Manuel Cant ( He's from Barcelona you know)
- I am Cooking: Porridge
- Books I am Reading: None too tired, too hot
- TV /DVDs I am Watching: Blake's 7, Little britain, Voyager
Bring back Paul Keating? What an excellent idea. Though Edward Gough Whitlam is my iconic favourite, I was only 13 when the big ‘Maintain the Rage’ Governor-General’s sacking took place, so though I remember watching it on TV I wasn’t old enough to vote. Bob Hawke was a populist PM, rather like Jim Bacon, but for all over hands down statesmanship, intelligence and class you can’t go past Paul Keating. I loved his sharp wit, his taste in clocks and the fact that he had no colonial or cultural cringe. In fact he caused a furore when he put his hand on the Queen of England’s back whilst ushering her in. ‘Lizard of Oz!!!” the British headlines screamed. OMGCB, as if touching the Queen of England was a crime.
I can cope with being part of the Commonwealth, well almost, but why can’t we have our own flag? All this rubbish about men fighting under our Union Jack flag blah blah blah ( GREAT Andrew Denton Show by the way) My Dad fought in the Korean war and he was all for a new flag and independence. Howard is a would-be soldier, never actually brave enough to do anything himself but happy to invoke the war rhetoric and bask in its reflected glory. It makes me sick to hear his 50s cant and see him talk about mateship, alienating more than half of the population immediately. Oh how he longs for the days of white picket fences, mums at home and men in charge. He likes Janette to walk three paces behind. What has she done to help the female cause? Nothing. She has had the opportunity to do something worthwhile and has actively chosen not to. As usual, we are betrayed by our own sex.
Now I am not ignoring the cons of Keating, I didn’t agree with his Education policy and he was arrogant and divisive in some ways, but he had a vision for the future here in our region and didn’t yearn for the supposed mother-country. I like having a vision, Howard has hindsight and that’s all, he wants the future to be like the past. Come back Paul, all is forgiven….
Obviously I am having an opinionated post!!!
The new Essential Learnings, or ELs ( ELs bells I say) in Education. Well it is all very good to have the topics to be assessed –Within each Essential Learning, the significant ideas are organised into key elements:
Essential Learning Key Element
Thinking
- Inquiry
- Reflective thinking
Communicating
- Being literate
- Being numerate
- Being information literate
- Being arts literate
Personal Futures
- Building and maintaining identity and relationships
- Maintaining well-being
- Being ethical
- Creating and pursuing goals
Social Responsibility
- Building social capital
- Valuing diversity
- Acting democratically
- Understanding the past and creating preferred futures
World Futures
- Investigating the natural and constructed world
- Understanding systems
- Designing and evaluating technological solutions
- Creating sustainable futures
But underpinning all of this is the fact that no subject is compulsory anymore - not Maths, not English, not Science, not History and Geography, not ANYTHING . There are no facts to be learned, opinions are assessed, but so many children have opinions based on no facts, learning or knowledge . They will be marked at a high standard, whereas someone with knowledge and skills who has only one or two opinions will be marked lower.
How in the world do you assess a child’s well-being?? How do you become Arts literate?? The teachers and the parents are confused, only the elite in Hobart seem to have grasped this. It does not seem to practically apply to most people. How do you mark Maths as a World Future??? I could do this though, people are doing it as they have to, but it was imposed from the top down, it was not a grass roots initiative. Don’t worry too much, in your old age you will be supported by a group of adults who have studied Ceramics, Dance, Robotics, Cooking and Manga – gives you a warm safe feeling , doesn’t it???
But this too will pass and the intellectual elite will soon think of another philosophical direction, and ELs will go the same way as The Profiles and Statements, TILOs, TINOs, KILOs, KINOs, Pathways, Social Studies, Social Science, The Eight Learning Areas, Frameworks, etc etc etc…..
Apart from that we had excellent tea last night – Spanish. I made meatballs with chorizo, and a chilli tomato sauce, and roast Dutch cream potatoes with garlic aioli and hot paprika, salad and then blood plum upside down cake with custard for dessert!!! It was so nice, and I used my new whisk, so it was even nicer.
Watched Little Britain and it had Anthony Stewart Head and was narrated by Tom Baker – two fabulous things and I couldn’t help but laugh at all of the show except for the flute-playing hotel owner. I am off to watch the last two episodes of Blake’s 7 from the Season 1 DVD. So nice of K’s dad to bring it back from Britain. So sad that it is now the 26 th Anniversary edition and by the time we get to Season 4 it will probably be the 40 th!!! But better to have a DVD late than none at all!!!