National Service for today's youth? You must be joking.
From where will you get them?
What we see in the shopping centres, in the bars and pubs, in their souped and stolen cars, in gangs and drug cartels the army won't want. These utterly useless baggage are beyong discipline of any kind.
God help the country if we plan to get tyhem to be in thwe army reserve or anything similar.

To be eligible for national service requires a modicum of intelligence. That rules out about 90% of the rat infested of society.
I'm not too harsh,really.

socratease

I congratulate you on your zeal, Mr Wilson. It is an angle that is noticeably absent from the curriculum - of the schools that my own kids have been to, at least.

I wish your project the very best. But when I look at the material you have to work with - the Deparment of Education in NSW is, to all intents and purposes, brain-dead for all the impact they have on the learning process, and the rot permeates entire system down to the teachers themselves - I frankly despair.

Over the years I have seen a number of fantastic teachers make the transition from young-and-enthusiastic to bitter-and-cynical, ground down by the sheer mindlessness of the system. It may be different in other States, but until and unless the necessary decisions are taken by folk who genuinely care about children's education, as opposed to time-serving their way to a pensioned retirement, yours is a sisyphean task.

p.s. - this has nothing to do with National Service, socratease.

sorry, pericles but I might have been mis-led by the ambiguity in the opening statement ""Implementing a NATIONAL SERVICE-Learning program"

I linked it with the banner headline of The Daily Mirror in the UK that said that they were thinking of introducing NATIONAL SERVICE so I put two and two together and thought it was national service as is popularly thought.
I cannat see teachers already demoralized, disenchanted with the present system accepting it without demanding huge reimbursements and already stressed out of their brians handling it. It would result in a massive education budget blow-out.Discipline and control would be the biggest problem I imagine. I wasnt only thinking it a fine thing for those currently enrolled in schools but for those who are causing most of our social problems. Like in the UK eg.
Will national service manage head off that problem I wonder.

socratease

Good morning pupils

You are in the class for intermediate chemistry, (physics, english, weapons maintenance, foot hygeine, whatever)

In this lesson you *will* learn......

Ahhhhhhhhh.......

*so* much better than the "you *might* learn if you feel so inclined and not prevented by personal idealogy" which we appear to have.

Rusty

RUSTY CATHETER,YOU NEEDTO BE DISINFECTED.CONTRIBUTE SOMETHING MEANINGFUL.I CAN TELL YOU WHAT TO DO WITH YOUR CATHETER.It will make for clarity.

socratease

Tell you what, 'tease.

Take a pill and get over it.

Rusty.

Boring...sigh, sigh...Puff the Magic Dragon...The Times They are a Changing....

School/Education is a serious business, and these "alternative-school" ideas give me a pain. Sure, it's important to relate education to real life, and for teachers to "engage" their students - and if the teachers can't do this then they need to get a life. (Maybe teachers should have to spend at least a year working in the real world before taking up a teaching post, so they get their priorities straight beforehand.)

Teachers need to be role models, should be mature and capable of maintaining discipline, and need to be realists, not dreamers. Teaching is perhaps the very highest of professions, and should not be an "easy out" for those who can't make it in the real world. The greatest deficiency in our education system is probably the lack of salary recognition for this most demanding of careers. Appropriate salaries might attract the right type of academics for this demanding role - through greater competition. Instead, we have a shortage of teachers, some of whom are ultimately not well suited or well qualified. So, what do we expect?

Life is tough, so school has to provide a window to that future reality, and this involves self-discipline and a commitment to life-long learning. The sooner students get to accept that and get serious about their studies the better. Unfortunately, discipline in schools is a problem, and perhaps the only solution is to have separate classes for the serious students, career-based classes for the less academically inclined, and a third option for the problem students. I'm not suggesting to abandon the non-academic, but rather to provide greater one-on-one time to more effectively deal with their needs - separately, so as not to interfere with the development of the higher achievers.

We have to get serious in education and stop these one-semester "social studies" or "underwater-basket-weaving" courses (except perhaps for engaging the under-achievers), and devote appropriate time to the sciences, maths and language skills, etc.

Charity and community spirit are value-based, so what is the author on about?