The spirit of learning has been crushed in classrooms by kids being forced to practise, practise, practise for NAPLAN tests. Children shouldn’t be political pawns, writes Phil Cullen.
Education
How to con your way into Harvard
Like a real-life Talented Mr Ripley, 23-year-old Adam Wheeler bluffed his way into Harvard, picking up tens thousands of dollars in grants and scholarships. And he would’ve got away with it, too, but he got greedy. Read the fascinating full story.
The most popular graduation speakers
It’s a rich tradition in the US that celebrities from world leaders to movie stars deliver the graduation speech at universities. Listen to the speakers — Bill Cosby is most popular! — inspire the youngsters.
Class of 2010: no jobs, no money, no joy
It’s a seriously crappy time to be graduating from university in the US, with no jobs and a wrecked economy. Will Generation Y be the first generation to earn less than its own parents?
Show me the money: Deakin Uni staff ‘bullied’ in pay battle
Staff at Deakin University are still waiting on a promised pay rise, amid accusations the vice-chancellor is trying to “bully” them. Elizabeth Redman reports.
Ziggy’s VCA Review fails to impress
VCA activists have slammed a report into the organisation’s future, describing the 16-page prescription as “impotent” because it fails to tackle the core concerns raised by staff and students.
Higher education: no money, no strategy — has Rudd dropped the ball?
Last year’s Budget was accompanied by a flurry of media releases from Julia Gillard trumpeting funding measures for higher education. This year there’s deafening silence, writes Erica Cervini.
Building an Education
Confusion
Daily media wrap: The Audit Office report into the Rudd Government’s Building the Education Revolution was released yesterday, finding the scheme largely successful… or wait, it was an absolute mess. The media can’t seem to decide.
Shanahan: Julia’s halo slips down to choke her
Julia Gillard is usually the untouchable star of the Rudd government. Well, the report on her BER program is in and Julia’s skills have lost their shine, says Dennis Shanahan.
100 reasons why My School is the best
It’s no coincidence that NSW and Victorian schools dominate the top 100 schools in Australia list, writes Christopher Bantick. NAPLAN tests and My School will help schools improve nationally.
Throw down your chalk and get ready for a real education revolution
The classroom is turning into the stage for an industrial action showdown, with the AEU banning teacher supervision of the controversial NAPLAN tests. Alienating educators is a risky move by Julia Gillard, writes teacher Fatima Measham.
What you can really learn from My School
The notorious My School website may not say anything about the effectiveness of schools, but it does give fascinating information into the type of schools we have, the students they allow to enrol and staffing levels.
Deleting laptops from classrooms
The government’s went big a few years ago, promoting one computer per student in Aussie classroom. But are Twitter, You Tube and Solitare way too distracting to have in a classroom? Several US Law schools are banning them.
Three’s a crowd at Deakin, ‘reducing quality of education’
Changes to teaching periods at Deakin University will reduce the quality of education at the Melbourne-based institution, students and staff have told Crikey. Elizabeth Redman reports.
We need to teach our teachers how to teach
The NAPLAN tests are completely unrealistic and unfair to teachers. How can teachers be expected to guide their students in literacy following the NAPLAN standards, if they themselves haven’t been taught it?
Hartcher: We totally messed up the Indian students debacle
Australia has failed to address the violence against Indian students issue , leaving dramatically reduced student numbers and a severely damaged Australian reputation. This will have a major long term effect, writes Peter Hartcher.
Julie Bishop: The battle of Julie & Julia
The Rudd government’s Building the Education Revolution program is one of the worst examples of economic mismanagement on record, writes deputy opposition leader Julie Bishop. Why didn’t Rudd learn from Howard’s effective school buildings program?
Hadley: BER = Blunder-filled Education Rort
Is Gillard’s BER going to be a similar story to Garrett’s insulation scheme saga? It may not have the deaths involved, but the money being wasted is criminal, writes 2GB host Ray Hadley.
How Texas is — literally — rewriting history
The Texas Board of Education is rewriting the State’s history textbooks with a decidedly more conservative bent: replacing Thomas Jefferson with John Calvin, defending McCarthyism, including the Moral Majority and the NRA, while excluding ideas like freedom of religion.
Political snippets: Labor need to go back to basics
Back to basics. The slogan is a sure-fire political winner. Plus, a former Labor Premier’s granddaughter gets excited about a funicular railway, when a tax is no longer a tax and other political snippets of the day.
Australians give the national curriculum an A+
This week’s Essential Report comes in with a two-party preferred of 54-46 — a one-point gain for Labor — and finds that a whopping 85% of Australians approve of a national curriculum for Australian schools, reports Possum Comitatus.
Guy Rundle: Our new curriculum and how deconstruction has ruined finger-painting
How great it is to see that Australian education is back on track with the new draft national curriculum — national curriculum website offering many lessons in the correct (and incorrect) usage of the English language.
10,000 schools, one curriculum
The new history draft was well received. But it’s not the nature of a published curriculum that is likely to be the real problem, it’s in the implementation that a curriculum stands or falls, writes Tony Taylor.
History’s time has come
Finally the importance of studying history has been realised, with the implementation of the national curriculum placing history as one of the top four subjects. But students care about people and stories, not stodgy facts, writes Greg Melleuish.
Political snippets: Aussies shopped ’til they dropped in January
Nothing recessionary about this morning’s Australian Bureau of Statistics figures on retail sales for January, a crisis for cartoonists and a shade of Malcolm Fraser in Russia.
