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Ben Newmark @bennewmark.bsky.social · 1m

11. But I do hope she questioned what she did at a quieter less intense point. And tonight about who has the right to public spaces and who gets to say how others behave in them and understands it isn't her that gets to decide. So yeah. I hope if she ever reads this she does feel uncomfortable.

Ben Newmark @bennewmark.bsky.social · 2m

10. So what of this? What does it mean?
I don't hate Serious Young Woman. I don't want her identified and dunked on by social media. There's a good chance when I was Young And Serious I might also have done this and thought it very clever and mature.

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Ben Newmark @bennewmark.bsky.social · 4m

9. Behind us came the families with other children. I don't know why. Perhaps they were embarrassed too. I hope it was solidarity.

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Ben Newmark @bennewmark.bsky.social · 5m

8. So I tried to take her out. And she got upset and angry and cried and shouted and my friend and I had to half carry her. It was undignified. It took her a while to get over it. I'm still not over it.

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Ben Newmark @bennewmark.bsky.social · 7m

7. "Oh good," I said, pathetically sarcastic in my hurt. "I do. I feel very uncomfortable and embarrassed. But ok I'll take her out."
I regret this.
I should have told her I was staying and that how my daughter enjoyed art wasn't her business.

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Ben Newmark @bennewmark.bsky.social · 9m

6. I felt myself go a bit sick. Shaky and upset. I shouldn't have felt like that but I did.
"She has a learning disability," I told her. "And now I feel embarrassed and self conscious."
"You won't make me feel uncomfortable," she said.

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Ben Newmark @bennewmark.bsky.social · 11m

5. "You shouldn't allow her to do that," she said, seriously, "I don't think it's fair. It's making people uncomfortable"
"Wow," I said looking around at all the people lounging on the floor.

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Ben Newmark @bennewmark.bsky.social · 13m

4. The Very Serious Young Woman came to us and said "is that your child," pointing at my girl. I said "yes," proud and happy expecting the sort of lovely comments we get often when her infectious joy lifts those around her.

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Ben Newmark @bennewmark.bsky.social · 15m

3. Occasionally she stopped to clap with glee. The installation was about new life and growth. The screens showing a naked woman swimming through water and crawling through fruit and new growth like a wild animal. I was there with a friend I hadn't seen in years standing by the side.

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Ben Newmark @bennewmark.bsky.social · 17m

2. The installation was loud and the screens covered three walls. It was a Saturday afternoon. The floor in front of it were soft and strewn with cushions. My daughter was not the only child to be dancing but she was the most exuberant, turning joyful cartwheels she spent years learning to do.

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Ben Newmark @bennewmark.bsky.social · 19m

1. A thread about the very serious young woman who told me off for allowing my learning disabled eight year old daughter to dance in front of the big screens at a modern art installation.

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Ben Newmark @bennewmark.bsky.social · 26m

We've all read the Lord of the Rings!

Ben Newmark @bennewmark.bsky.social · 28m

It's the pretentiousness that makes it particularly awful.

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Ben Newmark @bennewmark.bsky.social · 38m

Wonder how the way people rate stuff changes as they go through 1001albums. I've found genres I now like more than I did (e g metal) which makes me rate this higher than I did at the start but I'm less patient with genres I don't. Prog rock gets three songs to talk me about of a one star.

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Ben Newmark @bennewmark.bsky.social · 1h

"It's much nicer in the places I go on holiday to."

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 21h

Party donor Nick Candy says "I cherish the values we grew up with here in the West. But today you are more likely to find the values we grew up with in Dubai and Abu Dhabi.’

Via Sam Leith in the Spectator
www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-...

Ben Newmark @bennewmark.bsky.social · 3h

I am so confused. AI has added a fabric patch boomerang to a model that's supposed to be a tattoo and then AI has taken it off a weirdly posed photo she's sent to her mum?

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Ben Newmark @bennewmark.bsky.social · 3h

I know it's probably not the most efficient thing blah blah but when I see someone has put in branded stuff into a food bank donation point I love humans a bit more.

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Reposted by Ben Newmark

Ben Newmark @bennewmark.bsky.social · 1d

Sobering but useful.
How often is our perception of what's really going on distorted by what we are too invested to see properly?

Claire Harley @claireharley.bsky.social · 5d

Do we do what we say we do?

Some thoughts on balancing imperfect people (which we all are!) with systemic actions.

www.researchtoclassroom.com/post/do-we-d...

Do we do what we say we do?

Last year I downloaded a habit tracker app. With so many spinning plates, I thought this would be a useful way of making sure I kept up the habits that I felt were the most important. My other aim was...

www.researchtoclassroom.com

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Ben Newmark @bennewmark.bsky.social · 4h

NO TRUE CONSERVATIVES SINCE THATCHER

Ben Newmark @bennewmark.bsky.social · 4h

And fifty years before that it'd have been the Irish. And before that it was Catholics. So much of this stuff is relient on a bizarre fantasy that until about the 1970s Britain had always been a culturally homogenous paradise with everyone hand in hand singing Jerusalem.

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Reposted by Ben Newmark

Anne Lutz Fernandez @lutzfernandez.bsky.social · 4h

This important report reveals that increased AI use in schools:

-causes teachers and students to have more concern about AI

-makes students feel less connected to teachers

and that 71% of teachers worry AI weakens critical thinking & research skills.

Hand in Hand: Schools’ Embrace of AI Connected to Increased Risks to Students

Artificial intelligence (AI) has continued to alter the educational experiences of teachers, students, and parents during the 2024-25 school year. The frequency and variety of AI uses continues to gro...

cdt.org

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Ben Newmark @bennewmark.bsky.social · 5h

Now I'm thinking how this will drive defections to Reform - the only way out for many will be to basically say "yes I agree my party is terrible and I disagree with it, which is why I have to move to this one which is in line with my values." The added benefit is more chance of keeping your job!

Ben Newmark @bennewmark.bsky.social · 5h

It's very inconvenient for her how long her party was in power for. Must be infuriating.

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Ben Newmark @bennewmark.bsky.social · 7h

Just get the poor people to blame each other.

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Ben Newmark @bennewmark.bsky.social · 8h

And what it must feel for them driving or walking through a thicket of flags we all know are a winky winky dog whistle for the far right.

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