Friday, 5 November, 2004

Ogilvy renews call on character education

Character education is a glaring omission from the Government initiative announced today to combat severely challenging behaviour in children, United Future education spokesmen Bernie Ogilvy said today.

"Today's initiative reinforces the Government's philosophy of an ambulance at the bottom of the cliff. What United Future advocates is the fence at the top of the cliff through character education in schools.

"It's great to see the involvement of parents, teachers and children's peers in this initiative and even better to see Labour's acknowledgement that research shows that this involvement is the most effective response to bring about better behaviour.

United Future whole-heartedly endorses character education in schools because it begins with the premise that only with the involvement of families, teachers and support groups can we create responsible, trustworthy and caring individual and subsequent healthy communities, Mr Ogilvy said.

ENDS

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>