But It’s Different Now

I think a lot of what you are objecting to [I may be wrong] is the complete americanisation corporatisation of australia by stealth. You don’t hear of it much, not written about in the papers, but aussie is all the way with the USA. Corporations rule the world, they like everyone to be the same, everyone must fit in with the objectives, goal and image.

Not only do the kids want to be different, many parents are nutjobs full of anxiety, and depression and are too busy chasing their fortunes to be responsible parents ‘different’. I’m not so worried about the state controlled sameness as the ones who wish to be outside the state control – the home schooling because of religious nutjobbery and control/ownership of child, the no-immunisation nutjobs or the fringe people determined to have their lunatic beliefs seen as mainstream and become state sponsored/funded.

We are such crushing conformists in this land.

Aussie spirit? What happened? The road to serfdom has become a high speed highway. We are a nation of serfs, we happily bend to the will of the masters, never kick up a fuss, do as we are told, always accept and never question authority. If you don’t like it there is always substance abuse, why hasn’t someone got to legalise and control that yet? A nice little earner!

The men get all macho about ‘uppity’ women yet spend their lives in dull and dreary forelock tugging serfdom, the women strive to compete, find out it’s all a crock and spend their lives in misery.

yep, living the dream!

Armchair your words resonate however I am now convinced that people want to be different as long as it is like everyone else. Kids have their stuffing knocked out early. They are slaves to The Brand. And I am more concerned about state sponsored conformity than a few ‘nutjobs’ who won’t vaccinate their kids. I have a more open mind on home schooling based on a tiny sample. My cousin home-schooled her four at early primary school level. All four went on to excel academically and become very fine musicians. Of course the parents were clever. Makes a big difference. Agree with you 100 per cent about Aussie spirit although I am beginning to think it may have been little more than bad manners. It has certainly fled the scene.

TB I absolutely hate the idea of a national curriculum. Yet another example of that word Choice being little more than propaganda.

Armchair I should clarify that I agree with your view on corporatisation. Globalization is its friendly public face: as in humanity together. Bah humbug.

We could always give kids a choice of going to school or not?

Education is a national investment. A national curriculum should be in place, eduction should be free to all and paid for by our taxes. If people want private choice, want to go outside the public system, they should be prepared to pay for it themselves. If the taxes that now support private schools were given back to public education, we would have a world class system. Private choice should not be taxpayer subsidised, private enterprise should stand and fall on it’s own merits.

Armchair, I agree with you about the need for equal opportunity for all provided by an excellent state school system but I do not support a bational curriculum whic will be imposed on both state and private schools.

The national curriculum will lessen choice and increase homogeneity.

Would any of this choice be evidence based and world’s best practice or just what we think is a good idea?

Most interested in what you have written TB. I am sure you are right about the social interaction importance for children. I don’t know about world’s best practice Armchair. I don’ t know what that is. I know Frenchmen are more charming than Aussie blokes and that French women must hold the world’s best practice award when it comes to style. An educated Scots voice is best for talking about bridges, only Asians should be heart surgeons, the instruments they use should be German. The Czechs should never be allowed near a kitchen. And I am always relieved when I hear an English/Australian/Kiwi accent coming out of the cockpit at take off time.

Yes it is true Tom. Glad you smiled.

You are right Armchair. There are so many different ways of learning. A great teacher makes learning an adventure, opens doors, shows you how to think and make connections. I remember one from schooldays. Some of the others were as dull as. I am sure I could understand maths if only someone had alerted me to the patterns. I heard a discussion recently on our Australian Communist Broadcaster that European languages and history are going tp play second fiddle to their Asian counterparts. Of course we need to know more about our region and their languages but we also need to know about our European heritage. It shouldn’t be either/or but both/and.

That is great advice TB. I will Memorise it. It is actually soothing to read and say.