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Guest essay by Eric Worrall
There have been a number of stories recently about how Australian schools are doing wonderful things. Sadly, few of these wonderful things seem to involve educating the nation’s children.
According to Australian SBS;
Australian schools going green to combat climate change
A trial program is hoping to shine the spotlight on schools and show them how they can help to combat climate change.
A Perth high school was the first in Australia to be accredited carbon neutral, but the school still wants to do more.
South Fremantle Senior High School in Perth’s south signed up to the Low Carbon Schools Pilot Program to help reduce its carbon footprint.
Fifteen-year-old Taylah Kippo told SBS News the time to act on climate change was now.
She said she was worried about her own generation, but also the ones after.
“You see the effects of climate change every day in our life now at the moment,” she said.
“You see it in many other countries including Australia in areas like farming and many different areas from the changing of the climates.
“It’s not good.”
Fellow Year 10 student Lauren Hunter said her school, which uses photovoltaic cells and has air conditioners on timers, could do more.
Read more: http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2015/11/27/australian-schools-going-green-combat-climate-change
Meanwhile, back in the real world, there is worrying news about the quality and standards of Australian Education;
OECD education rankings show Australia slipping, Asian countries in the lead
A new report shows it’s not the wealthiest countries that perform the best, but those that value education the most.
What is happening?
Asian countries are currently in the lead according to the most recent global education rankings published by the Organisation for Economic Development (OECD): Singapore tops the list, followed by Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan.
The ranking was devised by combining the mathematics and science test scores for 15-year-olds across 76 countries, using results from international tests including the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA, 2012) and Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS, 2011).
The mathematics and science rankings are among several tabulated in the report, Universal Basic Skills: What Countries Stand to Gain, in which links between economic growth, social development and educational attainment are explored. OECD director Andreas Schleicher says the analysis encompasses a larger sample of countries than ever before, providing “a truly global scale” of education quality for the first time.
…
How does Australia fare?
In the latest OECD league table, Australia is ranked 14th behind Poland (11th), Vietnam (12th) and Germany (13th). In other data tabled in the report, Australia ranks 19th for secondary school enrolment rates, behind the United States, the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates; and 17th for having the lowest share of students (just under 20 per cent) who have not acquired basic skills. For Singapore and Korea, this figure is under 10 per cent.
Concerning to some, Australia’s performance in the PISA tests, held every three years, has shown a steady decline. In 2000, when the first tests were held, Australia ranked 6th for maths, 8th for science and 4th for reading (out of 41 countries), dropping to 19th for maths, 16th for science and 13th for reading in 2012 (out of 65 countries).
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/oecd-education-rankings-show-australia-slipping-asian-countries-in-the-lead-20150525-gh94eu.html
This is not the first time Australia has had a bad school report. But there is no sign of a change in direction – education standards are still sliding, and green rhetoric is on the rise.
Ignoring normal education standards, while celebrating the conversion of government funded schools into climate madrasas, preaching extreme religious doctrine, is the kind of trend which is normally associated with third world trouble spots, not with a modern country like Australia.
Perhaps if Australian schools put more effort into teaching children basic skills like reading, writing and mathematics, and spent less money, time and effort on useless green gestures, like installing photovoltaics, they could afford to leave the air conditioner switched on. They could use the money they saved to provide a comfortable learning environment, and better quality educational materials for their students.
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Preparing alarmist material for schools is a highly sophisticated project.
Let’s imagine that we were to try to create a wholly alarmist description of the situation afflicting the continent of Antarctica as a result of “global warming”.
Obviously we would want to pile up every possible alarmist claim whilst making no mention of the vast amounts of contradictory evidence or uncertainty.
We would first have to find the greatest amount of warming recorded anywhere, ever, in Antarctica.
So we could start with “Antarctica has experienced air temperature increases of 3°C”.
That’s sounds alarming. Obviously we may need to specify, “in the Antarctic Peninsula.”
And then, not mention that the figure is a clear example of cherry picking. Or that temperatures across the whole of the rest of the continent have shown no such warming or in some cases a cooling trend.
We know that penguins are thriving and that sea ice is increasing but how about saying, “the distribution of penguin colonies has changed as the sea ice conditions alter.”
That sounds vaguely alarming to the uniformed child.
Later we claim that some arbitrarily selected worrying thing “may be associated with reduced sea ice cover.”
O.K. so sea ice cover isn’t reducing, BUT we said “may be” so we’ve covered ourselves.
Anyway, those are the basic instructions.
If you persist in this exercise then you will end up with the U.K. A level course material. As follows:
“5:1 Impacts of climate change
Warm up
Antarctica has experienced air temperature increases of 3°C in the Antarctic Peninsula Although that might not seem very much, it is 5 times the mean rate of global warming as reported by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
Over the past 50 years, the west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula has been one of the most rapidly warming parts of the planet. This warming is not only restricted to the land but can also be noted in the Southern Ocean. Upper ocean temperatures to the west of the Antarctic Peninsula have increased over 1°C since 1955. It has now been established that the Antarctic Circumpolar Current is warming more rapidly than the global ocean as a whole. Studying climate change in Antarctica is important because it enables scientists to predict more accurately future climate change and provide information to politicians and policy makers.
The warming of the Antarctic Peninsula is causing changes to the physical and living environment of Antarctica. The distribution of penguin colonies has changed as the sea ice conditions alter. Melting of perennial snow and ice covers has resulted in increased colonization by plants. A long-term decline in the abundance of Antarctic krill in the SW Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean may be associated with reduced sea ice cover. Large changes have occurred in the ice cover of the Peninsula. Many glaciers have retreated and ice shelves that formerly fringed the Peninsula have been observed to retreat in recent years and some have collapsed completely.”
This is not a satire. This course material can be found here:
http://www.discoveringantarctica.org.uk/alevel_5_1.html
excellent – science and education by formula – much cheaper than labs
Its a disgrace and I can imagine what will happen in a few years when global cooling kicks in. The green leftoid teachers will say they only taught the material given to them by higher authority.
Its not good enough, I demand a public humiliation of all those involved with this indoctrination., which has produced Nihilism among the young.
As for the students who have been brainwashed, we should be able to snap them out of their malaise with good humor and a rational debate.
Don’t worry. They will all forget their past mistakes, just as quickly as they “made up” their present delusional worldview. Stupidity is a mindset that conveniently shows no attachment to information.
They will move on to some new or variant delusion, learn nothing, and they will doubtlessly complain when “irritating bores” keep “bringing up the past”.
Mr. Frog, you forgot to show the picture of a ” starving ” Polar bear that is stranded in the middle of nowhere on the last lonely chuck of what use to be Antarctica !!! ( Ignore the injured leg ) LOL
http://www.theweathernetwork.com/news/articles/record-breaking-polar-bear-spurs-climate-change-concerns/55349/
indefatigablefrog, pretty much every sentence in that course material is dated and highlights the inherent bias of the piece. It is also obvious that it has been written with a rather parochial view by the British Antarctic Survey because pretty much everything it talks about is only applicable to the British claimed chunk of Antarctica which includes the Antarctic’s most northerly piece of land – the peninsula. Furthermore, there is no historical context. Many ice shelves retreated in the early years of the 20th century. More recently, there has been a dearth of large icebergs breaking off ice shelves in the Antarctic. WUWT?
http://www.nytimes.com/1988/08/04/us/world-war-ii-planes-found-in-greenland-in-ice-260-feet-deep.html Now 400 feet deep Melting Greenland PLEASE EXPLAIN
” Six American fighter planes and two bombers that crash-landed in Greenland in World War II have been found 46 years later BURIED under 260 feet of ice, searchers said today. ” BURIED …can you not read ?
@DB Stealy: this is from NOAA. Not reliable or is surface temp not relevant? Trend looks up though.
http://www3.epa.gov/climatechange/science/indicators/oceans/sea-surface-temp.html
oh boy, the EPA …
One more time, NOAA.
. . . . N.O.A.A.. .???. thanks for the laugh….
The NOAA graph show 1degC in 135 years at the ocean surface, .07degC/decade. Is it reliable- probably not, since it is not a real temperature but a rough statistical estimate. In any case temperature is a very poor proxy for the energy associated with water in the climate. Gigatons of water melt and freeze each year and many times that evaporate and condense everyday. So the energy change error represented in the graph is many, many times the .33 J/g/1degC over 135 years.
Global average rainfall alone is ~5×10^5 km^3.
LN:
I thought youy were taking a time out? That sure didn’t last long.
Anyway, that’s a chart of the U.S. you posted. But the issue is global warming.
Since you apparently don’t know the difference, I suggest taking a few months off to read the WUWT archives, in order to get up to speed.
Leland Neraho
you mean the same NOAA that is violating a congressional subpoena? try to find someone with a shred of credibility.
And yes there was a time when NOAA was golden. More the tragedy. But then as Talleyrand said
“It was worse than a crime, it was a blunder.”
michael
Oh and Leland though its late Happy thanksgiving.
From the NOAA: Sea surface temperature increased over the 20th century and continues to rise. From 1901 through 2014, temperatures rose at an average rate of 0.13°F per decade (see Figure 1).
Sea surface temperatures have been higher during the past three decades than at any other time since reliable observations began in 1880 (see Figure 1).
Your post above says 0.0027c per year, which is only 0.0486f per decade (i think i did it right). Who is right? DB Stealey or NOAA?
takes a really good thermometer to measure to 10 thousandths of a degree
Completely agree with you. Seems to be simple, is it warmer, or colder? I think the answer is that it’s warmer. Ergo, not only possible, but probable that it is not just warmer, but warming. DB is also only using 15-20 years of data. Not that it matters, his trend is still up.
What goes up, never comes down? Monotonically increasing forever and ever? Tell that to your trig teacher.
Any thermometer can do that if it was made by the the same people who make Twizzlers. (I think Hansen is a major stockholder.8-)
Keep in mind that for more than half of this interval, measurements were very sparse in both time and space. Many of the ‘adjustments’ made by NOAA (and propagated into the EPA presentation) are to compensate for this disparity once the data is ‘homogenized’. I wouldn’t put too much faith in the results as their methodology provides enough wiggle room to get whatever result you want and once you get the results you’re looking for, you stop looking for errors in the data or the analysis and get the IPCC to canonize your results in a technical assessment report so that others can build on your work, thus applying strong positive feedback to the broken science.
Leland N,
The NOAA has routinely “adjusted” the numbers. Only credulous fools take what they say at face value.
Per Leland’s request, I posted several links showing real world observations that confirm that SST’s are not rising as claimed by NOAA. But as usual, ‘Leland’ ignored them, and went right on to worship of his chosen ‘authority’.
Would it really surprise ‘Leland’ if he found out that the head of NOAA and all other departments serve at the whim of the President?
Could ‘Leland’ then make the connection between Obama’s ignorant parroting of the “climate” narrative, and the fact that NOAA fabricates non-existent warming?
Or is that government bureaucracy the final word in all things sciency?
It’s not. The NOAA and similar bureaucracies have been co-opted. Now they are the source of major misinformation campaigns, aimed directly at the lemmings who hold them up as some kind of ‘authority’.
That ‘appeal to authority’ logical fallacy that ‘Leland’ always falls back on is doing exactly as intended: it is leading the sheep to the conclusion the government wants. And best of all, it takes no thinking whatever.
Perfect for ‘Leland’, no?
But how far can one trust NOAA? See http://wattsupwiththat.com/2015/10/28/ncdcnceis-karl-and-peterson-refuse-congressional-subpoena-on-flawed-pausebuster-paper/
WOW, and here I thought your comments couldn’t possibly get any more ignorant…Silly me !!
Leland Neraho November 28, 2015 at 10:44 am
Dear Leland (May I call you Leland?) Concerning your statement about God waiting 4 billion years to see a frog jump or an ape climbing a tree. This supposes that the Earth is the only place in the Universe with jumping frogs or clambering apes. Perhaps frogs jumped and apes climbed much earlier elsewhere in the Universe after the Big Bang and so your God did not have to sit around twiddling the celestial thumbs until these jaw dropping events occurred!
That’s a great point James. Obvious almost in hindsight, but rather illuminating nonetheless. You’d think he would have kept them a little closer though, don’t you? I guess if you’re God, 23 million light years to the next blue-green is just a walk through the garden. Seems to be an unattended progression though, from bogs to frogs to dinosaurs, so it could still refute the purposefulness that Western religions apply to the process to frame the purpose of our existence. No?
Leland, you still don’t comprehend that God isn’t ‘in’ time, He doesn’t ‘walk or see ‘progress’ in the universe. God is eternal so time, distance, and any other dimensions we see don’t even apply. Our whole shebang just ‘is’ to God. Mortals need not apply.
p.s. I can’t comprehend it either.
I am an Agnostic person BUT your comments assume that GOD is worried about TIME !!!!
The reason we don’t discuss religion here.
Some mindless prat keeps bringing up religion even though this site tries to keep to science. Well, since science has become so politicized this site ends up sticking to politics and science. (politics as it affects science you see)
You see my dear prat, one can believe in things outside of our material universe and many of us do that very thing, but science sticks to what it can observe and measure (not model with a computer) and that leaves out most people’s concept of religion. You could go for a discussion of philosophical Daoism but since the Dao that can even be named is not the true Dao we would not get real far as science now would we?
So, how about we give the religious comments a rest. (even if you are really the Pope)
“Ignoring normal education standards, while celebrating the conversion of government funded schools into climate madrasas, preaching extreme religious doctrine, is the kind of trend which is normally associated with third world trouble spots, not with a modern country like Australia.”
Mindless prat #1: Eric Worrall, author of the article. It’s above you. Scroll up.
Oh, I see. You are not capable of reading with comprehension (or refuse to do so). To observe that schools are preaching a religious doctrine is not discussing religion though I do see that the uneducated or the very young might make such a mistake.
I have seen comments here before explaining to mindless prats the difference between religious beliefs and the scientific method. That also is not disusing religion but rather explaining the difference between science and religion.
The OP was correct and it was not an open invitation to have some alarmist idiot begin telling us all his religious views. Keep them to yourself.
You probably should also send an email to Anthony Watts, purveyor of this site, since he posted two articles, back to back, referencing religion. For some strange reason he won’t reply to mine 🙂
Who would? Seeing as how you are incapable of understanding the subject you are babbling on about.
No Mark, I am merely not in agreement with you, your rules, obfuscations, or the value that you and your generation and demographic currently provide to the discourse of the future. Hence you and yours sling insults. All day long.
Leland Neraho
Ah, but “your generation” have added “nothing” to the world, but merely sucked the life from tens of thousands each year in your quest for a Socialist Utopia of lavender rainbowed unicorns. Requiring the money, protection, inventions, jobs, traditions, training, culture and tolerance of your betters from MY generation.
Or, as your generations protests, do YOU demand the protection (slavery) of the 7th century ignorant Muslim hordes? Are YOU to be the ones thrown from the rooftops to YOUR death, enslaved in cages, and burned, whipped, cut and stoned to death?
Oh dear, you disagree. What ever am I to do? You don’t like my generation or my demographic? Oh dear me.
And you don’t like facts and observations. Those mean old things that slay pet theories. Like CO2 always following warming in all time scales which tells us that CO2 does not cause warming but is caused by warming. (the warming of the oceans mainly) Not to mention that thermodynamics pretty much kills off your CO2 will fry us delusion.
But how am I to go on now that a know-nothing has said he does not like my generation? The humanity!
Disclaimer: Please friends, don’t worry for my safety. I will struggle on with my sad little existence even though some twit thinks my generation is unfit to exist. (I wonder how he found out my age?)
markstoval..Don’t worry, Leland is just a liberal atheist troll desperately trying to find some way to hang on to his immature beliefs !! P.S. ….I am also an Atheist, but I accept reality !!
“For example take the time scale of the past 18 years. There has been zero warming, but CO2 has risen 30 ppm.”
We don’t know there has been no warming since the data sets are unreliable. We also don’t know that there has been any increase in CO2. We think these things may be true, but politicized science and cooking the books keeps us from knowing just what the last 18 years has brought.
But if you are right and CO2 went up 30 ppm with no warming — then CO2 causes warming is falsified and the Paris confab is about nothing other than population control and civilization destruction.
Besides, I was talking about natural CO2 rise in the past following warming and you move the goal posts to industrial release of CO2.
Marcus wrote: “markstoval..Don’t worry, Leland is just a liberal atheist troll desperately trying to find some way to hang on to his immature beliefs !! P.S. ….I am also an Atheist, but I accept reality !!”
Yes, I knew about him but was have a spot of fun myself. I can’t be an atheist since I don’t believe the universe got here “by random chance” or “by accident”. On the other hand, as a Daoist (or Taoist to some) I just substitute “the Dao” when people start talking about the big white haired magic Santa in the sky. That helps a bit. 🙂
Does that make me an agnostic?
Uhhh …Yep. As we see, CO2 follows T pretty exactly.
Sorry to debunk your belief system once again.
And there is really no corellation between ∆T and ∆CO2:
http://jonova.s3.amazonaws.com/guest/de/temp-emissions-1850-web.jpg
The only cause-and-effect is seen in the causation: ∆T causes ∆CO2. Old dummies may not understand see that, but everyone else does.
So ?? I don’t talk to walls either !!!!
To Mark Stoval.. I accept your religious beliefs without any reservations !! You are free to believe what ever your heart desires !!! I, unlike most liberal Athiests, such as Leland , do not and will not belittle other people for their beliefs !! Religion is a matter of the heart not science !!!
Good idea Mark.
Without future interruption and hopefully some attention here, once again the number one smoking gun.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwierf6o_LTJAhUJSyYKHYM2CMEQjRwIBw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwattsupwiththat.com%2F2013%2F12%2F06%2Fdenier-land-how-deniers-view-global-warming%2F&psig=AFQjCNErv4d3gMiH23rXl9U81oMQ4F8Zug&ust=1448863721826668
Thanks for that link to the Cook parody. I had forgotten that one. 🙂
I once had local temperatures here rise over 30 degrees F in just 6 hours. At that rate the earth will melt in a few months! Luckily I was able to stop the rise in temperatures by eating a nice lunch and then a dinner. It worked! The temperatures started back down a dusk.I try never to miss lunch and dinner — it is for the children!
Is the question rhetorical?
In Australia, education today means ideological indoctrination, not learning of knowledge. As to thinking critically, well that would challenge ideology – a definite taboo. See for yourself:
https://youtu.be/iKcWu0tsiZM
Thats hilarious Val 🙂
STOP ….I’m laughing so hard it hurts !!
+ 10,000,000,000
Had me cracking up! Too funny…but too real to.
wow val
thanks, I think
that was truly scary
The indoctrination doesn’t stop when students complete their schooling , it continues into university where courses and lectures keep pushing global warming narrative. The infiltration of Australia’s academia by green agendas has had a big influence in dumbing down Australian school kids. The encouragement to not question the AGW theory reflects that rote learning is dominating our education system with group think the norm. Creative and lateral thinking is almost frowned upon by an education system controlled by principals /principles of political correctness.
In the first place God made idiots. This was for practice. Then He made school boards.
– Mark Twain
also by the same man:
I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.
What I read is “We want salvation now”, in other words, this movement fulfills a religious need. That need is based on fear of death, a button pushed constantly by the environmental movement. Sort of like selling cars with sex.
In answer to your title, YES.
Agreed. But I would go further and point out that any government school is a place of indoctrination. Close all the government schools and let private schools serve the student and parent.
“The Australian Council of Trade Unions, the Australian Education Union and the NSW Teachers Federation have adopted policies endorsing action on climate change.
The Federation policy adopted at the 2011 Annual Conference calls for continued support for the ACTU and AEU environment policies and activities, including lobbying in support of a sustainable low carbon economy which includes a price on polluters and pollution.
The Australian Education Union has put together an online Environment Resources and Action kit that provides information and links to assist teachers in understanding and teaching current environmental issues.
The ACTU has an online Climate Change and Jobs campaign that addresses climate change issues from a union perspective and includes a range of resources and video presentation on the issue.”
NSW Teachers Federation Aug 2011.
“Give me a child until he is seven and I will give you the man”
It is not federal and state government curriculums, headmasters and mistresses and school boards that determine “the man” – it is teachers’ unions.
Any teacher will tell you that Common Core is worthless. Teachers who mus t implement it never were consulted. It is a product of so-called “untellectua;s” and the ed school professors they are allied with who sit in their ivory tower and have not seen the inside of a school room for the last twenty years.
Brain-washing children should be out-lawed. At the present moment we have no such legislation on our statute books anywhere in in our western democracies.
What ever happened to the three R’s ??
I was interested to find out what was currently being studied at nearby Cardiff University.
See what you make of these examples of material promulgated by the Cardiff Uni. Centre for Zizek Studies. No words could describe what I discovered. Open pdf here:
https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0ahUKEwjt4qesrLTJAhXCRBQKHWJbAeYQFggkMAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fzizekstudies.org%2Findex.php%2Fijzs%2Farticle%2Fdownload%2F382%2F452&usg=AFQjCNHqOWhVnea7nR2sXDdqm-sJCMBiQQ&cad=rja
And here:
https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjt4qesrLTJAhXCRBQKHWJbAeYQFgg2MAI&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.zizekstudies.org%2Findex.php%2Fijzs%2Farticle%2FviewFile%2F308%2F391&usg=AFQjCNGUuZvJUb4oy1f58IDpEyIRJiVQOA
The emphasis on soft, anti-science, feel-good topics like “climate change” is symptomatic of the equality-of-outcomes philosophy underpinning education in Australia.
The curious equation that comes out of it is: everyone passes = everyone fails.
It’s enough to make your blood run cold.
Australian education used to have an exceptional reputation worldwide as any Australian teacher who taught overseas can attest—-but since the Left took a stranglehold on it in the late sixties —stepped up in the seventies—the trajectory has been nothing but downhill.
Leftist teachers ,unions and academics find it easy to snow parents into thinking all of their new PC schemes and the post-modern curricula are educating a new elite of intellectuals with all options open.
The opposite is the truth.
My mother and her friends whose family circumstances precluded formal education post-Primary School —are infinitely more literate and numerate than most Year12 graduates right now.
With the great fundamental education they had to Year 6 they went on to educate themselves and opened up many options unavailable to the many smart kids who fall by the wayside now.
Australian K-12 education over the last 4 decades is a disgrace to the country and a massive betrayal of parents who either wake up to the situation and pay for private tutors— or don’t and find out too late that their children have had their options closed.
Parents should be able to sue the Left for damage done to generations of children.
The Left’s new mantra is STEM study—as if they invented physics ,chemistry and higher maths, engineering, technology—as if it can just be grafted on when students have been deprived of the fundamental knowledge required.
There’s no chance for Australia to have a good education system until mastery of literacy-with full and comprehensive teaching of English grammar and real mastery in all aspects of numeracy are TAUGHT —not just presented—in Australian Primary Schools— as the irreducible prerequisites for Secondary studies.
If a student is not fully literate [ as far as the English language is concerned] by the end of Year 6—and fully numerate—it’s enormously difficult for them to catch up in order to study STEM subjects.
Without complete overhaul of Primary education–including re-education of teachers—and elimination of the PC fad curriculum—STEM graduates will continue to be only the very top level of students who can teach themselves and those whose parents were able to bypass the ‘education system’ by paying for private tutors.
Didn’t Aussie educational standards improve dramatically under the watchful eye and loving care of Ms Gillard?
An absolute martyr.
Not sure about that. I think some skools got a few “halls” and other unless buildings…and maybe some aircon, and maybe the propane heaters in some had exhaust flues that actually sent fumes OUTSIDE the classroom. I do recall that every child would receive a laptop. Not sure how that worked. I do know my former wife’s nephew received one…and he never used it.
If you need a benchmark for Education in Australia I only have two words for you. Cook and Lewandosky!
Schmidt is from Montana.
Blackburn from Tasmania.
We need to do better.
One troll derailed this thread. Instead of discussing the issues of the article we (ME) digressed into fruitless debate with a arsonist.
The real questions like how to communicate with school boards and how to be elected or be appointed to them. never saw the light of day.
just my thoughts
michael
Excellent observation Mike
If he wants to learn he will. WUWT is an excellent resource for the facts.
As for school boards, I’m not sure there is an effective method to effect change.
Originally, I was not a fan of home school, but more and more I see well adjusted thinking humans coming out of home schooled environments. I realize it’s not the answer for the masses, but it may offer an out for those parents who want something better.
Meanwhile back over in Europe they’ve taken an awful turn in wrong direction. This shocked me when I saw it today and figured I’d share. I realize it is not directly related to CAGW, but the tolerance of people/ideologies that should not be tolerated is part of why CAGW grew roots. It’s a further manifestation of the false guilt syndrome coupled with a pollyanna view of the world. An capitulation to a new world order that is disturbing in its sheer inability to be understood … at least by me.
http://www.breitbart.com/london/2015/11/11/watch-anti-migrant-video-going-viral-across-europe/
WARNING .. you are likely to be upset by this video.
What is absolutely insane is that liberals don’t realize that THEY will be first targets !! Mooslims do not accept gays , free speech or even free thought !!
Thank God Americans have the right to bear arms !!!
What should be evident to all is that there is no one way to teach all children, as the experts and academics would have us believe.
And obviously, there is no one curricula that fits all students, schools, and teachers. Parents have choices between public schools, charter schools, private schools, private tutors, online distance learning and homeschooling.
If the argument for educational freedom is not plain to every one on principle, perhaps this might be a better way to look at it.
Spending per student:
“NSW has the largest public school system in Australia, with spending of $15,718 per public school student in 2011/2012.”
While the public school system spends well over $10,000/student in Aus and in the US, other schools will have spent far less and gotten better results. As long as the failing school system and the teachers’ unions do not regulate these smaller, more versatile and flexible educational choices, than some children will have a good education. Parents are responsible for the upbringing and education of their own children.
Mass education is for convenience – like mass producing goods and materials. It is a convenient sitter for working parents. It is convenient for various purposes of the state. It is convenient for etc. etc.
But it mostly produces a look-alike mediocre commodity. In the guild system of earlier centuries when masters taught just a few students, an occasional apprentice would go on to exceed his master in capability. Yes, exceeding one’s professor these days is much easier, but the bar is so much lower that there are very few high achievers.
The Australian public education sector pays “educators” very very well (I don’t need a 5 year degree to read text from a teachers handbook in accordance with the curricula). Especially universities. In Australia, superannuation (Super) is part of your pay package and is mandatory and is currently set at 9.5% p/a of whatever you get paid. I always look for jobs that are salary PLUS super (I am told your employer pays that super! What? Yes, the employer does pay it for me, but It is part of my salary “package”! The employer does not pay that out of their pockets). Unlike politicians, ordinary workers cannot touch this super until 65. So, if we lose our jobs and get evicted/home re-possesed, we cannot save the family and family home by using some of that fund. Well, you can, only after 28 weeks of unemployment. Hummm…
Workers at universities in New South Wales (NSW) receive super at 17.5% p/a. And that is paid by the Govn’t.
My last contract was with a NSW Govn’t agency. All being outsourced. And everyone I worked with had been with the agency a long time were just waiting for the day when they could take redundancy the money and run. It was quite a depressing place to be when all you could hear was talk of this. And I would do the same.
There’s nothing wrong with teaching kids a bit of environmental consciousness. The trouble is, far too many people, including media, politicians, opinion makers of all sorts, are unable to separate CO2 from the kinds of pollutants that got the environmental movement started in the 1960s. This article appeared in “Canada’s National Newspaper” today:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/partners/thomsonreuterscapitalize/advtrclimate/chinas-war-on-pollution-is-now-a-matter-of-survival/article23427450/
One has to assume that the people that wrote this article really think that “greenhouse gases” cause smog. Either that or they are deliberately manipulating their audience with shocking pictures (good heavens, that would never happen in Canada, surely?)
With that kind of ignorant nonsense being so widespread among so called informed adults, is it any wonder that kids are being taught rubbish?
And to add to the media abuses of rational discourse of this one day, Ban Ki-moon was interviewed by CBC-TV and stated that climate change is leading to terrorism (actually, I think he said “may be” but that’s probably just to make him appear thoughtful, wise and sage). I assume some of the audience have let the thought slip into their subconscious where it will end up distorting their world view a little bit more.
Don’t know if it’s true in Oz, but certainly seems to be the case in North Carolina that our students are being fed a load of carp.
Somebody please take Hallie Turner under your wing and point her in the right direction. http://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article46795925.html
Greenwashing is on in NZ schools. My daughter recently received a module at yr 9 level from the corresondence school on “Sustainability”. Her teacher is not going to like getting it back for grading. Without any help she has commented on her perception of propaganda (her word) that is the whole document. He response to the tuatara being threatened extinction by global warming is “they’ve a good run”.
I’m going to scan the module and save it for an appropriate occasion. It’s too close to Christmas to have to deal with bonehead politicians.
Correction:
Her response to the tuatara being threatened extinction by global warming is “they’ve had a good run”.
When they say aircon is on timers – What does this mean? That the aircon switches off after hours? So does every commercial building in the country. Or does it cut in and out during a school day? That’s crazy.
PVs may actually have been a good investment, when the search for fake green credentials caused the govt to spray FITs among the highest in the world (before attempting to default when they saw the bill).
As for the rest, every word is true. No surprise that a school in the People’s Republic of Fremantle wants to waste its money on carbon credits rather than computers). Even the double agent PM blathered today about going carbon neutral.
See CO2 has a negative impact on something. The education of teenage Australians!
Well the short answer is YES.
Public education has become, naturally. a tool of the Kleptocracy.
For example my father joined the work force at age 12, left us a full scale library when he passed, never stopped learning, inquiring and laughing.
Science charmed me early, but boredom in highschool sent me into the workforce at 16, also never stopped reading, inquiring and snickering .
Now I help the occasional child with homework assignments and am appalled by the quality of the stupid.
Reading, writing/typing and arithmetic were the base tools of civilization.An instructed child could use these tools to become an informed adult.Where are the adults?
Government especially via government union worker, destroys the very things it pretends to provide.
The only useful function of government is to provide a theatre of the absurd, a morality play for the fools and bandits born to each generation and those that look across our borders and lust for what they see.
Unfortunately, given the historic tendency of bureaus to grow like cancer, we might have to insist that law and order and external defence be provided only by citizen volunteers.