Teaching without teachers: A new business plan
15 June 2018
Section: Columns
I am concerned that teachers are in danger of losing control of who teaches, what is taught and how we teach, as “edu-businesses” move to directly influence politicians, advisers and policy makers.
Chaplains in schools: probably illegal, certainly immoral
18 May 2018
Section: Columns
In the recent federal Budget, an additional $247 million has been allocated to the schools chaplaincy program. This brings the total amount of funding for the scheme, since its introduction in 2006 by the Howard Government, to about $1 billion.
Proficient and committed
29 March 2018
Section: Columns
I am writing this in a hotel room in Canberra having spent the day wandering the corridors of Parliament House, accompanied by parents and teachers, dropping in on politicians to argue for a fairer funding model for public schools. It’s a quiet room and as the sun sets, I’m reflecting on the past 40 years.
The Tide is Turning
2 March 2018
Section: Columns
This year is the 10th anniversary of the introduction of the National Assessment Program — Literacy and Numeracy, known simply as NAPLAN. And it’s time to be frank.
Hasten slowly and stay in charge
1 December 2017
Section: Columns
Many years ago, as a young teacher in the late 1970s, I read an article about Japan and mathematics teaching in relation to what was then new technology — the overhead projector. It may have been apocryphal, but I still found the story to be thought provoking. The article told of a local school district in Japan that had decided to replace, with unforeseen consequences, all the blackboards with overhead projectors complete with scrolling plastic film on which teachers were to write.