On an education related note, today, I discovered that an inner north High School was unable to teach kiddies in the fine art of baking a cake, as they are out of funds!! In fact the coffers have been dry since week 1 of term..
So, instead of teaching home science using practical skills, the dedicated teaching staff (Who are putting up with more localised pissing contests that the rest of the department [i.e. between year 8 boys]) have to put up with the abuse that follows the discovery (yet again) that more than half of the little kiddies have failed to pay their voluntary contributions, so they can’t afford to purchase ingredients….. So, the slack teachers simply bring out another couple of word searches, while the dedicated ones actually plan a meaningfull theory lesson, full of discovery and education… Meanwhile, the year 8 boys start to get restless… Leading to Level 1,2,and 3 contracts, and if the teachers are lucky, SUSPENSION!!! Yay – the lack of funds to purchase flour and eggs actually contributes to childhood delinquency – And possible later jail terms.
Good thing we are building a tree farm (Arboureteum) – and an ACT Prison.
Kind of makes you wonder why the contributions are voluntary…
Anybody want to cause a *really fun* stir?
Simply follow the steps below;
1) Ring the media, and arrange for there to be camera crews (It works best when the pollies are publically shamed)
2) Go to wollies, and purchase 2 dozen eggs, 10kg flour, 1 packet of cocoa, and 4 l of milk.
3) With the media there, make a *very public* donation or your approximately $30 of ingredients, to allow the at least one class of poor kidies to learn to cook.
4) Get a tax deductable receipt from the school.
5) Sit back and watch the news that night.
At least that will bring to the attention of the average member of the public (Who’s world exists between episodes of Home and Away or Neigbours) the plight of these kids who will never learn anything better that being able to purchase a burger at the Golden Arches…. That is as longs as their maths skills are good enough to count their change.
I would love to help, but any adverse publicity will affect my partner who is one of the teachers who could be bothered to create meaningfull lessons at the school.
And, keep in mind that the contribution is less than $30 per semester. If we don’t spend $10 million on a tree farm, that equates to voluntary contributions for every child in the education system for a significant number of years. – Gosh if that was invested, then they may never have to pay a voluntary contribution again.
In reflection, this is why I pay to send my kids to a private school – Their education is not held ransom by the kids in the class who don’t care (So they don’t bother to remind their parents about outstanding fees.) I pay for the computers, and the flour and the eggs. I suspect that that is the actual reason why parents are leaving the public system in droves.
It may cost a little extra, but I can salary sacrifice it. I suspect that you can as well.
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