There was a lovely letter recently (I can't remember where it appeared) that suggested a possible reason why there weren't more right wingers in teaching. I laughed myself hoarse when i read it. The writer's thesis was because teaching is so lowly paid only bleeding heart lefties will enter it.
Kevin, my kids go to a co-ed, comprehensive public school. I have no idea what their teacher's politics are and I couldn't care less. Last time I looked, we lived in a democracy and people were entitled to hold whatever views they liked, yes, even people in teaching. At least in my kid's school any attempt at indoctrination is opposed to the ethos of secular, public schooling which is about diversity. In your beloved private schools, particularly church based ones, indoctrination into a world view is a stated part of the ethos. Such a part of the stated ethos, in fact, that our current govt is getting mighty nervous about what one set of publicly funded religious schools may be teaching; the Islamic ones. That's the problem with your ideal world, if you fund one lot of private schools that teach views you agree with, you have to fund others too, with views you may not like. How much healthier is it to fund schools that, at least in theory, are meant to teach not indoctrinate.

Dear Aka-lan,

Did you study comprehension at school? If you did, please re-read the first paragraph of the article:

Is Treasurer Peter Costello correct when he argues there is a left-wing, anti-American bias in our education system? Is Education Minister Brendan Nelson also correct when he argues that the 3Rs of reading, writing and arithmetic have been redefined as the republic, reconciliation and refugees? Judged by the actions of the Australian Education Union (AEU), the answer appears to be yes.

I refer to the AEU and not teachers! The speech I refer to is written by the AEU President, Pat Byrne - not a teacher.

Oh Dr Donnelly and I thought you were referring to the education system. What a silly conclusion to draw.

enaj, great post.

R0bert

'Is Treasurer Peter Costello correct when he argues there is a left-wing, anti-American bias in our education system?'
Yes, since he is the centre of (his) universe and 98% of Australia's population is to his left while 99.73% is less pro-American.

Kim

On what basis is 98 per cent of Australian people to the left of Peter Costello?