Hasbeen … nominal determinism?

"There is no such thing as an ideology free educational curriculum. Anyone who pretends that there is such a thing has their head up their butt."

Bingo! Took the words right out of my mouth Daffy.

The stupidity of this article just defies belief. Kellie, the only logically valid argument you can make from your premise that education should be an ideology-free zone is to abolish government's involvement in it.

However Daffy your head is in the same location as Kellie's. How could compulsory education by the state be anything other than biased, political, ideological indoctrination?

In case you haven't noticed, it's not "corporations" dictating compulsory attendance of children at government indoctrination centres, compulsory contributions to pay for it whether you agree or not, or whether you have children or not, compulsory teacher qualifications of compulsory content dictated by government.

To blame this on "corporatism" is just typical left wing stupidity. Even if the argument were valid, since by the left's own stance there can be no such thing as an ideology free education, therefore the problem cannot be solved by government education in any way or form.

This leaves only one option: getting rid of the brainwashing of children, and cultivation of intellectual parasites by government.

Do that, and you will find that the corporate propaganda you allege children are being brainwashed with, is coming from the compulsory government education you are in favour of.

Kellie, government paying for universities can be nothing but ideology and therefore should be abolished. Your advocating physical attacks by government on Australia people to fund compulsory government indoctrination of children is completely inconsistent with your opposition to the invasion of Afghanistan.

All conceivable arguments for government schooling are refuted in this article: "Archipelagos of Educational Chaos" by Benjamin Marks:
http://mises.org/journals/jls/19_2/19_2_5.pdf

I suspect good education, especially primary and secondary, has little to do with the facts that one feed the children.

Surely it is more about teaching children how to think. How to question,. How to search for facts themselves.

Maybe this is why, kids in year one, are not taught how to Google. H

I see that kids this age, are expected to research and compile a three minute speech, which they give to the class. Are expect to have a working knowledge of Power Point, ti illustrate what they are talking abut. This in grade one.

Choice of topics, along the lines of "I have a dream..." How hard to be a child.

No, education is not about rote learning. Not about indoctrination.

It is about learning to think. To seek truth.

The kids need to be given the tools to achieve this outcome

All that needs to be done is to show the stastics of income and employment opportunities of students who specialise in the traditional courses of Math B, Math C, Physics, Chemistry, English and Latin as compared to those who undertake the 'more eightened' modern subjects. Then let parents decide.

Hi Flo,

It 'ought to be', but many children are not aware, not brought up to be aware, whatever, of what schooling is about. They don't understand what reading is about, so they don't 'naturally' learn to read.

You and I may have been lucky, we had parents driving us, we had books, we had a literate-type conversation going on around us all the time, but many children don't. Reading does not come naturally to them, and surely we have know many such children in our classrooms, if we have been teachers. We tend to ignore those kids, and unconsciously focus attention on the 'bright' kids who are no problem to teach.

But surely a teacher's job is to make sure that the 'slower' kids, those who don't understand what the hell is going on, what they are there for, that they are brought up the the level of the capable kids ? Those kids need not just a teacher's attention but also repetition, to lay down the memory tracks, in all manner of imaginative ways as well as straight, boring repetition.

Reading is NOT natural. Dinosaurs didn't do it. Gorillas don't do it. Our tribal ancestors didn't do it. But we do, we have too, and so do every one of those kids. Ideally, yes, of course, all kids should be at the level where they can read for meaning, for enjoyment, but so many never reach tat level, thanks to a myriad factors, including the attitude of teachers.

So phonics + repetition + moving towards reading for meaning and enjoyment as soon as possible - yes ! Indoctrination,no, and I don't know why you couch the debate in these terms. Rote learning is NOT indoctrination. Learning one's tables may be rote learning, it may be boring, but it also can be made more enjoyable with a bit of imagination. But it is NOT indoctrination. We all need to know our tables - it is painful to see young people completely baffled by anything mathematical. Don't deprive kids of skills they will need for life.

Joe

The ideology that will be pushed by the Coalition is one that turns students into capitalist sheeple by giving them vocational training rather than the education (as in being taught to THINK and QUESTION)!

In the capitalist world being established by the U.S. and the monied gentry and the Corporations, thinking is banned. What they want is to train people to do a job, then get their pay and run down to Harvey Norman and spend it as fast as they can.

Kelly, thanks for your fine article. The Flat Earthers won't understand it of course so busy are they promoting a world of endless war and consumerism and white supremacy.