244 Obama offers cash to get rid of useless teachers. British professor wins "Dumbing Down" dismissal case

Obama offers cash to get rid of useless teachers. British professor wins "Dumbing Down" dismissal case

To keep eye on Political Correctness in the Education system, bookmark and visit http://edwatch.blogspot.com/

(1) Climate, Sorry Day in curriculum overhaul
(2) Give Britain its due or we'll can it: opposition
(3) Australia's new science curriculum begins with Aboriginal Dreamtime
(4) Political correctness invades the science curriculum
(5) Phonics to be enforced as part of literacy teaching throughout Australia
(6) Useless qualifications taxing us all
(7) Obama offers cash to get rid of useless teachers
(8) New High School qualifications introduced by British Labour REALLY dumb education down
(9) British private schools condemn 'social engineering'
(10) British professor wins dismissal case over refusing to "Dumb Down" university degrees
(11) Hatred, violence in Australian schools' classrooms
(12) School asks students: 'why not' be sexually active

(1) Climate, Sorry Day in curriculum overhaul
By Bonny Symons-Brown and Steve Larkin

March 01, 2010 04:57pm

SCHOOL children will learn about climate change and Sorry Day under the Federal Government's draft national curriculum.

http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,26790746-5003402,00.html

SCHOOL children will learn about climate change and Sorry Day under the Federal Government's draft national curriculum. The new document, launched by Prime Minsiter Kevin Rudd and Education Minister Julia Gillard at the Amaroo School in Canberra, outlines the education plans for kindergarten to Year 10 English, maths, science and history students to replace state and territory standards next year.

Mr Rudd described it as a back-to-basics approach to teaching and learning, with grammar and arithmetic a focus. "What we are on about is making sure the absolute basics of knowledge, the absolute basics of education are taught right across the country," he said.

However, the draft also suggests five-year-olds discuss community commemorations such as Sorry Day and 15-year-olds explore the link between carbon dioxide and global warming.

Opposition education spokesman Christopher Pyne has slammed the 242-page document as a disaster waiting to happen. "We have a seemingly over-emphasis on indigenous culture and history and almost an entire blotting out of our British traditions and ... heritage," he told said. "I am deeply concerned that Australian students will be taught a particular black armband view of our history without any counterbalancing."

Professor Stuart MacIntyre, who oversaw the history stream of the draft curriculum, dismissed Mr Pyne's complaint. "I think anybody who looks at the curriculum online will have great difficulty in finding any armbands," he said. "One of the ways we (avoid this), of course, is to set the peopling of Australia, both by the original inhabitants and then by European settlers, in a comparative perspective." ...

(2) Give Britain its due or we'll can it: opposition

http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/give-britain-its-due-or-well-can-it-opposition-20100301-pdkx.html

Dan Harrison, Anna Patty, Heath Gilmore and Amy Corduroy

March 2, 2010

THE federal Coalition has threatened to scrap the new national curriculum, saying it places too much emphasis on indigenous and Asian perspectives at the expense of British and European culture. Its education spokesman, Christopher Pyne, said the curriculum was "unbalanced".

"While there are 118 references in the document to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island people and culture, there is one reference to Parliament, none to 'Westminster' and none to the Magna Carta," he said. "Grade nines will consider the personal stories of Aboriginal people and examine massacres and 'indigenous displacement', without any reference to the benefit to our country of our European heritage and the sacrifice of our forebears to build a nation. The early signs are that the black armband view of history is back."

Mr Pyne said a Coalition government would review the curriculum. "If we find the review confirms our very serious doubts then we'll scrap the national curriculum and we'll start again because it would be better for students to have the curriculum that they have now under the states than for them to have an unbalanced curriculum that will do them more harm than good," he said.

In an interview with the Herald, the federal Education Minister, Julia Gillard, said she was worried by the threat. "When you've seen the opposition fight up hill and down dale to wreck [the] national curriculum and to wreck MySchool, then it does send a shiver up your spine about what they may do in the future." ....

Helen Walton, of the Federation of Parents and Citizens' Associations of NSW, said her organisation was happy with the increased focus on family, community and Aboriginal history.

(3) Australia's new science curriculum begins with Aboriginal Dreamtime

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/politics/curriculum-puts-dreamtime-first/story-e6frgczf-1225834964274

Curriculum puts Dreamtime first

    * EXCLUSIVE: Justine Ferrari, Education writer
    * From: The Australian
    * February 27, 2010 12:00AM

SCHOOL students will learn about Aboriginal Dreamtime stories, Chinese medicine and natural therapies but not meet the periodic table of elements until Year 10 under the new national science curriculum.

The curriculum, obtained by The Weekend Australian, directs that students from primary school through to Year 10 be taught the scientific knowledge of different cultures, primarily indigenous culture, including sustainable land use and traditional technologies.

The indigenous strand is part of a topic called Science and Culture examining different cultural groups and their perspectives on science.

The curriculum, to be released on Monday for public consultation, sets out a course of study from kindergarten to Year 10 that takes in physics, chemistry, biology and earth sciences but teaches them as one rather than in separate disciplines.

The curriculum is organised into three inter-related strands of science: inquiry skills, about the collection of data; science as a human endeavour, about the history and nature of science; and science understanding, which teaches fundamental concepts.

Australian scientists and their discoveries are prominent in the curriculum, with students at different years learning about Nobel Prize-winners including Ian Frazer and the cervical cancer vaccine, Alexander Fleming and Howard Florey and the rise of penicillin and antibiotics, as well as scientists such as Graeme Clarke and the bionic ear. The curriculum has had to take account of the different year levels for high school, which starts in Year 8 in some states and Year 7 elsewhere, and as a result the curriculums for those years are more general in content, covering public health guidelines, the law and science, sustainability and recycling, with less experiment-based work than in some existing state curriculums.

The periodic table of elements is not introduced until Year 10, when the curriculum is packed with scientific ideas including DNA, genetics, evolution, the universe and plate tectonics.

"Specific knowledge and understanding of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples is incorporated where it relates to science and relevant phenomena, particularly knowledge and understanding of nature and of sustainable practices," it says. "For example, systematic observations by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures over many generations of the sequence of various natural events contribute to our scientific understanding of seasons in Australia."

Primary students will look at traditional bush tucker and natural remedies used in indigenous cultures as well as the use of fire to promote new plant growth and their strategies for finding water. For Year 4 students, the curriculum says they should research "historical examples of different cultures' knowledge about the national environment and living things (e.g. Aboriginal peoples' Dreamtime stories that explain significant characteristics of the Earth's surface and interactions between living things)".

The curriculum for Year 7 directs that students research "Aboriginal X-ray art to investigate Aboriginal knowledge of the internal biology and physiological processes of animals" as well as "traditional Chinese knowledge of the structure and function of human body systems".

In Year 8, students will discuss "traditional stories of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as a basis for understanding complex ecosystems at local and regional levels" and through "personal interaction or stories" research the "special relationship" of indigenous people with the land and its flora and fauna.

(4) Political correctness invades the science curriculum
John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.) -- former High School and University teacher

Education Watch International

Tuesday, March 02, 2010

http://edwatch.blogspot.com/

As The Australian reported on Saturday, it's not until Year 10 that science students will have any exposure to the periodic table of elements – potassium, hydrogen, all that stuff you used to learn rote-form back in the good old days. But there's some waffly nonsense about non-western views of science, including Chinese medicine, and Aboriginal ideas of farming and land management.

Worst of all is the proposal to teach Aboriginal Dreamtime stories as part of the science stream. With due deference to the Rainbow Serpent, this is spiritualism not science, and every bit as wrong as the calls from Christian hardliners for the utter rubbish that is "creation science" and "intelligent design" to be taught alongside evolution and natural selection.

The greatest test of the curriculum will be the extent to which it can restore some basic old-fashioned principles of literacy, grammar, spelling – all the stuff that went out of fashion in the 1970s when everyone was simply encouraged to set their minds free and use their imagination, even if you could barely understand a word they had written.

The approach being taken with everyone's favourite dysfunctional state government here in NSW stands as a warning against the mediocrity which has infected teaching in recent times.

While not everyone can, or should, attend university, there's something desperately unambitious about the NSW Board of Studies decision to modify the second-tier NSW English Studies course to remove Shakespeare, but allow the "study" of rubbish movies such as The Matrix and the irritatingly twee television show Seachange.

If we are going to dumb down what is already a basic English course then maybe we should introduce a new subject called an Introduction to Remedial English – like a Dummy's Guide to Dummy's Guides.

At least we are not seeing this approach from Julia Gillard, who will have won plaudits from many parents yesterday – and probably upset the teachers unions – by arguing yesterday that too many Australian kids no longer have a basic grasp of reading and writing.

To judge the draft curriculum for yourself, go to the ACARA website - www.acara.edu.au – and follow the links.

(5) Phonics to be enforced as part of literacy teaching throughout Australia

http://edwatch.blogspot.com/

Ideology replaced by what works ==

Letters, sounds at core of new curriculum

    * Justine Ferrari, Education Writer
    * From: The Australian
    * February 25, 2010 12:00AM

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/letters-sounds-at-core-of-new-curriculum/story-e6frg6n6-1225834081065

ALL states and territories will be forced to follow a set program for teaching reading under the first national English curriculum, which stipulates the letters, sounds and words students must learn in each year of school. The curriculum, obtained by The Australian, dictates what students from kindergarten until the end of Year 9 are expected to know and be able to do in English, history, science and maths.

The English curriculum, to be released for public consultation next week, enshrines the importance of teaching letter-sound combinations, or phonics, giving examples of the sounds and words to be taught from the start of school. Students in their prep year will learn to sound out simple words such as "cat", recognising the initial, middle and end sounds; by Year 1, they will have learned two consonant sounds such as "st", "br" and "gl".

The national curriculum ends the piecemeal approach to what is taught in schools, with state curriculums emphasising different course content and teaching it at different stages of school. The new curriculum is a detailed document that provides specific examples and is longer than many existing state syllabuses, some of which are a couple of pages long for each subject.

The curriculum for the senior years of school, from Years 10 to 12, will be released separately by the Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority later this year.

The English curriculum places a strong emphasis on the study of grammar, from learning different classes of words such as verbs and nouns in the early years through to the difference between finite and non-finite clauses in high school. In a speech to the National Press Club yesterday, Education Minister Julia Gillard welcomed the "strong appearance" of grammar in the national curriculum. Announcing its release next Monday, she said the curriculum set out the essential content for each year of learning as well as the achievement standards students should be expected to perform.

"This will not be a curriculum `guide' or a supplement to what states and territories currently teach," she said. "It will be a comprehensive new curriculum, providing a platform for the highest quality teaching."

Ms Gillard also outlined the next phase of Labor's education revolution, including the external assessment of schools and the introduction of student identity numbers to enable parents and schools to track a child's individual progress through school.

After the speech, a spokesman for Ms Gillard said the government would investigate different systems for assessing school performance in coming months, including a form of school inspectors and the method used in Britain, where the Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills conducts detailed inspections of schools and publishes its findings. "The government believes that some external inspection or assessment of schools would be an additional way of ensuring that our schools are providing the best possible education for our children." the spokesman said.

Ms Gillard said the government would examine "how every school can get the right support and scrutiny to make sure it is performing well and improving in the areas where it needs to improve".

The idea of external assessment of schools was mooted by the national teachers union for public education, the Australian Education Union, in a charter of school accountability reported by The Australian in December. The AEU proposal advocates a system of regular assessments against a set of standards by a panel of principals, teachers and education experts, and then working with struggling schools to lift performance. AEU federal president Angelo Gavrielatos said yesterday teachers wanted to see the detail of the government's proposal on school assessment before giving their support, although they were still committed to the principle of accountability and external review.

"But the government must consult with teachers," he said. "We're seeing announcement after announcement without consultation and the Rudd government has to realise that it needs to consult with the profession. "Ultimately, we're the ones who implement education policy." Mr Gavrielatos said the union was also not opposed in principle to the idea of student identity numbers and welcomed moves to improve the measure of student progress than that currently used on the My School website.

Tony Abbott said students already had unique identifiers in the form of names, and questioned why their results could not be tracked using their names.

(6) Useless qualifications taxing us all

http://jonjayray.tripod.com/berg.html

BOOK REVIEW

EDUCATION AND JOBS - THE GREAT TRAINING ROBBERY

By Ivar Berg

(Publisher: Penguin books).

Reviewed by John Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.)

Sociology, University of N.S.W.

This book has the potential to save all of us a lot of money. Professor Berg critically examines the by now well-known economic thesis that investment in education shows a rate of return that compares favorably with other forms of capital investment. While this is true as a statistical generalisation, what Professor Berg argues is whether it should be true. The fact that most employers have been talked into rewarding more education with higher salaries does not necessarily mean that education should be so rewarded.

In fact it is by now very well-known that education does little to provide many of its recipients with any skills, abilities or knowledge that are at all likely to be of any use in employment. Most employers accept that a graduate will be almost totally useless to them until the job itself has taught him what he needs to know. Why then do they pay more for useless qualifications? The honest answer of course is that they are buying what they see as prestige. The reason that they generally gave to Professor Berg, however, seems to have been that they regarded the education system as something of an obstacle course and the man who had survived it had shown that he had "stick-to-it-iveness" and this was the quality really sought in a good employee. Berg punctures this assertion by a whole series of studies making up the body of his book which show that in fact the employees who are actually seen as most productive and who are in fact promoted on merit generally turn out to be not the better educated ones but rather in some cases the less educated ones. Education is as often a negative predictor of a man's worth to his employer as it is a positive one. This was shown to be true for technical staff, unskilled staff and white-collar staff. It was even true of professionals. Education was quite evidently not worth the extra money it cost.

All this evidently means that society could get on quite as well with much less education than it presently pays for. This is one issue that Berg, however, steers clear of. He is addressing himself more to employers than he is to politicians. To all taxpayers, however, the political issue is important. In N.S.W., roughly 60 per cent of the State budget goes on education. This is a huge slug that we can only tolerate if it is very well justified. So expensive in fact is education that Berg's book has the potential to be a political bombshell. It is this that apparently causes Berg to play down the social policy implications of his findings. Instead he takes refuge in some well-known platitudes about the "underprivileged" and how education expenditures should be re-directed to them away from their presently largely middle class recipients. He says little about the general failure to show results of such projects in the past (e.g. the ambitious American "Headstart" program for slum children).

Along the way Berg even points out that the original calculations of the extent to which an individual's investment in education pays off in the form of higher salaries do tend to play down some of the "opportunity costs" that such investment entails. All calculations include the income that is forgone by a person who studies when he could be working but some fail to put a reasonable interest rate on what that extra income, if saved, would have earned. In fact, Berg quotes one economist's figures to show that if a quite modest interest rate of 8 per cent is used, the economic advantage of higher education to the recipient vanishes almost entirely. Quite clearly, if students had to pay the costs of education themselves instead of raiding the taxpayer for its costs, only a fraction of them would still undertake it. It is about time that the taxpayer realised that he is often going without so that the useless sacred cow of education can be fed. Some education is necessary but on Berg's findings much of it is not. We must soon have to face up to the task of sorting the wheat from the chaff.

(7) Obama offers cash to get rid of useless teachers

http://edwatch.blogspot.com/2010/03/obama-offers-cash-to-get-rid-of-useless.html

== Obama offers cash for turnaround schools

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/mar/02/obama-offers-grants-to-schools-taking-radical-step/

President Obama on Monday said the U.S. must get a handle on its high-school dropout crisis even if it requires firing principals and teachers at failing schools - a move vehemently opposed by the nation's largest teachers union.

Mr. Obama said his administration will dole out $900 million in "turnaround grants" to fledgling schools that take radical steps to improve as part of an effort to ensure the U.S. turns out the highest proportion of high-school graduates in the world by 2020. At stake, he argued, is America's global leadership in the 21st century.

During his address to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Obama praised a decision last week by a school board in Rhode Island to fire the faculty and staff at Central Falls High School, where only 7 percent of 11th-graders passed state math tests. But that move - along with much of Mr. Obama's turnaround plan - was harshly criticized by the American Federation of Teachers, a Washington-based affiliate of the AFL-CIO, which endorsed Mr. Obama's presidential bid in 2008. "We know it is tempting for people in Washington to score political points by scapegoating teachers, but it does nothing to give our students and teachers the tools they need to succeed," AFT President Randi Weingarten said.

Ms. Weingarten pointed to a 2009 report by Rhode Island's education commissioner that blamed challenges on leadership instability and not deficiencies among the staff.

Last year Mr. Obama listed education as one of three big issues he wanted to tackle, along with health care and global warming. But global warming legislation is stalled and health care is on rocky ground, leaving education one promising area in which he might be able to make quiet bipartisan progress.

Over the next five years, 5,000 of the nation's worst-performing schools will be eligible for assistance under the administration's turnaround grants program. To receive the funds, participating schools must either replace their principals and at least half of their staff, close and reopen under new management, close for good or completely transform themselves. "We know that the success of every American will be tied more closely than ever before to the level of education that they achieve," Mr. Obama said at the event hosted by America's Promise Alliance, an advocacy group headed by former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and his wife, Alma.

Before taking drastic steps such as ordering mass layoffs, Mr. Obama said governments should first work with principals and teachers to "find a solution." "We've got to give them a chance to make meaningful improvements," he said. "But if a school continues to fail its students year after year after year, if it doesn't show signs of improvement, then there's got to be a sense of accountability."

Mr. Obama's proposal comes on top of $3.5 billion his administration has committed to addressing failing schools, particularly high schools with graduation rates below 60 percent. He noted that more than half of those who fail to graduate are blacks and Hispanics.

Mr. Powell's organization is sponsoring a 10-year campaign, dubbed "Grad Nation," to ensure that 90 percent of current U.S. fourth-graders graduate high school on time.

Though he cautioned that government cannot do it alone, Mr. Obama said the public sector does have a responsibility when it comes to education. "Government can help educate students to succeed in a college and a career. Government can help provide the resources to engage dropouts and those at risk of dropping out," he said. "And when necessary, government has to be critically involved in turning around the lowest-performing schools."

(8) New High School qualifications introduced by British Labour REALLY dumb education down

Teenagers taking Labour's new diplomas will learn "far less" about key subjects than A-level students, a Government advisor has warned.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/7325971/Diplomas-may-fail-to-prepare-students-for-university-says-former-Ofsted-chief.html

 By Graeme Paton, Education Editor
Published: 4:23PM GMT 26 Feb 2010

Sir Mike Tomlinson, former head of Ofsted, said the Government's new qualifications in academic subjects would lack some of the "knowledge, content, concept and understanding" offered in other courses – damaging pupils' chances of getting into university.

The comments are the latest in a series of attacks on diplomas which ministers claim could eventually replace GCSEs and A-levels altogether. The qualifications – for 14 to 19-year-olds – combine classroom study and work-based training. They are currently offered in 10 practical subjects such as media, construction and IT, with plans for seven more in coming years. This includes three in the traditional academic areas of science, languages and humanities.

Sir Mike suggested courses would have no more teaching time than A-levels, despite being far more complicated to run. "My worry is that the result of that may well be that we have far less knowledge, content, concept and understanding in what we do than is currently in A-level, which I think would greatly worry higher education," he said.

Sir Mike was the author of a 2004 report on the qualifications system, which led to the development of diplomas. Labour has said diplomas could eventually become the "qualification of choice", replacing existing courses altogether.

But in an interview with the Times Educational Supplement, Sir Mike said: "I think there is a huge commitment to the A-level and until such a time as an alternative is shown to be better than the A-level, people will want to stick with what they know."

A spokesman for the Department for Children, Schools and Families said: "The Diploma is a very new qualification that is still developing. Those that have been introduced are increasingly popular. We shouldn't jump to conclusions about those that haven't even started yet." He added: "Diplomas are delivering the mix of theoretical and practical skills that employers and universities value and for this reason they could indeed become the qualification of choice for young people."

(9) British private schools condemn 'social engineering'

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/7318961/Private-schools-condemn-social-engineering.html

Private schools condemn 'social engineering'

Labour's mission to "socially engineer" university admissions is built on flawed evidence, according to independent school leaders.

By Graeme Paton
Published: 7:30AM GMT 26 Feb 2010

Ministers are using unreliable research in an attempt to "blackmail" institutions into taking a larger number of pupils from the state sector, it was claimed.

Andrew Grant, chairman of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference, which represents 250 top private schools, insisted most "independent-minded" academics and admissions tutors were resisting Government pressure by continuing to prioritise the brightest pupils irrespective of background.

But, writing in The Daily Telegraph today, he warned that their ability to select could come under threat.

His comments came as another top head – Richard Cairns, from fee-paying Brighton College – called for all university applications to be "anonymised" to avoid any prejudice during the admissions process.

Vice-chancellors are already warning of a squeeze on university places this year following a record rise in applications. ...

(10) British professor wins dismissal case over refusing to "Dumb Down" university degrees
February 25, 2010

Professor who claimed degrees were dumbed down wins case

But it's a long hard road for those who defend academic standards in modern-day Britain

Greg Hurst, Education Editor

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/education/article7039974.ece

An academic who took a stand against "dumbing down" the quality of university degrees won a long-running legal battle yesterday when the Court of Appeal accepted that he was forced out of his job. Professor Paul Buckland will be entitled to compensation from Bournemouth University after a previous ruling against him by the Employment Appeal Tribunal was overturned.

He resigned from the university's chair of environmental archaeology in a dispute over marking after he failed 18 out of 60 second-year undergraduates who took examinations in 2006. When 16 of the students retook the paper, Professor Buckland failed all but two of them. He thought that "many of the papers were of poor quality", the Court of Appeal heard. A second marker endorsed his scores, as did the university's board of examiners, although it took note of the high failure rate and the need to address its causes.

But his department then had the exam papers marked for a third time and the marks were increased by up to six percentage points, moving several students from a "clear fail" to a "potential pass" depending on other results, the court heard.

Professor Buckland, who lives in Sheffield, took exception to the papers being marked for a third time, claiming that it was done "by somebody who did not have the relevant expert knowledge". He accused Bournemouth University of cheapening degrees and making "a complete mockery of the examination process". He claimed that the move was "part of a much larger process of dumbing down" and amounted to "an unequivocal affront to his integrity".

The university held an internal inquiry that found in Professor Buckland's favour. It said that he should have been consulted on the decision to mark the exam papers for a third time. But he remained unhappy and resigned in February 2007. He took the university to an employment tribunal, which decided in August 2008 that there had been a "fundamental breach of the implied term of trust and confidence" in his employment contract and that he had been constructively dismissed.

The decision was overruled in March last year by the Employment Appeal Tribunal but the Court of Appeal rejected that judgment yesterday and restored the original ruling.

Lord Justice Sedley said that the university could not defend the way it had undermined Professor Buckland's status and it was the "inexorable outcome" that he had been constructively dismissed. Lord Justice Jacob said that it "ought to be entirely at the wronged party's choice" whether to accept a repudiatory breach of contract and resign, or carry on in the job. If the university does not settle with him, Professor Buckland's case will go to an employment tribunal for the level of compensation to be assessed.

(11) Hatred, violence in Australian schools' classrooms

Lucy Hood

The Advertiser

Adelaide, February 27, 2010

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/hatred-violence-in-our-schools-classrooms/story-e6frea83-1225834928483

STUDENTS injured almost 3000 public school teachers in the past two years, an Education Department report obtained by The Advertiser shows. The Occupational Health and Safety Incident/Accident Report shows students were "deliberately" responsible for 98 per cent of the 2957 injuries reported by teachers from January 1, 2008, to December 31, 2009. Bruising and superficial injuries made up more than half the reported incidents with 3 per cent of incidents resulting in workers' compensation claims.

The figures raise further concerns for the safety of teachers, following a violent attack this week on a teacher at a northern suburbs primary school. According to police, the teacher was on yard duty at Swallowcliffe Primary School at Davoren Park, when a brick was thrown at her, hitting her in the back of the head. As she lay on the ground suffering from shock, the attackers then stole her office keys and, later, some cash.

Concerned parents said the school went into "lockdown" over the incident, with students finally allowed to go outside during recess and lunch yesterday. Students were also offered counselling after the attack.

South Australian Education Union president Correna Haythorpe said the "startling" report showed that teachers were increasingly being put in dangerous situations. "The figures paint a picture of rising levels of violent incidents that teachers are facing," she said. "Teachers expect to go to work to teach, not to be assaulted or injured."

The attack is the latest in a spate of violent incidents in schools this month. Last week, an Underdale High School pupil was punched in class by two youths posing as students.

In Brisbane earlier this month, Elliot Fletcher, 12, was fatally stabbed in the chest by a fellow student in the school toilets of St Patrick's College. But the Education Department played down any suggestions of a rise in violence in schools, describing this week's attack as very serious but a "one-off incident".

Education Department deputy chief executive Jan Andrews said police investigations were continuing and she expected the attackers, when found, to be charged. She added that they were currently checking the "accuracy" of the leaked report and that the majority of incidents were "minor". "We encourage teachers to report all incidents," she said. "The incident reporting rate has increased and that is something we are happy about," she said.

Swallowcliffe Primary School principal Assunta Alfano was yesterday unavailable for comment. But a parent of a Year 5 student, who wished to remain anonymous, said the school had been plagued by safety concerns.

(12) School asks students: 'why not' be sexually active
http://edwatch.blogspot.com/2010/02/end-fed-ed-obamas-austere-budget-calls.html

== Survey asks students when they lost virginity

Results in newspaper show classes counseled 'why not' be sexually active

Posted: February 27, 2010

By Bob Unruh
© 2010 WorldNetDaily

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?pageId=126030

A team of lawyers who advocate for parental rights is working with parents whose children attend Ventura High School in Southern California to raise a formal objection after teachers had students fill out a survey on sex with questions such as "Are you sexually active" and "If not, why not?"

Brad Dacus, president of Pacific Justice Institute, said the first step will be to file an administrative complaint. "The parents have tried to reason with school officials about this, but so far administrators have failed to grasp that giving the students this survey without prior written notice and consent was illegal," he said.

The survey was reported in the student Cougar Press in December. The report apparently was not included as part of the paper's ordinary online presentation, officials said, but was obtained by a parent who posted the pages only for other parents to see.

The newspaper, in addition to the sex survey results, included a page of photographs of students revealing what songs put them "in the mood," a sex crossword puzzle and other advocacy for being sexually active. A school spokesman said officials could not comment.

Dacus told WND schools should know that parents need to be able to trust their schools for the education system to work.

"When parental trust is breached, then school districts end up losing that participation," he said. "If school districts … want to be successful, they have to respect the rights of parents and not be caught doing things behind the backs of parents."

He said the primary issue is that a state law forbids such sex surveys without parental knowledge. He said the problem only was revealed because a student took a copy home, in violation of instructions she was given, and some parents found out. The questions included:

* What grade were you in when you lost your virginity?

* What is your overall number of partners you have engaged in sexual activity with?

* Were you sober the first time you engaged in sexual activity?"

* Have you or your partner ever had an abortion?"

* How often do you engage in sexual activity?"

* Are your parents aware of your sexual activity?

Pacific Justice said that according to the newspaper, the survey was given to 1,000 students in every grade in high school. The organization said it was administered with the knowledge and assistance of the high school during second class period and had no relationship to any subject the students were enrolled in at that time.

"The school allowed the use of instructional time to administer the survey and the teachers then collected it and handed it over to the newspaper," said parent John Silva, who obtained a copy of the newspaper from a concerned student.

"Because the sex survey was given without prior written notice and subsequent written consent by the parents or guardians, the school violated the law," said Kevin Snider, chief counsel of the Pacific Justice Institute. "By facilitating the newspaper to conduct the survey, we feel the school was complicit in violating the rights of the parents," said Julie Wilson, a parent of a high school student.

Swedish State takes custody of 7-year-old over homeschooling

http://edwatch.blogspot.com/

Now human rights organizations reviewing 'state-napping'

Posted: February 27, 2010

By Bob Unruh
© 2010 WorldNetDaily

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=125602

Social workers have been visiting a Swedish couple whose son was "abducted" by government agents last year because he was being homeschooled, but that's not necessarily a good sign, and now two major rights organizations are exploring options to reunite the family.

The Home School Legal Defense Association and members of the Alliance Defense Fund have been advising Christer and Annie Johansson on the "state-napping" of their son, Dominic, 7, from an airliner as the family was preparing to move to India last year. "HSLDA and the Alliance Defense Fund are jointly advising the family and exploring all available avenues to help reunite Dominic with his family," the HSLDA said in a published statement.

"Swedish social workers have recently visited Christer and Annie and inquired about their current ability to take care of Dominic. According to a Swedish lawyer who spoke with HSLDA anonymously, these visits do not necessarily indicate the possible return of Dominic to his parents. Rather, this attorney said, Swedish social services intends to force the parents into 'complete subjugation and compliance with the system.'"

WND reported late last year when the Administrative Court of Stockholm affirmed the state custody of Dominic, who was taken from the airliner by uniformed police officers on the orders of social workers even though there was no allegation of any crime on the part of the family nor was there any warrant. At the time, Michael Donnelly, director of international affairs for the HSLDA, called the court decision "deeply disturbing." "The hostility against homeschooling and for parent's rights is contrary to everything expected from a Western nation," he said.

The HSLDA confirms the family's options are being reviewed. The parents are allowed to see their son for 60 minutes every fifth week. "At times referred to as a 'social utopia,' Sweden is completely antagonistic toward homeschoolers and, in reality, anyone who deviates from what the Swedish government defines as 'normal.' The government's quest for conformity produces troubling side effects: the criminalization of actions – such as a parent's decision regarding the best form of education for his child – that ought to be the hallmarks of a free, democratic society," the HSLDA said.

"Taking children from their parents over minor differences in approaches to medical care (e.g. choosing not to vaccinate or delaying minor dental treatments) and for homeschooling is completely at odds with the basic human rights which all Western democracies should reflect," the HSLDA said.

The organization is offering a webpage of information on how to support the family and linking to a petition advocating the return of Dominic to his parents. On the petition's forum page, a Canadian wrote, "I am appalled that this happened in a country as open, modern and inclusive as Sweden! I cannot understand it." An Australian called it "an abuse of power at the expense of a child." From Florida came the comment, "This is frightening!!!! … Please reverse this tragedy."

The attack on homeschoolers appears to be part of a trend in some Western nations, including Germany. WND reported only a few weeks ago when a German family was granted asylum in the United States because of the persecution members would face if returned to their home country.

The case in Sweden developed when the boy, from Gotland, was forcibly taken into custody minutes before he and his parents were due to take off to start a new life in India, Annie's home country.

In an online statement at the time, Johannson said, "While we may do things differently than most Swedes, we have not broken any laws and we have not harmed our son. We decided as a family that we wanted to move to India where we could be near my wife's family. But the government has taken over my family, and now we are living in a nightmare. I fear for the life of my wife under this torture and for the well-being of my son who has only been allowed to see his parents for a few hours since he was taken. The government is alienating my son from me, and I am powerless to do anything."

"What you have here is a socialist country trying to create a cookie cutter kid," said Roger Kiska, an Alliance Defense Fund attorney based in Europe. "This kind of thing happens too often where social workers take a child and then just keep him."