Some Enchanted Morning

It's been a decade since 'Some Enchanted Morning', as one wit called it, was visited upon the centres of education in Atlantis. Like many badly designed games ported over from one system to another, it contained many exploits that clever players could take advantage of; as a former 'clever player' and colleague to many such clever players, I feel entitled to comment.

The newly enchanted version is a much tougher deal. The old one allowed educators essentially to invent goals for which they had sufficient documentation of trend and success, and then score points for the goals they had invented. The new one sets some of those goals as standard and determines how they are to be validated in terms of evidence and process.

Fortunately, when my collegial acquaintance Wolff left the Citadel of the Wyverns, he brought out with him a huge quantity of evidence, including the originals and forgeries he found. His story is an amazing one, and it should some day be told in great detail so that it can provide a very necessary education to those who would seek to administrate (urgh, ugly word) educators.

'Some Enchanted Morning' provided a means of turning 'Scarcely Quantifiable Attainments' into signs of major success. For some, this was unwarranted. Now, it looks like the pinnacles of excellence may yet be gilded with real metal.

I wonder, though, if all this can be attained through honesty and hard work alone. Or will it be as it was before, with virtuous gluten leavened by dishonest gas? I am truly interested in the outcomes, and am glad to be provided at every turn with the voluminous reports of the faithful.

Quality

About a week ago, the Spectre told me that the old place would receive the nation's highest award. He was grimly ironic in his humour. He said, "Boyo, this is how it works. We create awards, so we have to give them to somebody. And even if we know what's missing, we can't reveal that we know, or the whole trick falls apart. But remember what the little Corsican said — 'On appelle ça des hochets, je sais, on l'a dit déjà. Et bien, j'ai répondu que c'est avec des hochets que l'on mène les hommes.' — it is with such baubles that men are led."

The investigations required for award of the Légion_d'Honneur are a lot more comprehensive than those for other awards. But the principle is the same. Sometimes, as the Spectre said, you have to give out these things. Some are given for honour, and that is good. Some are given for quality — for a generic array of qualia — and that is just vague.

As someone who used to stand behind the barbed wire and listen to odd and unsettling morning devotionals, I know exactly what qualia are looked for and what their substance is. I have manufactured enough of it before. The Spectre smiled and I smiled back. There was not enough for laughter, but certainly enough for humour.

The Unbearable Lightness of Quality Awards (Part I): Unwise and Misplaced

A lot of young people I've been meeting these days (and some older ones) seem totally confused by what one of them referred to as the 'SQuAre Award'. That's just the local manifestation of the typical business quality award conferred by some local agency on some local business which has shown a high level of self-defined excellence.

What? No! Really? What do I mean by 'self-defined excellence'?

What I mean is that the organisation to be assessed for such an award has to define what its key performance indicators (KPIs) are and show that its principles, planning and process (in that order) lead inexorably to high-level achievement. By 'high-level', we mean 'in comparison with competitors and also in an absolute sense' — but as asserted and defined by the organisation being appraised.

It's interesting, because as an insider I can testify as to the validity and reliability of such awards. Validity low, reliability high, would be a fair summary when applied to certain institutions. The problem is that such awards depend on three things, really. The three things are a) establishment of rules and compliance with those rules; b) establishment of incentives as a benchmark for approved excesses (or successes, or whatever is above the rule-established norm); and c) honesty in declaring the exact processes by which the rules are established, complied with, and related to incentives.

This was what was in my head when my Inbox beeped. I received an interesting and terribly relevant email from my friend the Exchemist. Exchemist and his wife are both high-class taxi-drivers (students of the roads) and brilliant at what they do. Exchemist hardly ever emails me; mostly it's a short message suggesting breakfast or lunch. The link that he sent to me was to a talk by Barry Schwartz on our loss of wisdom.

It boggled my mind to hear my ideas so much more clearly and cleanly presented. The studies I'd been looking at, the ways I'd tried to describe the College of Wyverns in sensible form, all this had been summarised in a short talk by this sharp and kindly old man. He says things like, "A wise person learns to... serve other people and not manipulate other people."

Essentially, his entire talk (in 20 minutes) condensed for me the idea of how wisdom is more important than quality awards when it comes to the provision of a proper education. It is the common storehouse of humanity, unlike the business/management paradigms which are essentially ways to pillage that common storehouse for short-term gains and long-term ills.

Knowing what I know (and which I'll discuss in a subsequent post), I wouldn't say a school with a fleet of quality awards was necessarily a better school. I have produced (and helped to produce) documents which allow a school to receive such awards, and I know how much of such stuff is real and how much is window-dressing. As Umberto Eco once described it in 1975, humans quite often have 'faith in fakes'. It makes them happy, if not wise; this misplaced faith creates mediocrity and leads to a loss of gifts through disuse and misuse.

Notional Medals

In keeping with the spirits of the times and of the places and of the days and seasons, and of the maddening sum of ephemera which makes up the mortal condition, I present to you a list of Notional Day Awards.

The Star of Atlantis

Forged of meteoritic iron of a kind rare even between the stars, this crystalline black medal is the highest award of the Incarnadine Bleme. It is given for exceptional courage or skill in the (military) service of the state, conspicuous gallantry in the face of overwhelming danger, or obsessive devotion which results in exceptional gain to the nation. The obverse bears the Cross of the Inmost Sea composed of double-edged swords, with the intersection encompassed by a wreath of selina and a five-pointed star as of Ëarendil. The ribbon is of the hue known as Mordant's Need, a very deep purple barred argent of five, with a thin crimson line dividing the central bar.

Lesser awards related to the Star are: the Order of Atlantis (Badge, Cross and Crown) and the Order of the Bloodless Hero.

The Honorific Sigil

This award is a life-changing honour bestowed upon those who have lost their truenames in the service of the State. Such rare entities must carry the Sigil with them so that they might be identified in the absence of a name. Each Sigil has a small badge with a ribbon in state colours, designed to look inconspicuous except to those looking for such an item. There are two grades of award: the Certified Honour and the Bachelor's Medal.

The Rite of the Silver Service

The Rite is pronounced over various public functionaries who have rendered valuable public service to the people of an Atlantean colony or who have distinguished themselves in the scholae of grammar, athletics, alchemical arts, numismatic arts, fiduciary offices, and various priesthoods. The Rite entitles the celebrant to bear a miniature Star of Atlantis within the two concentric rings of a thaumaturgic circle, said badge offering protection against spiritual assault.

The Rite may be administered at several levels, most common being the Star, the Bar, the Wreath and the Armametarium.

The Condemnation Medal

The Condemnation Medal is awarded to knights of Atlantis who have distinguished themselves despite public opprobrium, the vexations of many retardants, the pleadings of many supplicants, and the inimical sorceries of the Flame-Savants of the Distant East. Despite bearing tarnished armour and severe loss of public approval, their devotion to duty in the service of the Aiglerie and other unseen organs of State have become sufficiently creditable to the hierarchs. A career record containing strong mana of performance, conduct, efficiency, and at least a minimum competence and devotion in service are essential for this award. The Medal contains on its reverse the arms of Atlantis and on the obverse the rising sun within a wreath of selina.

The Efficacy Medal

The Efficacy Medal is presented to knights of Atlantis for exceptional efficacy, exceptional devotion to duty, or works of special significance to the local hierarchs. It is especially applicable to agents of the Star or the servants of the Hidden Instrumentalities. The Medal is an approximate rhombus, or rhomboid, engrailed and engraved with archangelic motifs, with four distinctly different horsemen etched on the reverse.