Category: Education

Education

Ok, So This Is A Boring Post… Or Should I Say A Boring Read? – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Every time the media report on education they have a tendency to report on the failures within the system and present some solution as though it’s the panacea for everything, while overlooking the fact that some of the reasons for poor performance are known to everyone and ignored. For example, why does NAPLAN compare like schools? Well, everyone knows if we compared all schools with all schools and didn’t take into account socio-economic factors, we’d find that socio-economic factors were the biggest element in the difference in ranking.

Source: Ok, So This Is A Boring Post… Or Should I Say A Boring Read? – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Education

Missing Links in Textbook History: Colonialism – ScheerPost

What Kids are Not Taught, Colonialism is Never Peaceful,

Settler Colonialism

Settler Colonialism is well described in “Not a Nation of Immigrants” by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz. It involves genocide and is often related to white supremacy. The goal is to displace an existing population and replace it with a new settler population. British colonies in Australia, the U.S. and Canada are examples of settler colonialism. Among other nations suggested as demonstrating settler colonialism are South Africa, New Zealand and Israel. Examples follow:

Colonialism in Australia involved the elimination of Indigenous Australians (Aboriginals) and their replacement by a settler society. Initially this involved a great deal of violence including massacres, dispossession of land and starvation. It continues today in the form of cultural assimilation.

In the U.S., settler colonialism developed over 170 years of British control in North America and has continued after the American Revolution. Those referred to as “founders” in U.S. history were, according to Dunbar-Ortiz, “not an oppressed, colonized people… They were imperialists who visualized the conquest of the continent…”.

In virtually every U.S. history text I’ve read, colonialism is portrayed more as adventurous struggle than armed theft. In teaching that history, especially in high school, it is instructionally useful and historically more accurate to explain how the United States is an example of settler colonialism. 

It will take work, but most textbooks provide a few sentences that create opportunities for stimulating discussions. In “History Alive!” there is this accurate description of settler colonialism: “The land that drew colonists to America was already occupied…. settlers eventually stripped eastern tribes of most of their land through purchases, wars, and unfair treaties.”

Source: Missing Links in Textbook History: Colonialism – ScheerPost

Education

Higher Education Cannot Train a New Generation Without the Humanities | The Smirking Chimp

 With no history, no sociological analysis, no works of art as ‘touchstones,’ a newly educated populace will offer little or no resistance to those who want to obliterate the ‘vermin’ who oppose ruling elites and their values. Who, then, will raise questions about who we are and where we are headed?

Source: Higher Education Cannot Train a New Generation Without the Humanities | The Smirking Chimp

Education

Australia’s 100 wealthiest schools earned almost $4.8bn in 2021, data reveals | Australian education | The Guardian

school students

The Gateway to guaranteed success isn’t the schools per se but the networks and peer groups enabled by the exposure in these schools which have lasting effects in later life. It doesn’t necessarily mean it applies to all attendees. However the same can’t be said of public schools. The fees guarantee a level of status and suitability of applicants.

Exclusive: education department figures reveal the private schools received about $770m in government money amid a public schools funding shortfall

Source: Australia’s 100 wealthiest schools earned almost $4.8bn in 2021, data reveals | Australian education | The Guardian

Education

“Shoot, Shovel, and Shut Up”: Texas Anti-Immigration Laws – » The Australian Independent Media Network

If we think it didn’t and isn’t happening here. If Christo-Fascism isn’t here then why is Black Arm Band History seen as dangerous?  Why was John Howard cosying up with Australian Christian cults? Scott Morrison and 9 Pentecostalism formed part of the LNP government, and Why was the battle for a Degree in Western Culture deemed so important? Tony Abbott turned education from a system for gaining knowledge into a specialist recruitment and training degree at the tertiary level and an Assimilation program at at primary and secondary levels just as America continues to do

The key to understanding the Ramsay Centre for Western Civilisation is that it’s not merely about Western civilisation but in favour of it. The fact that it is ‘for’ the cultural inheritance of countries such as ours, rather than just interested in it, makes it distinctive. The fact that respect for our heritage has largely been absent for at least a generation in our premier teaching and academic institutions makes the Ramsay Centre not just timely but necessary. – Former prime minister Tony Abbott, in Quadrant, May 2018

The U.S. Constitution is under attack. Christo-fascists are trying to turn a secular document into a religious proclamation. They want their Jesus back in public schools, prayer before classes, and the Ten Commandments plastered on all four walls with End Times nonsense whispered into the ear of every student in the land. Politicians are finding methods like school vouchers to get tax money into church coffers and drive development of Christian schools, diminishing the viability of public education, and the banning of books they find offensive. Numerous guaranteed rights in the founding document are being quickly abandoned for purposes of political expediency.

And no place is working harder to undo the law than Texas.

Source: “Shoot, Shovel, and Shut Up”: Texas Anti-Immigration Laws – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Education

Bitter truths: colonisation was not so good for some – Pearls and Irritations

Red soil hand shape on sand in Aboriginal art style,

Basic map of the five languages of the Kulin nation. Image: Wikimedia Commons /Nick carson at English Wikipedia / Public Domain

We need to be educated about what the LNP does not want taught but prefers ignored.

These days, Melbournians celebrate the contribution of the Kulin clans to the life of the city. But even as Elders welcome us to the MCG, and clan members, young and old, bring vibrancy to the city’s cultural, intellectual and spiritual life, commentators on the Voice referendum report that many voters have little knowledge of the history of this place and its continuing impact on Kulin lives. It is as if a people just walked away and left the place to the invaders.

The claim that colonisation had no lasting negative impact is absurd. That Kulin have survived at all is a measure of the extraordinary determination of their Old People and their current leaders. That many carry generational trauma and labour under a continuing burden of structural inequality in education, health, housing, and rates of poverty and incarceration is apparent in the continuing gaps in Victoria’s life tables. That Kulin welcome us to Country and share culture so generously is a gift to us all. A ‘Yes’ vote in the Voice referendum just may go some way to closing these gaps and to addressing historic wrongs.

Source: Bitter truths: colonisation was not so good for some – Pearls and Irritations

Education

Dutton reminds us of Abbott, but not in a good way – » The Australian Independent Media Network

BOOMGATE Australia’s Shame

Tony Abbott and his road to irrelevance

As many have noted the Voice is an advisory body only and placing it within the Constitution merely stops it from being abolished, like ATSIC was, by John Howard.

The Voice, whether enshrined within the Constitution or not, can be ignored. That is the salient point of the whole issue. The fact of Constitutional recognition is nice, but it does not help ‘close the gap’.

That objective lies with us, as to whether we demand that governments listen, and having listened, act to redress wrongs, and build a reasonable future for our fellow citizens. It is the least we can do.

 

Source: Dutton reminds us of Abbott, but not in a good way – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Education

Dennis Prager’s PragerU: Distorting History, Exterminating ‘Woke’ Agenda and Raking In Millions | The Smirking Chimp

When it comes to child development, it’s been said that the most crucial milestones in a kid’s life occur by the age of 7. In fact, the great Greek philosopher Aristotle once said, “Give me a child until he is 7 and I will show you the man.” As a parent, taking this theory to heart can cause waves of anxiety
By applying the practices of scriptural inference to Google searches, this report also implicates Google in reaffirming people’s existing beliefs. Conservatives in this study repeatedly describe the importance of “doing their own research” before believing any news coverage. In their effort to expand out from their ideological positions, they are unaware that their queries will simply return information that reaffirms their beliefs depending on what phrase they choose to type into the search engine. While the empirical evidence in this report only scratches the surface regarding Google’s role in maintaining our filter bubbles, it opens up the opportunity for future studies. It is also of utmost importance that more research investigates the relationship between alternative media networks and the radicalization/conspiracy content created by the “alt-right.”

The Florida Department of Education says it “reviewed PragerU Kids and determined the material aligns to Florida’s revised civics and government standards.”

According to Media Matters for America’s John Knefel, “PragerU Kids videos are a mix of animated and live-action shorts, broken up into different recurring series. Some are more overtly political than others, but the roughly 350 videos on the outlet’s YouTube channel seem largely intended to push a right-wing agenda to one extent or another. Now, any of them could be shown in public school classrooms throughout Florida.” (Knefel reviews some of the videos here.)

“The state of Florida just announced that we are now becoming an official vendor,” said PragerU CEO Marissa Streit in a video. She claimed that schools have “been hijacked by the left” and “used by union bosses” to pursue an agenda “not for our children. We are just getting started — additional states are signing up,” Streit added.

As part of a study titled “Searching for Alternative Facts: Analyzing Scriptural Inferences in Conservative News Practices,” the sociologist Francesca Tripodi wrote that Prager’s project creates “a dense network of extremist thinkers” that “allows for those who identify as mainline conservatives to gain easy access to white supremacist logic.”

PragerU has come a long way in a very short time.

 

Source: Dennis Prager’s PragerU: Distorting History, Exterminating ‘Woke’ Agenda and Raking In Millions | The Smirking Chimp

Education

HECS indexation increasing unaffordable student debt

Cost up quality down promises unfulfilled, You need a degree to work as a teller when once you needed 3rd form and it didn’t leave you in debt. Some people have x3 dergrees do they have x3 HECS debts and no jobs?

The recent indexation of HECS fees at 7.1% is adding to students’ debt at a time of a cost of living crisis for young people, writes Rowan Bosman.

Source: HECS indexation increasing unaffordable student debt

Education

If you can read this (your lucky) … – » The Australian Independent Media Network

 

Greed is not good, whoever dies with the most toys doesn’t win and we all deserve to live in a compassionate society. Education of our children is too important to be a political football and using it as such disadvantages all of us. The sooner our political leaders realise that – the better off we all are.

Source: If you can read this … – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Education, Teriary Education

The degradation of the University – Pearls and Irritations

To have know-how or to have knowledge.

Like other large public and private sector organisations, universities have now been pervaded by the activities and influence of consultants. This represents a degradation of the social and educational role of the university as well as a determined shift towards the privatisation of knowledge.

Source: The degradation of the University – Pearls and Irritations

Education

The Right Has Been Pushing “Free-Market” Propaganda in US Public Schools for Over a Century

America’s Education or Brainwashing System?

Conservatives today want to root out discussion of racism and other “controversial” topics from schools. Less discussed: the Right is also making advances in its age-old fight to indoctrinate the next generation in rabid free-market ideology.

Source: The Right Has Been Pushing “Free-Market” Propaganda in US Public Schools for Over a Century

Education

Positive Education is driving away teachers and sending students backwards

Schools are often accused of pushing a left-wing ideology.

I’ll agree, in part. There is a problem with ideology in our classrooms: neoliberal ideology. The educational fad du jour is called Positive Education. As a former history teacher, allow me to give you a brief lesson.

Source: Positive Education is driving away teachers and sending students backwards

Education

The Right Wing Is Waging a Dirty War Against History and Education | The Smirking Chimp

There is a common thread in the ultra-conservative anglo speaking world which is the promotion of the uncritical glorious history of Western Civilisation. In Australia, it has been heavily promoted by the Ramsay Foundation and politically forced on us by the LNP in the systemic teaching of history in the country.

Under such circumstances, reviving the political and moral imagination is more crucial than ever in order to resist the assassins of memory and social justice who have turned critical education and thinking into a crime.

Source: The Right Wing Is Waging a Dirty War Against History and Education | The Smirking Chimp

Education

Academy of Science, ANU compromised by government secrecy over damning emissions report – Michael West

ANI, Chubb Review, Safeguard Mechanism

Science and secrecy are two words that rarely go well together. Yet remarkably, our peak scientific institution, the Australian Academy of Science is deliberately engaging in secrecy, aided and abetted by the Australian National University. Transparency Warrior Rex Patrick tells the story.

Source: Academy of Science, ANU compromised by government secrecy over damning emissions report – Michael West

Education

Most expensive city for education revealed – Michael West

Australia’s most liveable city is now also the most expensive for public school education.

As more families tighten their belts due to inflation, the cost of education is soaring with some parents to spend upwards of $100,000 just to send their child to school in Melbourne.

Research conducted by the Futurity Investment Group estimates the total cost of a government education in Victoria’s capital will be $102,807 over 13 years for a child starting school in 2023.

That figure is 17 per cent above the national average of $87,528.

 

Source: Most expensive city for education revealed – Michael West

Education

Swiss Scandal: A Canton Tries to Raise University Fees – CounterPunch.org

Council for American Private Education

4.5 mill Americans are privately educated. The Swiss are complaining about their fees rising to $750 per semester. Australian private schooling is $45,000 pa. Plus “living costs”

Some recent U.S. figures to consider in relation to Swiss costs although not always in the same category: The cost of private nursery school in New York City has been reported to be at around $40,000. Private schools, non-boarding, are in the $50,000 range, and private universities at $75,000. To calculate: A child starting nursery school at age two would cost 3x$40,000=$120,00; 13x$50,000=$650,000; 4x$75,000=$300,000; a total over one million dollars including a bachelor’s degree for a child’s education

Source: Swiss Scandal: A Canton Tries to Raise University Fees – CounterPunch.org

Education

Chris Hedges: They Crush Our Song for a Reason – scheerpost.com

 

Education should be subversive. It should give us the intellectual tools and vocabulary to question the reigning ideas and structures that buttress the powerful. It should make us autonomous and independent beings, capable of making our own judgments, capable of understanding and defying the “cultural hegemony,” to quote Antonio Gramsci, that keeps us in bondage. In Wilson’s play, Bynum teaches Loomis how to discover his song, and once Loomis finds his song, he is free.

Source: Chris Hedges: They Crush Our Song for a Reason – scheerpost.com

Education

Independent Schools: Aspiration for the few, desperation for the many – Pearls and Irritations

Coins and cash, a black graduation cap, a certificate

 

These ‘exclusive’ schools argue that it is for them to decide which students they exclude and the circumstances in which they exclude them – and not for any regulatory authority, in this case local councils.

Source: Independent Schools: Aspiration for the few, desperation for the many – Pearls and Irritations

Education

Secular Schooling Is Critical to a Functioning Democracy

Private Education divides a Nation Systemically and Culturally. Secularism promotes Unity and accepts Diversity

The US education system is being desecularized as public money floods into private religious schools. This mix of religious conservatism and free-market fundamentalism threatens to unravel public education.

Source: Secular Schooling Is Critical to a Functioning Democracy

Education

Jim Mamer: Fake Journalism Is Only the First Draft of Fake History – scheerpost.com – Podcast

Ron DeSantis, is the governor of Florida, although he’s this Trumpian, maybe alternative to Trump from the right wing, was educated at the best schools in America. What is it? Harvard and Yale.

Jim Mamer: Harvard.

Scheer: And yet he mangled history so badly, and in your column, you raised a question of whether it was out of ignorance or malice or what have you, but really, tell us about the state of historical knowledge among young, well, any Americans. You’ve been at it for a long time and you just pointed out these blatant errors. So let’s go there. Do we Americans really know anything about our history, the world’s history, and whose fault is it?

Source: Jim Mamer: Fake Journalism Is Only the First Draft of Fake History – scheerpost.com

Education

“Statewide book bans” are coming to Florida’s classrooms, enforced by the far right | Salon.com

Shot of a shelf with books in an empty library (Getty Images/LumiNola)

Fahrenheit 451- Radical Christians with their ISIS-based model state and religious police are coming your way

In combination with other recent laws restricting public schools from discussing LGBTQ issues or racism — including Florida’s 2022 “Don’t Say Gay” law (HB 1557) and “Stop WOKE Act” (HB7) and its 2021 ban on teaching “Critical Race Theory” — this has led some school districts to advise teachers to box up their classroom libraries until each book is vetted. Others have instructed teachers to stop buying or accepting donated books for their classrooms until at least January, to give the district time to hire mandatory new staff to serve as “media specialists” who review each title.

Source: “Statewide book bans” are coming to Florida’s classrooms, enforced by the far right | Salon.com

Education

Student loans are getting bigger and hurting Australians’ chances of buying their own home | Housing | The Guardian

In 2005, the percentage of Help debtors who owed more than $20,000 was 47.51%. It’s now more than 72%.

Meanwhile, Tertiary Institutions are rolling in dough and cutting tenured staff.

Since when has Australia stopped investing in Education? Sixty Years ago you could work in a bank having passed 3rd form. Today you need a degree to meet and greet customers? Branches are being closed at a rapid rate and telephone contact with a branch is nigh on impossible. Everyday banking has become increasingly online.

Selling and designing a matrix of connected products and debt creation is the main goal along with hidden fees extracted from systems that maintain ever-increasing flow from were to syphon fees. Gone are the days when bankers came to primary schools and handed out piggy banks, Now it’s more likely credit cards but even they are being done away with for mobile phones you buy yourself on a plan.

People who choose to study are carrying larger debts – and for much longer than ever before

Source: Student loans are getting bigger and hurting Australians’ chances of buying their own home | Housing | The Guardian

Education

Upset by New York Times Exposé on Hasidic Schools? That’s What GOP Wants for All American Kids | The Smirking Chimp

The real issue here is not “parents’ rights” but children’s rights. In most cases, the parents’-rights gambit is rhetorical sleight-of-hand meant to distract people from what’s really going on, which is adults depriving vulnerable children of the resources they need to grow into healthy adults. Book bans, “don’t say gay” laws, crackdowns on school newspapers and right-wing takeovers of school boards: It all serves the same purpose. For all the talk about “liberty” and “choice” that anti-education activists engage in, the end goal here is to limit the freedom of thought, and the freedom of life choices, that kids can have as adults.

Source: Upset by New York Times Exposé on Hasidic Schools? That’s What GOP Wants for All American Kids | The Smirking Chimp

Education

Florida ranked No. 1 for “education freedom” — by right-wing group that wants to privatize it all | Salon.com

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis speaks at a press conference to discuss Florida's civics education initiative of unbiased history teachings at Crooms Academy of Information Technology in Sanford. (Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Anarchistic Education Florida and Arizona where anything goes

“With this report,” added Burris, “the Heritage Foundation puts its values front and forward — that schooling should be a free-for-all marketplace where states spend the least possible on educating the future generation of Americans, with no regulations to preserve quality.” It’s no accident, Burris added, that Heritage’s top two states, Florida and Arizona, were ranked as the worst on the Network for Public Education’s own report card this year.

“These two states now have such a critical teacher shortage, due to their anti-public school agenda, that you do not even need a college degree to teach,” said Burris. “Parents who are looking for the best states in which to educate their children should take this report card and turn it on its head.”

Source: Florida ranked No. 1 for “education freedom” — by right-wing group that wants to privatize it all | Salon.com

Education, Tertiary Education

Beggars in Surplus: Australia’s University Gangsters – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Instead of being interrogated by appropriate QCs and chased up with a sharp summons, these managers only grow in number, the mold of administrative disaster, undermining academic health at every turn and creating the next absurd brand they call a “university”. With each semester, new positions are created with names disturbingly reminiscent of industrial cleaning products: DVCs, PVCs, Deputy PVCs and what not. These fatuous appointments are subsidised, in turn, by the labours of ailing, overworked staff, contemplating ruination, dejection, and suicide.

The education system has been in sharp decline in inverse proportion to the financial returns being hailed. Throwing public money at these beggars in surplus, an otherwise sensible proposition that could shield the sector from the ravages of impudent investment decisions, looks less appealing on closer inspection. Without deep, remorselessly brave reform, one that directly decapitates the officialdom of university management, good money will be thrown after ill-gotten gains.

Beggars in Surplus: Australia’s University Gangsters – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Education

How to Work Hard, Live Frugally, and Still Have $71,000 in Student Debt

Critics like to paint a picture of debtors as overeducated elites demanding a handout while idly snacking on $15 avocado toasts. But I’ve worked hard and lived modestly, and my debt is still haunting me — even after the White House’s partial cancellation.

How to Work Hard, Live Frugally, and Still Have $71,000 in Student Debt
Education, Uncategorized

Stuart Robert’s alabaster history wars

ON IT GOES, the Liberal Party attempting to recast Australia into its own image.

And if there was to be such an image, it would be an alabaster statue of a tall and impossibly noble-looking Captain Cook, in a huge tricorn hat, sword gallantly outstretched, with a knee-high leather boot grinding into Australia’s virgin soil a dusky native’s head.

Yes, the Liberal Party is trying to change the history books again.

Enter MP Stuart Robert, stage right. Stage Far-Right, to be precise.

Stuart Robert’s alabaster history wars

Stuart Robert’s alabaster history wars

Education

Education system ‘run by Marxists’: Jason Clare takes aim at Liberal senator over comments on teachers | Liberal party | The Guardian

Liberal senator Hollie Hughes

 The education minister has blasted Senator Hollie Hughes for “crazy” comments blaming the Liberals’ low youth vote on “Marxist” teachers.

Source: Education system ‘run by Marxists’: Jason Clare takes aim at Liberal senator over comments on teachers | Liberal party | The Guardian

Education

Indigenous education: New resource seeks to teach Victorian history through Aboriginal eyes

Worawa Aboriginal College principal Lois Peeler and students arrive at the launch of the Aboriginal Change Makers resource.

What the LNP and Peter Dutton want stopped

When Yorta Yorta and Dja Dja Wurrung man Tiriki Onus was a schoolboy, he recalls a year 10 teacher telling the class “that the Aboriginal people of south-east Australia were extinct”.

Source: Indigenous education: New resource seeks to teach Victorian history through Aboriginal eyes

Education

The national history curriculum should not be used and abused as an election issue

The Liberal Party claims its ethos is “free thinking” individuals. It’s reality is to create and action Institutional systems to produce the opposite. Single-minded thought is a priority and Education is their training ground. Education to teach individuals to think freely is in no way on their agenda and resistense begins in primary schools. Training not learning the emphasis and a strict control of history the planned method. History turned into myth and learned as truth. Hitler, it must be reminded, had exactly the same program in mind.

Everyone has an opinion about what should go into history curriculum. Politicians are especially good at expressing theirs. The acting federal education minister, Stuart Robert, has announced a delay in approving the revised Australian Curriculum until at least April. This means the ongoing debate about Australian history in the curriculum is likely to be dragged out to the eve of the next federal election. History curriculum is political but should not be used as a political plaything at election time. The federal government and Western Australian government are concerned that the revised history curriculum is “very busy”. Robert said Western civilisation “is well and truly back in the curriculum, but it remains quite cluttered”.

Source: The national history curriculum should not be used and abused as an election issue

Education

Private school funding rises five-fold while public school funding stagnates – Michael West Media

Why has Australia gone backward in the past decade in comparison to the rest of the world?

New school funding figures show that government funding for private schools increased by nearly five times that for public schools over the last 10 years, writes Trevor Cobbold.

Source: Private school funding rises five-fold while public school funding stagnates – Michael West Media

Education, Teriary Education

News Corp’s deal with Google and the Melbourne Business School questioned by journalism academics

First, we saw the Ramsey Foundation’s incursion into universities with bribery and their Western Civilisations degree. Now News Corp and Google have moved in on  Melbourne University’s Business School. and the L-NP removal of research funding to the commercial sector. What we are seeing is the replacement of an Indpendant Tertiary Institution with the Trump University model being deployed in Australia? We know how well that went. Will shares too be issued sometime soon? The division between private and public seems to have been accelerated by this L-NP.

Why then are we as journalism academics concerned? There are several reasons. The first and most obvious is the incursion of a high-profile and controversial media company into the higher education sector and the extent to which that is funded by a large disruptive digital search company.

Source: News Corp’s deal with Google and the Melbourne Business School questioned by journalism academics

Education

The Critics Were Right: “Critical Race Theory” Panic Is Just a Cover for Silencing Educators | The Smirking Chimp

The LNP lacks originality and plays Simon Says with Republican America. Tudge and now Robert simply the L-NP lacks any imagination when it comes to policies.

He’s calling on right-wing parents to report teachers for any lessons they deem “divisive.” As these previous reports show, that’s an expansive ask, as many parents clearly think it’s “divisive” to admit segregation happened, slavery was real, or the Holocaust was horrific. Youngkin’s intent is quite clearly to scare teachers into simply not teaching history, at least not in any way that’s truthful or remotely educational. Or to scare teachers into not teaching literature that humanizes people of color or LGBTQ people, or men who like poetry for that matter. As usual, despite their denials, Republicans really are behaving like the deplorables their critics say they are.

Source: The Critics Were Right: “Critical Race Theory” Panic Is Just a Cover for Silencing Educators | The Smirking Chimp

Education

US conservatives linked to rich donors wage campaign to ban books from schools | US news | The Guardian

A Moms for Liberty chapter in Tennessee with what they say is an inappropriate book for school students. Moms for Liberty is linked to other groups backed by conservative donors.

Australia’s LNP is increasingly adopting the same policies as the Republican’s in the USA. Along with banning of teaching subjects, sacking teachers, removing books, privatising media and ridding us of the ABC all have been central policies for over 8 years.  Now they want our defamation laws changed, made easier and even suggest that taxpayers fund actions taken to sue by their MPs. Parliamentarians who already have privilege. But want it stretched beyond parliament in order to shut down criticism. It has become a priority for the Morrison Government whose standing and opinion in the eyes of the public in the polls has become lead.

Experts say trend is accelerating as groups push for bans of works that often address race, LGBTQ issues and marginalized people Adam Gabbatt @adamgabbatt Mon 24 Jan 2022 21.00 AEDT Last modified on Mon 24 Jan 2022 21.01 AEDT Conservative groups across the US, often linked to deep-pocketed rightwing donors, are carrying out a campaign to ban books from school libraries, often focused on works that address race, LGBTQ issues or marginalized communities.

Source: US conservatives linked to rich donors wage campaign to ban books from schools | US news | The Guardian

Education

Florida Lawmakers Wants To Put Microphones On Teachers | Crooks and Liars

Florida Lawmakers Wants To Put Microphones On Teachers

The Republicans demand stricter Voting ID and like good camp followers Australia’s LNP suggest the same. Republicans demand stricter education measures Australia’s LNP fight for the same. Morrison is against Lockdowns anti-mandates all Republican Trump decrees Morrison adopts the same plan. It looks like a game of Simon Says. Does the Morrison government have any original policies?

The assault on teachers in this country by Republicans continues as a new bill proposed by Florida State Rep. Bob Rommel would allow cameras in the classroom as well as put microphones on teachers to monitor what they say.

Source: Florida Lawmakers Wants To Put Microphones On Teachers | Crooks and Liars

Education

Want to Know More About Critical Race Theory? Look at Virginia’s Schools—For More Than 75 Years | Washington Monthly

Illustration by Megan Herbert

Understanding Scott Morrison and Aland Tudge’s ideological purification, “the intellectual blockade,” Their underlying dream of a a One Party LNP State in Australia by taking over every cultural institution and controling citizen;s thoughts. In simple terms their approach is not original but historically known as Fascism and Mussolini’s dream.

CRT  is not is a disease or a conspiracy hovering behind any teacher or book that suggests that racism is a problem in the 21st century.

Even if critical race theory were exerting some massive influence on K–12 education in America (it isn’t), and even if critical race theory had as its aim the instilling of shame in white students (it doesn’t), none of its efforts would compare in scope the determination with the systematic and successful 75-year campaign by Virginia and other southern states to control what was taught to students, and what students, Black and white, were allowed to read and think about race and racism. When we consider Virginia parents complaining that they “weren’t raised that way,” this history needs to be considered.

In fact, a rigorous program of ideological conformity has been a part of southern culture since the 1831 Nat Turner rebellion in Virginia. On the excuse of preventing more slave revolts, not only were antebellum schools and universities purged of antislavery teachers and books, the very mails were censored to ensure that no antislavery publications reached Dixie.

The Tudge plan is to do just that for White Christian British history and do away with any notion that the historic truth lies elsewhere.

Source: Want to Know More About Critical Race Theory? Look at Virginia’s Schools—For More Than 75 Years | Washington Monthly

Education

Tudge flags freedom of speech while whitewashing Australia’s past

White retrenchment theory. By a practicing white male misogynist preaching values he doesn’t practice.

Education Minister Alan Tudge continues to argue that an obscure version of our history – one that students “can be proud of” – is the only one worth teaching, writes Dechlan Brennan.

Source: Tudge flags freedom of speech while whitewashing Australia’s past

Education

BratKeeper: profitable private schools purloin JobKeeper, pandemic payments too – Michael West Media

Wesley College, JobKeeper

Blessed are the rich, for theirs are the taxes of the poor! Elite private schools gorged themselves on JobKeeper despite their profits, on top of Pandemic stimulus payments, and as well as trousering a bigger slice of the federal funding pie at the expense of public schools. Trevor Cobbold investigates the latest hand-outs.

Source: BratKeeper: profitable private schools purloin JobKeeper, pandemic payments too – Michael West Media

Education

The Great Silencing | The Smirking Chimp

That’s how terrorism works and how the silence grows wherever the forces of zealotry and fanaticism dominate a culture. It’s beginning to seem a bit Brown Shirt-y in this country, verging on Third Reichian, a place where neighbors fear neighbors and teachers teach warily, succumbing to fear as the great silencing settles over us.

Source: The Great Silencing | The Smirking Chimp

Education

The old school tie has lost potency, but a private education still opens doors

The question “what school did you go to?” can be a conversation starter, and ender.

Because in a real meritocracy— in a society that looks to its future productivity and social cohesion— plum jobs are available to all who strive, irrespective of their postcode or school. In a real meritocracy, the state does not actively encourage educational segregation whereby some schools have leaking roofs and others their own weather station, and then declare, as has federal Education Minister Alan Tudge, class warfare “over”. In a real meritocracy, no class of people can unselfconsciously assume they own the future.

Source: The old school tie has lost potency, but a private education still opens doors

Education

Bags of money and the old school tie: Private schools and their impact on Melbourne

Fran Bailey in 2011 with former prime minister John Howard and then Opposition leader Tony Abbott.

When Fran Bailey moved from Brisbane to Melbourne in 1970, one big cultural difference stood out between the two cities. “I was constantly amazed at how often I was asked what school I went to,” says the former Liberal MP and Howard-era minister. “You would be invited to someone’s house for dinner and you would meet people and they would invariably ask.”

Source: Bags of money and the old school tie: Private schools and their impact on Melbourne

Education

Education and Political Interference in the Death of Democracy – » The Australian Independent Media Network

In Ray Bradbury’s 1953 book Farenheit 451, Captain Beatty states that, ‘A book is a loaded gun in the house next door. Burn it, take the shot from the weapon. Breach one man’s mind. Who knows what might be the target of the well-read man’. In this dystopian novel, Beatty is justifying the burning of books. While Farenheit is a novel, there is a long history of book burning going back centuries. The burning of books is intended to control knowledge, to prevent free thinking, to make sure everyone thinks the same and an affront to liberalism. Book burning is a political issue, and similarly, the 21st century equivalent is Internet Censorship, which, in a political context, has became a hot topic since the propagation of mistruths became so visible during the Trump Presidency.

Source: Education and Political Interference in the Death of Democracy – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Education

Why the panic over “critical race theory” is the perfect right-wing troll | Salon.com

Students line a busy intersection and overpass protesting against a Jefferson County School Board proposal to emphasize patriotism and downplay civil unrest in the teaching of U.S. history, in the Denver suburb of Littleton, Colo., Thursday, Sept. 25, 2014. Several hundred students walked out of class Thursday in the fourth straight day of protests in Jefferson County. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley) (AP)

Moving away from the debate about what is or isn’t “critical race theory” and instead focusing on what lawmakers are actually trying to do — replace factual information with fake history — helps recenter the debate on what’s really going on. After all, the only reason Republicans and right-wing pundits lie about what is and isn’t in the public school curriculum is because they know they can’t win the debate by being honest. The truth terrifies them, which is why they go to such lengths to conceal it both in public debate and in our public schools.

Source: Why the panic over “critical race theory” is the perfect right-wing troll | Salon.com

Education

Teachers Across the Country Are Protesting Laws That Stop Them From Talking About Systemic Racism – Mother Jones

Four people with signs in front of monument.

This weekend, teachers in more than 30 cities protested against new laws that would limit what they can say in the classroom about racism in the United States. The laws—in Texas, Idaho, Arkansas, Iowa, Louisiana, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, West Virginia, Arizona, North Carolina, and other states—have emerged since George Floyd’s murder in Minnesota, after more teachers expanded lessons about systemic racism. Many of the laws ban schools from exploring “critical race theory,” which holds that any study of American history must acknowledge that racism is deeply embedded in government policies and the legal system. Some of the laws are even more broad, seeking to restrict lessons that focus on marginalized groups or equity. There’s money behind them, too. A new political action committee, the 1776 Project PAC, is fundraising to support school board members and others who push similar bills. The conservatives cheering these new restrictions likely took a recent cue from former President Donald Trump—who during his term accused schools that teach kids about slavery of spreading “hateful lies” and insulting the country’s founders. Trump created the 1776 Commission to promot

Source: Teachers Across the Country Are Protesting Laws That Stop Them From Talking About Systemic Racism – Mother Jones

Education

Who Gets to Be Smart by Bri Lee review – gutsy but unfocused interrogation of academic privilege | Australian books | The Guardian

Bri Lee and the cover of her new book, Who Gets To Be Smart.

Lee’s book is laden with research – podcasts, budget reports, soul-jarring statistics (to choose just one: in 2019, Australia’s four richest schools spent more on new facilities and renovations than the poorest 1,800 combined). But Who Gets to be Smart is light on listening. This book yearns for interviews, for the voices of those who are falling into the dark of education’s ever-growing equity gap: parents of children with disabilities, who have to fight for inclusive teaching; Indigenous students who quietly learn to dream smaller; the vast army of casual adjuncts, keeping universities open but teaching for crumbs; the principals of public schools struggling to repair the toilets when the private school down the road has on-site baristas; the women who’ve dropped out of higher ed because Covid-era caring commitments have made study untenable. Seated next to a high-profile vice chancellor on a plane, Lee delights in reading his emails over his shoulder, but she never asks him a question. That feels like a metaphor, too.

Source: Who Gets to Be Smart by Bri Lee review – gutsy but unfocused interrogation of academic privilege | Australian books | The Guardian

Education

If You Love Our Country, Don’t Ban Its History | The Smirking Chimp

The question opponents of critical race theory don’t want us to ask is: How did the past affect the present? What parts of the ugly side of our history have we retained, even unintentionally? Understanding these lessons is the whole point of studying history. We do a disservice to our own history if we do not study all of it, in all of its complexity, in order to secure a better future.

Source: If You Love Our Country, Don’t Ban Its History | The Smirking Chimp