I've given you long enough to offer a legitimate response and instead I've received immature cop-outs and sophmoric language.

Totally the same here.

Maths was all "if you have 1 happy worker and he is being oppressed by a fat capitalist, how many days will it take until the glorious soviet revolution?"

In woodwork we were instructed to re-create tiny little tank parade dioramas. If we refused, we were whipped.

Religious Studies was taught by a mime artist so we'd realise how stupid it was.

French was .. well, we learnt FRENCH - man, what more do you need here?

During English Lit we could only study works by some filthy immigrant called Karl who wasn't even BORN here. What the fuck?

History was obviously worst and we learnt nothing at all about the lying Jewish Liberal Media who keep the white man down. Instead it was some shit about Ancient Egypt, or something. Is that helping us expose the socialist lie of nationalised healthcare? I don't think so!

In P.E. we were trained to fight the bourgeoisie, which was pretty weird because I thought that was me.

I can't remember any other lessons because the conservative part of my brain was erased with special mind-rubbers.

Teachers' president gives PM 'a whack'
Bernard Lane
August 24, 2005

TEACHERS union president Pat Byrne has attacked the rise of conservative values in education under the Howard Government, urging her members to defend the "progressive" curriculum in schools.

In a politically charged address to the Queensland Teachers Union conference, Ms Byrne accused voters of putting economic issues ahead of compassion by re-electing the Coalition Government.

"Voters cared more about the Coalition's example of trust - the economy - than they did about refugees and the war in Iraq," she said.

"The economic frame fitted better than the compassionate one." Ms Byrne said her brief

in addressing the Queensland Teachers Union conference had been to "talk about public education and give John Howard a couple of whacks".

"Easy, you say, especially the last bit," she says in the speech which she could not deliver because of illness, but which was posted on the union's website.

Her remarks come in the wake of a debate about the appropriateness of pushing politics in the classroom.

Earlier this year, NSW English Teachers Association president Wayne Sawyer was criticised for claiming that the re-election of the Howard Government meant teachers had failed to create "critical generations".

Ms Byrne told teachers: "We have to start with being on the progressive side of politics."

She said right-wing commentators "rail against us with such vitriol because we have succeeded in influencing curriculum development in schools, education departments and universities."

"The conservatives have a lot of work to do to undo the progressive curriculum," said Ms Byrne, president of the 160,000-strong Australian Education Union.

"They certainly haven't won the curriculum debate, but they have made significant inroads into framing education to fit their version of the world."

Last night, Ms Byrne told The Australian her speech, written as a unionist for QTU delegates, should not be confused with what happened in the classroom where teachers, as professionals, encouraged critical thinking by students.

But Ms Byrne said her speech did not prove true the complaint by Peter Costello that teachers had promoted left-wing, anti-American bias in the classroom.

In her speech, she said truth was not enough to win the education debate, just as lies had not prevented election victories by conservatives in Australia, Britain and the US.

Last weekend, the federal Treasurer told an Australia-US forum that the history of the alliance simply was not being taught at school. Mr Costello said that during a school visit, a senior student had asked him aggressively why Australia should do anything for the US.

But Ms Byrne said Mr Costello had no basis for chastising teachers. "Kids have a range of influences, particularly Year 11 or 12 ... you don't know what the views of (the parents of the school student were)," she said.

Ms Byrne said the AEU had adopted a policy against the US-led war on Iraq.

"We certainly did say that teachers should support any students who wanted to take a particular anti-war view," she said.

Teachers face scrutiny in national training inquiry
By Kelly Burke, Education Reporter
February 14, 2005


A second national inquiry into education is expected to be announced this week, bringing Australia's teachers under unprecedented scrutiny.

The office of the federal Education Minister, Brendan Nelson, has confirmed that an inquiry into the quality of teaching in Australia is on the cards.

"I think there's a case for very clearly and closely examining the way in which our teachers are being trained, and I'll be making an announcement on that very shortly," Dr Nelson said during a television interview. A formal announcement would be made after further talks with colleagues and key people in the education sector, he said.

Dr Nelson flagged the inquiry in response to questions sparked by the Wayne Sawyer controversy.

Professor Sawyer, an academic at the University of Western Sydney and the president of the NSW English Teachers Association, came under fire from Dr Nelson and the Prime Minister, John Howard, last week after a newspaper unearthed an article published in a teachers' trade journal last year. In the article, Professor Sawyer questioned whether English teachers were equipping students with critical thinking skills and a sense of humanity, given young people had helped return the Coalition Government to power at last year's election.
Professor Sawyer has said the views expressed in the article are his own and not the opinion of the association, which represents teachers in both the public and private education sectors.

But the wider circulation of the article last week prompted Dr Nelson and Mr Howard to suggest that the growth in private school enrolments was partly due to teachers in the public sector "indoctrinating" students with political views such as Professor Sawyer's. "It only confirms suspicions that people have that the public education system lacks the balance that's needed," Mr Howard said.

A national inquiry into teacher training practices and the way primary school students are taught to read is already under way, at the behest of Dr Nelson.

Contemplating the prospect of another national inquiry, the president of the NSW Secondary Principals Council, Chris Bonnor, said yesterday that it would be "an invitation to all the ideologues in the world to write and say how terrible [the public education system] is".

"I just don't know where this fits, frankly ... if it's an inquiry into political bias in teaching, then Dr Nelson is chasing a ghost, because principals say it's just not an issue in schools. This is repetitive kite-flying which has no bearing on reality ..."

The federal Opposition Leader, Kim Beazley, said Australian schools needed a uniform curriculum before national standards could be assessed.

"Before you get anything national - national testing, national teaching standards, national whatever - you have to start with a national curriculum," Mr Beazley said.