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Search Results: literacy

  • EDUCATION

    Education in a post-WikiLeaks world

    • Fatima Measham
    • 15 December 2010
    6 Comments

    The National Curriculum has sparked passionate debate. An enlightened society upholds that its young people are more than just future workers; they are human beings first. Unfortunately, it is easier to generate data for the knowledge and skills that we expect of future workers.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    The problem with prosperous Australia

    • John Falzon
    • 18 October 2010
    5 Comments

    There's something disquieting about quietness imposed from above in the heart of a democracy. Anti-Poverty Week is a good time to reflect on how, as a nation, can hear the revolutionary stories of the oppressed and abandoned in our midst.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Serious business for children

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 15 October 2010
    4 Comments

    The suffering of children opens a door into the hardness of society. Think about the experience of the Stolen Generations, the detention of asylum seeker children, the sexual abuse of children. Societies try to close doors that open on to vulnerability.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    A journey with Indigenous 'in-laws'

    • Myrna Tonkinson
    • 20 August 2010

    The women assemble to sing, dance, tell stories; thus the elders induct younger women into the religious knowledge and rituals that are shared across a wide area. Yuwani Annie's origin story blends a Yanyuwa version with the biblical Adam and Eve story.

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  • EUREKA STREET/ READER'S FEAST AWARD

    Teaching children to read the Aboriginal world

    • Nigel Pearn
    • 18 August 2010
    3 Comments

    The book was banned after parents complained about its anti-authoritarian attitude: 'Wanja [the dog] loved to chase the [police] van ... to bark at the van ... to bite at the wheel. The police van would drive away.' Like Jewish humour, Aboriginal humour is a response to a history of oppression.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Election year mental health test

    • Simon Rice
    • 12 July 2010
    6 Comments

    Advocacy from the likes of esteemed psychiatrist Professor Patrick McGorry continues to highlight Australia's mental health system crisis. If Julia Gillard wants to lead on this issue, she will need to further the Coalition's $1.5 billion electoral commitment to mental health services.

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  • EDUCATION

    Why NAPLAN boycott must happen

    • Fatima Measham
    • 28 April 2010
    19 Comments

    Julia Gillard has not truly engaged with concerns from teachers, principals, academics and parents regarding the overemphasis on NAPLAN-based school comparisons. For many teachers, the professional and only ethical thing is to oppose such moves.

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  • ENVIRONMENT

    High-tech health in the bush

    • Ben O'Mara
    • 14 April 2010
    3 Comments

    New technology can improve health care for geographically remote and ethnically diverse Australians. But it won't make much difference unless these people know how to use the technology and are involved in its design and implementation.

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  • EDUCATION

    Gillard student numbers don't add up

    • Fatima Measham
    • 26 February 2010
    5 Comments

    Many teachers argue that NAPLAN test results should be used to improve the standard of education, and not a lever for market-based competition. These critics are called secretive and defensive. Perhaps this is how Rudd and Gillard want them to be seen.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    MySchool: helping rich schools get richer

    • Tony Kevin
    • 03 February 2010
    7 Comments

    It is disingenuous for Labor education ministers' to say MySchool will create political pressure to boost 'under-performing' schools. Meanwhile parents, voting with their feet, may foster the very outcomes they fear: underprivileged, low-morale schools breeding a generation of alienated, under-achieving kids.

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  • ENVIRONMENT

    The morality of population control

    • Paul Collins
    • 17 December 2009
    22 Comments

    It's hard not to sound misanthropic when discussing population. Conservatives accuse you of favouring abortion, contraception and sterilisation in developing countries. Progressives say you're a cultural imperialist diverting attention from social justice.

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  • EDUCATION

    Sex, schools and students

    • Fatima Measham
    • 20 October 2009
    7 Comments

    A Queensland father removed his children from a Catholic primary school in protest against the graphic sexual education given to his children. Schools are best placed to cover sexual health because students can be supported in developing a mature sexual ethic.

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