Employers expected to spy on young workers

"Bosses in Scotland will be expected to spy on young adults at work after being drafted in to police the Named Person scheme. Employers are set to join taxi drivers among the ranks of those monitoring young people and reporting conversations back to their `state guardians`."

"The chilling move, part of the SNP`s controversial Named Person plan, has been attacked by business leaders."

"School leavers aged between 16 and 18 no longer have a Named Person at school but still fall within the scheme. Thirteen local authorities say bosses who hire these young adults can, or should, pass on their `concerns` to their Named Person."

"In an Orwellian statement, some said this is because every single person in Scotland has a responsibility or `duty` to report to the state guardians. The move follows revelations that more than 600 taxi drivers in the Borders who take young people to school have been instructed to pass on information about their welfare."

"David Watt, Scottish director of business group the Institute of Directors, said: `I am very concerned about this. Young people in Scotland aged 16 to 18 are allowed to vote and die for their country so, to a large extent, are adults. We don`t want any more red tape, also we don`t want to be seen as interfering in a young person`s life."

"`We understand the necessity of a duty of care for employees and would raise concerns if anyone was being mistreated or abused. However, I don`t think it should ever get to the point where an employer could be seen as to blame for not reporting concerns.`.."

"A spokesman for Scottish Borders Council said: `If a young person requires the services of a Named Person and they are currently employed by a company or organisation, then the Named Person would be working with the employer to best meet the needs of the young person.`.."

"Not all councils said that an employer had to contact a Named Person,, only that they could do so. Those who said employers could report concerns include Angus, Midlothian, North Ayrshire, Orkney, South Lanarkshire, Moray, Edinburgh and Falkirk councils."

"Several said that anyone could report concerns to a Named Person - or even that it was everyone`s duty to do so."

"Julie Muir, senior manager at East Ayrshire Council, said `If an employer has a concern over the welfare of an employee under the age of 18, which cannot be resolved by speaking personally with them, then flagging up that concern with their Named Person would be an appropriate course of action.`.."

A" Government spokesman said: `The local authority of residence will be required to make a Named Person available to those under 18 years who have left school and they will notify these individuals of how they can contact the services..."

 

"New Education Secretary John Swinney has said there will be no climbdown over state snoopers."

"He told a Sunday newspaper: `The health and wellbeing of children is at the heart of the Named Person discussion.`"

http://www.pressreader.com/

That’s sophomoric

The Magazine Women Believe In was a spoof of style of 1950s publications. I painted it back in the day; I wouldn't paint it today because my feminist thinking has matured. So has my painting style.

As a young person, my brain was fizzing over with half-cocked ideas. Some of my projects were musical—like writing a rock opera with my chum Michele, or writing and recording a cowpunk album with my husband. Some were literary. Most were visual. But some were just larks, like going on the Maid of the Mist in my bikini or going skiing in grease-stained Carhartt overalls—what today we might dignify with the label ‘performance art,’ if we could find funding for it.

I grew up in a time and a town which was too conservative for performance art, and my parents tended to cast a jaundiced eye on my antics. So I burrowed into the art form I knew best—drawing and painting—and gradually left the more conceptual stuff behind. I don’t think I’m any less creative at this advanced age, but my creativity is more yoked to what I do best.

Submission was painted during the first phase of the Iraq War and addresses the still-thorny issue of whether oppression or libertine impulses are more stifling for women. It's one of the paintings that got my RIT show closed down.

Old Masters and Young Geniuses: The Two Life Cycles of Artistic Creativity by economist David Galenson looks at the schism between the creativity of youth and that of maturity. Galenson says that some of us work by trial and error, and arrive at our major contributions incrementally, usually in old age. In contrast, there are conceptual innovators who make sudden breakthroughs by formulating new ideas at an early age. Galenson puts Michelangelo, Rembrandt, and Cézanne in the “old master” category, and Vermeer, van Gogh, and Picasso in the “young Turk” category.

Would I have painted The Beggar of St. Paul today, with its cynical depiction of Starving Africa as part of the money cycle? Probably not. I'm weary of hectoring people.

I think he has the division in thinking right, but not the outcome. We are all more daring thinkers when young, and more methodical workers when old. The difference is in when we’re discovered and what the society in which we live values. Today we live in a society which values audacity above craftsmanship, which tends to highlight the conceptual over the incremental.

Message me if you want information about next year’s Maine workshops. Information about this year's programs is available here.