Thatcher and women

Although I feel as though Freire refers more to the “oppressed” in terms of class struggles, I think his ideologies are transferable to other “oppressed” groups, for example, women. 

I am not a feminist! I dislike the label and would never refer to myself as such.  However, the Freire reading made me think about Thatcher (something I try not to do as it just makes me angry), and how she used, or rather didn’t use, her position to help other women.
 
Margaret Thatcher was the first and only woman so far to be prime minister of the United Kingdom, serving for 11 years and 209 days.  Thatcher fought her way to the top against a Tory party that was massively male dominated and faced huge resistance within the party.  However, during her leadership battle against Ted Heath, the party saw a number of everyday women sit up and take notice, many, I’m sure believing that with Thatcher in a position of power women would have a chance at real equality. 

But all she did was prove that it could be done.  In fact, less than doing nothing for women, she marginalized them more than ever, in both the workplace and within their homes and communities.  In fact, being a woman at the top made Thatcher less sympathetic to women’s rights.  As Thatcher congratulated herself on her massive personal accomplishment in the top job, she no doubt in many ways believed that she had done enough; if she could do it, then why couldn’t others? In an interview in 1982, Thatcher claimed that “The battle for women's rights has largely been won. The days when they were demanded and discussed in strident tones should be gone forever. I hate those strident tones we hear from some Women's Libbers."  

But this only showed how detached Thatcher was from the everyday realities of millions of women in the country that she ruled.  As she fought fiercely to succeed in a man’s world she didn’t relate her own struggles to those of other women. Thatcher became more aggressive towards women that any male PM has been since.  Like Freire says, “It is a rare peasant, who once ‘promoted” to overseer, does not become more of a tyrant towards his former comrades than the owner himself” (p.28) the same can certainly be said about Thatcher. 

This is not to say that women should not fight to gain positions of power, but one has to question how much these isolated instances contribute to the liberation of women.  The article below from the New York Times, which was published on International Women’s Day talks about just that.  Its critique is targeted at Sheikh Hasina, the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, yet as I know very little about her, I cannot comment on the writer’s personal views on Hasina and her policies.  What it does however touch on are instances where women have had a real, tangible impact on the lives of other women (it draws on an example from India) arguing that where women are in positions of power at a grassroots level, rather than as one of a minority in a central government, is when ordinary women feel the greatest impact. 

http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/08/do-women-leaders-matter/?scp=1&sq=women%27s+day&st=cse

Not that I would defend Thatcher at any time, any place, ever – she is a witch, but her position as a woman in a system dominated by men, and her complete inability to see herself as one of a group of oppressed peoples, surely contributed to the ferocity at which she executed her power over women and other oppressed groups.  By fighting not to be seen as “oppressed”, Thatcher became worse than the “oppressor” in order to be accepted by the very people that she should have been fighting against.  "Their vision of the new man or woman is individualistic; because of their identification with the oppressor, they have no consciousness of themselves as persons or members of the oppressed class".  (Freire, p.28)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdAVl1LvQL0

Video of the election process for one child in Yemen as he tries to get a seat in the Children's Parliament.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2011/mar/21/yemen-school-democracy-video

Ideally, I like the idea of a 'children's parliament', although, unfortunately I don't see it as anything more than political tokenism.  However, what was so positive to see in the video, were young people raising issues about their school provisions, job prospects and conditions on the streets of Yemen.  Despite my reservations about a children's parliament having any sway in the 'real' government, the process itself which takes place within the state schools, creates an opportunity for the students to think critically about their shared realities, something that the young people in the UK could benefit from rather than spending their time worrying about what Cheryl Cole is wearing on the X Factor (although she does always look great!)

The Frankfurt School made me think about...Dizzee Rascal

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvuT9P553Sw


Money talks (listen)
Money talks (get money)
Dirty cash I want you
Dirty cash I need you more
(2x)
(Let’s go)
Everybody wants to be famous,
Nobody wants to be nameless, aimless,
People act shameless
Tryna live like entertainers,
Want a fat crib with the acres,
So they spend money that they ain’t made yet,
Got a benz on tik that they ain’t paid yet,
Spend their pay cheque
In the west end on the weekend
Got no money by the end of the weekend.
But they don’t care cos their life is a movie,
Starring Louis V, paid for by yours truly,
Truthfully, its a joke, like a bad episode of hollyoaks,
Can’t keep up with the cover notes,
So they got bad credit livin’ on direct debit,
In debt but they still don’t get
Cos they too busy livin’ the high life, the night life
Huggin’ the high way, livin’ large
And they all say
[Repeat Chorus:]
Let me take you down to London city
Where the attitudes bad and the weather is shitty
Everybody’s on the paper chase, its one big rat race
Everybody got a screw face
So many too fake
Checking the height, they say they ready to ride
Im on the inside looking at the outside
So its a accurate reflection
City wide north east west and the south side
Everywhere I go there’s a girl on the corner
Guns and drugs got the city like a sauna,
And its getting warmer and out of order
Trying to put a struggling mother to a morner
Mr politician can you tell me the solution
Whats the answer whats the conclusion
Is it an illusion.
Is it a mirage.
I see youngers dieing coz their tryna live large??
And they all say
[Bridge:]
I’ve no excuse
I just want you to use me
Take me and abuse me
I’ve got no taboos
I make a drink with you.
Do anything u want me to
[Repeat Chorus:]
We are livin in the days of the credit crunch
Give me the doh
Im trying have a bunch
But I cant have rice for lunch
its not there aint enough to share
Ain’t fair never dreamed that he could be rare
Who cares who dares to make a change
Everybody in the club trying to make it rain
But not for famine just for the sake of habit
15 minutes of fame and everything’s the same
Again and again I see the same thing
Everybody acting like they their plane sailin’
I see rough seas ahead maybe a recession
And then a depression in whatever profession
This is my confession I cant fight im in the forefront
Living for money ready to start like a bungee jump
With no rope but I ain’t trying to see the bottom
Because that’s were I came from, I ain’t forgotten

Schools shouldn't be like schools...

This week's article (Kincheloe and Steinberg) made me think of this article that I read about the negative implications of treating pre-schools in the US like schools as we know them by definition. 

http://www.slate.com/id/2288402/ 

The arguments raised in this article about young children needing the space to be creative on their own and find their own answers to problems does not cease to exist once they start kindergarten and move further through their education.  It surely becomes more of an important skill.  These skills may need to be acquired as young children, but they certainly need to be developed as adolescents too.  

 Too much standardised testing that focuses on giving students the 'answer' so that they can progress to the next pre-determined place in their educational careers, is of course not just something that is a problem in early education.  Students are rarely given any opportunity to think for themselves or to discover the answers to questions that they wish to ask and that are real to their world. 

Under the system we offer to our young people today, be that in Korea, the UK or elsewhere, students either succeed or they fail.  In fact, in the UK there are more young people leaving 11 years of compulsory education without being able to read or write than ever.  A shocking state of affairs in one of the richest countries in the world.  Yet, this fact seems to be ignored by the government (the current Tory government and the 'Labour' one that preceded it). As the debate continues about what to teach under the national curriculum, the focus is still heavily on getting students into universities through academic means, something which is just not a reality for many young people (and ever more so now that university fees have been inflated).  There needs to be a rethink about what will serve the young people that enter into these institutions without marginalising them and setting them up to fail.  Alternative curriculums that focus on basic and vocational skills are simply a necessity.  Yet, Michael Gove, the Schools Secretary is pushing for the introduction of Greek into the curriculum claiming that all students have a right to access the traditional subjects.  If this is the party line then surely the subjects need to change to fit the new generation. 

The introduction of an alternative curriculum would of course mean the empowerment of teachers and students themselves.  Teachers need to be given more power and authority to make professional judgment calls about their students and their needs.  This unfortunately is looking unlikely as the teaching profession is becoming increasingly deskilled, another upshot of the public spending cuts in the UK. 

Society as a whole needs to embrace changes to such standardization in schools so that employers, parents and others recognize other subjects as valid.  Unfortunately, change is slow and while MPs stand in parliament and argue over these issues more of our young people sit in classrooms, just waiting to be failed. 

Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish on its ability to climb a tree, it will lead its whole life believing that it's stupid.  Albert Einstein

I'm blogging

So I finally worked out how to set up this blog thing - or I worked out that I couldn't work it out and got Martin to do it for me.  Anyway, its done and I now have no real idea what to do with it.  Blogging makes me uncomfortable.  Reading other people's blogs generally make me quite uncomfortable too which is why I never do either.  However, as this is part of my contribution as a student of this class, I will not only do it, but I will try to enjoy it, or at the very least take something from it, which if I can ever work out how to follow other ppl from our class, I'm sure I will.