Category: Educational
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Australian Federal Election 2010: what I would like to see
Date: Sunday, morning after 2010 Federal elections. Like many other Australians, I stayed up last night watching the election counting result on the ABC. Like numerous other Australians, I was relieved to see the loss of so many seats previously held by the Labor Party. I write ‘relieved’ for the very reasons I outlined in…
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naplan 2010
A reminder that any parent or guardian may WITHDRAW their CHILD from having to participate in the NAPLAN 2010 tests (at the bottom of this post, I also add some notes regarding other NAPs occurring this year). 2010 NAPLAN tests are due to be conducted between the 11th-14th of May this year (unless a school…
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Play, stories, the brain’s plasticity, Obama’s Prison State and the ‘swine’ influenza ‘pandemic’
Quite a mouthful, that heading… and considering I also wanted to include something on synæsthesia, I’ve rather narrowed somewhat my ‘focus’! Swine flu pandemic Let’s begin with the last of these first: the flu ‘pandemic’ and the reaction to it by officialdom. I accept that when the first outbreak of this new influenza virus began…
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Steiner, NAPLAN and student withdrawals
I’m pleased to hear that ALL students in classes 3, 5, 7 and 9 in Victoria’s largest and oldest Steiner school have been withdrawn by their parents from having had to participate in NAPLAN tests. One would expect that all students in ALL Steiner schools and Steiner-inspired ‘streams’ in State schools would similarly be withdrawn,…
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NAPLAN – or the demise of pedagogical principles
As you may be aware, next week is when Australian schools are under obligation to provide standardised tests to students in classes (or years) 3, 5, 7 and 9 who have not been withdrawn from participation by their parents (or by their school in very special circumstances in which this is permitted). For those who…
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Oft fear of an evil drives us to another worse
Those words, penned in 1674 by Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux (Canto I, l.64) in his L’Art Poetique, has unfortunately so many resonances in today’s socio-political climate. At one level, this can be seen on a common basis as one boards flights: the fear of some flight incident is driving society to measures reminiscent of fascism – and…