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The Forum > Article Comments > Time to say 'Hola!' to the world > Comments

Time to say 'Hola!' to the world : Comments

By Matt Moffitt, published 20/5/2009

If Australia wants to position itself for the future we need to start learning the Asian and Middle Eastern languages.

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Yabby,

It is easy for a person to argue that some subject or some material should be in the school curriculum, if her or she ignores the unfortunate fact that something else must get left out. (No, I know you didn't do that.) So far as I can see, the only way to resolve the issues is to sort out what the ultimate purposes of the school curriculum should be. That is not an easy job--but there is a good deal of careful argument on the issue. Opinions may be informed by this material, or they may not. At any rate, the opinion you form will be as good as the arguments with which you can support it. (It is not a matter of arbitrarily plumping for a view.)

A reasonable place to start, in my view, is to take account of the fact that we make schooling compulsory. What we teach in school must thus be of sufficient important to justify overriding the principle of liberty. In the case of young children, that is not such an issue--because they lack so much knowledge, they are not in a position to make rational decisions, and we are justified in making decisions for them. That is, the principle of liberty does not apply to them. But the older children get, and the more knowledgeable and rational they become, the more significant their freedom is.

To justify overriding that freedom, I believe, requires an account of why freedom matters in the first place.

More of this sketch in my next.
Posted by ozbib, Sunday, 24 May 2009 11:22:32 PM
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