Posts Tagged ‘News’

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Downplaying Childhood Obesity

November 7, 2010

Dr Jennifer O’Dea from the University of Sydney claims that Australia’s childhood obesity problem is an “exaggeration”. An exaggeration?

Dr O’Dea also said the scale of this problem for Australian children has become increasingly overblown.  “People have to stop exaggerating the numbers about childhood obesity – that’s not to say that it is not an issue but you know, hysteria, fear campaigns and exaggeration are not very scientific … In children and teenagers, obesity has been stable really since the late 1990s … and around Australia, it is still about six per cent.”

Whilst I don’t subscribe to hysteria or fear campaigns it is my experience that obesity is still an area of deep concern.  Whilst the numbers may have stabilised in recent years it has not sufficiently decreased.  This isn’t about “blaming and shaming and finger pointing and focusing on how the parents have failed,” as Dr. O’Dea asserts, it’s about taking enough of an interest to help tackle the problem rather than sit on our hands.

I agree with Dr O’Dea that a junk food tax is not the answer, but I find that downplaying the problem beacause it isn’t getting worse is simply not responsible.

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Single Sex vs Co-Ed

November 6, 2010

According to a Courier Mail report, there is an increasing preference towards single sex classrooms. Education experts say the trend of single-sex classrooms for young students is gaining momentum and works, but the State Government has left the matter up to principals as the debate heats up in primary schools. Personally, whilst I realise that the data shows that single sex classrooms are more inclined to deliver favourable academic outcomes, I think that the classroom is supposed to be a microcosm for the outside world. A co-ed class gives students much-needed experience in  repect and appreciation for different cultures, genders and nationalities. Besides, I prefer teaching co-ed classes because I like a diverse and multi-faceted classroom.

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What’s Up With Detentions?

November 5, 2010

According to a ntnews.com report, 20 young children have been given detention by their school because they refused to swim in a pool.  Apparently, the pool was too cold for them.

Eva Lawler, NT Education Department Executive Director for Central Australia (now that’s a mouthful!), defended the school saying that, “In accordance with the school’s Code of Conduct – which is well-known to all the students – students who do not complete expected work during class time … are expected to attend … afternoon detention.”  Ms Lawler said all the students involved were aware that if they did not wish to take part then they needed to provide a note from their parents.

Sometimes I feel like schools are way too trigger happy when it comes to giving out detentions.  Swimming programs are supposed to be fun for the kids.  If they refuse to get in the water, chances are the conditions and/or program is not up to scratch.  No detention is going to suddenly make them want to brave the cold.

Detentions are for enforcing fundamental school rules.  If you hand out detentions for not providing a note from parents, detentions become trivial and lose all meaning.  I remember getting detentions for forgetting to bring my sport uniform and once for sneezing too loudly (I had a cold and shouldn’t have been at school).

I hope I never have to give a student a detention for nothing more than a reluctance to swim because the water is too cold.


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National Curriculum Proves Rocket Science

November 4, 2010

It seems that Science is the most challenging subject for curriculum officials to agree on as they endeavour to complete the national curriculum.  We teachers have been waiting for a while to find out what the completed national curriculum looks like, but at the moment all we have available to us is a rough draft.

The chairman of the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority, Barry McGaw, said the curriculums for maths, English and history were ”essentially done and dusted” but more work lay ahead to achieve agreement on the science curriculum.

”Comparisons show Australia is in the top five countries in science by the time students are 15. But we’re in the bottom 10 to 20 out of nearly 60 nations in how much our kids like science, how important they think science is for their futures, and how important they think science is for the national future,” he said.

”So we’ve got students who are good at a subject but are not engaged with it and thus not likely to continue to engage with it.”

It sounds like ‘spin’ to me.  I’ve heard that the draft science curriculum was panned for being too difficult for teachers to effectively implement.  The national curriculum has been marred with bad publicity, and teachers are starting to get a bit edgy.

I just hope the final product is worth the wait.

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The Education Debate Continues

November 2, 2010

The debate between Private and Public schools is nothing new, and has been the subject of much interest this week.

The group, Save Our Schools, says their figures show that Australian governments spend about $15,000 a year on students at independent schools but only $10,000 on those at government and Catholic schools.

The Australian Parents Council, a group that represents students who attend non government schools disagree with the figures.  The groups says it’s actually private schools that seem to lose out.

The executive director Ian Dalton points to the “… latest available figures put out by the ministers for education throughout Australia, that demonstrates that around about $12,500 a year is spent on students in government schools across Australia and around about $10,500 on students in non-government schools and that includes all non-government schools including sort of low fee Catholic and Christian schools and high fee independent schools.”

So who do we believe?

I feel that the Public vs Private debate misses the point.  Both Public and Private schools have a great importance and should be given every opportunity to flourish.  I haven’t got a problem with Public schools asking for more funding, but pointing the finger at Private schools is wrong.

We in the Education industry need to support and foster both the Private and Public schools and not turn them against each other.   Funding Public schools should be about the needs of the students not about drawing attention to Private school funding.

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