LABOUR THE LESSER EVIL

National Curiculum

POLITICAL AGENDA or Priority for the children and the nation??

Judith Wheeldon former head of two Syd private schools) writes of her concerns about the proposed national curriculum by the Australian Labour Party and the issue of education in general.

I think that Wheeldon's positive overview of a K-12 curriculum is good because it encompasses all the stages of the young human's development - however this is not an article to explore the details of the how. Her concern for a lack in true scientific thinking prowess in our population and thus the populations' ability to make informed judgements on critical issues such as health and environment citing alternative medicine and the very real environmental problem of water scarcity are very astute - this concern supports one of the five major areas of curriculum priority = science. However it is our adult population who are voting and making choices - conscious or otherwise in relation to health and environmental living that address the 'inconvenient truths' - AL Gore.

How can a political agenda be truly supportive of the highest good of our children? Education is going to be a hot political topic because of the long term of the Liberal Government and its unashamed support of private schools in all its funding priorities - building, subsidies, equipment etc.

Parents of children going to State Public Schools have felt the lack of resources for some time and are very aware of the Liberal Government's biases. When Julie Bishop addresses education and advocates National Curriculum her long term intention is to only give funding to schools who implement the 'correct' guidelines and recommendations. It is like the one flag pole, wisping Australian Flag, fluttering in isolation. Necessity, otherwise we won't give you funding for this and this etc. Wheeldon highlights this possible use of force and foretells the possibility of National Curriculum becoming law. It would seem there is not a great difference between the two parties - I like the way Wheeldon implies the future outcomes of National Curriculum - a warning for both labour and liberal voters. Concisely summised in the title 'Labour the Lesser Evil'.

Parents are a large portion of the voting population. The competition in the job market is very real and the separation between the service class and the educated class is well addressed in Richard Florida's discussion about the creative economy (multiplicity posting - Mayoral Conference America) and the prejudice to a better education for the wealthy which encourages the loss of talent from poorer families migrants etc. who have no benefit of a 'good' education. Parents are concerned for their children's futures all over the globe.

Wheeldon points out that the Labour Government have omitted the Creative Arts in its Curriculum priorities, I think this an excellent observation, it seems the policy writers in both the ALP and Liberal Parties, have not an understanding of the wealth of applicable creative thinking and scientific integration the arts manifest .

I think her article addresses the whole agenda of politics by innuendo, refering to our lack of language teaching and thus the disadvantages we face as world competitors. - I believe the LOCAL to GLOBAL argument is not considered in politics. It is STATE or COUNTRY and discourse and discussion that addresses Global Community or Local Geographic Community are seriously lacking. Narrowing our vision to being a competitive player in the world, (OECD) does not address the bigger problems we face as a planet. The common language is not to be found in the teaching of language but in the intersection of technology and digital tribes.

Though Wheeldon's article is very insightful and clearly objective, the content is limited in itself by the priorities of our National Agenda and the focus of the "political" arena .

It seems our 'voting' population is uninformed and very susceptible to propaganda, largley influenced by popular media. eg babies overboard. Our overall lack of scientific thinking - as cited, and inability to "get" the global picture make us potential unempowered pawns in our own unconscious future.