Misrule - Education

Class war breaks out in classroom

nospam@example.com (Judith Ridge) — Mon, 03 May 2010 14:22:37 +1100

This may be the greatest letter ever published in the Sydney Morning Herald. James Thomson for PM (and Education Minister).

Class war breaks out in classroom

So the Herald has announced the latest in the battle between a determined Julia Gillard and the great bulk of teachers in NSW ("Class war: Backpackers to take over school tests", May 1-2). But no one seems to have asked the simple question, "Why are the teachers prepared to put up with threats and intimidation, even legal action, to maintain their position that the test results should not be available for the preparation of league tables?" There is nothing in it for them - no additional pay. Indeed, the time when they are refusing to supervise tests will probably be counted as strike action and cost them money.

It is indeed class war. On one side are the largely inarticulate, less well-educated people who can be described as working class and whose children were, in more caring times, attending disadvantaged schools.

Their representatives are today's teachers; most of those working in education at an academic level and people like me who used to be somewhere on the barricades.

Opposing them, with a massive superiority of armament, is an array of the middle class, loud, well-educated and articulate parents, asserting their "right" to know not just how well or badly their child is progressing but who is coming last and second last in their war of relentless competition. They need to know not just who is academically inferior to their child, but who is socially inferior.

It was much the same in my day. The difference was that when I looked around, I could see my political leaders, Whitlam and Fraser, fighting beside us.

James Thomson Dooralong

Excellent Animation

nospam@example.com (Judith Ridge) — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 20:40:49 +1100

Check out this fabulous animation, made by some Year 6 boys from a Sydney public school. I saw it today at the ArtsNorth Film Festival at the Dendy Opera Quays cinema. Who said kids don't have a decent attention span—creating a stop/start animation like this requires incredible focus and discipline. Good on you, Aidan, Ivan and Josh!

Music Can Bring Us Together, Music Can Make Us One

nospam@example.com (Judith Ridge) — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 23:53:15 +1000

I was very lucky tonight to have the opportunity to attend a fundraiser for The Song Room, a charitable organisation that puts professional singers and musicians into disadvantaged schools for sustained music education programs. (It's a brilliant organisation, reaching some 100,000 of the country's kids who most need it—check it out.)

And even luckier, earlier in the day, to attend a concert—"The Warbles Go to the Opera"—for 2000 (count 'em!) students from NSW public schools, which introduced them with humour and energy and incredible talent on the part of the five performers (four opera singers and a pianist) to musical theatre and opera. Both events were held at the Sydney Opera House.

For many of these kids, it was their first exposure to a theatrical experience—and their first visit to the Opera House, our most recognisable and arguably most significant cultural icon. I walked past some kids as they were coming into the Concert Hall foyer for the concert, and they were belting up the stairs, so excited, and one boy I walked past shouted out—"It's so beautiful!"

Oh yeah.

Tonight's fundraiser was in the norther foyer of the Opera House, under the big end sail, with the Harbour Bridge and Luna Park making a stunning and somewhat distracting backdrop. Musical entertainment was supplied by Tim Freedman and Vanessa Amorosi, and the evening was MC'd by Julia Zemiro.

I bonded with Ms Zemiro after she introduced Tim Freedman by reminiscing about her memories of him back in the 80s when he was lead singer of Penguins on Safari. Now, the Penguins were actually a band put together by some good mates of mine from my undergrad days at Macquarie Uni. Tim was a USyd boy, but we were pretty happy to have him as an honorary Macquarian, given his ska band Itchy Feet had graced our union bar many times.

Funny how this stuff happens. Just last week I spoke to Ken, bassist (?) with Penguins, for the first time in about five years. He's now working as a teacher in a school for kids with behavioural problems and is starting to introduce music therapy into his program. And last weekend, while (at last!) cleaning out boxes of ancient stuff stored in my dad's garage, I found a scrapbook that included a playlist from an Itchy Feet gig.

Tim played three songs, including a section from "Love This City", which, as he explained, was in part a tribute to his first visit (on a school excursion) to the Opera House, where he first saw John Olsen's "Five Bells" mural, inspired by the Slessor poem, which Tim had known and liked. So was brought together literature, art, music and, most significantly, education.

And hopefully, many dollars were raised so that this good work can continue to grow.

Days like today leave me tired and footsore (damned high heels), but very humbled and inspired by the dedicated work of artists and educators committed to making a real and tangible difference to the lives of young people.

(My blog entry title comes from the lyrics of a song performed at the fundraiser tonight by kids from a school in Sydney's western suburbs. )

"Definitely Beautiful"—Teacher Slam Poet

nospam@example.com (Judith Ridge) — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 03:42:24 +1000

Despite Mr Shaw's excellent advice, I still can't make this appear without the html showing. Oh well, it's messy, but at least you can see the video.

This one's for all my teacher friends. How I wish it had been around back at my friend Annie's wedding (circa 1985), when, still to graduate, I was sat at a table next to an in-law of the groom who insisted on making me defend the profession I had yet to enter...

Thanks to Annette Wannamaker, a child_lit and facebook pal, for the link. And here's more info on Taylor Mali, the slam poet in the video.

[object width="425" height="350"][param name="movie" value=http://www.youtube.com/v/RxsOVK4syxU][/param][param name="wmode" value="transparent"][/param][embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/RxsOVK4syxU" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"][/embed][/object]

ADDED LATER: So, can people see the video or just the HTML? I can see both from my home computer, but not the video at work. Grrr aargh...

Poetry Slams and the HSC

nospam@example.com (Judith Ridge) — Wed, 16 May 2007 22:34:44 +1000

Who knew? Performance poetry is an option in the NSW HSC!

And while I'm here, check out the list of texts available to English students completeing their HSC. Almost makes me wish I was still teaching!

Almost...

Heckling Literacy

nospam@example.com (Judith Ridge) — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 21:13:28 +1100

Heckler is a daily Sydney Morning Herald opinion column, submitted by readers rather than journalists (although I suspect sometimes the writers are in fact journalists). Thanks to my mum for alerting me to Thursday's column, which I'd overlooked. Here's a couple of quotes:

Would someone please tell me, when was Australia's golden age of literacy and numeracy? According to the mythology, standards are falling. Falling from where? Was the golden age back in the 1950s, when all I had to read at school was Fay and Don, Betty and Bill, Seaside Stories and The School Magazine?...
...Did the federal Minister for Education have a poor kindergarten teacher who failed to read the story of Henny Penny? Apparently so, otherwise she would not be running around like a chook crying that the literacy and numeracy sky is falling.

I'm not sure which recent press release from various state or federal education ministers or shadow ministers or opposition leaders or whoever the author is responding to. There's the current debate on merit pay for teachers, and who determines the parameters of "merit". There's the not-so-recent (but recently picked up by the media) trend towards single-sex classes in particular subjects within co-ed/comprehensive high schools. (More about this comment about boys in a single-sex English class [my nephew is in such a class] at a later date: The school invested in two different sets of books and flexible teaching methods. The boys chose mainly non-fiction, sport and autobiographies, not novels. They also studied some different themes, swapping the unit of romance in the parallel girls' class for one on war literature. Hmmm... anyone nervous about gender sterotyping being reinforced, rather than challenged, in these classes?)

Whatever the inspiration for Mr Gregory's (I'm wondering if this is he) Heckler, he's got a good solid point. Australia consistently rates amongst the top 3 or so countries in the world for teenage literacy and numerancy, and statistics for the country as a whole have us at 95-100% literacy overall, despite significant problems within the Indigenous community. (Yeah, I know—not much in the way of links. Reliable web-based stats are hard to come by.) But as state and federal elections loom, let's be educated (pardon the pun) about the real issues, and not be side-tracked and misinformed by knee-jerk campaigns mounted by pollies who Do Not Know (or care!) Whereof They Speak.

Off me soapbox, for the moment.