topic Re: A letter to chris pyne in Community Spirit

A letter to chris pyne

freakiness — Tue, 14 Jan 2014 00:53:58 GMT

http://images.smh.com.au/file/2014/01/13/5074038/Open%2520Letter%2520Final%2520With%2520Names.pdf?rand=1389610609715

Re: A letter to chris pyne

freakiness — Tue, 14 Jan 2014 01:01:16 GMT

We write to express our concern at the announcement on Friday of a review of the Australian
Curriculum, to be led by Dr Kevin Donnelly and Professor Ken Wiltshire. We are a group of
educators, including classroom teachers, educational researchers, teacher educators, school
principals and other school leaders, Professors and Deans of Education. The signatories to this
letter represent a broad range of expertise in different areas of education, a broad range of
perspectives on education, and a broad range of political standpoints. The fact that we sign
together demonstrates that there are many people who are concerned with the decision to have
this review at this time, and led by the selected two-person panel.

Our concerns are threefold. The first relates to the framing of this review as ‘removing the politics’
or ‘partisan bias’ from the curriculum and the curriculum development process. The development
of the Australian Curriculum took place over an extended period and involved contributions from
thousands of stakeholders, including teachers and other educators, students, and parents and
community members. The curriculum has been negotiated with state and territory governments of
various political persuasions and a wealth of resources has been expended in its implementation,
most notably by the teachers and schools that in good faith have toiled on their individual and
collective contributions to planning and implementation.

Whilst it is true that some commentators
have raised voices about alleged 'bias' and inadequacies in the curriculum, these critiques have
come from 'left' as well as 'right', and most who have put work into, and engaged with, the new
curriculum so far - in schools, State governments, and universities - do not see a strong bias in
either direction. While much does need to be thought through and refined to improve effectiveness,
early anecdotal and research evidence, from work being undertaken by a number of us, suggests
that this is more likely to occur through working with the new curriculum as it implemented, rather
than casting undue skepticism upon it at a juncture when it has had little or no trial.

Our second concern relates to the highly disruptive and inappropriate timing of the review. Full
implementation of the curriculum from Foundation to Year 10 in the four phase one learning areas
of English, History, Mathematics and Science took place in all states and territories except New South Wales and Western Australia only last year, and in these remaining two states full
implementation is mooted to take place in 2015 and 2016 respectively. Indeed, in New South
Wales, where almost a third of Australian children attend school, classroom implementation is set
to begin later this month with the commencement of the 2014 school year. Contrary to claims that
this review is timely, it is patently obvious that so close to, and indeed during implementation is a
very poor time to undertake a review of curriculum content, with disruptive consequences for
students and teachers. Furthermore, the suggestion that changes recommended by the review
panel will be ready for implementation for the 2015 school year demonstrates a lack of
understanding of the processes of thoughtful planning that classroom implementation requires on
the part of schools and teachers and a gross misunderstanding of teachers’ work. It threatens to
destabilize once more the hard work of teachers who have taken on the challenge of working with
a new curriculum with intellectual vigour.

Our third concern relates to the panel itself

Re: A letter to chris pyne

catsnknots — Tue, 14 Jan 2014 01:08:06 GMT

This is a very good read and a perfect example of why we need a review.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/columnists/australian-curriculum-beyond-saving/story-fnhulhjj-1226800948151

"LANGUAGE," claim the authors of the Australian Curriculum, "enables people to interact effectively." They then proceed to demonstrate in 238,000 laboured words that this is not necessarily the case.

The curriculum is written in the private language of educationalism, which, like Latin in the hands of the medieval clergy, serves to keep the rest of us in our place. The implication is that parents, employers and general citizens don't know what they're talking about. Curriculum development is a job for the experts.

The first task of the government's curriculum review panel should be to translate this doorstop of a document into English, eliminate the verbiage and publish it for public discussion. Forget all the stuff about content descriptions, content elaborations and learning continua.

Don't bother telling us that the English language "provides rich and engaging contexts for developing students' abilities," or that "texts provide the means for communication".

In our own inexpert way, we had sort of gathered that.

Just tell us how you plan to teach literacy and numeracy, and what else you are planning to put into the kiddies' heads.

Then we can let the public decide whether "creating a more ecologically and socially just world through informed action" is a task for public schools.

Do we want educators or evangelists? Do we send children to school to "create texts that inform and persuade others to take action for sustainable futures"? Should a child under 10 be expected to produce "a persuasive audio-visual text to promote action on an environmental issue" or "promote awareness about how people can reduce their impact on the environment"?

By Year 9, they will be encouraged to ponder "Gaia - the interaction of Earth and its biosphere" and to think about the "limits of growth - that unlimited growth is unsustainable".

They will be asked to "interrogate" Rachel Carson's The Silent Spring and 1970 editions of Mother Earth News magazine, before considering the "rights of nature recognition - that humans and their natural environment are closely interrelated".

The words "sustainable" and "sustainability" appear 139 times in the Australian Curriculum; "business" crops up six times, "markets" twice and "free markets" not at all. "Prosperity" features three times and "economic growth" is mentioned just once (and not in a nice way), for history is not the tale of steady improvement but just one shameful act after another.

Year 3 students will be taught significant days and weeks in the Australian calendar: Australia Day, Anzac Day, Harmony Week, National Reconciliation Week, NAIDOC week and National Sorry Day and Mabo day.

Doubtless this is uncontroversial stuff in the sheltered common rooms of public schools, salaried and superannuated from the bottomless pockets of the state. To much of the rest of Australia, however, this romantic, closed-minded view of the world seems eccentric. Non-expert citizens - that is those without a PhD in critical pedagogy - might wonder how a child infused with such a narrow world view, who finishes Year 12 without any appreciation of wealth creation, could possibly emerge equipped for the challenges of the 21st century.

The history curriculum includes the Harvester Judgment, but says nothing about the Sunshine Harvester, Australia's most successful manufactured export, made in the factory where the work conditions test case was struck. In 699 pages, the curriculum mentions capitalism twice, but merely as one of the "competing ideologies" to communism.

At every turn, the curriculum appears intent on taking the most dismal brutal view of every episode in human history. The industrial revolution's contribution to the world is restricted to "the transatlantic slave trade and convict transportation". It led, we are told, to "longer working hours for low pay and the use of children as a cheap source of labour" and is best interpreted through reading the works of Charles Dickens.

The reforming instincts of 19th-century liberals that led to the end of transportation, slavery and child labour are whitewashed from history.

The measurable improvements to diet and health, made possible by agricultural innovation in sheep breeding, frozen meat transportation and broad-acre farming, form no part of the story.

They would have sounded a discordant note in the curriculum's miserablist narrative of Australian history.

Instead, Year 4 students will be taught "historical terms for example 'penal', 'transportation', 'navigation', 'frontier conflict', 'colonisation' ".

In Year 6 they will be introduced to "experiences of citizenship and democracy" with reference to "internment camps during World War II, assimilation policies, anti-discrimination legislation, mandatory detention, pay and working conditions" and "children who were placed in orphanages, homes and other institutions".

After all, the curriculum helpfully reminds us, democracy is an abstract noun expressing an intangible concept.

The leaden imposition of "cross-curriculum priorities" indigenous awareness, engagement with Asia and sustainability contaminate the curriculum writers' thinking.

In English, "the priority of sustainability provides rich and engaging contexts for developing students' abilities".

In geography, "the sustainability priority and concept afford rich and engaging learning opportunities and purposeful contexts".

In history, sustainability "provides content that supports the development of students' world views, particularly in relation to judgments about past social and economic systems, and access to and use of the Earth's resources".

In mathematics, "sustainability provides rich, engaging and authentic contexts for developing students' abilities in number and algebra, measurement and geometry, statistics and probability".

Sustainability in science develops "an appreciation for the interconnectedness of Earth's biosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere".

Christopher Pyne has been condemned as a culture warrior for having the audacity to question this tosh.

The opposition has accused him of attempting to politicise the curriculum, and has labelled his chosen reviewers, Kevin Donnelly and Ken Wiltshire, as ideologues.

If the Education Minister is to be criticised, it is for imagining this irredeemable document can be tidied up and put back on the shelf when the only realistic course of action is to tear the **bleep** thing up.

Re: A letter to chris pyne

donnashuggy — Tue, 14 Jan 2014 01:18:45 GMT

There was a good letter in the herald yesterday written to Tony Abbott by a 16 year old (test tube baby) about bernadi.

Sorry to go off topic a little 🙂

Re: A letter to chris pyne

freakiness — Tue, 14 Jan 2014 01:19:12 GMT

Why do you think one journalist is a more qualified to write or judge a curriculum than multiple specialists?

Re: A letter to chris pyne

freakiness — Tue, 14 Jan 2014 01:20:31 GMT

@donnashuggy wrote:
There was a good letter in the herald yesterday written to Tony Abbott by a 16 year old (test tube baby) about bernadi.

Sorry to go off topic a little 🙂

Yes, I saw that. I saw another written by a mother of 3, including one who was born before her marriage.

Re: A letter to chris pyne

freakiness — Tue, 14 Jan 2014 01:25:21 GMT

The letter continues, I lost the end in the first posting 😄

Our third concern relates to the panel itself. While we understand that both panel members have
varying experience in curriculum in different contexts, neither would claim particular expertise in
curriculum scholarship or indeed contemporary experience and expertise across the four learning
areas that will be the subject of the review. We question therefore whether members of the twoperson
panel hold the knowledge and expertise to “turn out a robust curriculum”, as you indicated
on Friday was the aim of the review. Furthermore, both panel members have well-known and
highly critical opinions of the Australian Curriculum, as has been widely reported since Friday. In
relation to this, we are concerned about whether the panel members will hold the requisite
openness to diverse views and perspectives required to produce a balanced and fair review. Dr
Donnelly’s statement at the press conference on Friday that “many of the people who I will be
talking to are friends who I’ve known for many years” contributed greatly to our concern in this
regard, particularly in the light of his oft-repeated public criticism of the ‘education establishment’.
We offer these comments in the spirit of robust discussion in a democratic society. While we do
not dispute that, as you noted on Friday, everyone who has been to school has a perspective on
education, we do believe that we hold particular expertise contributed by our many years (many
centuries, in fact) of combined experience in the study and practice of education, and it is from this
perspective that we write, in the interests of Australian students now and in the future.
Yours sincerely,

1. Dr Jo Ailwood, The University of Newcastle
2. Adele Amorsen, Lecturer, Queensland University of Technology
3. Dr Mark Askew
4. Dr Jumana Bayeh
5. Ms Donna Beggs, Teacher
6. Dr Stephanie Bengtsson, University of Newcastle
7. Mr Nathan Berger, University of Newcastle
8. Lorraine Beveridge, Teacher and PhD Candidate
9. Joel Birch, Educator, WA
10. Associate Professor Kerry Bissaker, Flinders University SA
11. Professor Jill Blackmore, Alfred Deakin Professor, Deakin University, Fellow of the Academy
of Social Sciences
12. Jane Boland, Classroom Teacher
13. Dr Dorothy Bottrell, Victoria University
14. Dr Ian Boyle University of Western Sydney
15. Julie Bowe, Lecturer, University of Newcastle
16. Professor Marie Brennan, Victoria University, Melbourne
17. Ms Sharon Brien, Teacher
18. Ms Claire Brown, Associate Director, The Victoria Institute
19. Dr Scott Bulfin, Monash University
20. Dr Brian Cambourne, Principal Fellow, Faculty of Education, University of Wollongong
21. Dr Chris Campbell, The University of Queensland
22. Ms Corinne Campbell, Assistant Principal
23. Ms Heather Campbell, Education Lecturer, Charles Sturt University
24. Associate Professor Honglin Chen, University of Wollongong
25. Ame Christiansen, Sessional Academic
26. Dr Maggie Clarke, Senior Lecturer, University of Western Sydney
27. Professor John Collard, Academic, ex-Principal
28. Garry Collins, President, Australian Association for the Teaching of English (AATE)
29. Ms Kathryn Coleman, Visual Arts Teacher
30. Ms Susan Coleman, Visual Arts Teacher (retired)
31. Barbara Comber, Faculty of Education, QUT
32. Associate Professor in Education, Maxine Cooper, Federation University Australia
33. Dr Sharon Cooper, Lecturer, University of Newcastle
34. Dr Michael Crowhurst, Lecturer, School of Education, RMIT
35. Debra Cunningham, Hon Secretary, Australian Association for Research in Education
36. Dr Christina Curry, University of Western Sydney
37. Dr Jacqueline D'warte, School of Education, University of Western Sydney
38. Michelle da Roza, Teacher
39. Dr Beverly Derewianka, Professor of Language Education, University of Wollongong
40. Dr Julie Dillon-Wallace, Queensland University of Technology
41. Assoc Prof Mary Dixon, Deakin University
42. Mia Dodd, Teacher
43. Associate Professor Catherine Doherty, Queensland University of Technology
44. Ms Catherine Donnelly, Teacher
45. Associate Professor Cal Durrant, Murdoch University
46. Associate Professor Scott Eacott, Australian Catholic University
47. Dr Elke Emerald, School of Education and Professional Studies, Griffith University
48. Professor Marie Emmitt FACE, Australian Catholic University
49. Professor Robyn Ewing, University of Sydney
50. Associate Professor Beryl Exley, Queensland University of Technology
51. Pauline Fitzgerald, Senior Education Officer
52. Professor John Fischetti, Newcastle NSW
53. David Fletcher, Master of Teaching student, Monash University
54. Dr Margot Ford, University of Newcastle
55. Associate Professor Susanne Gannon, University of Western Sydney
56. John Goh
57. Professor Barry Golding, Faculty of Education and Arts, Federation University Australia
58. Professor Jenny Gore, University of Newcastle
59. Professor Noel Gough, La Trobe University
60. Associate Professor Linda Graham, Queensland University of Technology, Editor, The
Australian Educational Researcher
61. Emeritus Professor Bill Green, Charles Sturt University
62. Dr Tom G. Griffiths, University of Newcastle
63. Anne Gripton, Teacher
64. Honorary Professor Susan Groundwater-Smith, University of Sydney
65. Dr Kalervo Gulson, University of NSW
66. Dr Joanne Hack, St Mary Star of the Sea College Wollongong Assistant Principal - Dean of
Mission & Innovation
67. Associate Professor Debra Hayes, University of Sydney
68. Therese Hinder, Principal, Epping West Public School
69. Dr Kathryn Holmes, School of Education, University of Newcastle
70. Angelique Howell, PhD Candidate, University of Queensland
71. Dr Eileen Honan, School of Education, The University of Queensland
72. David Hornsby, Education Consultant and ex-Principal
73. Ms Michelle Hostrup, Assistant Principal
74. Dr Jane Hunter, School of Education, University of Western Sydney
75. Dr Sharyn Jameson, Senior Lecturer, English/Literacy
76. Dr Jenny Johnston, University lecturer in teacher education, NSW
77. Dr Pauline Jones, University of Wollongong
78. Dr Amanda Keddie, The University of Queensland
79. Rebecca Kelly, English Faculty, Asquith Boys High School
80. Professor Emeritus Stephen Kemmis, Charles Sturt University and Federation University
Australia
81. Natasha Kett
82. Professor Val Klenowski, Queensland University of Technology
83. Dr Linda Knight, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Education, Queensland University of Technology
84. Dr Sally Knipe, Senior Lecturer
85. Ms Stephanie Kougious, Teacher
86. Ms. Carmel Kriz
87. James G. Ladwig
88. Dr Julieanne Lamond, Australian National University
89. Associate Professor Jo Lampert, Queensland University of Technology
90. Dr Josephine Lang, Senior Lecturer in Education (Pedagogy and Curriculum), Deakin
University
91. Mr Tomaz Lasic, Teacher
92. Annabelle Lewer-Fletcher, UNSW
93. Ms Delanie Lewis, Teacher
94. William Lewis, Teacher
95. Dr lisahunter, The University of Waikato/The University of Queensland
96. Professor Robert Lingard, School of Education, The University of Queensland
97. Mr John Lloyd, Science Co-ordinator
98. Greg Longney, History Teacher
99. Dr Tony Loughland, University of Sydney
100. Professor Jo Lunn Brownlee, QUT
101. Dr Julianne Lynch, Deakin University
102. Dr Noella Mackenzie, Charles Sturt University
103. Mr Richard Mackenzie, Deputy Principal, Murray High School
104. Associate Professor Elizabeth Mackinlay, University of Queensland
105. Suzanne Macqueen, University of Newcastle
106. Mrs Emily Mars, Teacher
107. Allyson Mascarenhas
108. Ms Eve Mayes, Teacher and PhD Candidate, University of Sydney
109. Associate Professor Felicity McArdle, Charles Sturt University, and Adjunct Associate
Professor, QUT
110. Michael McBrien, Teacher
111. Dr Sharon McDonough, Federation University Australia
112. Dr Kelli McGraw, Queensland University of Technology
113. Anne McNamara former Primary School Principal
114. Deb McPherson, Manager English NSW Department of Education and Training (Retired)
115. Dr Andrew Miller, University of Newcastle
116. Dr Melinda Miller, Queensland University of Technology
117. Dr Nicole Mockler, University of Newcastle
118. Dr Sue Monk, Research Fellow, The University of Queensland
119. Dr Fiona Morrison, Lecturer in English, School of the Arts and Media, University of NSW
120. Associate Professor Julianne Moss, Deakin University
121. Adjunct Associate Professor Geoff Munns, School of Education, University of Western
Sydney
122. Dr. Lucy Neave, Australian National University
123. Dr Kris Needham, University of NSW
124. Anne Nelson, Principal
125. Mr Patrick Norman, Doctoral Candidate, University of Newcastle
126. Dr. Joanne O'Mara , School of Education, Deakin University
127. Jo Padgham, Principal, ALEA Vice-President
128. Dr Robert Parkes, University of Newcastle
129. Vicki Parkes, University of Newcastle
130. Dr Nicola Parsons, University of Sydney
131. Cameron Paterson, Mentor of Learning & Teaching, Shore School
132. Dr Eva Petersen, School of Education, The University of Newcastle
133. Ms. Penelope Pitt, Deakin University
134. Ms Judy Playfair, Tutor in Teacher Education, Faculty of Education and Social Work,
University of Sydney
135. Dr Helen Proctor, University of Sydney
136. Professor Emeritus Alan Reid, University of South Australia
137. Jo-Anne Reid, Charles Sturt University
138. Professor Peter Renshaw, Head, School of Education, The University of Queensland
139. Loretto Richardson, Principal, St Scholastica’s College, Glebe Point NSW
140. Ms Alyssa Roach, Leader of Learning, Xavier College, Llandilo NSW
141. Philip Roberts, Assistant Professor, University of Canberra
142. Dr Brigid Rooney, University of Sydney
143. Monique Rooney, Lecturer, School of Literature, Languages and Linguistics, The Australian
National University
144. Associate Professor Sue Roffey University of Western Sydney
145. Dr Julia Savage, Deakin University
146. Dr Sam Sellar, The University of Queensland
147. Dr Marg Sellers, Lecturer, School of Education, RMIT University
148. Dr Warren Sellers, Deakin University
149. Dr Kim Senior, Deakin University
150. Diana Sesay, Tutor and Senior Research Assistant, Queensland University of Technology
151. Anthony Shearer, Australian Catholic University
152. Professor Michele Simons
153. Associate Professor Alyson Simpson, University of Sydney
154. Honorary Associate Professor David Smith, University of Sydney
155. Associate Professor Kay Souter, Deakin University
156. Mr Ryan Spencer, University of Canberra
157. Marion Sturges, Teacher
158. Debra Talbot, University of Sydney
159. Suzy Tamone, Queensland University of Technology
160. Dr Jan Turbill, University of Wollongong
161. Professor Russell Tytler, Deakin University
162. Dr. Jacqueline Ullman, University of Western Sydney
163. Serena Vecchiet, Teacher
164. Dr Jana Visnovska, The University of Queensland
165. Dr Frances Whalan, University of Sydney
166. Associate Professor Sue Walker, Queensland University of Technology
167. Dr Kumara Ward, Lecturer Curriculum and Pedagogy, University of Western Sydney
168. Dr Julie White, The Victoria Institute, Victoria University
169. Cheryl Williams, Lecturer in Education, The University of Newcastle
170. Dr Linda Willis, The University of Queensland, Teacher-educator and Researcher
171. Lorraine Wilson, Education Consultant, Melbourne
172. Associate Professor Annette Woods, QUT
173. Dr David Wright, School of Education, University of Western Sydney
174. Professor Jan Wright, University of Wollongong
175. Dr Lew Zipin, Victoria University, Melbourne
176. Dr David Zyngier Senior Lecturer Curriculum & Pedagogy, ARC Research Fellow, Monash
University

Re: A letter to chris pyne

catsnknots — Tue, 14 Jan 2014 01:31:12 GMT

@freakiness wrote:
Why do you think one journalist is a more qualified to write or judge a curriculum than multiple specialists?

I don't.. I just think it is a good article that points out things we might not have known.

It very clearly shows where the political leanings have been written into the school curriculum.

Just teach the kids the basics... get out of trying to teach them about detention centers or anti-discrimination laws in grade six. That is so politically charged that is a very dangerous topic to involve in primary school. are you going to teach a child the for or against detention centers? Teach children about getting on with others and being kind but then to teach them about a law that has caused divide between many people is also too political.

Re: A letter to chris pyne

freakiness — Tue, 14 Jan 2014 01:36:42 GMT

@catsnknots wrote:
@freakiness wrote:
Why do you think one journalist is a more qualified to write or judge a curriculum than multiple specialists?
I don't.. I just think it is a good article that points out things we might not have known.

It very clearly shows where the political leanings have been written into the school curriculum.

Just teach the kids the basics... get out of trying to teach them about detention centers or anti-discrimination laws in grade six. That is so politically charged that is a very dangerous topic to involve in primary school. are you going to teach a child the for or against detention centers? Teach children about getting on with others and being kind but then to teach them about a law that has caused divide between many people is also too political.

The articles demonstrates a selective, simplistic, biased interpretation of a complex subject.

Re: A letter to chris pyne

cherry*135 — Tue, 14 Jan 2014 01:39:59 GMT

The letter about calling IVF babies 'commodities' written by a teen who was an IVF baby?
I would like to read TAs reply to that.

Re: A letter to chris pyne

freakiness — Tue, 14 Jan 2014 01:45:44 GMT

@am*3 wrote:
The letter about calling IVF babies 'commodities' written by a teen who was an IVF baby?
I would like to read TAs reply to that.

and this one

Dear Senator Bernardi

Gosh, what a racket you’ve made in the media with your book The Conservative Revolution! It must be hard to understand why leftie intellectuals are baying for your blood when all you want is to restore the moral fabric of our once-great nation. After all, you’re just trying to restore the traditional family model – the ‘gold standard’ as you so eloquently put it – to its prime position over those sub-standard types such as step-families, families of same-sex partners, single-parent families and families with children born via surrogacy or IVF. Why, without your intervention, single mothers everywhere will continue raising criminal boys and promiscuous girls, creating a nation of drug dealers and loose women.

Allow me to introduce myself. I am a happily married mother of three. I have a nice house in the suburbs and I drive an SUV. Problem is: my eldest child, a girl, comes from a previous relationship, which makes me fall somewhat short of your gold standard, doesn’t it? I mean, it’s not like I was a lesbian or anything, but I never married her father, and we separated when she was two.

Incidentally, I fell pregnant with my daughter completely by accident – does that make me a better parent than my friends who tried for years to have a baby and then found a way through science to finally conceive a child who was much loved and longed for well before they were born? Just wondering.

I initially ignored your judgemental ramblings – my (single) mother always taught me to ignore attention seekers because addressing them just feeds their need even further – but my nine year-old daughter heard some of what you said on the news, and she wants to know why you – a respected politician (I know, I laughed too – she’s so young) said her family isn’t as good as other families.

I haven’t yet told my daughter she is destined for a life of promiscuity, because I wanted to ask you a few questions about that before I sit her down to break the news:

What is your definition of promiscuity anyway? Is it anyone who has sex before marriage? Or is there leeway for some limited experimentation during uni?
Is it only the girls of single mothers that become promiscuous – are the boys somehow miraculously spared their virtue – or is it just okay (or celebrated) if the boys rack up a few notches on their bedpost?
What business is it of yours if my daughter does become ‘promiscuous’? How does it affect you or anyone else if she enjoys her body without feelings of shame and guilt about her own sexuality? Does that make her less able to contribute to society?

Clearly, the first step in my case is to hold myself up as an example of all that will go wrong in my daughter’s life. As the daughter of a single mother myself who went on to have children with two different fathers, my face should be on billboards across the nation as a warning to other women.

(Incidentally, why are you pointing the finger at single mothers to explain these statistics of yours on criminal boys and loose-moralled girls? Why aren’t we asking where the fathers are and what they are contributing to the children that they took an equal role in producing?)

But Senator Bernardi, here’s what I think is truly a threat to our children: hate, judgement, unsubstantiated ramblings and an absolute lack of compassion. Oh, and having people in positions of power telling little kids on TVs in their very own lounge rooms that they are somehow worth less because their parents don’t fit your ideal of how society should look. That’s a really, really big threat to our kids.

How dare you say that to my child, Senator? She is loved as much as any child from a ‘gold standard’ family and her future is just as bright. She is lucky enough to have two father figures in her life who each teach her different life skills. She has a wonderful extended family, and the kid really cleans up at Christmas.

I am incredibly proud my daughter is growing up in a loving, judgement-free home where people are valued on their merits rather than their situation of birth.

The positive I take out of all of this is that most people seem to recognise your views are beyond ridiculous, and it has given me a prompt to talk to my daughter about loudmouths, bullies and bigots. Thank you for that opportunity, Senator.

Have a nice day.

Re: A letter to chris pyne

cherry*135 — Tue, 14 Jan 2014 01:50:41 GMT

' then to teach them a law that has caused divide between many people is also too political'.

Really?

Re: A letter to chris pyne

spotweldersfriend — Tue, 14 Jan 2014 09:18:10 GMT

Fahrenheit 451.

Re: A letter to chris pyne

jethro_woolfe — Tue, 14 Jan 2014 09:22:48 GMT

The senator is a well intentioned man. He is the one of the few i believe to be genuine,

Re: A letter to chris pyne

poddster — Tue, 14 Jan 2014 09:29:30 GMT

It is now 2014 so that would be Celsius 232.777777 now 🙂

Re: A letter to chris pyne

i-need-a-martini — Tue, 14 Jan 2014 09:31:37 GMT

In Year 6 I would expect my child to be able to formulate a debate related to either detention centres and anti discrimination laws.

But I would be keen for you to show me exactly in the national curriculum that it says they "learn" about detention centres specifically?

Re: A letter to chris pyne

i-need-a-martini — Tue, 14 Jan 2014 09:33:02 GMT

That's a pretty impressive list of peole who have signed that letter freaki. And I note that quite a few are Liberal.

Re: A letter to chris pyne

buzzlightyearsgirlfriend — Tue, 14 Jan 2014 09:48:19 GMT

@catsnknots wrote:
@freakiness wrote:
Why do you think one journalist is a more qualified to write or judge a curriculum than multiple specialists?
I don't.. I just think it is a good article that points out things we might not have known.

Who is "we"?

@catsnknots wrote:

Just teach the kids the basics... get out of trying to teach them about detention centers or anti-discrimination laws in grade six. That is so politically charged that is a very dangerous topic to involve in primary school. are you going to teach a child the for or against detention centers? Teach children about getting on with others and being kind but then to teach them about a law that has caused divide between many people is also too political.

These grade six kids are on the Internet every freaking day.

Re: A letter to chris pyne

buzzlightyearsgirlfriend — Tue, 14 Jan 2014 09:54:03 GMT

@catsnknots wrote:

Teach children about getting on with others and being kind but then to teach them about a law that has caused divide between many people is also too political.

So lie to kids then. OK.

We teach them to be kind to others and then pretend we are not locking up children and their mothers and fathers and that these people, these families are in our country being treated horribly. Let's play make believe shall we.

Re: A letter to chris pyne

freakiness — Tue, 14 Jan 2014 11:02:19 GMT

@i-need-a-martini wrote:
That's a pretty impressive list of peole who have signed that letter freaki. And I note that quite a few are Liberal.

Yes, it is.