The National Forum   Donate   Your Account   On Line Opinion   Forum   Blogs   Polling   About   
The Forum - On Line Opinion's article discussion area



Syndicate
RSS/XML


RSS 2.0

Main Articles General

Sign In      Register

The Forum > Article Comments > People are funny cattle > Comments

People are funny cattle : Comments

By Phil Cullen, published 30/12/2016

Since NAPLAN destroys elements of cognitive behaviour in children, parents should actually give permission for their children to take the tests.

  1. Pages:
  2. Page 1
  3. 2
  4. 3
  5. All
People are funny cattle!? Risible rubbish Phil, that seeks to shift the blame for incompetent teachers, the only ones at risk of exposure to their lack of cognitive skills, on to their students?

Our children need to do a lot better in science and maths and are poorly served by blame shifting teachers, all to often knowing less in these two critical areas than their charges?

And they are the only ones wanting abandon NAPLAN, given it exposes their incompetence!

Someday, some Government exhibiting a couple of ounces of common sense, will transfer all means tested needs based public education funding to parents, who will then be endowment empowered to direct that education endowment and select the school of their choice based on best practice bench-marked, apples for apples comparisons! The very thing NAPLAN is supposed to do, unless sabotaged by non compliant states or schools?

Coupled to, [given control of funding is limited exclusively to parents, the only option then available to state governments, will be,] regional Autonomy! When that day dawns, we will finally be able to clean out, the excuse making incompetent drones, from our school communities! And give parents the control you claim is missing!

The only cattle in this super simplistic diatribe, are the union protected incompetents, lead by the nose by the union chiefs of animal farm! And now tremble in terrible trepidation, least they be exposed by NAPLAN! Its purpose!?
Alan B.
Posted by Alan B., Friday, 30 December 2016 10:03:14 AM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
As an old woman with many grandchildren and great grandchildren I can say with experience that literacy and numeracy in this country has dramatically declined since educators decided to stop hurting the feelings of children and parents by eliminating rigid end of term exams and abandoning the proven method of reporting accurate marks for those exams and each child's place in the class.
No longer are parents able to see where their children's weaknesses lie so that they can give some support at home. No longer are parents aware of their children failing in any area.
Children are automatically elevated to the next grade at the end of each year, regardless of whether they have the ability to cope at that level, ensuring they fall even further behind.
NAPLAN has become the only resource parents have to assess their children's educational development compared to their peers and to a national base.
I expect to see a further slide in our children's results unless there is a dramatic change in the whole process.
Posted by Big Nana, Friday, 30 December 2016 10:52:11 AM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
"Since NAPLAN destroys elements of cognitive behaviour in children"
This is an extraordinary claim, but you have provided no evidence for it.

Obviously focussing too much on tests can be a problem. But that doesn't mean there must be no tests at all. So what exactly do you have against NAPLAN?
Posted by Aidan, Friday, 30 December 2016 11:03:54 AM
Find out more about this user Visit this user's webpage Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
A bit over the top, Alan B.

Extract the union-bashing and the ritual witch-burning of teachers and there is nothing left in your comment.

I'm married to a retired teacher, one of the old school types, not a ladder-climbing smart-arse corporate psychopath, of which there are plenty to go around in all professions.

She happily used her own money and time to supplement and individualise her teaching material, to help struggling and gifted and left-behind and advanced learners. Teaching was her life's work, her profession, her joy and her hobby. NAPLAN doesn't measure this, neither could or should it. Assessment of teachers' and students' ability and performance must, to be meaningful, be done by flesh and blood teachers, ideally from outside the immediate classroom, school or even the system. But this takes time and effort and knowledge and face to face interaction.

Propping a kid behind a desk with a written assessment task takes no understanding or cognitive ability at all - it is management by robot, or worse.

Presumably, Alan B wouldn't know or care about education - he seeks no answer to educational challenges, but a number against which dollars can be allocated and careers made or broken; something with which to bash unions, despite not even attempting to demonstrate that there is (or is not) a link.

NAPLAN, it seems to me, lacks relevance. It is a sideshow. Was the system before NAPLAN truly broken? Does NAPLAN fix it? I think not, to both questions.

I don't know what Alan B did/does for a crust, but I guess that he wouldn't welcome having his efforts judged entirely on the basis of a single external, impersonal assessment once every two years.

But then again, I'm not a teacher either, so what would I know?
Posted by JohnBennetts, Friday, 30 December 2016 11:08:47 AM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
Right in all but one thing Big Nana. Testing was not eliminated to avoid hurting children's & parents feelings. That was the excuse of course, but they were eliminated to avoid hurting the career prospects of the lazy &/or incompetent teachers.

NAPLAN is not a test of students, they are a test of the teachers. That is why they are totally against it, & any other testing that highlights the incompetent teacher against the competent.

The program should be taken further, & lead to automatic dismissal of all teachers who's students results are in the bottom 10% for 3 consecutive years. Then it would be achieving a really useful result for our kids.

Alan I agree with most of your post, but am worried about your meaning of "regional Autonomy". If you are talking about giving Head Masters, combined with P&C association the power to hire & fire, I can agree. However if you are thinking about any sort of curriculum authority I would never agree.

Due to the war, & employment there after, I attended 14 schools, in 3 states. The curriculum was so different in each state, that NSW was a full year behind Queensland in primary schools. It was only because I had been lucky enough to be in a combined 5Th/6Th class, & was exposed to the higher year math, that I was not way behind when we moved to Queensland.

With the increased mobility of people today. it is of high importance that all kids in all states, are studying the same curriculum at the same age, throughout the country. It would be nice of course, if they had competent teachers to do that with.
Posted by Hasbeen, Friday, 30 December 2016 11:48:34 AM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
Once every school year John.

Big Nana gets it, where you choose to get offended!

You don't know what I do for a crust! How is that germane?

And given your wife was dedicated, she deserves our grateful praise.

So, exactly what point are you trying to force down our collective necks?

Are you claiming that your profession signals some shortfall in intelligence or its acquisition?

Simply put, exams must be used simply as a tool to expose shortfalls! And those "TEACHERS" who can't stand the heat need to get out of the kitchen!

I weary of seeing things that are not broken fixed by graduates, with a head chock full of entirely untested intellectual concepts! I prefer students, not lab rats!

Our kids are going backwards at a rate of knots, with more and more leaving school still illiterate and possessing substandard numeracy! Which by the way, confers whole of life negative consequences!

Must phonetics be confined to remedial teaching? At least if you can read, you can apply studious remediation any shortfall in your job ready knowledge!

At the end of the day, it's not about you or your offended wife! Just the kids the current "UNION PREFERRED SYSTEM", BETRAYS!
Alan B.
Posted by Alan B., Friday, 30 December 2016 12:07:09 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
  1. Pages:
  2. Page 1
  3. 2
  4. 3
  5. All

About Us :: Search :: Discuss :: Feedback :: Legals :: Privacy