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Values Education

Volume 3 Number 3, May 2009

THE VALUE – AND VALUES - OF PUBLIC EDUCATION: (3 items)
EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION: (2 items)
HEALTH & WELL-BEING: (2 items)
BEHAVIOUR & DISCIPLINE: Suspending students leads to other problems
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION: (6 items)
DISABILITY: (2 items)
HUMANE EDUCATION: (5 items)
CONFERENCES & EVENTS: (3 items)
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THE VALUE – AND VALUES - OF PUBLIC EDUCATION

Education and the Public Good: Geoffrey Robertson QC

Geoffrey Robertson was keynote speaker at the National Public Education Forum in Canberra on 28 March 2009. His presentation “Education and the Public Good” can be read in transcript at: http://www.aeufederal.org.au/Publications/2009/NPEF/GRobertson.pdf. It will shortly be published in vodcast format.

Geoffrey is a great believer in using the law to protect people against cruel or stupid treatment from their own governments. As well as being a prominent barrister he is also a prolific writer, and his latest book is called The Statute of Liberty .

You can listen to an interview with Geoffrey Robertson on “Conversations” with Richard Fidler on Tuesday 31 March at: http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2009/03/30/2529960.htm

You can listen to the interview with Margaret Throsby on Wednesday 1 April : http://www.abc.net.au/classic/throsby/default.htm#popular

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Public Education: A National Priority

Australian Education Union

Over the course of the last number of months we have witnessed a dramatic boost in funding for public education.

The announcements associated with the COAG Agreement on 29 November 2008 and the investment in school infrastructure – “Building the Education Revolution - as part of the economic stimulus package, represent the biggest investment in public education in decades.

This outcome is the result of the tireless campaigning by supporters of public education for more than 10 years.

As you would be aware, the Federal Government has announced a review of schools funding. To be conducted in 2010 and 2011 the review will inform schools funding from 2013. It will be a most significant moment in the politics of education in Australia.

We must now turn our attention to building a campaign aimed at ensuring a just outcome which reflects the fact that it is free, secular, universally accessible public education that remains the key to a vibrant, socially cohesive and prosperous Australia.

Read more at: http://www.forourfuture.org.au/

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Human Rights-based Values Education Programs: Can Australian schools learn from those of Canada and the UK?

Isabelle Macgregor

The importance of human rights education in schools is made all too apparent in the following letter from a Boston principal to her new teachers:

Dear teacher,

I’m a survivor of a concentration camp. My eyes saw what no man should witness, gas chambers built by learned engineers, children poisoned by educated physicians, infants killed by trained nurses, women and babies shot and burnt by high school college graduates. So I’m suspicious of education. My request is to help your students become human. Your efforts must never produce learned monsters, skilled psychopaths, educated morons. Reading, writing, arithmetic are important only if they serve to make our children more human.

(from Geoffrey Robertson’s address to the National Public Education Forum, The public good and the education of children, 28 March, 2009)

According to QC and human rights campaigner, Geoffrey Robertson, it is time to listen to this letter’s plea and implement human rights education in the public school curriculum. He urges that, “we need to understand, our children need to understand, where these [human] rights come from and the capacity for their use in everyday discourse and in everyday life. Disciplines of maths, science, geography and history may themselves be value-free, but education is not”

As John Clarke, the deputy director of Children’s Services in Hampshire, UK states, “children are the living message we send to a future we’ll never see. It’s our responsibility to determine what that message is and it seems to me that a rights-based one is about the best place to start”.

Read entire paper at: http://www.valuesineducation.org.au/opinion.htm

Isabelle Macgregor is an independent Canberra-based researcher and commentator.

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EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION

Paid parental leave pays for itself and boosts the economy

Australia Institute, 29 April 2009

Seven years on from the introduction to Parliament of the first paid maternity leave legislation, Australia is still debating the merits of such a scheme and still in the embarrassing situation of being one of only two OECD countries not to offer this assistance.

Some took heart with the election of the Rudd Government and its commitment to 'explore ways to make it as easy as possible for working mums to balance their employment with the important job of raising a new generation of Australians'.

But the government's muted response when it received the Productivity Commission's final report earlier this year did not bode well. And now, unnerved by the global financial crisis, the government talks of 'sacrifices' and 'hard choices' when it comes to the May Budget and not being able to do everything it wants. Dishearteningly but not surprisingly, paid maternity (or parental) leave is assumed to be the first sacrificial lamb.

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Greens announce paid parental leave Bill

Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young today announced her intention to introduce a Private Member's Bill to provide for a 26-week government-funded paid parental leave scheme when Parliament resumes in a fortnight.

The Greens have long been campaigning for a universal government-funded paid parental leave scheme to be introduced in Australia, as it remains one of two OECD countries without one.

"The Greens are taking action on this important issue by proposing a scheme that we hope will be passed into law," said Senator Hanson-Young.

"Despite enormous public support for a government-funded paid parental leave scheme, from workers, parents and business, the Government has repeatedly backpedalled from its promise of introducing paid parental leave.

"We have seen no commitment from the Government to deliver paid parental leave in this Federal Budget, which is just not good enough when Australian parents have already waited so long to enjoy its benefits.

"Now more than ever is the time to support parents as they take on the important job of raising our next generation. A paid parental leave scheme will help give Australian kids the best start possible in life."

Read entire release: http://sarah-hanson-young.greensmps.org.au/content/media-release/greens-announce-paid-parental-leave-bill

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HEALTH & WELL-BEING

UK study shows quality of school’s local environment affects student attitudes -

"Achieving a world-class education system cannot happen in isolation from the environments in which pupils live."

Jessica Shepherd, Sydney Morning Herald, April 27, 2009 (story from Guardian UK)

The quality of the environment surrounding a school can have a big effect on students.

Until recently, policy-makers and researchers have sought to establish only whether there is a link between pupils' behaviour and a school's building or interior.

They have ignored the possible connection between behaviour and a school's wider physical environment, outside its grounds and as far as 10 minutes away. The closest examination was the British government-backed Steer report on school discipline, in 2005, which admitted that "the surroundings in which we work and learn have a major impact on our behaviour".

But a study undertaken this year by the Perpetuity Group, a research and consultancy firm, for a national teaching union seeks to establish whether there are links between a neighbourhood's physical decline and pupil behaviour, truancy, teacher morale and a school's ability to deliver exam results.

Read entire article: http://www.smh.com.au/national/futures-founder-in-ugly-wastelands-20090426-ajdl.html?page=-1

Access the Report “One More Broken Window: The impact of the physical environment on schools” at: http://www.nasuwt.org.uk/consum/groups/public/@journalist/documents/nas_download/nasuwt_002577.pdf

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Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation – Grants Program for Schools

The aim of the Kitchen Garden Program is pleasurable food education for young children. The underlying belief is that by introducing this holistic approach we have a chance to positively influence children’s food choices in ways that have not been tried before.

In the Kitchen Garden Program children across Years 3 to 6 spend a minimum of 40 minutes a week, working in small groups in an extensive vegetable garden which they have helped design, build and maintain on the school grounds according to organic gardening principles.

They also spend one and a half hours each week in a kitchen classroom preparing and sharing a wonderful variety of meals created from their produce.

The Australian Government has committed $12.8 million to fund infrastructure for the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden National Program in up to 190 primary schools across Australia.

Infrastructure grants of up to $60,000 per school will be available over a four year period. Australian government schools with primary enrolments are eligible to apply for these grants

For further information: http://www.kitchengardenfoundation.org.au/

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BEHAVIOUR & DISCIPLINE

Suspending students leads to other problems

Sheryl Hemphill, Sydney Morning Herald, 27 April 2009

ALTHOUGH school suspensions are an outdated and counterproductive mode of student discipline, they are surprisingly common. In 2007, 12 per cent of year 10 students in Victoria reported having been suspended at least once.

One of the most controversial and emotive issues facing schools is the effective management of violent, anti-social and disruptive student behaviour. The response is often framed as a choice between the interests of the suspended student and those of other students and staff at the school. The interests of the latter are often given priority.

It may seem paradoxical but the evidence is clear: school suspensions increase the risk of a number of adverse consequences for the student. These include worsening academic problems, school drop-out, disengagement from school, student alienation, crime and delinquency, and alcohol and drug use.

Read entire article: http://www.theage.com.au/national/education/suspending-belief-20090426-ajau.html?page=-1

Dr Sheryl Hemphill is a senior research fellow at the Centre for Adolescent Health, Royal Children's Hospital, Murdoch Children's Research Institute and the University of Melbourne's department of pediatrics.

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RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

Faith schools 'lead to greater segregation of children'

Richard Garner, The Independent (UK) 21 April 2009

An increase in the number of faith schools is likely to lead to greater segregation of pupils, according to a study published today.

The research, presented to the Royal Economic Society's annual conference, reveals areas with the largest number of faith schools have a much higher degree of segregation of pupils by ability groups. In particular, they tend to cream off the brightest pupils.

However, the research by London University's Institute of Education shows there is no improvement in academic standards in those areas that have a larger number of faith schools.

There is still a relatively high demand from parents for faith school places. Less than 6% of the population count themselves as regular churchgoers but 15% of all pupils attend faith schools.

The research was based on a study of GCSE results from 390 schools across the country.

Source: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/faith-schools-lead-to-greater-segregation-of-children-1671664.html

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Faith schools 'failing to improve standards'

System reinforces social fragmentation, says study

Polly Curtis, The Guardian (UK) 18 April 2009

Faith schools fail to improve standards and create "social sorting" of children along lines of class, ability and religion, researchers said yesterday.

Academics at the London School of Economics and the Institute of Education, both part of the University of London, found no proof that providing parents with the choice of a religious secondary school either raised results or helped drive up standards in other local schools.

The research suggests that government policies to promote a market in education - by promising parents a choice of school in the belief that the competition for children will improve standards - only create a more socially fragmented system.

The paper concludes that there is "significant evidence that religious schools are associated with higher levels of pupil sorting across schools, but no evidence that competition from faith schools raises area-wide pupil attainment".

Read entire article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/apr/18/faith-schools-standards-failing

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Churches oppose Islamic school – “incompatible with Australian way of life”

Elicia Murray, Sydney Morning Herald, April 22, 2009

CAMDEN'S Christian leaders have united to condemn the Quranic Society, which wants to build an Islamic school in Camden, for espousing views which are "incompatible with the Australian way of life".

The leaders of the St John's Anglican, Camden Presbyterian and Camden Baptist churches and the Evangelical Sisterhood of Mary signed a letter to Camden Council arguing that the proposal was not in the public interest.

"Camden is increasingly becoming a multicultural community, but when one part of the community seeks to dominate the public space, as we have seen in Auburn, Bankstown, Lakemba and more recently Liverpool, the social impact is unacceptable," says the letter, which was read at the Quranic Society's appeal to the Land and Environment Court yesterday.

"Our concern is the Quranic Society inevitably advocates a political ideological position that is incompatible with the Australian way of life. This includes promoting Quranic law as being superior to national laws and regarding followers of any rival religion as inevitably at enmity with it."

Read entire article: http://www.smh.com.au/national/churches-oppose-islamic-school-20090421-ae1i.html

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Defending Caesar from the undue influence of organised religion

Ross Fitzgerald, The Australian April 20, 2009

RELIGION may figure strongly at the next federal election. The electorate has had enough of self-opinionated bishops and crazy imams, and many citizens are fed up with the way the main parties bow and scrape to religious groups.

George Pell's recent pronouncement, which supported the Pope's claim that condoms do nothing to stop HIV transmission, puts him in the same league as flat-earthers and creationists. Educated middle-class voters are tired of this anti-intellectual stance from people who are supposed to inhabit the high moral ground. Pell even termed the AIDS epidemic in Africa a "spiritual crisis". Perhaps it's the best he can do to avoid the elephant in the church: child sex abuse.

While the fundamentalist pachyderm in the synagogue is hardly present here, late last year the Islamic Women's Welfare Council of Victoria released a report that claimed Muslim religious leaders were condoning rape within marriage, domestic violence, polygamy, welfare fraud and the exploitation of women. That's the elephant in the mosque.

Read entire article: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,,25356212-7583,00.html

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Concerns about taxpayer-funded religious discrimination

US Center for Inquiry, Office of Public Policy, 25 April 2009

For years, well-funded religious organizations have gained access to the White House, successfully promoting public funding for faith-based human service initiatives. We hoped that things would change with a new administration. Unfortunately, they have not.

Yesterday, Toni Van Pelt, Director of the Center for Inquiry's Office of Public Policy, joined other members of a broad-based coalition of church-state separation advocates for a meeting with senior staff at the White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships. Joshua DuBois, the Office’s executive director, took part in this important meeting. (Mr. DuBois was a Pentecostalist pastor who served as director of religious affairs during Obama's campaign.)

During the meeting, Ms. Van Pelt expressed CFI's serious concerns and disappointment over the new president's failure to repeal five Bush administration executive orders and numerous agency regulations and rulings that apply to the faith-based office. Those executive orders, regulations, and rulings permit faith-based programs to engage in religious discrimination -- using your tax dollars.

You can access the position paper “Safeguarding religious liberty in charitable choice and faith-based initiatives” (February 2009) at http://www.centerforinquiry.net/uploads/attachments/Safeguarding-Religious-Liberty-in-Charitable-Choice-and-Faith-Based-Initiatives.pdf

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Faith schools free to preach against homosexuality -

Catholic schools welcome clause on teaching 'values'

Polly Curtis, Guardian, 28 April 2009

Sex education is to be made compulsory in all state schools in England but faith schools will also be free to preach against sex outside marriage and homosexuality, under government proposals.

The plans to make personal, social and health education (PSHE) compulsory from the age of five, published yesterday, include a clause allowing schools to apply their "values" to the lessons and another allowing parents to opt their children out on religious grounds.

It means that all state secondaries in England - including faith schools - will for the first time have to teach a core curriculum about sex and contraception in the context of teenagers' relationships, but teachers in religious schools will also be free to tell them that sex outside marriage, homosexuality or using contraception are wrong. Sexual health campaigners warned that such an approach could confuse teenagers, but Catholic schools welcomed the move.

Read entire article – and 91 comments: http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/apr/28/sex-education-faith-state-schools?commentpage=1

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DISABILITY

Private schools denied funding to sustain students with disability

Jennifer Buckingham, The Australian, April 21, 2009

THE number of school students with disabilities is increasing every year. The government school sector has the largest number of these children. In 2007, students with disabilities accounted for 5.7 per cent of enrolments in government schools. In the non-government school sector, the proportion was 2.5 per cent.

That non-government schools have fewer students with disabilities is not in dispute. What is debatable is the reason. It is not a case of non-government schools actively seeking to avoid enrolling children with educational disadvantages, but rather that non-government schools are denied the level of public funding that is available to these children in public schools.

A child with severe physical and intellectual disabilities is eligible for additional education funding of close to $36,000 if they are enrolled in a mainstream public school, as well as access to a variety of support services such as hearing and sight therapies and aids. With the notable exception of Western Australia, the same child would receive about $6000 additional education funding in a mainstream non-government school and would have limited access to support services. It varies slightly from state to state, but there is a gap of about $30,000 annually for each student.

Parents unable to come up with this extra money are effectively locked out of the non-government school system.

Read entire article: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25361298-7583,00.html

Jennifer Buckingham is a research fellow at the Centre for Independent Studies.

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Students with Disabilities are actually Better Funded in Private Schools than in Government Schools!

Trevor Cobbold, 21 April 2009

Jennifer Buckingham’s claim (‘Private hurdle for kids’, 21 April) that students with disabilities in private schools are funded far less than those in government schools is incorrect. They in fact have a large advantage over government schools.

The claim only takes direct funding for students with disabilities into account. It fails to take into account the Commonwealth grants to private schools which are linked to average government school costs. These costs include funding for students with disabilities in government schools.

Different private schools receive different proportions of government school costs. If their funding proportion is higher than their proportion of students with disabilities relative to that in the government sector, they effectively have more to spend on students with disabilities or to divert to mainstream students. This is generally the case because private schools enrol less than half the percentage of students with disabilities than do government schools.

Read more at: http://www.soscanberra.com/

• Access the Monash University Report “Investigating the feasibility of portability of funding for students with disabilities” (June 2007) at: http://www.dest.gov.au/NR/rdonlyres/517A32CD-1BCC-4A7E-81F97380B24B0221/25817/Investigating20the20Feasibility20of20Portable20Fun.pdf

Trevor Cobbold is an independent education researcher and commentator

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HUMANE EDUCATION

Youth in Action for Animals Conference

RSPCA Victoria

October 2, 2009, marks an important event for RSPCA Victoria with the launching of its first-ever conference for youth!

Youth in Action for Animals Conference will be a unique, meaningful program to inspire, support and educate young leaders who want to make a difference for animals.

Coinciding with World Animal Day (on October 4), it will also be a celebration of the animal protection movement.

To enter the selection process, students throughout Victoria will be invited to nominate themselves by writing (in 200 words or less) why they should attend the conference.

Mark the date in your diary, spread the word and check http://www.rspcavic.org/rspca_services/education_youth_programs.htm soon for further information.

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Voiceless Animal Law Lecture Series 2009

Commencing on Tuesday 5 May 2009, leading US animal protection litigator Bruce Wagman will travel to 11 leading universities, law firms and legal professional associations across Australia. During the ten-day tour, he will share his experiences seeking justice for animals in the courtroom.

Mr Wagman, who was named one of Northern California’s ‘Super Lawyers’ in 2006, 2007 and 2008, will be joined at various events by distinguished legal practitioners and academics, including

The Hon. Michael Kirby AC CMG, former Justice of the High Court of Australia and
Professor David Weisbrot AM, President of the Australian Law Reform Commission, who will speak at our main event in Sydney.

Every year billions of farm animals are raised for food and food production in Australia and the US. The vast majority are housed in giant factory farms in which they endure lives of permanent confinement and systemic cruelty, much of which is legal. In recent times, increased concern about the treatment of these animals has spawned the growth of the animal law movement in both countries.

Find out more about the lectures: http://www.voiceless.org.au/Law/Lecture_Series/Super_Lawyer_to_bring_down_the_gavel_on_animal_suffering.html

Dates, venues and online registration: http://www.voiceless.org.au/Law/Lecture_Series/Animal_Law_-_coming_soon_to_a_venue_near_you.html

Find out more about the extensive work of Voiceless: http://www.voiceless.org.au

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Australian Orangutan Project:

AOP releases new classroom information and activity sheet pack in 2009.

"The Australian Orangutan Project (AOP) has focussed strongly on both the preservation and restoration of Indonesian rainforest - the orangutan’s natural habitat - and on the rescue and rehabilitation of large numbers of individual endangered animals.

Orangutans, native to the rainforests of Indonesia and Malaysia, are a beautiful and intelligent species, at great risk of disappearing forever. They share 97% DNA with humans.

It is our hope our new classroom pack will give you information that you can incorporate into your classroom. You will find some suggested activities and worksheets which may be freely adapted to suit the needs, interest and ability levels of your students.

Read more at http://www.orangutan.org.au

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United Nations International Year of the Gorilla 2009

As a project of UNESCO’s Decade of Education for Sustainable Development, 2009 has been declared the International Year of the Gorilla: working closely with four leading conservation organisations:

• Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals http://www.cms.int/ works for the conservation of a wide array of endangered migratory animals world-wide through the negotiation and implementation of agreements and species action plans – currently with 110 member countries, many of them in Africa.
• The Great Apes Survival Partnership http://www.unep.org/grasp/, a strategic alliance of UN agencies, governments, NGOs, foundations and sponsors, to stop the decline of great ape populations.
• The World Association of Zoos & Aquariums whose members and affiliate organisations come from all around the world
• World-renowned conservationist Dr Jane Goodall DBE will lend her voice as the official campaign patron; and her global network of educational and conservation activities through the Jane Goodall Institute – find out more about the Jane Goodall Institute in Australia at: http://www.janegoodall.org.au/