What a refreshing article. It is time that we realised that the commonwealth attack on the curriculum is just a smoke screen for their chronic underfunding of all services. (Tax cut anyone?)

I was married to an english teacher for over a decade. She had no say in what books were studied and did around 20 hours overtime each week marking papers. All that for about half the wage of an engineer.

Most people in this debate compare to their school days. Times change and so do the needs of the era. Even the classics are hardly values neutral. We spend many days translating Caesars accounts of conquering the Gauls (neo colonialism?) surely the endless days translating the new testament wouldn't fit in our secular school system. For the record we not only had to learn Latin and Greek, all kids had to create a list of 25 dutch novels and 15 english (and 15 french and german if those units were chosen to the final year) Each list had to include a mix of classics and modern texts.

My young nieces and nephews in Holland now have a much shorter book list but also learn about computers, how to negotiate a decent wage and other skills relevant to the modern world.

I think Howard is just waiting to privatise the entire school system and then cut its funding.

It is certainly ironic that the commonwealth gov wants schools instead of parents to teach values. If anything that smacks of Marxism.

Chris C,

There are more than 8 weeks annual leave for teachers in any state of Australia plus student free days etc.

Teaching is a safe place for the left to wage war on morals from an early age, guttless gorms, your stance will only reinforce the working class to educate thier children to the rot that has set in.

I can only hope that one day your inflated wages will be cut in half by inflation caused by your policies and indifference to your country.

Then you may know what it is like to be a hard doer rather than a leach on the system.

Teaching should be a passion, if you dont love it then you should leave it ladies, your choice.

SCOTTY,

Schools are open for around 200, 201, 202 days a year. That is why I chose 40 weeks for a teacher's work time. I ignored the extra work done in the holidays. None of this overtime is paid for. Student-free days are not non-working days. They are for report-writing and curriculum development.

In 33 years of teaching in five different schools with hundreds of teachers, I am unaware of the left waging war on morals in schools.

It is not usual to call wages that have fallen in both relative and purchasing power terms 'inflated'. Given that inflation was much higher in the mid-1970s than it is now, it is highly unlikely that my policies will cause any today. Cutting the salary of beginning teachers to less than the minimum wage, as you hope, will not encourage able people, even with passion, to become teachers.

Perhaps people of all classes will be persuaded by my stance that teachers work long hours, that education funding is low and that the same complaints were made about schools more than 30 years ago and decide to support an improvement to our education system rather than attacks on it made without evidence.

When you are faced with injustice and untruth, the best way to deal with it is to resist. I am pleased that there are people in teaching who do not find something else to do, but speak up for what is right despite the abuse heaped upon them.

I congratulate Kerryn for an honest and straight forward article. I also saw Julie Bishop's shaky interview. I wouldn't want a child of mine to turn out like her. I would hazard a guess she is a product of priviledged private schooling.
I come with fairly wide experience to the debate..My own schooling was in state schools from 1937 to 1948 and my memories of it are mixed with some great teachers and a couple of child haters whose enjoyment was gained from meting out corporal punishment for sheer pleasure. I left school with no political education or indocrination. That developed in my working world.I didn't enjoy Shakespeare or much of the reading material in the curriculum but developed an appreciation later in life when I chose my own material.

Whilst putting three children through pre-school,Transition,Primary, Secondary and Tertiary. I served on P&C's,School Councils,and as a Government appointee to an Advisory Council. Even then I found my argument was not with teachers but the establishment and bureaucracy's determination to ignore parental input.

My children survived to varying degrees depending on their own personal diligence. The eldest managed a University degree,and just paid off his hecs bill at age 35 !! The next dropped out after year 10 and went back to achieve required certificates as a mature aged student and achieved great results. The youngest finished yr 12 , entered the work force then decided he wanted to do a Graphic design course but couldn't obtain hecs funding so is in alternative employment wasting a natural talent, not because of trendy,lefty, pinko,feminist,marxist,
postmodernists but because of conservative Government policies which favour the wealthy and supervises a dumbing down of public education to accommodate advocates of the three R's.

Lets face it, Brony Bishop has lost it.

She would not have a clue what she is talking about: when was she ever a teacher? I admit Brony must be a great mum to have raised such talented children, well, they are adults now...

All the 'isms, posturing and finger pointing, the only valid point here is that private schools get too much money and state schools get too little. Lets face it, the Government schools themselves are literally falling apart by negligence. Federal blames State, State blames Federal for lack of overall funding, and so on.

As long as people have cat fights and throw red herrings to fog the basic issue of saving the schools, all we are left with is the cat fight and a dysfunctional mess.

I dedicate this song to those in this cat fight. This is another way to stack profound describers like "Trendy, lefty, feminist, marxist, postodernists, poisoning our children's minds". Now that is a 'whip dang' of a heading.

You deserve this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHjSh6nzYWk&NR

meow

Julie Bishop interviewed by Barry Cassidy:

"JULIE BISHOP: Barrie, the States are being very disingenuous, as is Federal Labor, on this. Back in 1993 when Kim Beazley was Education Minister, he wanted a national curriculum and in fact threatened to tie grants to a national curriculum unless the States agreed. So I think there is actual agreement on lifting standards, raising standards across the country and greater national consistency, and if we had a board of studies, for example, it would be subject to public scrutiny. We need more accountability and transparency in what is being taught, and this is one way of achieving it."

Frankly, I cannot see any benefit in States having separate bureaucracies to reinvent wheels. Put the dollars into the delivery end not in more ex-teacher bureaucrats filling airconditioned central offices in capital cities.

If Julie Bishop could find a way of introducing some robust consultation with the community on education that would be ideal.

Why denigrate a person with Julie Bishop's skills and achievements, when we want more like her in public positions?