Tony Abbott makes a telling point to the Heritage foundation today by reminding Americans that while the symbol and substance of the US is not perfect , we want, need and, have to have it, as both symbol and substance of the best the west has created. Are we wiser than Churchill in seeing the glass as half full rather than half empty.
Probably the greatest handicaps are the ones we impose on ourselves.. and then pass on however subtly to others
We can do a lot for each other by encouraging people to believe in themselves .
My summary of the response to " pay teachers more " discussion on "the drum" is that money alone will not revive the teaching profession but respect for their right to be teachers could.
The audience around us is full of people who see the glass half empty in us, or in others
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OK tell me why are the West's children so subdued or if you don't accept my assertion challenge it. We don't handicap ourselves because we are products of our parents ideas and actions . But are we handicapping our children by the way we think and the ideas of our parents that we rejected ?
One of my passions is to discover why all the excellent focus on education in Australia doesn't translate into real understanding and real careers . One is that it is harder to create and keep industries going but the real worry is symbolized by how we discourage sound economic and ecological thinking by force feeding our kids with excess algebra . They can't add up. Some do it well because their idea of education is not always Greek ( see Think Hebrew )They need to add up and transpose equations and do it confidently before 4 kill them on some treadmill to nowhere . To keep kids in science year 10 kids do not need to know all bond shapes and the complex physics that makes it work . Physics is so esoteric at that level that it can kill interest and its complexities are beyond all of us - why burden children with it all when they , if we gave time and opportunity ( instead of rushed and crowded curriculum ) developed some competence in cooking, creative constructions ( with levers an fulcrums etc) and conservation landscapes and how they function on the ground ( my work) Kids need confidence based not on being confident but getting it together on the ground somewhere near home .( Mature Grad classes absorb infield exposure to process discussions like ducks to water )
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