Hanging around, pottering about, chilling out: lessons on silence and well-being from Summerhill School

This paper highlights moments of the doing of “nothing much” as beneficial and educative as pedagogy for all schools. It uses Summerhill School, Suffolk, UK as an example of a school where chosen silence of a cumulative, positive, “strong” kind is valued – in the form of children choosing to hang about, potter about, chill out - and which as a school has this facilitation of the doing of nothing much to teach to other school settings

Choosing Silence for Equality in and through Schooling

This article considers silences and equality as combined from a theoretical perspective. Equality in and through chosen, deliberate and regular silence experience is seen as an equaliser: if no one is speaking no one can dominate. The article uses a bifurcated concept of silence: weak, negative forms and strong, positive forms. Only the strong forms are seen here as conducive to equality. Their opposite – a silencing – is seen as the creator of inequality. The argument suggests in order to tackle inequality in neo-liberal education a radical, cost-free, non-partisan solution of silence experience is available. "The only way to fight a hegemonic discourse is to teach ourselves and others alternative ways of seeing the world." (Brodkey, 1996, p. 113

Is R.S. Peters' way of mentioning women in his texts detrimental to philosophy of education? Some considerations and questions

Discussion in this article considers the unfortunate way R.S. Peters made mention of women when it was pertinent to his argumentation: portraying them, directly or indirectly, as abuse-able (murderable), deficient, aberrant, clueless and inconstant. It is argued that the high profile and esteem within which Peter's texts are held within philosophy of education might be a problem for it as a scholarly mixed gender community. Three issues are considered in relation to current possible bias caused by Peters' presentation of women in his texts: implicit (unconscious) bias against female philosophers of education; a connection between denigration of women's value by Peters and current low status and marginalisation for alternative (progressive) educational ideas; and the extent to which these matters could be invidiously affecting the development of philosophy of education as scholarship and community

Editorial: The Academic Study of Educational Alternatives

First paragraph: Having just read some reflections on the first issue of Other Education (http://www.libed.org.uk/jan13/other-education.html), we consider it is a fitting place to springboard into this editorial. The review, speaking from a place of practical educational matters, voices concerns about the philosophical nature of some of the contributions in the inaugural issue of Other Education. As readers of this journal will see from the articles in this issue -- our first to include peer reviewed submissions -- Other Education is extremely concerned with practical educational matters. As stated and shown, with regard to the inaugural issue of invited position papers from the OE editorial board, our remit is broad. What we have done so far is to highlight perhaps that educational alternatives are a wide territory, requiring a theoretical basis and philosophical and theoretical debates, positions and challenges included in its conversations, in order to flourish. The mostly academic based editorial board that we work with are always theoreticians, even if not explicitly so, because academic work without some kind or some content of theory is missing a vital component of its presentation. As the stated aim of Other Education is "to promote and represent the academic study of educational alternatives" rather than to represent those practices and processes themselves (see http://www.othereducation.stir.ac.uk/index.php/OE/about/editorialPolicies#focusAndScope) our first priority is towards the publication of academic work. Such work inevitably needs to include a theoretical dimension-albeit that this does not necessarily mean that such a dimension has to be philosophical

Editorial: Starting a journal, starting a conversation

First  paragraph: Starting up a new academic journal in the information age, an age characterised by an ongoing explosion of academic publishing around the globe, may seem like joining a bandwagon of the hopeful and reckless. It is an idea that many pursue and many such journals die quietly. But then, without a certain hope, without a certain degree of blind enthusiasm and unquestioning optimism many things would never happen, and many good outcomes would never occur or even be given energy and time. Starting up Other Education: The Journal of Educational Alternatives, is a risk worth taking for the sake of our remit and the conversations to be explored. What has made this sure for us is that wherever we have turned with this venture so far we have found help, support, interest and life

"Prelude to the School to Come. . ." Introduction to the Special Issue

First paragraph: In several interviews, Michel Foucault expressed a dislike of any polemics that insists on making those who disagree into enemies, silencing other possibilities by invoking an authority that undercuts the authority and right to speak of others. A problematisation, for Foucault, is the opposite of a polemic (see Foucault 1985). A problematisation raises questions; it focuses on the problem at hand rather than insisting on a party line. It takes risks, questions rights and disrupts legitimacy. Polemics often leads to an impasse, as polemicists focus on the consolidation of established truth claims or on negating the argument of their opponent. Problematization, however, can open up the potential for a rethinking of the very terms and grounds of argument, knowledge and understanding

Dysregulation of glucose metabolism is an early event in sporadic Parkinson's disease

AbstractUnlike most other cell types, neurons preferentially metabolize glucose via the pentose phosphate pathway (PPP) to maintain their antioxidant status. Inhibiting the PPP in neuronal cell models causes cell death. In rodents, inhibition of this pathway causes selective dopaminergic cell death leading to motor deficits resembling parkinsonism. Using postmortem human brain tissue, we characterized glucose metabolism via the PPP in sporadic Parkinson's disease (PD), Alzheimer's disease (AD), and controls. AD brains showed increased nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH) production in areas affected by disease. In PD however, increased NADPH production was only seen in the affected areas of late-stage cases. Quantifying PPP NADPH-producing enzymes glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase and 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, showed a reduction in the putamen of early-stage PD and interestingly in the cerebellum of early and late-stage PD. Importantly, there was no decrease in enzyme levels in the cortex, putamen, or cerebellum of AD. Our results suggest that down-regulation of PPP enzymes and a failure to increase antioxidant reserve is an early event in the pathogenesis of sporadic PD

Community seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 in children and adolescents in England, 2019–2021

Objective: To understand community seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 in children and adolescents. This is vital to understanding the susceptibility of this cohort to COVID-19 and to inform public health policy for disease control such as immunisation. Design: We conducted a community-based cross-sectional seroprevalence study in participants aged 0–18 years old recruiting from seven regions in England between October 2019 and June 2021 and collecting extensive demographic and symptom data. Serum samples were tested for antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 spike and nucleocapsid proteins using Roche assays processed at UK Health Security Agency laboratories. Prevalence estimates were calculated for six time periods and were standardised by age group, ethnicity and National Health Service region. Results: Post-first wave (June–August 2020), the (anti-spike IgG) adjusted seroprevalence was 5.2%, varying from 0.9% (participants 10–14 years old) to 9.5% (participants 5–9 years old). By April–June 2021, this had increased to 19.9%, varying from 13.9% (participants 0–4 years old) to 32.7% (participants 15–18 years old). Minority ethnic groups had higher risk of SARS-CoV-2 seropositivity than white participants (OR 1.4, 95% CI 1.0 to 2.0), after adjusting for sex, age, region, time period, deprivation and urban/rural geography. In children <10 years, there were no symptoms or symptom clusters that reliably predicted seropositivity. Overall, 48% of seropositive participants with complete questionnaire data recalled no symptoms between February 2020 and their study visit. Conclusions: Approximately one-third of participants aged 15–18 years old had evidence of antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 prior to the introduction of widespread vaccination. These data demonstrate that ethnic background is independently associated with risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection in children. Trial registration number: NCT04061382

Correlation of Group C Meningococcal Conjugate Vaccine Response with B- and T-Lymphocyte Activity

Despite the success of conjugate vaccination against meningococcal group C (MenC) disease, post-vaccination, some individuals still exhibit rapid waning of initially protective bactericidal antibody levels. The mechanism of this relative loss of humoral protection remains undetermined. In this report we have investigated the relationship between T- and B-cell activation and co-stimulation and the loss of protective antibody titers. We have found that healthy volunteers who lose protective MenC antibody levels one year after receipt of glycoconjugate vaccine exhibit no detectable cellular defect in polyclonal B- or T-cell activation, proliferation or the B-memory pool. This suggests that the processes underlying the more rapid loss of antibody levels are independent of defects in either initial T- or B-cell activation

Distinct clinical and neuropathological features of G51D SNCA mutation cases compared with SNCA duplication and H50Q mutation

Background: We and others have described the neurodegenerative disorder caused by G51D SNCA mutation which shares characteristics of Parkinson’s disease (PD) and multiple system atrophy (MSA). The objective of this investigation was to extend the description of the clinical and neuropathological hallmarks of G51D mutant SNCA-associated disease by the study of two additional cases from a further G51D SNCA kindred and to compare the features of this group with a SNCA duplication case and a H50Q SNCA mutation case. Results: All three G51D patients were clinically characterised by parkinsonism, dementia, visual hallucinations, autonomic dysfunction and pyramidal signs with variable age at disease onset and levodopa response. The H50Q SNCA mutation case had a clinical picture that mimicked late-onset idiopathic PD with a good and sustained levodopa response. The SNCA duplication case presented with a clinical phenotype of frontotemporal dementia with marked behavioural changes, pyramidal signs, postural hypotension and transiently levodopa responsive parkinsonism. Detailed post-mortem neuropathological analysis was performed in all cases. All three G51D cases had abundant α-synuclein pathology with characteristics of both PD and MSA. These included widespread cortical and subcortical neuronal α-synuclein inclusions together with small numbers of inclusions resembling glial cytoplasmic inclusions (GCIs) in oligodendrocytes. In contrast the H50Q and SNCA duplication cases, had α-synuclein pathology resembling idiopathic PD without GCIs. Phosphorylated α-synuclein was present in all inclusions types in G51D cases but was more restricted in SNCA duplication and H50Q mutation. Inclusions were also immunoreactive for the 5G4 antibody indicating their highly aggregated and likely fibrillar state. Conclusions: Our characterisation of the clinical and neuropathological features of the present small series of G51D SNCA mutation cases should aid the recognition of this clinico-pathological entity. The neuropathological features of these cases consistently share characteristics of PD and MSA and are distinct from PD patients carrying the H50Q or SNCA duplication