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Chaos in Australian Education

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Supposedly in Victorian Public Schools --
Victoria - The Uncertain State.

Gender politics distorts reality

Every now and again you read something that makes you realise that while you were busy worrying about other things some great change has occurred and things that you thought were settled beyond all reasonable doubt are in fact not settled at all.

Such a moment came to me when I read a Fairfax news report that revealed state schools in Victoria will soon have to adhere to “strict new participation guidelines aimed at tackling discrimination against transgender students in sport”. The report quoted Roz Ward, of the federal and state taxpayer-funded Safe Schools Coalition, who said: “There is a perception that so-called male bodies are physically superior.”

Ward was talking about the difficulties teenage males who identify as females have in being accepted on girls’ sports teams.

Which is unsurprising when you consider the commonly held view that, on average, males are stronger and faster than females.

Commonly held but, as Ms Ward demonstrates, not universal. For me this was not the eye-catching part of her statement. That debate has been raging since the 1970s. No, the bit that pulled me up was her reference to the “so-called male body”.

The list of contested concepts I’ve read about include “so-called friends’’, “so-called diets” ”” even the “so-called Armenian genocide” ”” but what’s all this about “the so-called male body”? While not claiming to be a close student of developments in gender politics, I am of course aware the trans rights movement is making giant gains not least because of celebrities such as Caitlyn ”” nee Bruce ”” Jenner.

If you go to that bible of political correctness, Wikipedia, and look up Jenner or, for that matter, Chelsea ”” nee Bradley ”” Manning you will see their entries have been curated to suggest they were always “she” ”” in Jenner’s case as far back as 1976 when “she” won the men’s decathlon at the Montreal Olympics.

Even so, I was taken aback by Ms Ward’s claim that there is no such thing as the male body, or to borrow from Hamlet ”” that there is nothing either male or female, but thinking makes it so.

You probably think that if someone wants to believe something as obviously crackers as the idea that objectively there is no such thing as a man or a woman, only what we each want to be, well, that is their business. The rest of us will still be free to go on thinking there are men and women, just as we always have.

Go to the website for minus18, a taxpayer outfit that helps same-sex-attracted and transgender youth cope at school and you will see where we are heading.

In a section devoted to the vexed question of the pronouns he, she and they, its website tells the state’s youth that while it’s an easy mistake to make that “genitals and bodies in general don’t reflect anything about a person’s pronouns or gender”.
Apparently this is not even a matter for debate. “Above all else, don’t try to argue this with a person,” it goes on. “Even if you personally disagree, a person who’s asking you to use new pronouns more than likely already has their mind made up, and will probably also feel pretty hurt. Basically, what’s more important? Someone’s anatomy, or their happiness?”

When you put it like that, isn’t arguing the point wrong? If it’s wrong to interfere with someone else’s happiness, shouldn’t that behaviour be forbidden? The process has already started.

Last year the Australian feminist, Germaine Greer, was attacked by students at a provincial university in Wales who wanted her banned from speaking at their seat of learning because of her longstanding view that chopping off your member and taking hormones doesn’t make you a woman.

The point of the attacks on Greer was to make it clear that this stuff isn’t even up for discussion any more. The next stage will be to make it an offence not merely to discriminate against a transsexual person but an offence not to accept their own view of themselves.

To get back to sport, if you accept Ms Ward’s reasoning that it is merely a perception that so-called male bodies, such as the one Jenner possessed in 1976 ”” indeed, unless I have missed it, still possesses, then he/she ought to have been allowed to compete as a woman at Montreal if that had been Jenner’s choice.

But if there are only so-called male bodies and so-called female bodies, by what objective criteria do we have male and female sports at all? Everyone should be able to compete against each other all the time.


As I post in the political correctness thread --

It’s dangerous and wrong to tell all children they’re ‘gender fluid’
https://www.aussiestockforums.com/f...t=18326&page=7&p=896657&viewfull=1#post896657
 
I suppose they will be pushing for unisex toilets next.

So how come they have 5hr tennis games for men, and 3hrs for women, if they aren't different.
 
Still in Vic....

Mother pulls children from Frankston High School over transgender awareness rules

A MOTHER has withdrawn her children from Frankston High School after the introduction of a new program to promote transgender awareness.

Cella White says her 14-year-old son was told he could wear a dress to school and that male-born students who identified as female could use the girls’ change rooms and toilets.

The government-funded program by the Safe Schools Coalition is designed to promote inclusiveness for ‘same sex attracted, intersex and gender diverse’ students, but critics say it is indoctrinating children in sexual identity politics under the pretence of a bulling program.

“It was announced in science class that boys could wear school dresses next year,” Ms White said.

“They’re telling my children to call transgender children by their requested pronoun.

“What is the benefit to my son? He’s got a learning disability, he’s struggling with his times tables, he doesn’t need to deal with this.”

The mother of four was particularly concerned about any changes in bathroom policy that could see her daughter sharing a bathroom with a gender diverse student.

“It could be a year 12 student of the opposite-born sex in the bathroom with my year 7 daughter who is blind,” Ms White said.

“This isn’t about safe schools, it’s transgenderism and gay activism bought into the classroom.

“I know other parents who are not happy.”

“Most parents would be very concerned to know that their children are being exposed to such content at school,” he said.

“The program should be removed from schools, and the government should replace it with anti-bullying resources not based on radical gender theory.”

Ms White, who has complained to the education department and Safe Schools Coalition, said she is not religious but is coming forward to make other parents aware of “what their children are being taught.”

“It’s being presented as an anti-bullying program but the education department said it’s a sexual diversity program,” she said.

“The Andrews government has mandated all government schools have to join Safe Schools Coalition by 2018.”

A spokesman for Minister for Education James Merlino told the Herald Sun that they are proud of the work the Safe Schools Coalition is doing:

“Discrimination, harassment and bullying have no place in Victorian schools, and it is up to all of us to establish safe and inclusive learning environments for every one of our students.

“Labor made an election commitment to bring this important program to every Victorian government school and we are happy to honour that promise.”


http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/vi...1ab5be79592261672051b5c60#load-story-comments
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here's a novel idea: use schools to teach academic subjects eg English, literacy, science, maths etc.
Let PARENTS deal with their children's PERSONAL matters.
Plenty of children are "different" but their needs are ignored eg gifted chikdren are bored rigid at school.
Yet anything mentioning sex goes to the top of the urgency scale.
It is ridiculous and just another fad being forced onto schools.
The mother is right to withdraw her children. Hopefully, she will find a school that is into teaching academic subjects not PC practices.
Past generations could spell perfectly, had excellent grammar and mental arithmetic etc but they didn't finish 12 years of schooling.
Today, after 12 years, students are coming out barely literate, unable to spell, and with appalling grammar.
It's time schools stopped the claptrap and taught proper subjects.
 
Tink said:
Here's a novel idea: use schools to teach academic subjects eg English, literacy, science, maths etc.
Let PARENTS deal with their children's PERSONAL matters.
Plenty of children are "different" but their needs are ignored eg gifted chikdren are bored rigid at school.
Yet anything mentioning sex goes to the top of the urgency scale.
It is ridiculous and just another fad being forced onto schools.
The mother is right to withdraw her children. Hopefully, she will find a school that is into teaching academic subjects not PC practices.
Past generations could spell perfectly, had excellent grammar and mental arithmetic etc but they didn't finish 12 years of schooling.
Today, after 12 years, students are coming out barely literate, unable to spell, and with appalling grammar.
It's time schools stopped the claptrap and taught proper subjects.
Click to expand...

I'd have to say I agree with that comment.

Schools are for learning academic subjects and this nonsense would seem to pander to a very small minority at the expense of the majority because it would be a diversion from the academic routine.

No wonder more parents are sending their kids to private schools.
 
SirRumpole said:
I'd have to say I agree with that comment.

Schools are for learning academic subjects and this nonsense would seem to pander to a very small minority at the expense of the majority because it would be a diversion from the academic routine.

No wonder more parents are sending their kids to private schools.
Click to expand...

Daughter reregistered as teacher a few months back, expected a protracted delay in position, one week later swamped with offers for contracts, one week into this year and she has already suspended a year 8 from her class and the school, sent another to spend the class time somewhere else in the school and shocked the socks of her cohorts in doing so; HODS and Principals are delighted that a teacher is teaching both academics and social expectations.

My family has a long chain DNA of teaching, dating well back into pioneer Australia. It is well known that to teach you first have to get the students engaged by whatever means; and discipline is the key ....just like it was for all us baby boomers who experienced the fear of retribution from the grown up at the front of the class.

The good news is that the Newman Govt's audacious scheme to send kids back in time to learn the three R's so our kids they could fit into a rheumatic farm labourer culture that was QLD a century ago has been scrapped by the current govt and the 21st century has once again been rediscovered up here in the boonies, with primary school children now been prepped for the technology generation that we missed the boat on some decades ago.

It's all well and good romanticising about the good old days when we were bragging about gaining a distinction mark, when in reality it was a 25% fail indicator. As a nation, we were going nowhere fast back then with our qualifications and I suspect we haven't reached any desirable destination since, with most innovative talent and invention going offshore where enterprise is valued over quadratic equations that have no place in 99.9% of the human population's adult lifetime.

The public service is a classic example of success based on irrelevant scholastic outcomes (under the oxymoron of personal development) rather than merit. They get pay rises, but continue to do the same menial works a junior school leaver with a poor knowledge of the 3Rs could do merely by adhering to the procedure manual; the money goes in from the public and the efficacy that comes back to them is poor by comparison, so poor that govts employ outside consultants to come up with solutions... proof that relevance is the key; that or cronyism:D
 
Tisme said:
The public service is a classic example of success based on irrelevant scholastic outcomes (under the oxymoron of personal development) rather than merit. They get pay rises, but continue to do the same menial works a junior school leaver with a poor knowledge of the 3Rs could do merely by adhering to the procedure manual; the money goes in from the public and the efficacy that comes back to them is poor by comparison, so poor that govts employ outside consultants to come up with solutions... proof that relevance is the key; that or cronyism:D
Click to expand...

Cronyism is alive and well in the public service, but I've known instances where a new manager comes into the public service, sacks existing staff and appoints contractors who are cronies of his !

Costs go up and very little is done. At least with permanent staff, very little gets done also, but the costs are lower.
:D
 
The controversial Safe Schools Coalition program, which teaches high school students in years 7 and 8 about sexual diversity and inclusion, ... takes a politically correct approach to sex education. Teachers are told it is “heterosexist’’ to refer to students as “girls and boys”.

I am not convinced that sex education should be in schools at all. This sort of program certainly should not be.

While it is important to socialise young minds to tolerate diversity, this is a role for parents and broader civil society – state sponsored indoctrination through the state schooling system distracts from its primary function.

http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/..._backs_this_preaching_whats_the_point_of_the/
 
Tink said:
The controversial Safe Schools Coalition program, which teaches high school students in years 7 and 8 about sexual diversity and inclusion, ... takes a politically correct approach to sex education. Teachers are told it is “heterosexist’’ to refer to students as “girls and boys”.

I am not convinced that sex education should be in schools at all. This sort of program certainly should not be.

While it is important to socialise young minds to tolerate diversity, this is a role for parents and broader civil society – state sponsored indoctrination through the state schooling system distracts from its primary function.

http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/..._backs_this_preaching_whats_the_point_of_the/
Click to expand...

I thought it is the primary function of schools to indoctrinate kids?

How else will they grow up thinking that their country is just awesome; their country never do wrong but always have wrong done to it; How else will they learn to not laugh at their political leaders but listen and obey? How will they know and accept their place in the pecking order... if it weren't for proper education?

:D

So maybe getting to role play and see that it might not be OK to beat up the gay kid because they're students too... maybe not too bad?
 
Tisme said:
..

My family has a long chain DNA of teaching, dating well back into pioneer Australia. It is well known that to teach you first have to get the students engaged by whatever means; and discipline is the key ....just like it was for all us baby boomers who experienced the fear of retribution from the grown up at the front of the class.
..
Click to expand...

What were your ancestors teaching way back during the pioneering days?
 
Luutzu, you are entitled to your opinion, but bullying should be represented for all children, not just on sexuality.

Transgender and gay activism should not have a place in a school.

Until the school shows that they are coming out with learning the basics, as in reading and writing, then all this other rubbish should not be in schools.

Good on the parents that have come forward and care about what their children are being taught.

No wonder parents are marching out of the public schools, when they are teaching all this garbage.

Good to see some dads still have a voice, and say what they think when it comes to their children

So when are you enrolling this six year old girl.....

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...tart-new-life-as-a-six-year-old-a6769051.html

-----------------------------

I must say, Good on Bob Day.

A man of honour, morals and principles
 
Tink said:
Luutzu, you are entitled to your opinion, but bullying should be represented for all children, not just on sexuality.

Transgender and gay activism should not have a place in a school.

Until the school shows that they are coming out with learning the basics, as in reading and writing, then all this other rubbish should not be in schools.

Good on the parents that have come forward and care about what their children are being taught.

No wonder parents are marching out of the public schools, when they are teaching all this garbage.

Good to see some dads still have a voice, and say what they think when it comes to their children

So when are you enrolling this six year old girl.....

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...tart-new-life-as-a-six-year-old-a6769051.html

-----------------------------

I must say, Good on Bob Day.

A man of honour, morals and principles
Click to expand...

I take it you don't find insights into education I lifted from other smarter people without referencing that insightful? :D

I don't know the details of the programme beside scanning through Bolt's opinion there... but role playing or bringing up issues of gender and sexuality, particularly getting to know about "the queers" and the "fags" and how maybe they're not all that different might lessen prejudice against those people.

Yea it's activism, maybe... or just part of education.

But as you say, we're all entitled to our opinions and we'd all wish schools and politicians do as we say but you know, you'd need a lot of cash to have a chat to them about that.

I mean, went to the kid's school today to see how the class is and what the kid is learning... There's a bunch of Creationism drawings by the kids, saw a poster about Creation with Mars, Jupiter and Earth on it and thought when God told them prophets about Creation He didn't know about any of those planets and galaxies - and the world they're standing on was thought to be flat and only have olive/brown people in it... Then we're told for First Grade all the kids need to do really is learning to count to 100, read the books that's sent home and that's pretty much it.

So I too wish they'd teach a few things differently too; or not teach too much of the Bible stuff. But then serve me right for sending the kid to a Catholic School... but then can't go public around here and I might have a "guess who's coming to dinner" moment one day :D

Back to topic... pretty sure people can't teach the kid to be gay or something like that, so I wouldn't worry about it.
 
I agree with MT, throwing more money at it won't solve the problem. To be honest, I think Australia puts too much blame on schools and teachers and are using funding as an excuse.

In my opinion, it is the parents and culture we have fostered that should be blamed. Parents should be responsible for the children's learning and encouraging them to succeed as well as respecting education and the purpose it serves during their lifetime.

Aussie culture is also has a part to play in it, kids are taught to be 'happy' instead of succeeding in their studies. Sure, being happy is important but ultimately I think parents should be putting a bit more emphasis on providing their children with the opportunity and motivation to obtain the skills they need to succeed - starting with a solid foundation in basic literacy and mathematics. There also needs to be a change in attitude where teachers are respected - countries like Japan, Finland and Denmark have a very respectful attitude towards teachers hence they constantly have their education ranked in the top percentile in the world.

The data is a bit dated but increasing expenditure also doesn't necessarily mean better education:
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2206rank.html
 

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