Dan Lyndon

Sweden 2 Denmark 2 It's a nordic fix-up!!!!!!!!!! Only joking, what a great game, both teams easily deserved to be in the next round. Forza Italia, seems like a spit in the ocean at the moment!

I haven't seen too many complete games, (apart from the pretty average performances of the English) but did really enjoy watching both the Sweden games and the parts of the Holland-Czech Rep game that I saw was very entertaining. Like most viewers I am still not sure about this variation of the offside laws. I was sure that both the Dutch goals were offside, especially Van Nistleroy - how can a player standing in front of the goal keeper NOT be 'active'. I really don't think that the law needed to be changed, there were enough goals being scored, which was presumably the motivation for changing the rule. I personally do not find myself anywhere near as engaged in International matches compared to the intensity of following my team (I guess there is no surprise there). I often watch England games in a pub in order to get involved in the atmosphere that is created, but I don't tend to watch Arsenal games in a pub as I prefer to watch in my own home and inch closer and closer to the screen as the match develops. I have tried to work out why I get so much pleasure from football and why I become so emotionally involved in the game. I guess that it has been very much part of my socialisation. Like others have mentioned my connection with football has meant a close connection with the (male) members of my family. My grandfather took my brother and myself to our first football match (I think it was Arsenal v Aston Villa in 1977), most of the conversations that I have with my father involve some discussion of the footie. I wouldn't say that it has had an impact on my social relationships (although I have missed family occasions to watch matches before) but I am glad that my partner enjoys watching football too, and the fact that she is a Tottenham supporter hasn't caused lasting damage!

I found the England game very frustrating (surprise, surprise!) and very reassuring (we certainly know how to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory). There were many positive elements, especially in the form of Rooney and, despite John S's pessimism, Ledley King was outstanding. The worry, as I suggested previously was the midfield, who played so deep in the second half that they were virtually camped on our own 18 yard box. As an Arsenal man I thought that the English gooners out performed their French teammates (Henry was fairly anonymous, maybe those journalists were right after all!). However, I am still optimistic that England will qualify for the next round and could well meet the French in the final. Oh what joy it will be to take sweet revenge. The only other match I have watched was the Sweden game last night and I was certainly impressed by their second half performance. Larsson's diving header was fantastic and it was good to see Freddie Ljungberg so involved. Maybe they are a good outside bet for the title? I hope to watch the Holland-Germany game tonight, and despite my German ancestry I shall be rooting for the Dutch, they just play football as the good Lord intended it to be played!

Thanks John, this is a real bugbear of mine and it is lovely to be able to vent spleen. I have a real issue with the idea of compulsion - ie the expectation that I should wear a tie every day of the week. In fact at my old school I even went as far as DELIBERATELY not wearing a tie on a Friday. In my current post as a middle manager the expectation is even higher, and on the odd occasion that I 'dared' not to wear a tie the amount of comments that I got was ridiculous. I do not have a problem in looking smart, in fact I spend lots of money on my clothes and love a good shop. I feel really strongly that I look just as formal with a suit and open shirt / v-neck jumper as I do with a tie. I do have a problem with double standards - sadly the old fashioned gender stereotypes / expectations still exist - many women teachers can dress in T-shirts whilst I have to wear a collar and tie. The other appaling thing about ties are the men that wear novelty ties, especially at Christmas, makes me want to choke them! (I told you I had an issue with this!) Maybe I should start a no tie campaign, and start to picket the Dept for Education.

My heart says Engerland, my head says La France, but my money has been wagered on the Portugese (7/1 is too good to miss for a home team especially with Figo and, much as it pains me to admit, Christian Ronaldo). My biggest worry about England, as John suggests is the dreaded 'Diamond' midfield. The best team in England / Europe (the Arsenal) with one of the finest managers in recent history always play 4-4-2 and that is a system that 'English' teams are used to. We looked incredibly weak against Japan playing the diamond as Lampard, Beckham, Scholes and Gerrard don't actually know how to tackle. Scholes should have been sent off several times in the last few games that he has played as a result of several shocking tackles. By playing Scholes at the 'top' of the diamond he also gets in the way of Rooney who should be allowed to drop inot the 'hole' a la Bergkamp and pick up the ball from deeper - you only needed to witness the second goal he scored against Finland to see the power of the boy. Beckham is also much more effective out on the right wing, despite his desire to play in the middle, and his deadly accurate passing helps the forwards much more than his attempts to dribble through a packed defence. My second concern is the defence especially against the French. As a gooner I have seen the likes of Henry, Pires, Vieira and even Wiltord rip the heart out of so many teams with their incredible pace, energy and sublime skill. Without the injured John Terry in the middle whoever replaces him (Carragher or King) is going to be in for a tough time against Titi. However I have heard rumours that some Football journalists have suggested that Henry 'bottles it' on the biggest occasions and goes AWOL (eg the quarter-final of the Champions League against Chelsea). I am not totally convinced. As for the other teams, it seems that there are serious doubts about the Italians (and rumours of unhappiness in their training camp), the Germans have been off the boil for the longest that I can remember and the Spanish never seem to gel as a team (and why did they leave Jose Antonio Reyes at home?). Strangely it seems that the Dutch are getting on well and they could be a surprise package - Ajax looked good in the Champions League and they have some great individuals like Arjen Robben - although the midfield is a bit old. Predictions: Semi finals - France, England, Holland, Italy

Nowhere is there a greater "need for a reconvened feminist politics which would be beneficial to us all" (which you mysteriously left out of your posting), than in the single sex (especially boys) schools, in which I have taught over the last decade. Sadly the attitude towards women of many of the male students that I have taught can only be described as 'neanderthal'. I have had countless discussions / arguments about how sexist and patriarchal they are, that it is not respectful (I don't really like the term, it is not powerful enough), nice or even a good 'strategy' to treat women as either 'wifey' or 'ho' (no different from mother/whore but a bit more 'street'). I have had to deal with one student graphically describing his sexual exploits in front of the rest of the class and then re-enacting most of them on the table top (the little darling is currently serving a heathy exclusion!). The amount of porn that is viewed by students online or even downloaded onto their mobile phones is horrifying. As someone who would describe themselves as very supportive of the ideas of feminism, I am having to fight a losing battle in my classroom against the anti-feminist backlash that we are currently experiencing.

Nice one John. I have pondered for a while what I should include for an international history curriculum and, whilst not wanting to appear a 'cop out', I don't have any suggestions. The reason is this: As both a history teacher and head of a history department my philosophy has always been about promoting creativity and opportunity for teachers and students. I guess this came from my own desire to explore a completely new and totally different area of historical study when I went to university. At school I had studied 19th century British and European History and the English Civil War. In fact one of the turning points in my life (and I don't use the phrase lightly) came about when I was choosing my degree subject. I was much better at Politics, I was more interested in Politics, but one of my A Level History teachers told me that if you study History you can basically create your own degree - in other words I chose the topics, the periods, the countries that I wanted to study (I would, sadly, be suprised if students had the same freedom today). I applied to study History in the school of African and Asian Studies at Sussex University, and it was fantastic. As a result in my teaching I have always tried to include topics in my teaching that go beyond the 'status quo' of the National Curiculum. I actually believe that in the last 7 years the freedom to create your own curriculum has increased enormously and the Labour government should take credit for that . So I guess I believe that the best teaching comes from the most passionate historians and they teach the topics that they want to learn about themselves.

I went to a lecture recently in Bristol, at the empire and commonwealth museum, in which Niall Ferguson spoke. I have never heard some speak more confidently about ideas which are so naive. One of the most memorable comments that he made concerned post colonial Africa. Ferguson argued that the biggest problem for (Anglophone) Africa today was that the British had NOT stayed for long enough!!! He has this notion that 'Empire' is almost entirely benevolent and that we, clearly, should overlook 'minor' issues of exploitation (including post colonial), and racism. One of the books that I read at University was by Walter Rodney, 'How Europe underdeveloped Africa', I wonder if Niall Ferguson has read it? I thought that the article by George Monbiot was an excellent counter to Ferguson's diatribe.

I wonder if there have been any attempts to tackle issues of multiculturalism or racism in Spanish schools? I presume there is nothing like Black history Month or campaigns like Kick it out (racism in football) Does the curriculum allow flexibility below year 12 - in English schools there is much more freedom now to develop the history curriculum and I have tried to introduce alot more multicultural history into the syllabi that I teach. Surely there must be scope for exploring the North African influence as Matthew Clarke mentioned. Has there been a backlash after the Madrid bombings? I wonder how schools are dealing with these issues - as we know History is an excellent vehicle for discussing these kind of events and attitudes.

I am a supporter of 'value added' data. I teach in an inner city school which gets results that are well below the national average, but that is a poor reflection of the incredible dedication, commitment and love (and I use that word intentionally) that many teachers at my school show day in and day out. It also does not reflect that many of the students have English as an additional language, a large number have statements of special needs and over 60% claim free school meals. I was very glad when I saw the value added tables that my school came out virtually top of all the schools in the borough (including the school that the Prime Minister's children went to).

I am going to come over all 'liberal wishy washy' and sit right on the fence on this one. As a History teacher from Anglo-German heritage with a degree in African History, but also specialised in the English revolution and the Suffragettes, and teaches in a massively multicultural school I have experienced both sides of the argument. I believe that it is important to study some aspects of the history of the country that you live in, but this should be in conjunction with European and World history as well as a multicultural history that reflects the vast contributions that minorities have made to every country. I become concerned when the school curriculum reflects the dominant ideology and in that respect I worry that overt nationalism is a dangerous vehicle for reinforcing stereotypes and creating conflict. One of the most fantastic things about teaching in a multicultural school is the opportunity to learn about different countries and cultures. There have been countless occasions where the experiences of students from other countries have hugely enhanced the learning that has been taking place and really widened the knowledge of all. One quick example (which also shows the benefits of teaching a curriculum which is not dogged by problems of nationalism); I teach the history of medicine at GCSE, which looks at the changes in medicine and public health over thousands of years and studies contributions form around the world. In my current year 10 class there are boys from England (white, black and asian british), Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Kurdistan, Ireland, Eritrea, and Albania. We were discussing the Roman approach to public health and one of the students from Afghanistan related the problems faced by the Romans to the public health problems in Afghanistan. This led to a fascinating discussion comparing various experiences in an atmosphere that was very supportive. My classroom was a model of internationalism and I was proud to have been able to foster this.

It was absolutely unbelievable that the original 100 greatest Britons was so dominated by DWM (dead white men!) and at least this goes a bit of a way to redress the balance. However, a list in itself is not going to do much to challenge the status quo of the English (and no doubt British) schools history curriculum. It would be interesting to know how inclusive the curriculum is in other countries. As for a top ten here goes (it won't be much different I imagine) 1) Olaudah Equiano 2) Viv Anderson, Laurie Cunningham, Cyrille Regis 5) Mary Seacole 6) Jazzie B 7) John Blanke 8) Baroness Scotland 9) Benjamin Zephaniah 10) Stephen, Neville and Doreen Lawrence

I have spoken to my mother and told her that I posted up extracts from her play (here: http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.ph...t=0entry1597) . Should you want to use part of them in your assembly she would be more than happy. I have a powerpoint of images but it takes up a lot of memory - I can send you one or two images of you want. Good Luck with the assembly, I think it is one of the most important of the school year.

'Sweetness, sweetness I was only joking when I said I'd like to smash every tooth in your head' by the greatest lyricist in History.

Here are the extracts from my mother's play 'I have before me a remarkable document given to me by a young lady from rwanda'. This is a fictionalised version of true events and it is quite harrowing in places: He was the one who answered the door, when they came. they came to our house in the morning with our neighbour. This man, I used to play with his children. You can't imagine how much I loved his children. You know in Africa, people, they love each other... They lived just opposite, we used to go to each other's houses. He was just like a family friend, he was close to us. We used to invite him when we had a party, we did lots of things together. But it was he who brought the killers to our house. He didn't do the killing himself, he bought these and said, 'I think you should kill them'. He gave the order to the interahamwe. He wasn't a soldier, he was a civilian like my father, he was a businessman, he sold furniture. Then they told us, 'Don't move, don't do anything, stay there' My mother said to us 'Now, please pray, pray, pray'. They asked my father how he wanted to ie. they told him if he wanted to die with a bullet he would have to pay money, other wise they would cut off his hands and then his arms and then his legs, everything slowly. My father begged them to take everything and leave. He gave them money but they aked for more. they asked for the rest of his money. My father went to his safe. As he was showing them the safe,one of them cut off his leg from behind. My father fell. While he was screaming they cut his throat and then sprayed him with bullets. My little sister Dominique was near my father and one of the bullets killed her. Then they cut my brother above the ear with a blade. He fell down. Then they said it will take too long 'look, look this place is crawling with these Tutsi cockroaches'. They used their pistols and they shot all my uncles and my other brothers. Then they said to me and my cousin and my older sister and my mother, 'You come with us in our car'. And then they took us where there is other women. (pause) We survived too much, me and my mother and sisters and finally they said, 'Now you must go with us to another place'. We were about forty women and they shot us one by one by the side of a big pit. Only me, I was alive, the bullet didn't hit me. I was just lying there with the dead bodies around me, the blood running into my nose and my ears. I was the only one alive. It was then that I made my contract with God. I tried to climb out but I kept falling down. I tried for hours. Then I did it. It was night time now and I escaped into the forest. I will never forget this. Never. This is what happened to me and my family. Dear Simon, the smell of Africa is all around me now, as I write you this letter. I was very fearful on the airplane, so nervous about coming back to Africa. My brother I find him on the second day. I can't describe how it was, like a miracle, we was so joyful. He is very big now, tall like our father. I have a bad shock when I see him because he has a very terrible scar on his face where they cut him with machete. His life has been very bad, even here in Uganda. He has been living on the streets. But now he is with good people, Jehovah's Witness. He works for them and they are helping him. We spend all the itme together. We cry a lot but we also laugh sometimes. I want that he goes to university. i will send him money if i can help him. Maybe he will go to Canada - if they take him. So then maybe I will try to go there. The most important thing for me is that he is alive. Now I want to finish my book very soon, so when I come back to London I will try to finish it with your help. thanks you for everything you do for me Simon, and thank you a million times for sending me to Uganda. You are like a father to me, really. Kisses from Juliette.

Thank you for such a poignant and eloquent posting, John. I too have tried to impress upon my students the vital point that whilst the Holocaust may now be regarded as another 'event' in history, the messages that need to be learned are as valid as ever. I recently gave an assembly to most of the students in my school about the genocide in Rwanda, using images by an artist, Helen Wilson who had visited the country after seeing the news reports of the massacres. I also quoted two extracts from my mother's play 'I have before me a remarkable document given to me by a young lady from Rwanda'. The first passage was a description of what happened to one family who were attacked, leaving only (by chance) two survivors. The second passage described the reconciliation of the two survivors several years after the event. I felt that it was important to show both the horrors of the genocide and also the way in which survivors can begin to rebuild their lives. Whilst the assembly was received respectfully by the students it is always difficult to know how much of an impact these kind of events have. After all within days I have had a number of students in my form and some of my classes involved in rather serious fights. The discussions that we have had in our pshe lessons about relationships also leaves me fairly disturbed about the level of anger, frustration and in some cases what can only be described as 'neanderthal' attitudes that are held by my male students. I don't know if any one saw the documentary on BBC 4 on Wednesday evening called 'Black Boy' about an 18 year old from Birmingham who had just come out of prison and was returning to his 'gang'. It was very depressing as ultimately the only way this boy/man could deal with any situation was through the use of violence including hitting his girlfriend and narrowly escaping death on a number of occassions. I realise that this is not directly related tothe teaching of the Holocaust, but I feel that some thing does need to be done to tackle the problem of (male) violence. I believe that conflict resolution should be a massive part of school life and maybe History teachers (and others) can play a role in this by looking at the past and how these issues have been handled (well or badly) and what they can teach us today.

I am not sure if this is appropriate in this context or section of the forum, but I am applying for a post as an Assistant Headteacher (Senior Teacher with whole school responsibilities) and wondered if colleagues could provide guidance (and maybe comment) about what they consider to be the key issues in Secondary education today, ie what should I prep for if I have an interview! Whilst I appreciate that this may be limited to the British education system, I am sure we would all be interested in hearing from our colleagues overseas. I would hazard the following as a start: Teaching and Learning in Key Stage 3 (11-14) - in particular the development of 'thinking skills' and creating independent learners (the KS3 Strategy) The development of the 14-19 curriculum and the move towards integrating the vocational and 'academic' areas Assessment for Learning - using data to inform daily lesson planning (short term) and Schemes of Work (medium term) Ensuring continuity and progression from Primary to Secondary school

Black and Asian British History is not separate but integral to our history. It is not something that should be tagged on as an afterthought; it should pervade throughout the curriculum. As well as raising the awareness of all students of the Black and Asian presence in Britain, the teaching of Black and Asian British History can be an effective tool for challenging the underachievement of ethnic minority students. Only 30% of pupils from black Caribbean families achieved 5 or more A*-C grades, Black African pupils 40% and Bangladeshi 45% (Institute of Race Relations 2003) As QCA argue, the multicultural ‘approach … enables young people from minority ethnic groups to identify with the curriculum and engage in the learning process, with the desired outcome of raising their educational attainment’. My own experience of teaching in a multicultural school in London confirms this. I believe that one of the best ways to raise a student’s level of achievement is to make the history that they learn relevant to their lives. Whether this is through comparative examples – the genocide in Rwanda and the genocide against the Jews in the Holocaust; the crusades of the 11th and 12th centuries compared to the current conflicts in the Middle East – or by identifying the influence that Black and Asian people have had on key events in British history – the role of black abolitionists, the impact of Indian textile techniques on the textiles of the industrial revolution, the black chartists - all contribute to a sense of belonging and ownership of our collective history. One of the highlights of my year is hearing the response from students (of all races) to the events that have been organised for Black History Month every October. Students feel that their experience is being reflected in their school and their motivation and aspirations soar. If only this was an everyday experience. Until recently the dearth of resources for teaching Black and Asian British History has meant that teachers have had to rely on their own interest in the topics to carry out the research and produce classroom material. Although there were obvious exceptions: Individuals such as Olaudah Equiano, Ignatius Sancho and Ottabah Cugoano have been more thoroughly documented. The BBC made a good schools programme on Equiano while individuals such as Martin Spafford and Marika Sherwood’s have produced excellent resource books including ‘Whose freedom were Africans, Caribbeans and Indians defending in World War II?’. However a lack of resources is now no longer an acceptable reason for not teaching Black and Asian British history. The Internet has many excellent sites which offer fantastic resources for the classroom teacher. The National Archives, for example, has produced a very good resource for the presence of Black and Asian people in Britain before 1850: http://www.pro.gov.uk/pathways/blackhistory/index.htm The National Archive, pathways to the past, Black presence: Asian and Black History in Britain 1500-1850. http://www.lmal.org.uk/priorities/index.cf...avigationID=161 The London Museums Archives and Libraries Black History resources for schools. http://www.irr.org.uk/history/index.html The Institute for Race Relations Black History resources http://www.be-me.org/body.asp The Black and Ethnic Minority experience archive Now is the time to address the fact that Black and Asian British history has been ‘hidden’ for too long and find a place for it at the heart of our curriculum.

I read your posting with interest Matthew. I studied African history at the University of Sussex (mainly South Africa and Kenya) and this has had a significant impact on my History teaching. I have tried to address the issues that you have raised about Black history in my school (multicultural inner city boys in Fulham, London) with a focus on the contributions that Black Britons have made over the last 500 years. I have tried to ensure that the majority of my students are aware that Black British history does not solely focus on the Slave Trade, although that is obviously so important in terms of contemporary race relations, and that there has been a black presence in Britain since Roman times. I have integrated this into the History curriculum as far as possible, for example looking Elizabeth I's attempt to repatriate the 'Blackamoors' when we study poverty in Tudor times. We also have many activities to celebrate Black History Month and it is often at this time of the year that many students comment on how they really enjoy the opportunity to take pride in their heritage. I am not sure if this is possible. It seems to me that Nationalist groups tend to support a narrow definition of 'nation', they are by definition 'exclusive'.

Having read alot of the press coverage about the Higher Education reforms I can only come to the conclusion that the only fair solution is a graduate tax or an increase in income tax (they effectively mean the same thing as graduates earn higher incomes than no graduates). I don't believe this will happen. The sector is in desperate need of funding and the reality is that most students are currently not getting a good deal. The right wing press / conservative party is more than happy to attack 'mickey mouse' courses and hark back to a return to fewer numbers at University. I think this would be a mistake - it is surely better to have people in education for longer. One of the possible changes in the future of University education is the distinction between Universities that will focus on research and those that will focus on teaching - the former will no doubt charge higher tuition fees to cover the cost of their research. This is again wrong - Academics should keep up their research along side their teaching, but this will have to mean changes in the ways that Universities are assessed - currently academics are expected to produce 4 pieces of published (peer refereed) work every 4 years which is a ridiculous pressure. hopefully greater funding will lead to an increase in the numbers of staff to share the load.

This sounds similar to the proposal that is currently being piloted by a number of English education authorities (LEA) to have 6 six week terms, separated by two week breaks and four in the summer. I am not currently in a LEA where this is happening so I have no experience of it myself - however in theory I can see the benefits - it gives the school year a greater balance and allows the work to be completed in a series of (consistent) six week units. I have been in the ridiculous situation of having an 8 week term followed by a five week and then a four week term and it is very hard to teach effectively like this. I can imagine the different lengths of lessons would be very confusing and irritating - personally I think 80 minutes is too long and 40 minutes too short - I prefer 60 minutes myself. How have you ended up with less curriculum time? We have a system of 'weighting' whereby History is given 10% of the curriculum. With regard to the testing does this mean formal testing eg end of unit tests rather than the kind of informal assessment that happens all of the time eg short knowledge and understanding test - I presume it must be the former. I do quite like the idea of having a regular slot for extra curricular activities, but it seems like quite alot of pressure on the organisers. What kind of opportunities do you have to respond to this? As a new Head of History I had to put in a bid for more curriculum time, for which I was successful, so maybe we could brainstorm any thing you have to do.

There was an article in the Guardian yesterday that suggested that students in the future could be sitting exams online: http://education.guardian.co.uk/schools/st...1118213,00.html This has been tested in geography, physics, biology and chemistry at 20 schools and has been received positively by the department for education. QCA has even said that students have been writing into them and 'demanding the right to be tested online'! It is suggested that this system will help overcome the major shortage in exam markers as many of the questions will be multiple choice / 'drag and drop' and can be marked by the computer. As a History teacher I struggle to see how the kind of assessments that are required to make an effective and critical historian can be transferred onto the computer for a short test - I can see the advantage of using ICT for a longer piece of assessment eg research and production of an extended piece eg a website / some DTP quality work - if you look at some of the work carried out by the International School at Toulouse you can see the kind of excellent assessment that is carried out: http://www.intst.net/humanities/y9/term1/i...ebate/index.htm What do other teachers think about this proposal?

I like Juan Carlos' suggestion about the removal of religious symbols in french schools - maybe this could be widened to a debate about the role of religion in school / the state. I also like John K's suggestion 'what is the point of education?' - it would be very interesting to hear the different attitudes across Europe. How about a debate about the single currency eg the Euro has done more good than harm? - after all there will be many students who have used the Euro and may be able to use their experience to help the British students decide whether they are for or against. Or a discussion about the rise of racism in Europe (this could link in with the debates on Nationalism and the Holocaust) eg the growth of racism / neo nazism is now a greater threat to the stability of Europe than at any time since the 1930s. Or a discussion of islamaphobia and antisemitism which could link in a wide variety of the above issues. Just a few ideas.

According to the Guardian today 39% of secondary Headteachers are women, which is much higher than the number of women MPs (18%) and, unless the figures have changed, the number of women neurosurgeons (1%). Does this suggest that the teaching profession is the most egalitarian? I have just started teaching about the suffragettes with my year 9s and I always start off by asking my boys to make a list of famous people in history - this year (as usual) they produced an entirely male list. I shall be liberating their patriarchal minds with a whole unit of women's history (of course that does not mean that this is the only time I look at women's role in his-story)

Regretfully I feel some agreement with your point here; sometimes this would have been done with good intentions, such as justifying the existence of the state of Israel, (which is a sentiment that I support), but other times it has been used in a manner that is unacceptable - although it has been used by both supporters and opponents of Israel in this way. However, and in terms of this strand about teaching the Holocaust, I feel the most important point that you make John, is and maybe I am naive but I would be surprised if this isn't what happens in a lot of classrooms - certainly from my experience the Holocaust has been taught in conjunction with other examples of genocide - in fact if you look at the QCA (Department for Education Qualification and Curriculum Authority) guidance on the Holocaust there is scope for doing that: "Citizenship: the discussion of the treatment of war criminals can be compared with a current example. This would contribute to pupils' understanding of issues of fairness and justice. " (OK I couldn't find a better example but it is a start) The best thing about this debate is to get people to think about their teaching and challenging themselves and the status quo. You have a great amount of fire and passion in your belly John - keep fighting the good fight and we'll keep fighting with you or against you (it depends on the topic you see!)