HRS

I have yet to come across a school that requires its students to read 'Puberty Blues'.

And I think you are a little bit confused about the agenda of the girl's school teaching unit.

'Dead White Males' is a play written by David Williamson. He also wrote the screenplay for 'Gallipoli'.

In 'Dead White Males', some of the characters are postmodern representations of characters in Shakespeare's 'The Taming of the Shrew'. Therefore, the two plays are compared and contrasted.

There's no sinister agenda there HRS.

Liz,
“Puberty Blues” has been on required reading lists of various high schools for years.

The title “The Literary Canon – Just Dead White Males” was applied by a public high school to a course in Shakespeare, although hardly a title to motivate boys to want to learn Shakespeare, and I believe that was the intention when the course was so titled

And then there was the private school that cautioned its students not to associate with athiests, agnostics or public school students because they would introduce them to drugs and crime.

There are stupid people doing stupid things in all kinds of schools, both public and private, and there always will be. The discussion here ought to be about the long term consequences for our future in a globally competitive world where we are way out on a limb compared to other OECD countries to the extent our school achievement (or lack thereof) is linked to social class.

Stephen Schwartz the new VC of Macquarie Uni is an American - they never fail to be horrified by our schooling system and the way it entrenches privilege and underprivilege. In today's SMH, he has just announced that his Uni will institute an aptitude test for kids seeking entry because he is afraid they are missing out on talent because so many of the kids getting in are there simply because they have parents who could afford school fees and coaching, rather than because they had actual talent. He may also be conscious of the ( at least 3) studies that have consistently shown that, once they get to the more level playing field of uni, kids from public comprehensive schools out-perform both their selective and private school peers. Could this be because they have been taught to think, rather than just pass an exam?

Hrs

I'd suggest the title of the unit was 'Literary Canon: Dead White Males', and you have added the 'just' for effect.

I haven't read 'Puberty Blues'. I'll have to put it on my list of must reads this year.

But I still haven't come across a school that 'requires its students to read' it.

But if it is on the list, what's wrong with the book? Have you read it?

Ena,
You have hinted on the rock and the hard place. The private schools can become elitist, while the public schools can become Marxist/ Feminist.

To fix both problems then there should be performance pay for teachers and a common curriculum, which is exactly what the federal government is attempting to do.

But in terms of democracy, then I think there is far more democracy in the private schools than in the public schools at present. In a private school a parent can demand more for their dollar, but in a public school a parent can have virtually no say in what occurs in the school. About all they can do is go to a P&C meeting, and at those meetings there are often more teachers than parents, and the teachers can be quite militant and run the meetings anyway.

Liz,
Despite my mostly public school upbringing I can read, and the title of the course in Shakespeare was “The Literary Canon – Just Dead White Males”.

In most high schools, English is a compulsory subject for students in grades 11 & 12. So if someone wants to brainwash the students, they would of course concentrate on the English subjects, and this is why so many feminists are involved in English courses.

You can read “Puberty Blues”, although it is very feminist and attempts to portray women as being oppressed by surfies.

Of course surfies do oppress women, which is why so many women walk up and down the beach in tiny bikinis, or sometimes only ½ a bikini. And if you buy a surfing magazine, then every article in the magazine will be on “How To Oppress Women”, and not one article will be on surf, surfboards and surfing.

So you can read “Puberty Blues”, but also go to the beach to see all the oppressed women at the beach, and also buy and a number of surfing magazines, which are readily available from your local newsagency.

HRS

You are simply out of your tree.