Well if it involved boys it was a clear attack on gender difference.
Most pathetic.

Recently, I googled for a free internet service provider for a pensioner who was interested in connecting, but could not afford standard subscription fees. I soon found out there was nothing quite free – even those that claimed that to be the case, could onsell your personal information, and bombard you with their own advertising while you are connected.

Political indoctrination in the state school system is part and parcel.

Boaz,
The whole thing began to increase my suspicions about the school (QLD state school). I began to think that it was a part of a process to turn the kids away from fathers, and away from babies etc.

Carrying around the rag doll might stop teenage girls from getting pregnant, but I thought there would be better ways of education than this.

Of course as a parent, I never got to know about it until it was happening and I had to fill out the daily record, and as I mentioned earlier, it becomes almost impossible to find out what they will be teaching the kids. I don't think they know themselves what they will be teaching the students from one year to the next.

The student is almost owned by the state, and the parent thought irrelevant by the state.

Hmmm....now why have I always thought that CCTV cameras with recording devices would be a most excellent technological advance in schools? How about webcams so mum and dad can check up on their kids and also hear and see what sweet leetle lefty teacher is up to at any time of schoolday?

But no, there would be strident objections, right?

Hmmm...why would they object unless they have something to hide? Perhaps there's something they don't want mum and dad to know?

Hmmm...why are mum and dad---who after all pay the teacher's salaries via taxes---not marching in the streets until CCTV or webcams do get installed?

After all, since when is schooling or formal education a 'private' or 'secretive' activity?

All of which is to say that we---as a society---are far too irresponsibly 'care-less' with regard to such crucially important matters as our children's education.

Ditto and agreed on all that in principle....
I think parents groups having more say (and the occasional monitoring)
over various emphases and content of curriculum would be good.
For example ..they should be able to vet the literature chosen for 'study' for compliance with values they wish to see promoted in their community.
If u want to promote 'abnormal and deviate' lifestyles why of course you would read the 'Outsider' by Camus.. but if u wanted to promote healthy living and 'normal' lifestyles... u might choose something more (dare I say it) 'wholesome' :) Its weird how I only know of the books which I DONT want to be used. But then, I'm a techo type rather than literary.. but given time to think about it I could come up with some great titles.

In fact..we should choose material which will actually DETERMINE what is 'normal'.. (perish the thought eh :)

arjay:Australian families maybe not starving (many schools are giving students b/fast I believe because it is not available at home) but there are some very poor, very hungry families around. Of course they cannot afford computers so they will not post messages. arjay, just for a giggle, ring or drop in on any of the groups that feed & clothe the poorer of our fellow Australian families, or read newspapers. Please I hope you will not say that they are all free-loaders and bludgers and 'deserve' what they are getting either.
boaz:Not criminals just, in the main, asylum seekers locked up by a Christian nation.Have you ever been locked behind razor wire? - in this country it is a concentration camp. By the way the afflicted Ausralian CITIZEN was well cared for in the "baxter holiday camp" - eh?
Had guards in riot gear manhandle her, they don't do this to others?? Perved on her whilst she was bathing and using the loo, had lights on all night in her CELL,don't do this to others? To me it getting more and more like a c/camp, not nazi style but good Christian Ozzie style.Remember first we ridicule certain people, then we subject them to incarceration, then we put them in funny striped clothes, then we are told that they are sub-human and can be liquidated. We are at stage one at present!
Your questions -1.true - but to be locked away for YEARS just for seeking political asylum - to them a c/camp. Try to see thru their eyes. 2. Spoken like a free Australian. How many who leave their country of birth at night have papers. They, unlike us, cannot just go to a gov. office and ask for papers to leave their country, I thought you knew that. 3. Not always, one parent behind razor wire the rest of the family miles away in Adelaide. 4. We KNOW !! do we - or are we just repeating a loving Governments propaganda - that these people, YES people just like you, have disposed of their papers (see Q2)remember tis gov. covered up the 300+ who drowned when their boat went down - SIEV. Then this 'fun-loving' kind Christian Government LIED that is spelled L-I-E-D about the children o/board incident. Can trust them eh? of course they are ours! Regards, numbat