Australian Education: Proposed Changes are Big Trouble

Last night SBS had an edition of their usually excellent ‘Insight‘ program, where people involved in a modern issue come to say their piece in an attempt to deliver and overall balanced snap shot of the story.  Last night was based on the issue of the creation of ‘League Tables’ and transparency within the Australian [...]

No Child Left Behind: Coming to Australia

The United States of America has the questionable honour of possessing one of the worst educational systems in the developed world.  One of the worst aspects of this system is the policy known as ‘No Child Left Behind’.  At the core of NCLB is the idea that if a school does not perform up to [...]

Australian Labour: Also No Clue on Education

I have commented before how the previous Australian Federal Government had little to no clue about how to run an effective education sector (here, here, here, here and here).  Sadly it would seem that the current Federal Government is just as bad, trying to introduce measures which are, to say the least, expressly counter productive [...]

Teacher fired for being an Atheist

Certain parts of the United States of America have a long standing reputation for being dens of ignorance and general stupidity mixed with a generous helping of inbreeding and intolerance.  Is this reputation deserved? I have no idea but stories like the following are certainly cause for huge concern.  The story concerns a teacher named [...]

Teacher fired over Santa/Why Santa is bad

A story came out a couple of days ago about a substitute (otherwise known as relief or supply) teacher who happened to inform the class she was taking care of that Santa Claus does not actually exist.  The result?  Parents complained and the teacher was effectively fired from working at the school ever again (and [...]

Push-ups get Teacher Suspended

I have often heard the current generation of students called the “cotton wool” generation and the more I have experience with them, the more I tend to feel this is an apt description.  The following story, out of England, is about some children who were late to class and so had to do some pushups [...]

University Inquiry Dismissed: Labelled a Waste of Time

Earlier I had noted about (here and here) a rather odd Australian Senate Inquiry about supposed bias in Australian Universities, which claimed they were part of (for lack of a better term) a conspiracy to further left wing agendas.  That Senate Inquiry has now dismissed itself and stated that the whole things was pretty much [...]