Glen, I'm glad your mind is open, we should all strive for that. I didn't mean to suggest that the thread itself resembled the sketch, merely that the sentiments about young people reminded me of it.

I don't believe the kids of today are any worse (or any better) than my generation or any generation before. Who knows what their world will be like, what challenges they will face? Have they been overprotected and spoilt? Only time will tell.

The simple thrust of Jane Cato's article is the one popular among trendy lefty preacher-teachers who have done so much to dumb down the children of the Australian people. Children must never compete, and gifted children should be seen and not heard.

This egalitarian philosophy by the long haired men and short haired women of the sundry state Teachers Federations, is the primary reason why parents are fleeing the state systems and putting their children in private schools.

London to a brick, that Jane thinks that this is just awful too.

Jane wants every child 'educated" in state schools where preacher-teachers can indoctrinate them on the evils of Western civilisation, instruct them to vote for Labor, and sign "sorry" books to atone their collective guilt for being collectively repsonsible for the mythical "stolen generations."

Jane does not want parents to know how their childrens progress compares to others in their class or in other schools. The result of this policy has seen universities finaly throw up their hands in disgust. Universities now force potential university entrants to sit entrance exams because they were fed up of getting students who may have been politically correct, it's just that they could not read, write, spell or do simple sums.

Jane wants to be bastions of tolerance (bad teachers can not be removed) and make parents understand the value of diversity and acceptance(your kids will be intimidated and their classroom disrupted by children of some ethnic groups who do not value education and are noted for their poor behaviour.)

She wants physically and intellectually challenged children to be part of all classrooms (teachers will spend a disproportionate amount of time coping with students with whom they are ill prepared and badly resourced to cope)

Finally, Jane wants a good old Aussie fair go for all children. (Kids who misbehave must never be punished)

Parents have had a gutfull of this wooly headed thinking and are voting with their feet to get their kids into private schools. Politicians now know that they must intervene to raise standards before the entire state school systems disintegrate.

Johnj

It is quite obvious the challenges future generations of Australian kids will face.
The biggest challenge will be repaying the debt incurred and the interest accuring because of their parents and grandparents spendthriftiness.

Currently we are spending on imports 40 Billion more than we earn on exports...annually. To show very simply what that means is a simple comparison with the US economy.
US annual debt 100 Billion Aussie annual debt 40 Billion
US annual GDP 12,500 Billion Aussie annual GDP 1,000 Billion

I quite agree with the main thrust of this article. I personally favour the sentiment of Kahlil Gibran's words. May I add to this discussion: we are neglecting the relationship that we should have with all children - all the children of the world - and our responsibility, as adults, for their survival too as well as the survival of those within our individual families, communities, countries, regions. When I hear a child, or an adult for that matter, who says "I'm starving", my own father's words come from my mounth to tell them: "You are merely hungry, children in the Third World are starving." This is reality and children have a right to know that they too are responsible for other children. Another value we should encourage is "Friendship first, competition second". Alongside literacy and numeracy we need to promote politeness, courtesy, respect. Adults must extend these values to children on the same level that we expect to receive from them and in this way we encourage children to behave in an acceptable manner within their own peer groups.

My parents married during the 'Great'depression and poverty was all around.
Our mother made us eat everything in front of us with the words 'the starving children in China would love that " so we force down cabbage,offal,parsnips what ever while secretly wishing we could give it to those starving kids. Toys were unheard of.
My children had more than we had but they still were never indulged,times were still hard.
My offspring's offspring have been given things that I would never have dreamed of. But the main thing they cannot have is the freedom to wander ,to roam, to stay out all day exploring and playing that we had because it is no longer safe,even to walk to school, they must be taken and picked up.Nor do they have lovely big yards with trees to climb and play makebelieve.
Computer games and television will never make up for the freedom that today's children cannot have.
Today's parents cannot have the freedom that the older parents had.
All things are relative.

Well, it may be like that in Jane's neighbourhood, but that's not the kind of parenting in this house or of most other parents we know. Parenting is about launching your child into the world as best you can, knowing they need to make their own way, their own decisons, take their own risks, be responsible. We've taught by example, not by prescription, providing a loving and moral basis from which the kids can make ther own lives. As it happens, our kids are "gifted and talented", high achievers, but it's not from parental pushing, just letting them develop their own gifts. My wife considers my own, fatherless, family to have been dysfunctional, I know the effects of that and have sought to give them a better base for a happy and fulfilling life which enriches others as well as themselves. As you do.