Cleverness wins (again)
I imagine many of you read or are at least aware of Larvatus Prodeo, the Australian group blog founded by Mark Bahnisch from Griffith University.
Though I rarely comment on LP (or anywhere for that matter), I'm a regular reader and often enjoy the stoushes in the comments.
As you will know if you're an Itemisation regular, education policy (particularly in history) and the Culture Wars are pet interests of mine.
In short, the conservative line for the last ten years or so is that the education system in Australia has been taken over by filthy 'leftists' who are injecting TEH CHILDS with all sorts of nasty Marxist ideas. It is a line frequently peddled by all the usual polemicists on the right, but the cheerleader for conservative education reform is Dr Kevin Donnelly.
Dr Donnelly is an 'educational consultant' who (among other things) first came to prominence as an adviser to the Kennett Government Education Minister Don Hayward. I first noticed him in the mid nineties after he published a typical polemic in The Age attacking Arts Faculties in various Australian Universities for some of the topics they chose to teach.
His method is standard. Broad-sweeping commentary packaged in neat bite-sized statements, easily digestible, yet almost entirely lacking in detail. He has made a living criticising teachers and (Labor) education departments, is published regularly in many of the major newspapers in this country and has worked for governments in Australia and New Zealand.
Donnelly's recent work Dumbing Down has received scathing criticism from Stuart Macintyre (Professor of History at Melbourne University and President of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia among other things) in The Australian. If you have five minutes, it's worth a read.
All this brings me back to Larvatus Prodeo. Being one of the foremost political blogs in the country, it receives its fair share of high profile readers and commentors. A little over a month ago, Mark Bahnsich wrote a post about education policy and 'teacher bashing' and who should turn up in the comments? None other than Dr D himself.
Read as he bravely and condescendingly weighs into the fray and is promptly shot down by LP regular Pavlov's Cat.
I love clever people.
Though I rarely comment on LP (or anywhere for that matter), I'm a regular reader and often enjoy the stoushes in the comments.
As you will know if you're an Itemisation regular, education policy (particularly in history) and the Culture Wars are pet interests of mine.
In short, the conservative line for the last ten years or so is that the education system in Australia has been taken over by filthy 'leftists' who are injecting TEH CHILDS with all sorts of nasty Marxist ideas. It is a line frequently peddled by all the usual polemicists on the right, but the cheerleader for conservative education reform is Dr Kevin Donnelly.
Dr Donnelly is an 'educational consultant' who (among other things) first came to prominence as an adviser to the Kennett Government Education Minister Don Hayward. I first noticed him in the mid nineties after he published a typical polemic in The Age attacking Arts Faculties in various Australian Universities for some of the topics they chose to teach.
His method is standard. Broad-sweeping commentary packaged in neat bite-sized statements, easily digestible, yet almost entirely lacking in detail. He has made a living criticising teachers and (Labor) education departments, is published regularly in many of the major newspapers in this country and has worked for governments in Australia and New Zealand.
Donnelly's recent work Dumbing Down has received scathing criticism from Stuart Macintyre (Professor of History at Melbourne University and President of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia among other things) in The Australian. If you have five minutes, it's worth a read.
All this brings me back to Larvatus Prodeo. Being one of the foremost political blogs in the country, it receives its fair share of high profile readers and commentors. A little over a month ago, Mark Bahnsich wrote a post about education policy and 'teacher bashing' and who should turn up in the comments? None other than Dr D himself.
Read as he bravely and condescendingly weighs into the fray and is promptly shot down by LP regular Pavlov's Cat.
I love clever people.
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