and founder of the pan Celtic movement ironically he was known by his Breton name Charlez Vro-C'hall, He was a poet a devout Cathjolic  and monarchist. He was a great believer in the Celtic languages as a vehicle of high culture, he learnt Breton, Welsh, and Gaelic. Paradoxically as opposed to his nephew he believed in the restoration of Breton autonomy as opposed to his highly centralizing nephew.

Unfortunately he suffered from a paralysis which meant he never visited those places that were the home of his imagination he composed this piece

E Paris va c'horf zo dalc'het
Med daved hoc'h nij va spered
Vel al labous, aden askel,
Nij de gaout he vreudeur a bell
(In Paris my body is held
But towards you my spirit flies,
Swftly like a bird,
To meet his far away brothers.)

Ironically his nephew General De Gaulle used him to advocate Quebecois independence. And now with the news from Quebec with the victory of the Bloc Quebecois an their leader who was almost shot. Will the next referendum be successful and will the dream of Charles De Gaulle be realized and will it encourage the Scots to vote for independence causing the dream of Charles De Gaulle the elder to be realized?

Cardiff Region Dead?

Talk of  creating a Cardiff  region (consisting of Cardiff and the local authorities such as the Vale of Glamorgan, Rhondda Cynon Taf etc) has been going on for some years. However nothing concrete has even appeared. Now it seems according to a report in the South Wales Echo it may not even materialize.

“he concept of creating a Cardiff City Region covering much of South East Wales appears to have been undermined in documents obtained by the Echo, it has been claimed.”

It seems that the Welsh Government was not interested in pursuing a cross authority plan on housing it wanted Cardiff to go head and plan for 44K new houses to be built by 2026 which is incredible.

“The Welsh Government’s head of plans Mark Newey said, according to the notes, other councils were so advanced in preparing their own LDPs that there was “no immediate prospect” of securing a cross-boundary agreement.
Mr Newey reportedly said the idea of Cardiff sharing its projected growth within the region “was not a realistic short-term option” and “referred to the need for Cardiff to prepare its plan now”.
The council warned the LDP would see thousands of homes built on greenfield sites, raise “serious political issues” and “was unlikely to receive support”. But the Welsh Government’s chief planner Rosemary Thomas reminded the council of its “responsibility as a capital city in delivering (an LDP)”.

It seems that the surrounding authorities want Cardiff to build build build, and they have a puppet in the new Labour administration who will defy the wishes of the the people of Cardiff as Professor Kevin Morgan put it

“Professor Kevin Morgan, a planning expert at Cardiff University, said planning future housing provision from a regional perspective was integral to a successful city region.
Prof Morgan, who was a member of the Welsh Government’s City Region Group, said: “If Cardiff is forced to accommodate its housing growth within the boundaries of the city it will be forced to build on green space.
“Some planners would say that is the right and proper thing to do, but that is not my view – I think if local politicians start to build on green space they will be toast.
“That is why I am a city regionalist. Part of this growth has got to be shared with neighbouring local authorities – you have got to engage them and come to a mutually beneficial position.”

I s he right, will they be toast?

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