Here in my car I feel safest of all, I can lock all my doors, it's the only way to live (Gary Numan)

So, we dodged a bullet a while back with bad weather causing Hekia Parata to abandon plans to visit our school for an election eve photo op.

After a series of gaffes, she has kept a remarkably low profile in NZ politics of late and so the clearly politically motivated visit didn't sit well with me and many of my colleagues. There was nothing we could do about the situation, though. She is the Minister for Education.

On the other handbag, it would have been interesting to hear what she has to say about leadership, specifically female leadership. I heard her speech to a Principal conference a few years ago and the experience was underwhelming so a second chance to form some opinions would have made the ultimately doomed visit interesting.

It has to be said, that as a Minister of Education she has hardly covered herself in glory. 

Apart from the botched increase in class numbers for intermediate schools, the misguided call for performance pay, the politically expedient introduction of charter schools (from an earlier election deal with ACT), the poor handling of the Christchurch schools closures and the introduction of Novopay which was nothing short of disastrous, what have the Romans - doh, has Hekia really done for us.  

I tried to search youtube and NZ TV for an inspirational clip of her addressing educational leadership issues but I came up blank. Plenty of reactionary news spots and reactionary government question time moments instead though.

Post election Hekia news could be something to watch out for.

Say you just can't live that negative way (Bob Marley)

I wrote a post recently about my experiences regarding the past ERO visits I'd been involved in.

I am well aware that the blogosphere has been holding its collective breath for my report of my most recent bout of ERO.

Except...I have to exercise a large dollop of discretion and self censorship for this post.

All I can say is that it was... underwhelming.

They seemed to have little capacity to review a technologically innovative school so the less said the better.

And that's all I'm saying - as my mother said - if you can't say anything nice - don't say anything at all.

So - Next topic: We have a visit next week by our Minister of Education.

I've written about Hekia Parata in the past and so...I'm going to exercise another large dollop of self restraint on this one too.

Instead - another next topic: I wrote a post on my Wozza's Place blog recently about new forms of advertising in the digital age. Here's an excerpt:

The best advertising isn't advertising so says Chapter three in Velocity (the brilliant book by Ahmed/ Olander).

The goal is to create connections with customers and earn their loyalty by serving them; 

This means a shift from selling a product to selling a service.

At a recent school assembly we were shown an advert made by women's personal care brand Always.

http://www.always.com/en-us/home.aspx

You'll be stunned to know that the video itself wasn't about personal care products for women at all!

Instead it takes on the outdated idea of 'running like a girl, throwing like a girl' and promotes the worthy concept of women's self esteem. A self esteem that has been battered by the 'throw like a girl' pejorative term (or so says the advert).

I haven't heard the term for years but there you go.

As we were watching the advert I was getting the growing feeling that I was being manipulated. I couldn't help wondering what this video was selling. What was Always? 

Unlike the ANZ advert that I featured on my Wozza's Place blog - this one was more insidious. The brand name Always featured only at the end and only in a minor way.

See what you think.. http://blogs.wsj.com/cmo/2014/07/01/viral-video-of-week-an-ad-that-challenges-what-it-means-to-throw-like-a-girl/

This article mentioned a Dove advert that also effectively targets women's perceptions of themselves:



Clearly these are great examples of the shift from selling a product to selling a service. Who wouldn't want women to feel better about themselves?

I'm sure the Always advert's makers would be delighted to know that their advert was being shown to a school assembly.

My question - when does selling a service stop and selling a product start?

You know the answer sure ain't there (Cold Chisel)

I have written quite a lot in recent times about bonus pay incentives and the risks attached to morale among other things.

Blow me down if I don't return to NZ to learn that the current Minister of Education (Hekia Parata) is advocating performance pay for NZ teachers.

It's one of those crazy ideas that I'm sure sounds like manna from heaven for politicians. Why not reward the best performing teachers? Sure - let's do that. Sounds good. I repeat - sounds good.

Forget the research, forget the dangers, forget the practicalities, forget collaboration, forget good will, forget common sense and let's announce it and work out the pesky details later.

Lordy lordy - what an utter disaster a business model idea like bonus pay would be for teaching.

I listened with increasing concern and bafflement.

This news came with a sleight of hand move by the government to increase class sizes and thereby reduce teachers on the ground.

Cause for concern. Staff rooms in NZ school will be interesting places to be as this brainwave is digested.