‘Pedagogy’ ought to be a Welsh village 2 miles west of Mold. But it isn’t. Instead, it’s a nasty word used by educationalists to describe the profession of teaching (I’m sure it has Chinese origins). Now you may think ‘teaching’ is an ancient Chinese philosophy (‘T-Ching’) and you might possibly be right. I just think the world has gone mad.

Whenever I teach, I’m reminded of what’s important in the classroom (and I don’t necessarily mean me or the quality of the snacks). There’s a real temptation to overuse modern technology (I speak relatively here, though perhaps not quite Einsteinian). We may feel enticed by its seductive calling – even when it blatantly doesn’t fit. Like a kid who is determined to make that square peg fit into that round hole (I never had problems fitting round pegs in square holes).

There’s obviously a pressure to do this. It could be the fear of being left behind or ridiculed. We have the equipment, so we’ve got to use it. I guess I first saw this with the ubiquitous use of powerpoint slides. There was an initial wow factor that made any self-respecting over-head projectionist feel somewhat overwhelmed. The beauty and eloquence of the trainer no longer mattered, the animated slideshow provided sufficient distraction. Yes, we saw a whole new generation of ugly trainers (present company excepted); they could come out from the shadows and enter a new, Capraesque world. People were no longer looking at them. They were just facilitators trained in the art of pressing that ‘next slide’ button and soaking in the vicarious adulation. You could feel the smugness in the room. You were in for a real visual treat. But they became arrogant and lazy; ‘more slides…more slides’ and it just became something to get through. People saw it for what it was…well, just slides.

But people tire easily and charisma is no substitute for character or substance. I have to remind myself who’s in charge – technology is just an aid; a medium. Used appropriately it’s brilliant and exciting but, overused, it becomes a tyrant.

Helping students really learn things is what’s important. This calls for variety and appropriateness of teaching strategies, methods and aids. So, don’t throw out that flip chart just yet, I think you might just need it.

The issue of bullying has been very much alive recently and has become a political hot potato. The Prime Minister’s staff have allegedly been bullied and the revelations made public by a charity for bullying (that is for those who have been bullied rather than a club for bullies) threaten to undermine its existence.

It seems a little out of proportion. A bit McCarthiesque where we are all searching around for bullies (instead of communists). All desparate not to do anything that might get us accused of being a bully. Those that haven’t ever been bullied are feeling isolated and marginalised because they’ve nothing to say. I guess they could at least feel bullied on behalf of others. A sort of bully –by-proxy or vicarious bullying.

I don’t condone true bullying (though I can’t quite define it), I wonder whether we’ve lost perspective of what bullying is. We seem to have become less tolerant of many things our parents would have just put up with. You could argue that they shouldn’t have put up with it (but they probably didn’t have much choice). You could argue that they were tougher and we have become frail. You could argue that we’ve moved the goal posts and lowered the threshold of what constitutes bullying. You could argue that bullying has got worse but I doubt it. If you’re going to bully it should at least be done properly.

People working under stress often resort to uncharacteristic, sometimes, explosive and hurtful behaviour. But is this bullying? Does mere coercion or manipulation count too? Should we instead accept that spine donation or go on that “assertiveness” course and become bullies ourselves? Admittedly, it’s difficult to stand up to people who are in authority over you and no doubt it’s tempting for some (like Sylar) to misuse their power. When does strong persuasion become bullying? I kind of figured that bullying should at least have an element of deliberate cruelty, thuggishness and brutality (verbal, psychological or physical) to set it apart. If it’s all down to feeling intimidated then that’s difficult; it then depends on the context and how the behaviour is perceived by those on the receiving end – a bit like stress.

Real bullying needs practrice and thought to get right. To bully people so well that they don’t even know they’re being bullied (perhaps because they’re so used to it), now that’s the philosopher’s stone of bully school. That’s the stuff legends are made of (well, Greek Mythology actually). This punching in the play ground is so last season.

For professional advice, please give Gordon a call at no. 10.

Is it me or is technology getting too small to use?

Like many adults my age, I suffer from fat fingers. Truth be told, I’ve had them all my life. I’m therefore being squeezed out of the technological joy that is texting and to a certain extent, even ‘iPod Touch’-ing (as it were).

Maybe I feel left out. I feel aggrieved when I look around and see thin-fingered people furiously fingering their phones (so to speak – am I allowed to say such things ?) with expertise that confounds their apparent intellect (I didn’t say they were texting anything useful). I’ve had far too many sorry excursions into developing multi-line texts only to press the wrong button, cancelling and deleting the entire message. So, when I do text, it’s usually short – ‘OK’ or something. But I’ve already spent 15 minutes and as many expletives getting there. Even the iPod touch with it’s great ability to expand the virtual keyboard letters beneath my balletic finger movements cowers under the shadow of the fat finger brigade – choosing a random collection of letters which spell ‘help me’ in hexadecimal.

Yes we have predictive text (no doubt created by Mystic Meg) but I find it just about as useful as a torque wrench made of cheese (not of course parmesan, which is quite hard or brie, which is too soft. I was thinking more like Roquefort, which is just right). I find myself too tempted to accept the proffered word even if it isn’t what I want. I suppose you can use a stylus and that might indeed cause some amusement depending on where you choose to push it. And we now have voice activation but I fear that I am too self-conscious for that. People have been locked away for less.

I suppose I should count myself fortunate. I have been spared the terrible affliction of Compulsive Texting Disorder (soon no doubt to be a new mental illness), some awful repetitive strain injury (name one that isn’t awful) and, worse, corruption of the English language. Fortunate but, alas, I just feel left out. Now where did I put that disability benefit application form….’fat finger syndrome’ must surely be on the list of prescribed diseases….

There has been a good deal in the media recently about the troubles of Toyota and Honda. They’re two car manufacturers synonymous with high quality, safety and reliability. Toyota (including the Lexus brand) has had problems with sticking accelerator pedals in quite a few models in the US and, it seems, worldwide, a software issue affecting the braking of the latest versions of the Prius (affectionately known as the “Pious” because of the supreme smugness of some of those Hollywood stars who buy them). Honda has also been afflicted – malfunctioning electric window switch which could possibly cause a fire.

There are clear safety and quality lessons but doubtless there has also been much hype. New revelations every day; Japanese CEOs apologising profusely on TV. It’s almost reaching the critical mass of the coverage that the January snows in the UK received – it seemed like some of the reporters were willing the UK to run out of grit with their minute by minute updates on stock piles.

The true cost of recall will not be fully quantifiable for some time. This will all cost a great deal of money, not only directly in correcting the problems on millions of vehicles but also in loss of future business. You may ask, how can such things happen? Surely there’s testing and all that? Well, yes there is but when things are released on such a large scale, unforeseen issues seem to crawl out of the woodwork. This happens all the time for software – we’re so used to patches and upgrades to fix bugs that we don’t even notice.

Whilst consumer protection laws (like the General Product Safety Regulations 2005) can force a recall, it often doesn’t come to that. Many manufacturers these days seem to take the initiative and voluntarily recall defective products.

Life can seem a little unfair (depending on your perspective). The irony is that although Toyota and Honda have undoubtedly done the right thing in launching a product recall, their reputations are likely to suffer a great deal. For example, both the Toyota and Honda share prices took a bit of a bashing and sales took a dive. It seems you’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t.

Reputations take years to build and are so easily lost. Whilst the context here is product recall, the same can be said of service. Services can be delivered badly and have to be ‘recalled’ in the sense that they might have to be ‘fixed’ and repeated for a client. The short-term penalty for a poor quality service might be compensation, loss of custom or possibly prosecution but, long-term, it erodes your brand reputation (word gets around) and ultimately your whole business.

It’s often said that the ultimate question on any customer satisfaction survey is ‘Would you use this company again?’ Customer dissatisfaction can happen despite best intentions. I guess it’s how you deal with it that counts. Trying to do the right thing must always be better than denial. As Kuato, the mutant rebel leader said: “You are what you do. A man is defined by his actions, not his memory” (Total Recall, 1990, Directed by Paul Verhoeven)

The eponymous quote is a free translation of James Bond’s family motto Orbis non sufficit (yes, I know he’s a fictional character and I know a better translation is ‘the world is insufficient’ and, in any case, as classical languages go, I think I prefer Greek). James Bond was right though because, in environmental sustainability terms at least, the world is not enough.

The planet does not need saving; it can adapt and look after itself. Instead, it’s us that need saving; saving from a potentially very hostile climate, overpopulation, food shortages, mass migration and civil unrest. I could go on.

I blame myself as much as anyone. Optimistically, we try to do the right thing but our natural avarice is stoked by the prod of marketing messages. We may be driven by technology – we need that leading edge computer to replace last year’s model, that new gadget that will make our lives so much easier, that buy one get one free deal. Apart from the good stuff, there is a whole industry devoted to creating and transporting tat, which we buy and discard without really using. Sometimes it’s because of poor quality (why are most cheap tools seemingly made of cheese?) and sometimes it’s because it’s just not useful (I still cannot see the point of Christmas crackers – we buy them, we pull them and then throw them away).

There are strange financial drivers which encourage you to discard rather than repair. The other week, the ‘O’-ring seal on my push-fit hose connector split. It was cheaper to buy a whole new connector than the small ‘O’-ring seal (which only came in packs in any case). So, that’s what I did.

Life is complicated and arguments are never straightforward. Whole socio-economic systems rely on the circulation of goods. I read recently in The Environmentalist (p18, issue 90, 18th Jan 2010) about a well intentioned plan by the Swedish government to educate their local populace on the benefits of buying local produce. More sustainable and a jolly good idea you might think. But no, it flies in the face of a fundamental principle of the European Union – free movement of goods. So, that put paid to that.

We all know that we cannot go on like this. And, indeed, there’s lots of environmental tokenism around. The vehicle scrappage scheme (due to end soon) was principally brought in to financially stimulate the depressed car manufacturing industry (see here ) . But environmental benefits of investing in new, fuel efficient vehicles have been suggested too. I’m not convinced that the scrappage scheme has any environmental benefits whatsoever. I don’t know for sure but, when you look at the fuller picture, I would think that any benefits from fuel efficiency would probably be completely squashed by energy and resources used in manufacturing the new vehicle and disposing of the old.

I think we probably all want to do the right thing (with the possible exception of Jeremy Clarkson, a self-confessed petrol-head), but let’s not create obstacles for ourselves and let’s make it count – for us and for our children.

I detect a certain amount of righteous indignation and resentment when young kids come out of college with a degree in health, safety, environment and quality (no doubt combined with media studies or sociology in this period of qualification inflation). The argument goes something like: “They have no experience to speak of. They have no significant scaring (mental or otherwise) and no regard for the traditions built up over a lifetime devoted to cynicism and ridicule.” But that’s not my view.

It’s fashionable in some circles to demonise the young (see here for example). Oscar Wilde famously said “I am not young enough to know everything”. Sure, the young can be arrogant, inexperienced (how can they be any other?) and impetuous but they are not a different species. As it happens, old people also come in for some stick, so maybe middle age is perfection?

What I do think is that the young have a lot to bring to the table, whatever their age. I’m not suggesting they should be waiters. Indeed, I think they can be very good for us seasoned ‘professionals’ (I use the term loosely).

I am generalising enormously but here goes. In my experience young people have a ‘can do’ attitude. They have not yet learned that some things are difficult or impossible to do. Young kids especially have an unfounded confidence that you, as a parent, will somehow come up with the solution that means their larger than life plans will actually work out. As parents we have probably greeted many a creative request from our kids with ‘I’m not sure we can make that’ and ended up creating a longbow (or other lethal weapon) and having tremendous fun in the process. Kids love technology too and their enthusiasm and vitality is catching. They make you try new things (some things old people probably should not try). They encourage you not to dwell on past failures or present excuses. This can drive innovation, challenge conventions and make your pathetic health, safety, environmental or quality life vibrant and exciting again. You find yourself also thinking ‘why not?’ again.

Young people (apart from the early teens, mostly spent asleep) are very often impatient. They want it now. They just don’t get our procrastination and deliberation. We often cannot see the irony of doing the SHEQ equivalent of volunteering coaching tips (as if we were supreme athletes) or disparaging remarks whilst sitting on the couch in our ‘fatter than life’ lethargy.

I was young once. I remember when I bought my first house. Whenever I was doing anything in the garden or on the house or maintaining my car, ‘Old Ted’ was almost always passing. He was hugely experienced and arrogant and I dreaded his coming. It was immensely discouraging to be told “So, have you learned anything from buying a house with a North-facing garden?” or “You know how to lay turf I suppose?” This was always rhetorical and rapidly followed by his perspective on life. I almost gave up trying or at least dreamt about having him killed. Yes, the young need to learn but not squashed.

Of course, I’m not suggesting a naked ‘gung ho’ attitude to SHEQ either. Rather taking the good bits, tempered with experience (the young sometimes need reigning in). One should always try everything at least once – though one should try and avoid capture. The young and old are allies. So, suck it in, keep taking the pills and get over it.