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  • March 2, 2014

    Holding fast: It’s not the evidence that does it

    It is not a minor matter that those of us at the forefront of thinking about, developing, and promoting risk-benefit assessment have been particularly attentive to language, to the meaning of words and the order in which they are placed.  Thus we have taken HAZARD’s hand, twirled it round a bit, and shown its positive,… Continue reading

    Evidence-based
    belief system, freedom, independence, voluntary sector, world view
  • January 28, 2014

    School playtime: fears, anxieties, and a more optimistic take

    Over the years I’ve done a fair amount of work with schools, the focus being on ‘playtime’, a designation that could be found guilty of offending the Trades Description Act, were it applicable to some, perhaps many, schools. Too often ‘play’ or ‘breaktime’ represents an unwanted lacunae within the school day, a day otherwise devoted… Continue reading

    schools
    hierarchy, order, timetable
  • January 25, 2014

    “We don’t promote risky play” Nor should you.

    Thanks to Arthur Batram for finding and sharing this: “We don’t promote risky play” Nor should you.. Continue reading

    Uncategorized
  • January 14, 2014

    Tackling the playground claim culture

    Tim’s blog draws useful attention both to Wolverhampton City Council’s approach to risk management and to Helen Tovey’s extremely good article in Nursery World. And there is more potentially good news – or at least news that travels in the right direction – from the Higher Courts. A recent case – West Sussex County Council… Continue reading

    Uncategorized
  • January 8, 2014

    Play services decimated by cuts

    Play services decimated by cuts. This is my first reblog. Hope I’ve done it right. It’s an article by Tim Gill. Continue reading

    Uncategorized
  • January 2, 2014

    The limitations of compensatory provision

    It’s that time of year.   More precisely, time of years.  That period which feels, for me at least, set apart from the year we have left;  but also semi-detached from the one we now notionally inhabit.  I have yet to press the ‘Go’ button for full throttle into 2014. And in such circumstances, the mind… Continue reading

    places of congregation and informal sociability
    compensatory provision, freedom
  • December 6, 2013

    Mandela

    In announcing the death of Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, South Africa’s President, Jacob Zuma, said that Mandela had ‘departed’.  As though we had been visited, and that visit is now over. Mandela, a departed presence that for long will linger.  What it is hoped will linger are the beliefs Nelson Mandela’s life embodied, beliefs lived-by through action. Continue reading

    Uncategorized
    Mandela
  • November 30, 2013

    Evidence and ritual

    So far as social policy is concerned, I doubt that evidence alone will ever swing policy one way or the other, though the claim is that it should, perhaps that it does. Belief in ‘evidence-based’ policy making has similarities with belief in myth.  Myths, by definition, are not expressions of literal truths.   Rather, they provide… Continue reading

    Evidence-based
    education policy, Evidence-based, Play, Ritual
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About Me

This is Bernard Spiegal’s blog.
I write mainly about Palestine/Israel and related issues; sometimes other stuff too

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