tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3019828684971971203.post4236175715848192674..comments2024-03-14T02:53:31.171+00:00Comments on Tom Bennett's School Report: The light and the dark: Ofsted, Michaela, hope and inspirationTom Bennetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03211959016018081924noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3019828684971971203.post-60443912830868389602016-11-27T22:32:24.405+00:002016-11-27T22:32:24.405+00:00a) Quite right- the perils of the solo edit; updat...a) Quite right- the perils of the solo edit; updated it, but let the record show my original allusion was to the Diet of Worms<br />b) Oh I'd agree, Lincoln's approach to social justice is a light year away from the contemporary interpretation of that movement (or at least some interpretations of it). I meant it more broadly, on the assumption that no one yet holds copyright to the concept of justice, applied across a social sphere, which is clearly one of Lincoln's concerns. Tom Bennetthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03211959016018081924noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3019828684971971203.post-9781595024850823902016-11-27T21:00:36.853+00:002016-11-27T21:00:36.853+00:00Hi Tom, sorry to comment in the most annoying mode...Hi Tom, sorry to comment in the most annoying mode possible, the nitpicking busybody. I love this piece but two completely peripheral things stood out and urged footnotes from me. The first like the sore thumb I got when nailing Anna's CD Howe report to our Ministry of Education's door: The Diet of Worms comment. I presume this is not a reference to last June's creative protein milkshake binge. Rather, you mean Luther's famous 95 theses, which preceded the famous diet (and fewer than 95 graduate degrees being awarded!).<br /><br />The other quibble is a bit more subtle: the reference to Lincoln as a "wrangler for social justice". First, I don't think Lincoln would have recognized the term. He would embrace that he wrangled for justice, but I doubt he would be a fan of the modern hyphenation of this important fundamental value. Indeed, if informed of the meaning injected into that compound phrase in today's political discourse I imagine he would have been repulsed by the idea. He was a strong proponent of the undiluted notion of justice for all, not that which is carved out and allocated for officially sanctioned grievances pitting the interests of identity classes against one another. The notion of Social Justice arises in modern parlance as a manifestation of neo-Marxian social analysis, a particular lens through which the concept of justice is pitched as contingent upon ideas of class struggle and oppressor/oppressed relationships. Marx, it is well-known, was a great fan of Lincoln, his contemporary. But there is no evidence that the sentiment was reciprocal; and some reason to believe that it was not, for Lincoln's own lens held freedom and autonomy in a much higher regard and he would have looked on Marx's prescriptions with some concern.R. Craigenhttp://server.maths.umanitoba.ca/~craigen/PWPnoreply@blogger.com