Don’t worry about the Gonski Review Christopher Pyne. Your first order of business when you become the Federal Minister for Education is to emulate Arizona’s new approach and empower school principals to sack any teacher who brings their partisan doctrine into the classroom.
Teachers in Arizona would automatically be fired for bringing “partisan doctrine” into their classrooms under a bill pending before the state legislature.
Arizona Senate bill 1202 is meant to ensure students get a balanced view of what they’re taught in school. In addition to firing teachers who bring partisanship into the classroom, school districts that allow it to happen would face losing state funding.
Arizona GOP congressional candidate Gabriela Saucedo Mercer testified in favour of the bill, telling lawmakers: “I have seen, firsthand, the damage done to our young students by partisans who pretend to be educators.”
“I have seen young students who, through classroom indoctrination rather than instruction, were incited to threaten and harass anyone who disagrees with their position,” Mercer said.
The second order of business is to stop showing Al Gore’s BS propaganda movie – An Inconvenient Truth to school children.
So does that mean no more teaching evolution. And no more teaching creationism. No more teaching market theory. No more teaching women's studies. No more saluting the flag.
There is actually a long list of stuff that could be called partisan.
Posted by: TerjeP | February 23, 2012 at 06:28 PM
Perhaps the answer is to return to teaching kids how to think rather than what to think.
A few more suggestions:
• Take computers out of the classroom - they add no value and distract from learning the basic underlying concepts
• Bring back competitive/comparative grading, life is a competition so kids should get used to it
• Restore the status of spelling and arithmetic in primary school
• Reduce the fluff subjects to make time for real learning. Sex education, religion and culture belong in the home. Parents can’t be teachers, so teachers will have to do their own job.
Bringing back the cane would also be a giant step in the right direction.
Posted by: Anton | February 23, 2012 at 09:20 PM
Spot on Anton
Posted by: Andy Semple | February 23, 2012 at 09:37 PM
Anton, you are truly an intellectual nobody. With the exception of your opening statement regarding students learning meta-cognitively your points amount to nothing more than ill-considered cliches. So, like any good schoolman, lets go through these points one by one.
1) what are these 'basic underlying concepts' which you claim computer-technology undermines?
Are you actually suggesting that students have no access to computer technology in a digital age?
2) Kids should 'get used' to life being competitive. What kind of BS philosophy is that? We should be encouraging co-operation, not fragmentation. Fragmentation leads to partisanship which is what you are sacking teachers to eradicate.
3) Spelling and arithmetic are important features of an education but are priorities of the Industrial Revolution. We need to be teaching in new, dynamic ways to encourage innovative and creative thought to meet today's problems. We cannot keep falling back on the tired idea of 'the basics' to solve our post-industrial woes.
4) What do you suppose 'real learning' is exactly? You have no idea. Sex ed., religion and culture are vitally important subjects for discussion and children need to be exposed to various viewpoints to help them make up their minds. Confiding these to be taught only by parents only encourages indoctrination.
And lastly bringing back the cane? What do you like beating children too? Your ignorance in matters of education would make Mr. Pyne blush were he to become Minister for Education.
Posted by: James | February 23, 2012 at 11:52 PM
James. I have completed more years at university than you have at school, and none of them in the arts.
But I will address your arguments directly.
• Computers are easy to use, but they distract from puzzling through the underlying concepts. They hide the mechanisms and working essential to understanding maths and physics, and are nothing more than a presentation tool in other subjects. Kids now spend more time playing with fonts and diagrams than on the subject manner. But don’t take my word for it, check what the super smart nerds in Silicon valley think: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/23/technology/at-waldorf-school-in-silicon-valley-technology-can-wait.html?pagewanted=all
• We should be encouraging co-operation, not fragmentation. That’s call communism, and if you exercised some of those research skills, you would find it has been a total failure every time it has been tried. When your child applies for a job, charms a pretty girl or gets on a sports field they will be competing. It would be nice to let them know.
• What exactly is a “post-industrial” age? (are referring to the Green’s de-industrial age of suffering). Arithmetic is not maths, but is a fundamental prerequisite to real mathematics. Try factorising a polynomial or finding the determinant of a matrix without an agile ability in arithmetic. You are making the common mistake of assuming school provides career training. In the industrial age school is never enough, but serves as preparation for further education – university, trade or other traineeship. Unless your post industrial age is based on a cave dwelling, nut eating existence.
• Your leftoid vision of schooling fails because teachers are doing the parents job, but parents cannot do a teacher’s job (teaching is a professional career). That leaves the kids with nobody doing the teacher’s job. Or are you suggesting home schooling for maths, school for sex?
• Yes, I did smack my children. Because I care about them. My children’s upbringing is far more important than my own esteem and feeling of wellbeing. To understand why smacking is important you need to forget all that social science crap (it has the same success rate as communism) and practice some logical deduction. Start with “why do humans feel pain? What is the reason for a completely unpleasant condition (pain)?”
Lastly, can you point out my ignorance without confirming your own
Posted by: Anton | February 24, 2012 at 12:51 AM
James, my backside is hurting in sympathy to the spanking yours just received!
Posted by: Snuffy | February 24, 2012 at 07:32 AM
Here here Anton. I worked in Centrelink for 15 years and lots of the children coming out of last year high school cannot write a legible sentence. Ask a modern student to work out basic change in their head - I can beat the check out person any day and I am seventy years old. My grandson was failed badly by the education system and can barely read and doesn't understand the basic operations of government. He was not a neglected child, came from a family with a good income, is successful at sport, is intelligent but the curriculum taught in schools failed him. We tried despertely to get help but he didn't meet the requirements of "disadvantage" and ended up leaving school as soon as legally able and has been employed ever since, but he will only ever be an employee. He doesn't understand voting and is supposed to vote (he doesn't because he doesn't understand it.) Yet the left leaning teachers teach socialism/communism, how to get onto Centrelink, that parents cannot discipline you etc. The result of the lack of discipline in schools and homes is resulting in the behaviour of the young people today. Where is the learning of basic language, reading and writing skills required for normal living? Students can't learn it under todays curriculum unless they are very bright, the modern curriculum favours girls. Where is the teaching of maths in an easy form instead of a complicated airy fairy style. I lived in rural areas and taught my children via correspondence in the 1970s and my brother had been taught some of the maths at university, but there was no basic maths. I made them learn their "times table" and they can all do maths. I made them learn spelling and they can all read.Please someone, take some control in this country and change the curriculum from political and socialist to basic education required to achieve in the modern world and to compete for jobs, compete for positions once in the workforce, how democracy works in this country, history, geography etc
Posted by: Jude | February 24, 2012 at 11:02 AM
Anton, I will admit that I always have more to learn but you're argument is still flawed and incoherent no matter how sore Snuffy thinks my backside is. Lets take a look at your responses.
1) Your point that computers are distracting in the classroom is a valid concern; in poorly managed classes where teachers do not seek to restrict student apathy, computers can become an easy way out. It is your solution to ban them from the classroom that is ridiculous. We are in a digital and highly (by your own admission) competitive society and banning computers will be counterproductive to the skills that the next generation will need.
2) Are you actually serious, you called me a communist? I don't believe in the atomism of individual students in schools so therefore I must have the same ideas as Lenin or Stalin. No, rather I assert that humans are a fundamentally social species and that a part of schooling is exercising co-operation and interpersonal skills between children. The emphasis of schooling should be to foster this, not to seek to set students against one another in an academic environment.
3) Post-industrialism is a stage of society whereby the society in question moves beyond manufacturing based economy (i.e. the Industrial Revolution) and moves toward an economy based on information, innovation, finance and services. This is where the U.S. and Australia are today - we are post-industrial societies, our economy is not based on manufacturing.
4)'Leftoid', oh dear - now who is being partisan? This is you're most unclear point. Are you suggesting that sex, religion and culture studies are taking time away from students to do maths which cannot be taught at home? A student's school and home experiences share a lot of overlap, teachers and parents co-operate in the education of children in this matter. Parents don't interfere with teachers in this regard, they add to the lessons being taught at school.
4) Don't presume you can confound my response with your stories from your family life . I smack my children too for various reasons, but this isn't about what happens at home, this is about what happens at school. This is about a teacher beating your child with a cane. Teaching children with pain. That is sick. That is the overbearing, unstoppable tyrant beating the thrall into compliance. This approach will not lead to any kind of competition, co-operation or spark of insight. It will create kids who do not trust their teachers and who will rebel in any way shape or form to make their existence more amiable. Sound familiar? Oh yes, it may because this is the exact set of circumstances that led to the Russian Revolution in 1917 and the realisation of the blood-bath that became communism. Inadvertently you are creating the same problems that sparked a revolt. Is this what education should amount to?
Posted by: James | February 24, 2012 at 12:09 PM
Sorry james, but all I hear is blah, blah, blah......the usual lefty, touchy feely drivel.
As a responsible parent, i don't want my kids to learn about things like sex and religion at school, that is my responsibility. Theses subjects are just a front for pushing the gay agenda, promoting Islam as a 'peaceful' religion and brainwashing our kids about scams like global warming.
Rest assured my kids will be armed with the facts and will more than likely know more about all of these topics than their teachers' and, if i have done my job properly, will not be afraid to stand up and debate.
Posted by: Steve | February 24, 2012 at 01:50 PM
And if Andy gives his godly approval, it must be true ... Hallelujah
Posted by: dante | February 24, 2012 at 05:55 PM
Anton, you confirmed that spending many years at uni does not give you an education, nor makes you an intelligent person. For both these qualities you need the basic raw material. Unfortunately Mother Nature was not generous with you, and no amount of smacking has helped you.
I can't believe you defended your violence towards your children You affirmed "Yes, I did smack my children. Because I care about them", and thank God that you just cared about them, imagine what damage you could have caused them if you loved them.
You may not have noticed but we are in 2012 and not in 1812. I can see how in 1812 a phrase like "to understand why smacking is important you need to forget all that social science crap ... and practice some logical deduction" would have gone down well, probably in penal Australia. These days sentences like "agree with me or I'll belt the shit out of you" won't work very well, in fact it NEVER worked. You need convincing arguments and not brute force ... but to do that you require qualities that you just have not been gifted with and no number of years at Uni can give you. I'm sorry for your children.
Posted by: dante | February 24, 2012 at 06:21 PM
I see dante still living in La La land ..
Keep it up dante, you are a constant source of amusement.
Posted by: barry | February 24, 2012 at 06:33 PM
I'm sorry for your children.
Why? His children will grow up to be more successful, happier and balanced than yours will.
Posted by: John Mc | February 24, 2012 at 06:38 PM
Andy, why do I feel that when you say "partisan doctrine" you mean any doctrine that does not coincide with your own? Why not equip our students with a multitude of views and allow them to reach whatever conclusion they want to?
And who will decide what is partisan and what is not? Let me guess, YOU!!!
It will be a very sterile and useless education system that fail to equip young people with an ability to evaluate, assess, contrast and question the world around them.
One of the comment here lamented that young people cannot read and write, and a member of her family was one such case. I don't like being cruel but education starts at home. A child that is allowed to reach the end of his/her school years without basic skills cannot blame just the school system for that failure. I ask, where were the parents and the rest of the family during the 10 years this child spent at school? It isn't rocket science to identify a child that cannot read and write. All you need to do is open a book and ask him/her to read. If parents are too busy for that, you wonder why they bothered to have a child at all.
Posted by: dante | February 24, 2012 at 06:39 PM
Anton, don't bother to answer ... your solution is simple... SMACK WHACK SMACK LOL
Posted by: dante | February 24, 2012 at 06:43 PM
Funny that Andy says it's nanny state socialism when McDonald's provide nutrition information on the menu, but he wants the "party of small government" to ensure politically correct teaching by sacking anyone who might be seen to be "partisan" (naturally, in the opinion of the day's government).
Posted by: liberal elitist | February 24, 2012 at 07:10 PM
Even funnier that you provide an example void of any conflict to make your point. The government shouldn't force feed an ideology to school children just like it shouldn't force McDonald's to provide unwanted information to their customers.
But it's nice to know you'd be tolerant of a public school teacher insisting his students read the Bible each morning. Values are certainly important.
Posted by: John Mc | February 24, 2012 at 07:31 PM
Dante, don't feel sorry for my kids. They have turned out very well - academically, socially and morally.
Your version of parenting is supported only by consensus (amoung fruitcake social "scientists"), while mine is supported by evidence.
Why are you always attracted to failed ideologies?
Posted by: Anton | February 25, 2012 at 12:26 AM
Exactly, Barry. Dopey Dante Excels at providing the MH audience with endless laughter.
Posted by: Andy Semple | February 25, 2012 at 12:35 AM
Anton, don't bother to answer ... your solution is simple... SMACK WHACK SMACK LOL
No it isn't fool. The time tested methods of parenting are quite effective, with the result that discipline is actually quite infrequent.
Your "modern" approach however is so ineffective that those kids are constantly denied TV, grounded or sent to their rooms, with no effect. Or their parents just give up.
Why do leftoids hate children so much?
Posted by: Anton | February 25, 2012 at 12:39 AM
Our education system went to the dogs as soon as the ideological left realized they could use it as a recruiting tool - end of story. The truly tragic part is they are now using class warfare to stoke the fires of envy.
My friends who do have kids in school are telling me the whole system is deliberately being dumbed down to accommodate less academic kids so they don't 'feel bad' about themselves. Kid's are not given an F on subjects they fail on, discipline is virtually non existent, and assignments/homework are largely ignored by many kids.
Posted by: bluebell | February 25, 2012 at 12:56 AM
The current generation of school leavers will be the first in the history of the human species to be less educated than their parents. An absolute disgrace
Posted by: Anton | February 26, 2012 at 01:02 AM
Computers are general purpose machines. They can assist, and speed up human activity in the same way that hammmers and chain saws can. Unfortunately too many teachers look at the product of computers e.g. groovy graphics or long essays and confuse it with the student's own abilities.
Further too many teachers have effectively outsourced education in their classrooms to Google. Most teachers don't even know how to do an advanced search in Google.
In many classes equipped with computers teachers have been forced to teach from the back of the classroom so that they see what the students are doing. In many other classes, teachers sit at their desks not caring what students are doing with their computers as long as they are quiet. Some teachers are also running a business on eBay while seated in these classrooms, or updating Facebook.
Posted by: Philip Dowling | February 26, 2012 at 01:50 PM
Alan Jones asked a graduate journalist if he could quote a verse or two from one of the great classics, or one of his favorite poems.....he couldn't do it. :-(
Posted by: bluebell | February 26, 2012 at 05:19 PM