|
Money matters: What makes Miton mighty? Part 2
Graham Macdonald
MBMG International Ltd.
(From last week when John Bogle, opening First Index
Investment Trust (now known as Vanguard) asked about Wall Street, “Hadn’t we all
trusted these start names who were supposed to be so smart? Hadn’t they let us
down? Hadn’t the broader markets done a lot better than the ‘nifty-fifty’ when
it all went ugly? Hadn’t the broad market been smarter than the superstar
managers? Weren’t we better trusting to the broad market and its inherent
diversification rather than paying a fortune to these parasites who’d made
millions from our misery?”)
The answer may well have been ‘yes’ to all of those questions but to our mind
they’re the wrong questions – rather than trying to invent a better kind of bad
investment, surely it’s better to take a blank piece of paper and look at how to
produce a good investment? One that maximises potential for returns and
minimises the risks of investing. As stated earlier, most of the intelligent
reflection took place well away from Wall Street. The likes of George Soros and
Julian Robertson seized on this opportunity to create their hedge fund formulae
which was probably the most profitable response to the lessons of the early
1970s. However, although these employed a range of styles and methodologies
applied globally to all asset classes, they weren’t, for a variety of reasons,
necessarily ideally suited to most investors.
Now, fast forward to the mid-1990’s and most of what was being purveyed to
private investors was no more advanced than had been on offer 20 years earlier.
What was needed was active and impartial asset allocation that is professionally
managed and was available to all clients in a wide range of currencies. The
easiest demonstration of the fallacy of passive management or tracker funds goes
along the following lines. Consider if there were just two stock markets in the
world and that these are both exactly the same size and therefore in this
strange bi-polar investment world each would make up 50% of the Morgan Stanley
Capital Index (MSCI). Each has similar fundamentals and prospects but one
market’s potential is already recognised while the other isn’t. You invest $100
which is automatically allocated 50% to each market. If the market that is in
the spotlight doubles in value and thereby starts to look too expensive then you
might want to sell out of it or at least reduce your positions in it. If the
less well-known market is flat for most of this time but then starts to receive
recognition in the last few weeks of the period, increasing by say 5%, all
within the last month of the period, you might think that this is a good time to
buy more of it.
However, with your tracker fund, your first $50 has increased to $100 and your
second $50 has increased to just $52.50. You’d prefer a heavier weighting in the
second market but the index constraints mean that you have $100 out of a total
of $152.50 (i.e. almost two thirds) in the market that you don’t like and just
over $52.5 out of $152.50 (i.e. just over one third in your favoured market).
You hold almost twice as much of the expensive market as you do of the cheap one
and you’re prevented from taking a higher allocation to it until it increases in
price and someone else has realized the gain! In other words trackers aren’t
randomly generating their holdings – they’re definitively constrained to always
having to buy high and sell low. The drag effect that this has on the
performance of stock holdings is immense. Random asset allocation should
outperform this methodology. In reality there are more than just 2 stock markets
and in each one, trackers have to follow the trend – vastly increasing
allocation to the most over-inflated market, reducing it to the best value
market and unable to make any case by case assessments at all. The ‘star’
managers may have got it wrong in the 1970s but forcing investors to invest into
‘bad’ markets because of artificial constraints like benchmarking only increases
the risk and reduces the actual return. Equally important as active management
is the idea of impartiality – if we’re throwing away the benchmarks we don’t
want to be fettered to only buying stocks and/or bonds – we want all 5 asset
classes according to their risk and reward potential.
Getting back to Mark Dampier, we find that not only has he made the same journey
as ourselves but that he seems to have found a similar sense of relief when he
arrived at the same ultimate destination - “It is therefore refreshing to meet a
group that not only wants to make money for its clients but also wants to manage
the downside risk. In other words, capital preservation is as important as
making money.”
The group he is talking about is MBMG’s portfolio management partners,
Miton-Optimal. He explains that the main distinction here is, “belief in asset
allocation being the key to long-term outperformance. There is nothing
revolutionary in that statement – it is a statement of the bleeding obvious.
Unfortunately, few investors add value through asset allocation, indeed, most
take it away.”
Dampier examines the processes whereby research is split into two, first macro
and then fund specific fitting into the macro themes. Joanne Baynham is head of
research and she filters the information for the team. She takes information
from the likes of David Fuller, Marc Faber and BCA Research, amongst others. She
uses this to try and think outside the box and challenge the team to justify
their stances.
Often, the view that Miton-Optimal might be taking will be contrary to many
others in the market as a result of its macro research. It believes that
inefficiencies exist between markets and these can then be exploited as
economies move through different stages in their cycles. This leaning towards
the macro means that its decisions tend to be far longer term in nature and
consequently its turnover is markedly lower than most funds of funds.
With reference to fund selection, Miton-Optimal is not necessarily looking for
fund managers or funds that can perform through the whole cycle, as it is
searching for the best asset classes at different stages of the cycle.
In other words, it is looking for fund managers who can outperform their peers
in a bull market. Managers who are good in defensive markets are not really what
Miton-Optimal is looking for, simply because if they feel defensive themselves
they will look to use cash or other defensive-type assets during that period. It
will often spread the risk of investing in an area over four or five funds as
Miton is more interested in the asset class, not the underlying fund. Its
universe is some 5,000 onshore and offshore funds. Once it has identified funds
that could fit, it then conducts face-to-face interviews. It is looking for
investment approaches and processes that remain consistent. It will normally
have somewhere between 25 and 30 holdings. Even in cash, it looks to add value
by using other currencies at times rather that just the currency of the fund
denomination.
Miton-Optimal’s portfolio service is available to clients of MBMG in US$,
Sterling, Euro and Australian Dollar and hedged into Thai Baht, Swiss Franc and
most readily tradable currencies.
However we started with Mark Dampier’s research so we’ll let him have the last
word, he concludes that the Miton-Optimal funds, “are far better bets to me than
the vast majority of managed funds that clients are holding … so if you have not
heard of Miton-Optimal I suggest that you check it out…” Who are we to disagree?
|
The above data and research was compiled from sources believed to be
reliable. However, neither MBMG International Ltd nor its officers can accept
any liability for any errors or omissions in the above article nor bear any
responsibility for any losses achieved as a result of any actions taken or not
taken as a consequence of reading the above article. For more information please
contact Graham Macdonald on [email protected]
|
Snap Shots: Landscapes
by Harry Flashman
Are you going somewhere spectacular for your vacation? And want to make
sure you get stunning landscapes to make everyone envious? Then here is
how to do it.
This subject was brought to my attention by someone wishing to
photograph a famous red rock in the center of Australia called Ayer’s
Rock, or Uluru, in the native language. The reader asked what filters
should he use to make sure the sky would be blue and the rock would be
red. This was actually a very reasonable request, as the travel shots
always show the rock to be a deep red color, against a deep blue sky.
The reader obviously felt that this was probably done with trick
filters. Actually no.
Before taking a landscape picture, it is time to remember some basics.
The first aspect to master is just sheer composition. The golden rule is
to include some foreground interest as well as all the other items in
the shot. Sharp foreground items like fence posts, bushes or even old
farm equipment will give depth and scale to the photograph. Preferably
coming from the left of the picture, as the human eye reads from left to
right. This item will help draw the eye into the picture.
It is always best to avoid putting the horizon line slap bang in the
center of the photograph, so move the camera to only have about one
third of the picture sky, and even experiment by making the sky two
thirds of the picture you see in the viewfinder. This is called “The
Rule of Thirds”.
Another very interesting variant in landscape shots is to turn your
camera 90 degrees and take the landscape in the “portrait” (vertical)
mode. Of course, the rule about where to place the horizon still stands!
Landscapes should also be very sharp, right the way through from the
foreground to the very back of the scene. The way to ensure this is to
use a wide angle lens and run as small an aperture as you can. f16 to
f22 will be perfect with a 24 mm lens, for example.
Now this will give you slow shutter speeds, especially in lower light
situations, so this is one time where you really need your tripod. The
slow shutter speed will also give you that flowing look to moving water,
such as streams or rivers. Additionally it gives you an interesting and
different representation of waves, again imparting a sense of movement.
Time of day is particularly important for landscapes. Early morning for
that cold blue light and late afternoon for the warm glow. Get those
into a landscape and you are starting to put together a good photograph.
Another little trick is not to pack up and go home as soon as the sun
disappears. There is often enough light to catch some stunningly colored
different kinds of shots after sundown.
Even bad weather should not put you off having a go at some landscapes.
On a completely foul day try putting some black and white film in the
camera and see what you get. You may be very surprised with the end
result. Another little wriggle is to use the flash when taking shots in
the rain. You can stop the rain drops as bright splashes of light in an
otherwise grey shot.
Now back to filters and such. First off, there is no blue sky, red rock
filter. You should put a Skyline 1A on the end of any lens, which does
help sky color, but more importantly protects the expensive glass bit.
To get the best blue sky and reddest red of Ayers Rock, use the wide
angle lens and take the photo in the late afternoon (warm light).
Consequently, the rock in the late afternoon will appear more red. Don’t
be tempted to use the telephoto to bring the rock closer. You go closer
and use the wide angle! The technical reason behind the sky appearing
more blue is that the wide angle lens packs more sky into the frame than
other lenses.
If all that doesn’t work, buy some slides at the souvenir shop!
Modern Medicine: Cosmetic Surgery. Are you a candidate?
by Dr. Iain Corness, Consultant
The other evening, in the middle of the pouring rain I ran to
my car, flung the door open and quickly jumped in. That statement is,
however, not quite accurate. The correct sequence was more like this - I ran
to my car, quickly jumped in and opened the door. The end result of my
collision with my car was a laceration to my forehead and my blood spilt on
the ground. After the epithet, I then wondered if I should contact my
favorite cosmetic surgeon and get him to remove a few wrinkles during the
suturing. I then wondered if I should go the whole hog! The facelift.
So what does a real facelift entail, not just simple repair of lacerations
caused by clumsily getting into one’s motor vehicle? The medical terminology
for a facelift is a Rhytidectomy Procedure, which is designed to improve
sagging facial skin and jowls, and loose neck skin by removing excess fat,
tightening muscles, and re-draping the skin.
By standing in front of the mirror and placing your hands just in front of
your ears and drawing back, you will suddenly see how you used to look some
years ago (and you’ve done it many times, haven’t you). That is what the
facelift procedure is designed to do, but note that it is not just a simple
case of cutting away sagging skin, but excess fat (in the wrong places) is
removed, and the muscles tightened as well. Tightening the skin alone will
not last, as older skin has lost its elasticity and will soon sag again.
This is why a full face lift requires a skilled (experienced) cosmetic
surgeon, and also why the operation takes several hours.
Being a major procedure, in cosmetic surgery terms, the anaesthetic is
usually a general one, though it can be carried out under local anaesthetic.
You would have to talk to your surgeon about this, but if you have some
chronic medical conditions (as well as an aging face) it may be better to
look at local, rather than general anaesthesia.
Some centers will carry out this procedure as an out-patient, but I honestly
believe that something as major as this deserves an inpatient stay, and
probably for a couple of days at least. Those who have had this done, do say
that the first two days are the worst, and the bruising is fairly extensive,
as well as the swelling. It often looks as if you have done 10 rounds with
Mike Tyson (and lost every one of them).
The good books mention the following side effects and risks to be considered
before being subjected to the cosmetic surgeon’s knife. There can be
temporary bruising, swelling, numbness and tenderness of skin; a tight
feeling, and dry skin. For men, there may be a permanent need to shave
behind ears, where beard-growing skin is repositioned. The risks include
injury to the nerves that control facial muscles or feeling (usually
temporary but may be permanent), infection, bleeding, poor healing,
excessive scarring, asymmetry or change in the hairline.
Recovery time as far as return to work is concerned (or being able to be
seen in public) is generally 10-14 days. The good book also suggests that
more strenuous activity should be postponed for at least a couple of weeks.
The bruising should have all settled by three weeks, and it is also
recommended that you stay out of the sun for several months.
There is also a further downside, in the fact that the aging of the skin
will still continue. A facelift does not stop natural aging taking place.
Consequently, your surgery will probably need to be redone in five to ten
years.
However, many of the world-famous glamour faces have had this done, more
than once, and those who I have met who have had it done are delighted with
the result. After all, who doesn’t want to look several years younger?
Now all that is stopping me having my facelift is the time needed, the
thought of pain, and the money!
 Heart to Heart with Hillary
Hi Hillary!
I’m Sean Bunzick, an American who’s been coming to Chiang Mai for 18 years
now and when I’m financially trapped here in the States, I love reading your
column. Jason Schoonover’s books are my favorites and I’m happy to say he
liked my first two novels as well. While I think Private Dancer would be a
better choice, I have to agree with Jason on A Woman Of Bangkok - it’s a
great history lesson about falling in love with a bargirl in Thailand.
I have a copy published by DK Book House that I bought 18 years ago in
Suriwong Books that I’d be more than happy to loan to Lang Reid so he can
read it and review it; you could do the same if you’d so like. All I ask is
(1) the book is returned to me in Chiang Mai after you two are done with it
and (2) I’d appreciate it if Lang could read and review my novels, Missing
In Aisa (sic) and Air Thermae. They are both available at Bookazine in CM
and my third novel, Dangerous Junk For Sail, should be in that same store
within the next month or so. The cover of the third book has thumbs-up for
the first two novels by both Jason and Chris Moore so hopefully Lang will
enjoy them!
Sean
Dear Sean,
Aisa? Where is Aisa? I know Americans can’t spell, but Aisa? Shame on you,
young man! And you also include an open offer of corruption. Don’t you know
that Thailand is now corruption free, ever since our Dear Leader Thwak Sin
stamped it out and fixed all our problems including drugs and BKK traffic?
Here you are offering Lang Reid a book, on the proviso he reviews your
novels! Goodness me, I know he would be offended! (But if you send me some
chocolates and champers, I’ll sweet talk him into doing it!) Of course I
will deny all this in any court of law, and say it was my gardener. And by
the way, I just hope Jason Schoonover appreciates what a great job I am
doing as his publicist and rewards me adequately! Life is difficult enough
as it is, my Petal, without all this extra aggravation! Though I do commend
you on keeping the original spelling of Sean, and not that awful
bastardization “Shawn”. It is after all a very important Irish name, as
never forget that St. Patrick chased all the snakes out of Ireland,
whereupon they went to America and became policemen!
Dear Hillary,
I read somewhere that 90 percent of all marriages between foreigners and
Thais end up as being between Thai bar girls and foreign sex-tourists and/or
sex-pats. Looking around the bars I go to, this seems not just correct, but
maybe a bit on the low side. All of my male friends and acquaintances are
married to bar girls and only one that I personally know about who married a
non-bar girl married someone considered to be a low-class Thai girl. It
looks to me as if the 90 percent thing is about right. Do you agree? It
certainly explains the way bar girls are all over you one minute, until they
get hold of your wallet.
Mathematical Mike
Dear Mathematical Mike,
It is often said that there are lies, damned lies and statistics, and I’m
trying very hard to place your letter in the right category, Petal. Look at
all your sweeping statements, without any real figures to back them up,
especially your 90 percents. All of your friends and acquaintances, bar one,
are married to bar girls. So what you are saying is that 90 percent (minus
one) of your married friends are either foreign sex-tourists or sex-pats.
Really? It’s time you changed your bars, my little turtle dove! 90 percent
of my male friends are not married to bar girls, are not foreign
sex-tourists or sex-pats, so we obviously do not share water holes (isn’t
that a relief, she cried)! So in answer to your proposition that 90 percent
of all foreigners marry bar girls the answer has to be a No! You would
probably be able to say, with a fair chance of being correct, that almost
all foreigners marry girls. That is, providing they are male foreigners. But
I doubt if the percentage is even as high as 90 percent. We are living in a
changing world! However, the fact of the matter is that men marry women they
meet and socialize with, be that at work or after work. Managers marry
secretaries, doctors marry nurses, trapeze artists marry circus ladies, ice
skaters marry other ice skaters and so forth. If your male friends only
frequent the bars, the only girls they will meet and marry are from the
bars, but do not take it that this is the norm for expats and Thai girls.
The danger with statistics is that you can make them show almost anything
you like. For example, 99 percent of all people who died last year in
Thailand wore shoes. Therefore, shoes are the greatest killer and we should
all go barefoot. Obviously nonsense. But taking your bar-fly male friends as
the true statistics is just as silly. Broaden your horizons Mathematical
Mike, before quoting percentages and statistical information.
A Female Perspective: A surprise trip to Cambodia
with Sharona Watson
Even the best laid plans can be undone. Sometimes, plans which include me
are made without me even knowing about them. Perhaps I should be disturbed
that this seems to be happening more and more often? On the other hand, if
surprises like the one I’m currently enjoying keep happening, I won’t be
complaining. I feel as though I’ve barely been home at all and suddenly
we’re off again on another adventure.
I thought and hoped I’d seen my last tank of the year but suddenly I found
myself in Bangkok, driving the wrong way down Chaeng Wattana Road and stuck
beside a very highly polished and familiar looking machine, with smiling
soldiers dangling from it. Nobody seemed bothered by the business of the
coup in the slightest. In fact quite the opposite; tourists were merrily
snapping photographs alongside men in military uniforms. It was bizarre. It
made the interminable traffic jams almost bearable and I wasn’t even heading
in the right direction!
Don’t ask why I was heading in the wrong direction. A sign post pointing one
way was definitely contradicted by another pointing in the opposite
direction. At least that’s what my husband kept saying, trying to defend his
miserable self. I’m not good at being in traffic, but my husband is worse. I
find myself wondering, “Where are all these people going?” I mean, at some
point in this frozen traffic time, everybody will have to get to where they
are going, right? Or maybe there are people who spend their whole life
trying to get to where they’re going but never arrive? Traffic gets me
thinking very philosophically. Until the children start bickering. Well, at
least you’re not going to get stuck in traffic at 5 a.m., right?
Wrong. Following a night of Afghan food and great company, we were driving
the right way down Chaeng Wattana Road at 5 a.m. towards the airport. For
some reason best known to himself, Andy had only left twenty minutes to get
to the airport, which would have left us an hour between check in and take
off – for an international flight. I was too tired to argue. Then we hit the
most unmoving solid block of traffic you could imagine; the sort where
people are getting out of the cars to look and see why we’ve stopped. Others
wandered across the road to buy something to eat or get a coffee. It was
ridiculous. I though there must be a tank movement or something. We’ve left
it close with flights before but never quite as late as this. There had been
an accident. A taxi had ploughed into the front of a lorry. Unbelievable.
I’m writing from Sihanoukville, a seaside resort in the south of Cambodia,
strangely only a few hundred miles down and around the coast from Pattaya.
I’m perfectly familiar with the sensation of not being able to cross borders
or enter countries for one reason or another but the whole business of
having to travel all the way to Bangkok to catch a plane, as the fastest way
to get to Phnom Penh is so bogus (I’ve adopted my daughters’ latest ‘buzz’
word). One day soon, they have just got to open up the borders and ease
travel.
In the mean time, Sihanoukville is a funny place; there are lots of half
built walls, houses and bridges, which look like someone just lost interest
in building them and went shopping instead. I don’t know whether it’s always
like this, but the sea is untamed and has a natural beauty about it; a kind
of rebellious nature. It’s as if the bays and the beaches, the scrublands
and the forests don’t want to let the developers in.
There’s hardly any man made noise; just the crashing of the waves and the
rushing of the wind. Nevertheless, I’m told that there are some areas of the
town, built around a few headlands that have surrendered to what some people
think is the inevitable. There’s a red light district near the port, for
example. But I’m not thinking of going there. In fact, having survived a
three and a half hour journey on roads filled with what my guidebook
described as “visually challenged psychopaths”, I’m not thinking of going
anywhere. Despite the undeniable beauty of the “Elephant Mountains” on one
side and the Kirirom National Park on the other, the drive from the capital
south to the coast almost made me wish I was back in the grave-like charm of
the Chaeng Wattana Road.
For anybody who has any knowledge of the recent history of Cambodia, seeing
smiling people everywhere is remarkable. Not that you would expect a people
to carry the burden of their past around with them everyday (although there
are definitely some groups who do!) it’s just that for them, it’s all so
recent and as the almost daily victims of land mines continue to bear
witness to, in some ways it’s not over yet. But there is a sense of optimism
in people which you can sense just by ordering some breakfast at one of the
few restaurants scattered along a beach otherwise untouched by human hands.
Khmer hospitality is legend and all legends, I was once told, have their
roots in truth. So despite the dependency on condensed milk and the relative
scarcity of hot coffee, as opposed to luke-warm, I feel and am made to feel
very much at home. Cambodia is finally trudging forward out of the abyss and
without wishing to patronize (I come from an ill-starred race myself) I
can’t help but feel that it’s about time. Whilst many of my conversations
here with NGO managers highlight obvious concerns about health, poverty and
the environment, there is generally a very positive feeling that things,
which a few years ago could only get better, finally are. If, that is, their
political leaders can leave them be for a reasonable time. With their
history rumbling on in the background, I don’t suppose a military coup would
mean quite the same thing here.
Next week: H.E. Yael Rubinstein (really!)
[email protected]
Learn to Live to Learn: Opportunities abound
by Andrew Watson
This week’s column was originally intended to feature one of the most
impressive schools I have ever had the joy of visiting; an inspiring place
of educational joy, celebration of human life and dedication - right here in
the heart of Pattaya. I speak of the Redemptorist School for the Disabled,
one of the extraordinary legacies of Father Ray Brennan. However, for a
week, my interview with Principal Suporntum Mongkolsawadi about his ‘School
with a Soul’, will have to wait. Because this week, I want to do something
that has long been on my list of ‘things to do’ and now that we are four
weeks or so into the school year, it seems an ideal time to get them done by
launching a few initiatives.
I have always been a strong believer in involving students in the ‘real
world’ whether through sport, art or some kind of ‘service’ oriented
programme. In international schools in general and International
Baccalaureate (IB) schools in particular, one might expect this philosophy
of partnership with the community to be well embedded. Yet often it appears
that these essential components of the learning experience are regarded as
cursory gestures to the under privileged, rather than opportunities to
engage in “real world learning”.
The International Baccalaureate Organisation’s CAS (Creativity Action
Service) Programme aims to address this moral shortfall by encouraging
schools to engage in short term, medium term and long term relationships
with local, regional and global partners. ‘Think local, act global’ might
sun up their intent. Nonetheless, in stipulating a minimum fifty hours
commitment per student in each area of CAS over a two year period, the IBO
is in danger of being hoist by its own petard. Some schools allow, whilst
others encourage, students to complete the minimum number of CAS hours and
then cease all CAS related activities. Whilst a ‘CAS for points’ approach is
fundamentally contrary to the spirit of CAS, it illuminates anomalies in
implementation of the otherwise watertight IBO Mission statement. Keen not
to be seen as ‘interfering’ in schools’ internal machinations, the IBO would
nonetheless prefer not to be seen as powerless in maintaining their
principles and ideology in schools’ practice.
When I set up a CAS programme at Garden International School, complete with
CAS diary for all students in Years 7 - 13, I was seeking to address two
fundamental aspects of education. First, I wanted to establish a logical
educational continuum through the school in some form. Such a continuum did
not exist academically, where there was relatively strict adherence to the
National curriculum for England and Wales, followed by the IB Diploma
programme at post-16 level. Whereas previously there had been a mishmash of
‘after-school clubs’ and ‘activities’, whilst there were many individual
cases of good practice, in a holistic sense the activities had remained
unstructured and uncoordinated. This I sought to resolve.
Second and quite ambitiously, I was seeking to embed the concept of building
lasting relationships with the world outside school, into the school
community. For example, instead of inviting disadvantaged children to pick
up presents (which at worst could be regarded as a form of ‘paying off your
conscience’), I thought it was more important to make regular contact and
thus allow students to form personal relationships which would alter two
lives at least, forever and hopefully, for the better.
As an aside, I was hugely disturbed to find (in another school) that even
this kind of initiative was open to abuse. Shockingly, a teacher who
preferred not to teach, manufactured a bogus weekly trip in lieu of
delivering his curricula responsibilities. He could have taken students on
his ‘free afternoon’ but chose his busiest afternoon instead. No planning
necessary, you see.
Now that (other than examining and inspecting) a significant proportion of
my working life is spent beyond the boundaries of the school gate, I want to
create some significant short term, medium term and long term opportunities
for students in all the region’s schools (not just international schools).
Firstly, in conjunction with PMTV, watch out for a film making competition,
where local students will be asked to submit two minute pieces on a
community related subject, fully edited, on CD or DVD (depending on format).
Prizes will include winners having their work screened on PMTV.
Second, I’m going to launch a ‘Teacher of the Year’ and ‘Student of the
Year’ competition, which, before you think you’ll vote twenty times for Nick
Frost (last week’s ‘Mr. Chips’), will include a mechanism for eradicating
such chicanery whilst simultaneously donating money to charity.
Third, I am going to launch a short story competition (2000 word limit) with
tremendous prizes for the winners, who will have their work published in the
Pattaya Mail. The subject must once again be related to the community but
may be ‘creative’, ‘sports’ or ‘service’ in nature.
Fourth, to encourage journalistic tendencies in students, there will be a
competition for the best article written on the theme, “Think local, act
global”. (1000 word limit)
Watch out for news of prizes and details of criteria for content and
assessment and deadlines for all categories, soon. It’s going to be great
fun and I’m looking forward to it. If you have any initial questions, please
drop me a line to my email address at PMTV (see below).
One question you might be asking is ‘Why?’ The answer stems from my
unapologetic idealism; never has the need to link education to the real
world outside been greater. Happily, I am not alone in espousing what is
perceived by many (although by no means all) as a new educational paradigm.
The world of education in the twenty first century must surely embrace ideas
such as building partnerships with agencies outside its potentially narrow
confines, utilising expertise which exists around it and immersing itself in
local culture - its language and its traditions. Ted Wragg, doyen of
education in the UK, articulated the role of ‘annotator’; a teacher who
brings experience from outside the educational institution. In pure ‘CAS’
terms, union with the community could perhaps best be illustrated thus; when
I travelled with students down to the temple school where they taught the
local Thais English language, I would challenge them; “We know what you can
teach them, but ask yourselves something; what is it that you would like to
learn from them?” Education, like life, is a two way street.
Next week: The school with a soul
[email protected]
|
