The getting of values
The article by Freya Matthews (‘The art of discovering values’, Eureka Street, January–February 2006) is interesting and thought-provoking but I wonder whether it really advances understanding of the subject. I suspect the writer takes the same position that is also criticised in others. For example, towards the end of the article we read, ‘Children who become such independent thinkers will be well equipped to respond appropriately to future situations ...’ There is, in this, a quite clear value placed on ‘independent thinking’. There are many who would question that.
Others may well advocate instead that children need to first learn the mores and values of their culture. These may emphasise such things as honouring parents, obedience to authority and responsibilities to family and community. In one sense this is really no different to the importance of learning the oral and written language of their society. Without such grounding they can never learn to use language creatively and in ways that enable them to communicate with others.
I think it’s a bit unfair to describe Brendan Nelson’s proposal as something that would lead to asking children to ‘swallow a state-sanctioned nine-point code’. I also suspect it is naïve to think children can talk through the issue of morality without first having some grounding in a moral code of some sort. It’s like asking them to talk without ever having learnt speech.
Joe Goerke
Lesmurdie, WA
Niger’s sorry plight
Anthony Ham’s ‘Anatomy of a famine’ (Eureka Street, November–December 2005) turns the spotlight onto Niger’s sorry plight yet again, by presenting a background of causes for that country’s 2005 famine. And it is good information indeed.
That sad nation has been placed in a most parlous position in regard to providing the basic necessities for its 13 million people. Yet, in 20 years’ time, it will have to cope with an extra 13 million more than those who are already in need. The stressed womenfolk are currently burdened with an average of eight children each. The population increases at 2.8 per cent a year.
Anthony Ham wrote that Niger was a land of plenty in 1950s. For the then population it might very well have been. Even without the environmental predation foisted on the countryside, so adequately described by Anthony, the basic needs of an extra nine million since then would impose heavy burdens.
Colin Samundsett
Farrer, ACT
Vale the joy of print
It was with great sadness that I