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PUBLIC
EDUCATION VOICE December
2004
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Contents
Editorial Welcome to the final edition
of Public Education Voice for 2004. We know that reading newsletters at
this time of the year competes with so many other end of year priorities -
so whilst this edition is reduced in size, there are several important
messages to readers from ACSSO. As always, would principals and teachers
please forward copies of this newsletter to parents on your governing
councils and parent associations. Click on the
link to visit www.acsso.org.au | ||||||
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President's
Column Capital
funding Research A distinct
theme running through our research plan is the relationship between
parents, schools and local communities. In assessing what is happening at
the local level, our goal is to assist the processes of community
building, good teaching and positive student support as foundations of
quality public education provision. For example, several key research
projects with which we are involved in 2004/05 include Families Matter,
Family/School Partnerships and the consolidation of values in our systems
of public education. Much of this
research effort will be presented and discussed at the ACSSO National
Conference next October. Season’s
Greetings Judith
Bundy Your
Say “Exploring Religion in
School: A National Priority” Professor Brian V. Hill
There has been a great deal
of public discussion about values education, and a national framework has
been released to inform curriculum development and whole-school practice.
Potentially an important debate about issues of fundamental significance
to education, it has tended to be skewed or trivialised via the media to
fit other agendas. It is thus a matter of great relief and encouragement
to find these issues being explored with the level of understanding,
perception, experience and lucidity which Professor Hill brings to the
subject. The concept of “value free”
education is of course a contradiction in terms: belief in the importance
of education is itself a value judgement and in a very real sense every
teacher is a teacher for values. Those teachers we most vividly remember
were almost certainly very strong and positive value role models. It is
important the agreed values structure be articulated and consciously
inform the education process: and that the process be understood in terms
less of turning out units of society than developing individuals with a
strong positive sense of identity, self-worth and connectedness with their
community. In Brian Hill’s words, “the individual’s search for personal
meaning and significance, far from being peripheral to the school’s task,
is central”. This dimension clearly includes the aspects of spirituality
and those questions of ultimate meaning and value that we each have
necessarily to address at some point and come up with some sort of
answers, however provisional, that form our own frame of reference as to
what life is about and how it fits together. It is thus only fair and
reasonable that young people should be provided with an awareness of and
access to the various important ultimate belief structures which have been
developed, rather than having to work it out for themselves from scratch.
“The student’s life-world is the starting point. The religious traditions
are then a resource we offer, together with training in the skills of
analyzing beliefs and values”. This is an important
contribution to the debate, and should be read with careful attention by
anyone interested in the development of young people in what Frankel
memorably called “man’s search for meaning.” Reviewer: Rupert
Macgregor ACT Council
of P&C's Unsubscribe
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Government
quick to deliver on election promise ACSSO
is delighted to report that the re- elected Australian government is
moving quickly to implement a major election promise. Following
negotiations over the last few months, the government is injecting $700
million dollars in capital grants to Australian public schools. This
initiative will see school principals and parent organisations having the
responsibility for requesting funding for infrastructure projects directly
from the federal government. ACSSO and its affiliates will play a major
role in partnering with the government in this process.
ACSSO
has already met with Minister Nelson and the Department of Education,
Science and Training to establish the criteria for funding and the process
by which applications will be assessed. Key issues that have been
discussed include: ACSSO
welcomes this new approach to funding building issues, in that it
recognizes that schools and their parent communities do have an
understanding of priorities for their own schools. It affirms the central
role that parents should play in decision making about the physical
environment in which their children work and play on a daily basis.
Minister Nelson expects that the states will see this initiative as a
total funding boost in a much needed area, and will not engage in any
cost-shifting within their own budgets. In
pledging funds for ACSSO and its affiliates to help with the process,
Minister Nelson expects that we will play a leading role in establishing
funding criteria, assessing applications and providing advice to DEST in
relation to needs and local priorities. More
details are expected to be provided to schools in the New Year, with a
target of first round funding arriving in schools mid
2005. |
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Mobile Phone use in
Schools I notice that the Australian
Mobile telecommunication Association (AMTA) has distributed a document
"Developing an Acceptable Use Policy for Mobile Phones in Your School".
Considering that AMTA is an Industry body, dedicated to the promotion of
mobile phones one must consider the possibility that they may ignore
issues with the potential to adversely impact upon the
industry. I agree that a guideline
needs to be developed but such a guideline should also give advice on
possible health effects from excessive use of cell phones by children.
They should at least know that frequent use of their phones may not be in
the best interests for their long tern
health. In the process of developing
a guideline I would recommend that your organisation considers my paper on
health implications for children using mobiles. It is available on the
website for the Journal of the In September of this year I
attended an International cell phone conference in As part of a thesis I am
writing I have other papers that are relevant to this issue and am quite
happy to discuss this further if there is
interest. Sincerely Don Maisch email:dmaisch@emfacts.com |
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