The wasteful multi-million dollar Naplan-based shrinking of Australia\u2019s intellectual growth is well on track and nobody seems to care. It\u2019s a dangerous extra school burden that no teacher group, no parent group, no school system or department in Australia ever sought. The enormous sum would be better spent on schooling or flood, cyclone and earthquake relief, but the efficacy hawks have to maintain the evil. That\u2019s what it is \u2013 evil –\u00a0 and it originates from our languid disinterest in the quick-fix, politically inspired revolution.<\/p>\n
Australia\u2019s apathetic attitude towards schooling reminds us of young Treehorn whose simple story reflects our children\u2019s schooling destiny.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t shrink in this class\u2019 said Treehorn\u2019s teacher firmly, but Treehorn WAS shrinking, and very inconvenient it was. To begin with he just began tripping over the ends of his trousers, then he got too small to see over the table at meals, but his parents merely told him to sit up. At last he became small enough to walk under his bed.<\/em><\/p>\n \u2018Heaven knows, I\u2019ve tried to be a good mother\u2019 sniffed Treehorn\u2019s mother, and paid no more attention. Doctors were no use, in fact none of the grown-ups were any help. In the end it was Treehorn himself who found a way out of his trouble. \u2018 <\/em>says the foreword to \u201cThe Shrinking of Treehorn\u201d by Florence Parry Heide, a delightful Young Puffin book published in 1975; and happily still in print for about $7.00.<\/p>\n There\u2019s an uncomfortable ending that adults will not want to know about.<\/p>\n Now, over thirty years later there are a few million Australian Treehorns, in his age group between five and twelve, whose condition is ignored by almost all grown-ups. Even worse, school children\u2019s intellectual growth is being shrunk because nobody seems to care. Schooling has not been a political\/election issue for many generations and it ought to be top of the list.<\/p>\n I feel truly sorry for our Aussie school-based Treehorns. They have no real friends. Far too many adults just don\u2019t care. When he spoke with his Principal, the response was…\u2019I\u2019m sorry to hear that, Treehorn. You were right to come to me. That\u2019s what I\u2019m here for. To quide. Not to punish, but to guide\u2019 <\/em>and then dismissed him. \u2018Goodbye, Treehorn. If you have any more problems, come straight to me, and I\u2019ll help you again.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em>Treehorn\u2019s principal did not want too much disturbance to his routine. He had a good job and was not much interested in the long-term care-for-kids stuff. Pretending to care was a job-related habit. If Treehorn had changed schools, he\u2019d be lucky to find a professional principal…it seems. There is a big difference between a job-principal and a professional one. A professional one will go out on a limb for each pupil and care about their future development and how they are treated by others. Such professionals are in short supply. I used to know a few, and held high hopes for others. In 2008, though, when our present Australian principal representatives had a chance to explain professional ethics with regard to the dangers in a fear-driven, test-oriented curriculum to Julia, their political controller, they didn\u2019t.\u00a0 Talk about a disappointment. They were afraid for their jobs perhaps. Fear works at all age levels. Because of their timidity our Treehorn\u2019s IG [Intellectual Growth] keeps shrinking.<\/p>\n The answer can\u2019t be found in a breakfast cereal box, as Treehorn found. It lies in being aggressively professional. Grit.<\/p>\n Before 2010 school year had started, I thought that our Australian classroom teachers were about to lead\u00a0 the world in their care for kids. In January, at a national Australian conference [See; https:\/\/primaryschooling.net\/page_id=1133<\/a> ], teachers voted to bann the immoral, very expensive, learning-destructive, politically-controlled, fear-driven Naplan testing program. I felt sure that they had unanimously passed the AEU motion for professional<\/span> <\/strong>reasons. I was on Cloud Nine to think that Aussie teachers would certainly lead the world in standing up for professional <\/strong>standards to help our Treehorns to grow. I genuinely thanked God for such an exhibition of professionalism. It was so amazing. History has no record of such a thing. I even suspected that Mary McKillop, a popular teacher looking for a saint\u2019s jersey, might have had something to do with it. I was wrong.<\/p>\n I was so disappointingly wrong. The AEU was politically corralled, within a month, as the principals’ associations had been; and so our Australian Treehorns continued to shrink. And…while the original Treehorn\u2019s parents seemed to be thoughtless, our Aussie ones seemed mindless; and continue to be so. They trust their children to the lassitude of school personnel who quietly obey commands from superordinates and politicians who crow about the fine job they are doing. All of them overlook the things that children like Treehorn are capable of doing.<\/p>\n In particular, young children love learning and, if encouraged in the right way, will love learning for their entire life. Politicians seem to want to drive this love of learning from them. They prefer to believe that fear motivates better than anything else. Parents and teachers accept such precepts without question.<\/p>\n \u201cNone of the grown-ups are much help,\u201d <\/em>said Treehorn.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The wasteful multi-million dollar Naplan-based shrinking of Australia\u2019s intellectual growth is well on track and nobody seems to care. It\u2019s a dangerous extra school burden that no teacher group, no parent group, no school system or department in Australia ever sought. The enormous sum would be better spent on schooling or flood, cyclone and earthquake … Continue reading WHO CARES ABOUT INTELLECTUAL GROWTH ?<\/span>