16 June 2006

Save Our School

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For those of you who missed out, the song sung at the Dickson College protest can be found at Genericana’s myspace site
the lyrics are:

Dickson College: here to stay
We wouldnt have it any other way
Mister Stanhope, have you got something to say?

Closing down Dicko means closing down us.
Mess with Dicko and well kick up a fuss.
Mister Stanhope, have you got something to say?

Theres nostalgic fun inside
Six hundred happy faces full of dicko pride!

Oowaahoo, save our school!
Oowaahoo, save our school!

Were not the kinda people who are gonna be bossed,
40 years of excellence aint gonna be lost.
Mister Stanhope, have you got something to say?

Here are our voices minus the lids,
Somebody please: THINK OF THE KIDS!
Mister Stanhope, have you got something to say?

Theres nostalgic fun inside
Six hundred happy faces full of dicko pride!

Oowaahoo, save our school!
Oowaahoo, save our school!

Hey! Hey! We stand every chance against
Hey! Hey! You money hungry figureheads
Hey! Hey! Dare you mess with our community,
Face the power of our Dicko College unity!

Oowaahoo, save our school!
Oowaahoo, save our school!
Oowaahoo, save our school!
Oowaahoo, save our school!

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simto, kids bullshit, adults bullshit. We weren’t there when Callum spoke to his music teacher so no, we don’t know the full story.

snahon, I don’t nit-pick and yes your posts come across dripping with education and teacher hatred. I went to Govt schools and UC too, so what?

(please read carefully)

There are POLICIES in place that were not ADDRESSED when this was handed out. Hell the opposition used FOI to find out that it wasn’t a policy until just before the budget. You can’t write a budget and accept it in 5 seconds. See, I use to work with that policy document last year when I was in the ACT Dept of Education, so I’d know a hell of a lot more about it than you.

So you grew up in Quean-B-Hole, so what? If you don’t like ACT Education use the NSW one. Send your kids to private school in Sydney. The difference is I actually give a shit about the future of education in the ACT and have offered to send you (through JB) the paper I was asked to write about this situation. To date, you haven’t accepted or declined the offer.

Accountability? Have you heard of duty of care snahon? I am accountable to the 160+ students I teach. I am also accountable to their parents, the school board, the ACT Govt and the CEO of Canberra-Goulburn.

How much more accountability do you want?

So before you attempt to attack me again, perhaps you should re-read all the posts and threads on this matter. Then, you might have something worth debating.

Like always, Nyssa76 will nit-pick everyone and anyone who says anything relating to the support of any school closure. From her continual banter surely one could only conclude by her reasoning that not one iota of thought went behind the decision of closing any school and that closing any school for any reason is just plain wrong as she can find justification for keeping it open.

Furthermore, her incessant need to highlight the plight of teachers as the under-paid, under-priviledged, under-valued resourced that in no way can be held with even a fraction of a percent of accountability does nothing to futher her inate argumentative nature.

Whilst there is some validity to some of her statements shes come to the argument with a bias that detracts from any real contributions.

So before she goes off accusing me of being a public education and teacher hater -I went to public school in QBN and lived the life of all those bogan underprivledged lower economic class demographics, went to univeristy in canberra and in melbourne, have little children that have to go to pre-school/day care/stay at home and I will be sending them to non-govt private education for primary (because I believe it will provide a better social and intellectual education then the surrounding govt primary schools AND because it is actually going to be cheaper then the current pre-school fees I pay).

As for yrs 7-12, the cost of non-govt increase exponentially which I could not currently afford (as all 3 of my children will be at high school the say time) and will again invariably sacrifice other things to pay for their education because I believe that I have an obligation to offer them the best I can do for them and I believe that given the state of the current public education system (NSW and ACT) my children have a better chance of getting what I consider to be a more valuable education in non-govt.

Its not about ensuring they are the smartest, if they want to be a teacher, business manager, plumber, electrician, shop attendant and they are happy with their patch of life then I will be happy – As long as they can actually think for themselves.

I do not believe that all govt schools are crap and useless and all public education teachers are hopeless. Its that I believe that non-govt is currently better.

The govt has limited money and resources, I can’t see how closing some schools (again granted the volume of school may need to be addressed), amalgamating students and teachers which the goal of offering better a smaller number of more resourced schools is as bad many wold like to think. and shite if that happened and I when time comes to send them to high school/college my children may end up in govt education.

But hey, thats only my take on things for which I am sure the destruction of my piece will begin…

Nyssa, he’s quoting the kid’s post. Now, if you want to say that he’s fibbing, fair enough. But Mael is making reasonable deductions based on evidence.

To be fair Mael, you don’t know that.

Besides, it’s a College, you know where kids are almost adults and are able to make decisions themselves.

I don’t want Dickson College to close, nor do I want Campbell High to again become a 7-12 school. It doesn’t work and the Govt is effectively saying that our great College system is shite, without looking at the needs of the community.

If it can run 3 colleges in the Belconnen area, then it can bloody well run one college in the inner north.

To the haters, the song was written in about an hour because my music teacher told me to make a protest song

Mael, if I am right, his mum and dad are teachers. So he’d hear it more at home than at school.

If this is the case then his dad taught me at Campbell High (1989-1992).

That so plays to my theory that the real protestors are the teachers rather than the students, but hey public education works with a green apple with a red tick through it doesn’t it ?

Callum, I suggest you mention to your teacher that any union action cannot be interpreted in a work context, and in the case of you being a student, you therefore cannot receive a grade, nor can your song contribute towards any cumulative score for your efforts.

It falls under the broad banner of ‘education department curriculae’.

Woah, just stumbled upon this site now – interesting. Thanks everyone for your feedback, I am currently seventeen years old, in year twelve at DC and am the songwriter/performer of the song in question. To the haters, the song was written in about an hour because my music teacher told me to make a protest song, i recorded it at home that night. I am happy with the production and musical quality of it, and am heavilly influenced by the alternative pop genre. The lyrics, as you may have guessed; are indeed a piss-take – they’re meant to be dumb! If you listen to the other songs on my bands myspace you’ll notice all of the lyrics are piss-takes. So enough of your anti-lyric put downs, shit there’s worse lyrics out there. I am a supporter of the ‘Save Our School’ move, but not a diehard protester – I only go to the fucking things because they ask me to play at them and hey… nothing’s wrong with abit of exposure, right? Don’t base the strength of our arguement on these lyrics alone, infact – don’t base our arguement on this at all! The words are meant to be dumb and to me the song is just abit of fun. If you can’t see past that, you’re a terribly bitter and jealous individual.
To people who like my stuff? Cheers!

burnoboy_no310:45 am 22 Jun 06

that has just sealed the fate of that school!!

its times like these i wish the germans had won.

i just heard that song. thats soo bad, in so many ways.

Vic Bitterman1:29 am 17 Jun 06

Pathetic really.

Absent Diane4:42 pm 16 Jun 06

I don’t go to school
Because I am too old
But I like beer a lot
especially not tooheys old

Im fcking genius i tells ya

Dickson College you’re our school!
Pack the bong and visit the pool!
Class is empty, courtyard’s full!
Dickson College sure does rule!

Seriously though, the song was crap. It doesn’t evoke my memories of Dicko and inspire me to fight for the place, which is what a protest song should do. There’s a lot of good things about Dickson College, like the special education program which every other school was too GUTLESS to take on after SWOW closed. Also, there are a lot of teenagers in the surrounding suburbs who won’t be able to walk to school anymore.

There’s a line from a Ben Elton novel: “The protestors sang here we go, here we go, here we go. Then they went”.

mildly better than:

the people
united
will never be
defeated

usually sung by a collective of united people immediately prior to being defeated.

Absent Diane9:30 am 16 Jun 06

That is hilarious…

Doesn’t dickson college have masses of underachievers….

Close the damn thing I say

Here are our voices minus the lids,
Somebody please: THINK OF THE KIDS!

It’s a pisstake, right?

Oh, jesus god.

It seems like the school protesters have been infiltrated by Labour staffers – that’s the only explanation I can have for why some of these protests have been so screamingly pissweak. That or general incompetence.

Maybe it’s just me. Maybe saying “we’re nostalgic and angry” is enough to convince lots of other people that Dickson College should remain open, and I’m just an intransigent grump. I know “I’m angry” has been Stanhope’s favourite debating tactic, but imitating the stupidity of your enemy is usually the first step on the path to defeat.

Maybe you could try arguing:
– Need for education in the inner north is increasing in the long term, not decreasing.
– Selling public assets (like, say, land and infrastructure) has given lots of negative outcomes – they were usually purchased for a reason, and, unless you are absolutely sure that the reason is now gone, you’re going to find that in the long run, you’ll be paying more for something you used to own.

Yes, I know neither of these fit to music particularly well, or sum up into a three word slogan. Tough. A complex world requires people interested in engaging in complex ideas.

And yes, I know I’m being harsh on teenagers. But you’ve got to grow up sometime. And now’s as good a time as any.

oowaahoo sounds like the thinking music in Perfect Match circa Dexter years ( 1980’s )

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