Sounds great. Unfortunately the government subsidises religious schools which are less varied. It can be great for children to interact with those of different religions and ethnic backgrounds. However, children of non-fundamentalist backgrounds may not feel comfortable seeking counsel from Scripture Union chaplains which are in Queensland schools. They do not belong in the public schools.

I think David misses the point.

This article highlights the importance of Educators & how they embrace their students , education & the programs they intoduce & back.

Bricks & mortar & facilities can add meaningfully to an education but passionate committed educators make an education & the difference to a childs life.

This sure looks like another multicultural propaganda piece.

Fairfield is one of Sydney's suburbs with a growing proportion of Arabs, which any sane person would either keep well out of, or never go into. It is one of the suburbs involved in Sydney's now notorious spate of drive by shootings involving mainly Lebanese victims and perpetrators.

Schools with large numbers of Lebanese boys are notoriously difficult schools, with high teacher turnover, especially female teacher turnover. Teachers have been threatened with rape, had their cars damaged, and in one incident a female teacher had her house pelted with rocks at night. Some of these "difficult" schools now boast permanent security guards to protect the teachers. Some relief teachers refuse to even be sent to these schools.

Then there are the school invasions by local gang members in which students and staff have been assualted, even threatened with machetes. These incidents apparently involve mainly Lebanese, Asian and Islander juvenile gangs.

Welcome to multicultural education.

Any white Australian would be either insane to allow their siblings to go to such a multicultural school, but Fairfield is a poor area and most Aussie inhabitants have no choice. God help them if their child is female. The only good thing to come of it is that young Aussie females, the ones most at risk of verbal, physical and sexual assault, are the ones most prone to laugh at Kali Goldstone's rose coloured class view of multicultural education.

London to a brick that Kali went to some posh ladies college in some leafy area as far from Fairfield as her parents could get. Experience has told me that those most enamoured of multiculturalism are those most geographically removed from the consequences of it.

True, you could reduce it to that, LEGO. Or you could read the article produced by Ms Goldstone, which is about a deputy principal who has gone the extra mile to produce results against the odds, making the most of a difficult situation.