This one is absurd but it has to be done.
Long, long ago, in 2021, ACARA threw up a draft mathematics curriculum for public ridicule consultation. The public were duly ignored consulted and ACARA returned to their safe room to prepare the final curriculum, to be approved by the education ministers. It didn’t happen. Continue reading “A Draft and a Half of Full ACARA Curriculum”
Long, long ago, Dear Readers, when you were little children, Uncle Marty submitted an FOI …
Long-time readers may remember back to 2021 and the farce of Why Maths Must Change, the idiotic open letter signed by AAMT and MERGA and ATSIMA and “AAS” and, most egregiously and most absurdly, “AMSI”,1 in support of ACARA’s still-then-invisible draft mathematics curriculum. Readers can learn about and/or refresh their memories of this farce here, here, here, here, here, here and here. Although ACARA was nowhere mentioned in WMMC, it smelled as if ACARA were involved and a few but a few too many months later, I submitted an FOI to ACARA. I requested information on WMMC, including “any emails to and/or from and/or between ACARA officers related to [WMMC]”. I won. Continue reading “The Concoction of “Why Maths Must Change””
About a month ago, there were news reports here and there, sounding the alarm on the tutoring industry. The reports appear to have been inspired by the heavy promotion of a weightless paper by some University of Sydney education academics. Better, the reports also referred to the more thoughtful and interesting work of UTS education social scientist, Christina Ho. The alarm and the calls for “regulation” of the tutoring industry were not totally crazy but, as is typical with education coverage, the reports were fundamentally off-key. The obvious and fundamental point was barely touched upon. Continue reading “Tutoring on the Edge”
Yesterday, Natasha BtB Bita had an interesting report (M, P). Bita reported Federal Minister for Education Jason Clare to the effect that the Australian Curriculum, which education ministers had previously agreed would be reviewed every six years, would now only be reviewed every ten years. Thus, the proper “root and branch” review of the AC will now only begin in 2028. Thus thus, we’re all stuck with the current stew of slop and insanity for many more years.
Continue reading “The Good(ish) AC K-2 News, the Bad AC Cycle News and the Ugly Mega-Agency News”
I cannot stand podcasts. I really hate them, for all the obvious reasons. They typically consist of self-satisfied tossers interviewing their self-satisfied tosser mates, teaming up to aimlessly piss away an hour with smug pseudo-wisdoms and leaden jokes. Michael Spicer has captured perfectly their awfulness. Being aware of my opinion, it was therefore very brave of frequent commenter JJ to recommend to me two podcasts. Continue reading “Let’s Nick Gibb”
Grattan has just released a sequel to its recent Maths Guarantee report: a guide for primary school principals. It repeats much of their main report, and the criticisms still hold, but Grattan’s main report was good and the new guide is good. Continue reading “Grattan’s Simple Message to Primary School Principals”
I had a great title all lined up for this post: MediOchre. But Ochre turns out to be better than that, dammit, so I’ll play it straight. Continue reading “Ochre Education”
Bita has followed up with an editorial (M,P). It is basically the same article but with more sanctimony and still without a hint of remorse or self-reflection. Bita’s new piece also includes quotes from Alan “Commie Hunter” Finkel, which adds to the charm, and also from John Sweller, which at least pleased Greg Ashman.
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What does one do when a lordly Liberal twit and a stenographic Murdoch reporter join forces to have a go at the clownish ACARA curriculum and its silly Indigenous priority stuff? Whose side do you take? Or, do you just give up, join Team Musk and wait for the next ship to Mars? Continue reading “The Liberal-Murdoch Coalition Launches a Culture War Against the Liberal-Murdoch Coalition”
In companion with our post on ACARA’s curriculum review, this post is for people to comment on General Mathematics. The curriculum can be viewed here and downloaded here. Continue reading “ACARA’s General Mathematics Curriculum”
In companion with our post on ACARA’s senior curriculum review, this post is for people to comment on Essential Mathematics. The curriculum can be viewed here and downloaded here. Continue reading “ACARA’s Essential Mathematics Curriculum”