School

This week Quinn starts at the local autism school, meaning 20 minutes away, and Iggy at, what we think is one of the best schools in the inner city and in fact; its buildings are featured in the cool hunter architectural section as a great place for learning and design! Irrelevant but it's something. The school system has been such a failure for us so far, with so many disappointments that the positives need highlighting. 

One of our greatest/pathetic schooling moments and believe there have been a plethora, was when Iggy won Discus up to State level. there was no mention in the newsletter, no congratulations at assembly. it was ignored as a part of a campaign to silence parents who caused difficulties for the principal. 

Iggy didn't learn to read until I taught him to, we reinforced mathematics, English and science , music and understanding - he was removed from the philosophy club before the 'finals' apparently didn't make the philosophy 'cut' but was then repeatedly told that he needed to go 'easy' with other kids during sporting sessions. Mediocrity and it's champions, are rife in government schooling. It is unfortunate that many teacher feed this problem with their own anxieties. 

'While the top performing education nations such as Finland and South Korea draw their teachers from the the top quartile of school leavers (75th percentile or higher), some Australian universities have set their ATAR entry score for this year at 45 or even lower.'
http://theconversation.edu.au/standards-will-slide-while-teacher-education-is-used-as-a-cash-cow-11677

What does this tell us a bout the state of teaching in this country - disgraceful. It is our children that pay the price for Universities to make money.

Teacher education is typically the largest undergraduate professional program in most universities and is a significant source of income. Unfortunately, to fill the desired number of places, some universities resort to setting minimum entry scores that are far too low in order to meet student and financial targets. Additionally, when universities experience an overall shortfall in student applications, this “load” is often shifted to teacher education, further driving down entry scores.

This has a number of consequences. Students with higher scores who might otherwise be attracted to teaching feel they are “wasting” their marks if they take on teaching and are in kind deterred. More broadly, lower entry scores reinforce the perceived low status of teachers and teaching.

Meanwhile, those accepted with low scores will find completing their course challenging and teaching itself difficult. If they do manage to complete their course, they may well end up teaching students who are potential “90+” ATAR candidates, something which presents challenges for both teacher and student.

http://theconversation.edu.au/standards-will-slide-while-teacher-education-is-used-as-a-cash-cow-11677

Think about the state of education, the complaints, lawsuits, claims lodged at the VEOHRC against teachers and principals and the ever increasing home schooling groups, parents feeling forced to keep their kids at home rather than send them into the jungle and be forced into a very narrow perimeter of behaviour and abilities. The whole system is sad.

However, today despite our past, we are looking forward, the Autism school is a school of excellence where kids can reach their various potential like superstars! Quinn found out today there will be two non-verbal kids in his class this year, and he was already eagerly exploring ideas for different ways of communicating as he and Hamish drove me to work this morning. I don't want him to fit in - I want him to shine, to fall and to climb and for it all to be okay, big mistakes and small, and I think it's going to be ok, for both of them - the skies the limit - not the education system, phew and thank the stars we are out of the mainstream primary school system - now time for specialist schooling and high-school.