Welcome to today’s daily kōrero!

Anyone can make the thread, first in first served. If you are here on a day and there’s no daily thread, feel free to create it!

Anyway, it’s just a chance to talk about your day, what you have planned, what you have done, etc.

So, how’s it going?

  • liv@lemmy.nz
    2·
    7 months ago

    I think the closest thing we have to this in NZ is that by law (Education Act) academics are obligated to act as “critic and conscience of society” in their area. Some of them, eg Siouxie Wiles, seem to take that really seriously, others keep their heads down.

    I’m not sure that’s what @absGeekNZ@lemmy.nz has in mind though.

    • absGeekNZ@lemmy.nzOPEnglish
      3·
      7 months ago

      I wasn’t really getting at that; though there are a few academics that make a good go at it.

      I was thinking more along the lines of, it would be nice to see a much more of meritocratic system of government. I feel that a lot of politicians are too easily led by the nose; ministers don’t seem understand their portfolios.

      I realize that there are issues around meritocracies around equality/equity.

      • liv@lemmy.nz
        2·
        7 months ago

        Yeah, the problem you run into there is the conflicts between meritocracy and democracy. Philosopher kings can’t be elected unless youre drawing them from a sort of elite pool of people trained up to be oligarchs, and that’s not really democracy.

        However, our chances of having a more knowledgeable set of politicians would be vastly improved by having a population that is knowledgeable to draw them from - and an important part of that would be to de-couple education from social class and pair it with aptitude and merit.

        E.g free universities that are much harder to get into. Narrower wage disparity. Public service broadcasting. Information packs like the Swiss have before their referendums. Etc.

        Half the people I talked to after the last ection had an incredibly hazy idea of which policies they had just voted for, and I still haven’t gotten over the time the entire NZ government voted for a policy none of then understood and had to hastily repeal it before it effectively shut down half the nation’s intermediate schools.

        • absGeekNZ@lemmy.nzOPEnglish
          3·
          7 months ago

          However, our chances of having a more knowledgeable set of politicians would be vastly improved by having a population that is knowledgeable to draw them from - and an important part of that would be to de-couple education from social class and pair it with aptitude and merit.

          This is precisely what I mean by meritocracy and the issue with equality/equity. We need to identify, reliably, the best way for each student to fulfill their potential. I don’t care if you are the kid of Johnny White Trash, Mongrel Mob Mary or Nimby Niel; you deserve the opportunity to be your best. If every student fulfills their potential, the standard of leader we get will improve markedly.