{"id":1274,"date":"2010-02-25T16:33:17","date_gmt":"2010-02-25T06:33:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/primaryschooling.net\/?page_id=1274"},"modified":"2012-07-16T23:28:27","modified_gmt":"2012-07-16T13:28:27","slug":"25-feb-10-just-suppose","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/primaryschooling.net\/?page_id=1274","title":{"rendered":"25 Feb.’10 – ‘Just Suppose…’"},"content":{"rendered":"

JUST SUPPOSE WE WANT OUR CHILDREN TO LEARN<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Printed in On Line Opinion<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/strong>We\u2019re a small country. It is possible to standardise some rituals in a wink to make it easier for institutionalised school pupils to learn to love learning and to achieve at top levels.<\/p>\n

However, we now have National Testing in schools. This negative, fear-laden approach was introduced in a \u2018ruddy blush\u2019 with malice-before-thought and she, who must be obeyed, said, \u201cThis will be; and there will be no argument.\u201d Wham!\u00a0 All schools now exist in fear and trepidation that they will not do as well as their neighbour in the one-hit tests. The tests are based on the premise that what can’t be counted does not count. Schools change their M.O.. It’s the only thing to do.<\/p>\n

I voted for Julie\u2019s mob for special reasons, the main one being that I did not think that it would introduce what her predecessor\u00a0 Brendan Nelson had proposed… namely wide-scale fear-driven testing in schools. It is so unlaborlike; apart from being immoral, unethical and unprofessional. \u00a0 Okay!\u00a0 Some thousands of teachers and I made a bad mistake, and now have some tricky decisions to consider next time.The major parties seem to support totalitarian imposition of\u00a0 their peculiar ideas.\u00a0 Which present-day politicians or political groups are truly concerned about the kids and their natural love for learning…and\u00a0 can do something useful about it?<\/p>\n

Now enceinte, our schools\u2019 controller was naively persuaded by local measure-freaks and pundicrats, and a NY lawyer, all with very limited school experience, to test some fundamentals and then make public pronouncements about the comparative worth of schools based on the results.\u00a0 Pity. \u00a0Just suppose that the motivation for revolution was based on raising children\u2019s learning abilities.<\/p>\n

If we had to have a genuine revolution, just suppose some thought was given first to the structure of schooling<\/span> in Australia before anything else was tried.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Just suppose, <\/strong>for instance, <\/strong>that all Aussie children start primary schooling at the same age<\/span>. Parents who change states would be relieved. Under our present totalitarian centralism it should not present any problem to order such changes and declare that all children are able to start school in the calendar year that they turn [say] six of age and not before. Educationally progressive countries legislate for a starting age of seven years, but such a proposal has been dodged here by politicians and educrats for a long, long time. You see, some parents get anxious when their children turn five years of age and they haven\u2019t thought things through. They frighten pollies and schoolies with their anxiety. There are many who want to get their children into institutionalised learning places as soon as they can. They can be helped. Since Australia\u2019s early child-care provisions are presently rich in offerings, a gradual introduction to schooling can now be offered; or children can enjoy early learning for its own sake before they enter Year 1 to prepare for their Masters Degree; or just have fun with their childhood.<\/p>\n

Just suppose <\/strong>state departments of compulsory schooling<\/span> are considered useful and necessary to care for those who are forced to go to school. If a national starting-age was introduced with the rapidity of the introduction of national blanket testing, such departments could be established forthwith: – \u00a0\u00a0Years 1 to 12 Departments\u00a0 holding hands with pre-primary efforts at the lower end and with vocational efforts at the upper, but no closer. National guidelines would be respected through the year levels.<\/p>\n

Just suppose <\/strong>it was decided that all states have the same lengths of schooling<\/span> and that a child enters primary schooling at Year 1 and remains there for seven years and then moves to High School. At present NSW and ACT call the first year at school, Kindergarten; <\/em>Victoria, Tasmania and Queensland call it Preparatory<\/em>; South Australia \u00a0tags it Reception<\/em>; Northern Territory calls it Transition<\/em> ; Western Australian Pre-primary.<\/em> Believe it. It almost seems as if the states once had a contest to sneak some children into schooling earlier than is wise and to find the most creative name to call the year. It has become so confusing.\u00a0 And\u2026believe this\u2026 by the time all children have had three or four years of regular schooling, it is difficult to distinguish in achievement levels, attitudes to learning etc. in the pupils, what kind of developmental experiences they have had.<\/p>\n

Just suppose <\/strong>that a large part of each school day is required for an \u201c\u2026insistence and reverence for language, science and mathematics<\/span>.\u201d That\u2019s what Obama has called for, but his educrats are so possessed by testing,\u00a0 it certainly wont happen while they are in control. We\u00a0 all know that achievement in lower-order cognitive skills that are part of these learnings is directly related to the time spent on them, so why not have a good look at school time-tables?\u00a0 Useful, encouraging, fear-free, fun-full skill development contributes to higher-order fondness for all learnings. Mathematics, for instance, is one of the most beautiful of subjects and its creative joy can be pupilled as such when we dismiss fear and educrat-sponsored-dislike of it. Trust me. The wonders of language and science are just as fascinating. Why destroy the fascination of any<\/strong> standard learnings to satisfy a political platform?<\/p>\n

Just suppose <\/strong>all the curriculum rubbish is cleaned out<\/span> and the remainder re-ordered. So much has entered the school curriculum over recent years\u00a0 that it is the wonder of the age that teachers have done what they have done; and have maintained amazing achievement levels in so-called basic elements as well as they have; and each child has reached a level of competence in subjects and learnings that their parents never encountered nor achieved.<\/p>\n

Just suppose <\/strong>our teachers were selected from the most outstanding school graduates<\/span> who, above all, have been identified as having the qualities that good teachers require. A four-year Masters Degree [as in Finland] during which the wide range of teacher strategies would be practised and understood. This study\/practice would be rigorous, lengthy and intense.\u00a0 Teaching research as detailed by Australian Michael Dunkin and his compatriots would be studied for the intricacies of the teaching act as well as the work of great philosophers of teaching and learning from the time of Socrates, through Rousseau, Montessori, de Bono, Piaget and others to Goodlad and Bassett. \u00a0 Practice and theory would live together with intense respect for each other. Slackers will be advised to change to another course as early in their academic life as possible.\u00a0 It would be widely known that teachers are exceptional people and are paid accordingly.<\/p>\n

Just suppose, <\/strong>as a final suggestion, that <\/strong>we had tax incentives<\/span> for those who give reasonable amounts of money direct to their children\u2019s classroom in a public school<\/span> to purchase resources that are needed to make each room as resource-rich as possible. The same degree of tax incentives could be offered as those received by those who send their children to a private school. If Mum or Dad gave say $1000 direct to each of their children\u2019s teacher each year to establish a resource-rich classroom, they should receive some financial benefit. This would not cost Mum and Dad as much as they would pay to send their child to a private school, but each classroom in which\u00a0 their child was located would be \u00a0better than most. Worth examining ?<\/p>\n

Just suppose <\/strong>we cared for kids and their schooling…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

JUST SUPPOSE WE WANT OUR CHILDREN TO LEARN Printed in On Line Opinion We\u2019re a small country. It is possible to standardise some rituals in a wink to make it easier for institutionalised school pupils to learn to love learning and to achieve at top levels. However, we now have National Testing in schools. This … Continue reading 25 Feb.’10 – ‘Just Suppose…’<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":41,"menu_order":17,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1274","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/primaryschooling.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/primaryschooling.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/primaryschooling.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primaryschooling.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primaryschooling.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1274"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/primaryschooling.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1274\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2021,"href":"https:\/\/primaryschooling.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1274\/revisions\/2021"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primaryschooling.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/41"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/primaryschooling.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}