Senior Victorian,

What have "...the basics of teaching and classroom management" got to do with instilling a love of learning and a thirst for knowledge?

George Bernard Shaw put it so well:

"What we want to see is the child in pursuit of knowledge, not knowledge in pursuit of the child."

I found this to be an interesting article. I have a deep respect for that articulated, particularly noting my children's current education experiences.

I have a deep respect for Galen, AD 129-199, a great and wise man.

'Galen was highly interested in the importance of combining philosophical thought with medical practice, an idea he expressed in his brief work "That the Best Physician is also a Philosopher." He refused to be placed into one particular school of thought, instead taking aspects from each group and combining them with his original thoughts to form his own unique approach to medicine. He was a proponent of medicine as a highly interdisciplinary field that was best practiced by utilising theory, observation, and experimentation in conjunction to yield the most complete results. This attitude was largely a result of his pluralist education, which exposed him to the four major schools of thought (Platonists, Peripatetics, Stoics, Epicureans), and encouraged him to pick and choose aspects from each to adhere to. His early education also included instruction both from teachers who belonged to the Rationalist sect and from teachers who belonged to the Empiricist sect, allowing him to learn about the merits of both schools.

Galen is also cited as having stated, 'Employment is natures Physician', I am sure he would turn in his grave if he could see our current main-stream education system and all its failings, the robots just keep coming!.

"Great article". Among the frustrations I have is that what is learnt in many learning institutions where broader minds and arguments are discussed through reference, workshops and readings does not transfer into the workplace in real life.

"Representation" is but one aspect, say in Health and things related to the Legal system for example. Take anything Foucault, Bourdieu or Goffman and Scumancher has said.

If Australia means "knowledge nation" we have much work to do....

Thank You for the article.... I hope it is defended for the reasons that it raises. I think this article is essentially important.

http://www.miacat.com/

I'm with you senior victorian. This sort of article confirms a lot of criticism we hear about teaching facaulties in Australia.

How about we leave the alternate spirituality and new age stuff up to parents and just stick with education based on the Western humanist tradition and the needs of the modern economy.

It would be nice to think academics didn't see our children's education as their personal plaything but I guess it's a bit late now.

There's nothing wrong with our national education system that a few billion dollars wouldn't cure -- preferably redirected from the private school system, if possible. But this kind of psychobabble always emerges from those who are unable or unwilling to provide actual cash, via the tame academics they keep on their payroll. Just stop asking for money and chant the magic words, and your students will miraculously become enlightened and well-behaved.

What's that? It didn't work? That's OK, there are lots of new magic words in the pipeline. And by the time they run out, we'll be promoted, transferred or retired out of the way.

Jon.J,

Tell us how all that "cash" is going to make them "enlightened" and "well-behaved"?