The author would appear to have not been inside a school for some time. Though diverse in nature and not perfect institutions by any means there has been much progress over the past decades. We have the example of school gardens (often shared with local communities)and many other in-school initiatives being used to raise awareness in young Australians of the need for a sustainable future. The situation is nowhere as bleak as Dr Trainer suggests.

Hi Ted,

“Do schools and universities educate”? NO, of course not.

The following cut from a response to Julie’s article.

In a comprehensive series of essays called “The Corruption of the Curriculum” written during 2007 by authors such as Frank Furedi, Shirley Laws, Michele Ledda, Chris McGovern, Simon Patterson, Alex Standish, Robert Whelan and David Perks. The conclusion of these authors, all of whom are experienced teachers, is that the curriculum is being drained of intellectual content in favor of promoting political issues such racism, the environment and gender.

When we stop socializing topics we can and will return to education rather than indoctrination.

Good luck getting past the academics!

Ah, Ted Trainer, you sing a sweet tune, in fact I feel like I've been plagiarised, your arguments so closely mirror my own. It's nice to know there are a few critical thinkers out there.
You say the chances that we'll change our ways are "negligable", whereas I'm afraid I think they're zero, mainly because it's now impossible for single nations to opt out of what is a global farm. Speaking of farms, I bet Orwell never imagined his fable would go global, or that the pigs would end up being capitalists rather than a petty communist oligarchy. On the other hand, Orwell's disillusionment with socialism didn't detract from his life-long hatred of capitalism. The whole planet is now just too intertwined and mutually dependent, geopolitically as well as economically, and the only hope of sustainable human societies will come after the fall.
As for education, so true so true, that it's all designed to plug the new workers and drones into the system, wherein all to often, as Wilde would say, their education has taught them the price of everything and the value of nothing. The more disturbing factor though in the educational "process" is that in recent decades the "demand" for "qualifications" for everything, however menial, has been fostered by big business according to it's new strategy of credentialling workers and so patronising their need for recognition and co-opting their credulous dedication. An influential book as been written on this cynical "education programme", called "The New Spirit of Capitalism". The Protestant ethic just inhibited the kind of rampant consumerism the system now increasingly demands.
I have six kids and a large part of their education consists in my disabusing them of the programming they get at school. But swimming upstream is exhausting and ultimately futile and my kids too are inevitably fired with the same needs for recognition, and thus the competitive and ambitious drives our selfish society fosters, wherein it's not enough to succeed, others also have to fail so they can be despised.

Its true most of what is now called "education" has been reduced to a propaganda industry that is purposed only to produce the next generation of social and political participants in a programmed life dictated by governments, corporations, and economic interests.Such "education" is, in fact merely about producing a compliant and even zombified work force.

But them again that was all that mass "education" was always purposed to do - produce a minimally literate and numerate supply of office and factory workers.

In my opinion one of the best writers on this topic is Henry Giroux especially via his books On Critical Pedagogy, and Education & The Crisis of Value. Although these books are mostly about the situation in the USA and perhaps Canada too, they are very useful in considering the state of the world altogether especially as there are now so many young people or teenagers with quite literally no prospects for anything better.

Squeers, you put it so well - ditto Daffy.

Speaking as a parent who has chosen not to send their child to school for his formative education, it is interesting to alter one's conscious idea of "learning". My son is not constantly assessed - sometimes I tick his work, but not often. If he has a problem with something, we sort it out then and there. Most of his learning is acquired by having the freedom to choose his own interests. We find that if he is motivated in such a way he is far more inclined to investigate. He learns in the process of following his passions and interests, although I've had to train myself to allow things to unfold instead of forcing them.
Having said that, he is still part of society, he watches TV and reads news and current events so he still gets the general societal view of things - which, like Squeers says, need parental reason to help him obtain a balanced questioning view.

Still, a young person should be extended the good grace to grow and learn without a constant barrage of assessment and comparison. I'm hoping my son grows into an adult who is confident in his own abilities and not constantly comparing himself to others for his sense of self-worth.

Ted & his mates must be longing for Hitlers Germany. There the education system was totally aimed at indoctrination. Here all we get is Teds reproduction of his indoctrination by someone years ago. Well Ted, our kids don't need it.

Back off mate, the last things our kids need is some ratbag lefty taking control of education, in order to reproduce more of their ilk.

We will give our kids all the guidance they need, your job is to supply the knowledge to give them ability to function in a complex technical society. They have the same ability as you to decide their response to life's trials. They don't need any training in what passes for ethics in the left.

Meanwhile get your nose out of our kids character, we already have too many well meaning twits trying to indoctrinate our kids into lefty ideals. We can only afford so many members in the useless chattering class if our civilisation is to survive.