No brains to drain, The Greek tragedy that is our education system

Christopher Jolliffe in The Spectator (Australian ed.) 6 July, 2024

It is no secret that our education system has been fast plummeting for twenty years or longer. We regularly produce illiterate and innumerate graduates after thirteen years of expensive compulsory schooling, for whom the primary lessons have been how to manipulate vulnerable systems, how to bend themselves to a certain schema of thinking, and how to jump through bureaucratic hoops. Having said that, these are useful things when it comes to navigating the peculiarities of our present moment, but I would hardly suggest these are essential ingredients in forming a human being who knows what Aristotle called eudaimonia, the highest human good.

Despite all the talk of ‘de-factorying’ education, it is more a machine now than ever, having been entirely captured by the langue de bois, or wooden language, of corporate and bureaucratic newspeak, to say nothing of the complete victory of a certain metapolitical zeitgeist that now seems to dominate everything.

But this is a dead horse to flog: everybody knows the schools were captured long ago, even if the left act alternately smug and innocent about the fact, and conservatives seem to have had the fight neutered out of them a long time ago on this front, even when they’ve ostensibly held power. When the Abbott government tried to change some elements of the Australian curriculum, I seem to recall some skilful filibustering was undertaken by the federal education department, teacher unions, and the states.

I am less interested in the purely ideational elements of the destruction of education, though rest assured, you don’t introduce termites to a building and then expect architectural health. Many of the problems have to do with how things are done, as much as why things are done. Another time, we can look at the blue-haired teachers, and discuss how their consequences have been a disaster for the human race.

Teaching and education have been subject to the same influences that have been floating around for the last few decades, that read like something straight out of Burnham’s The Managerial Revolution. The over-credentialed and under-educated management caste of our educational leaders is composed of people who read managerial textbooks for fun and appear to take them very, very seriously. They are victims of every idea freshly in vogue. If I had a dollar for every time they yapped about ‘data’, I’d be quite wealthy; but then they’d demand I create some kind of spreadsheet to account for it, so I’d rather go without. In short, the soul has gone out of the thing – out of teaching – a profession that seemingly no longer knows what it’s about.

Pick up and attempt to read a book by a mainstream expert of education; say, John Hattie. I’ll give you all those hypothetical dollars if you get past the first chapter. It’s one reason why everybody is trying to leave that profession, and why there is unlikely to be any improvement in sight. But weakness of ethos, leadership, and to be completely frank, brains, is only part of the problem. Our education system has been scuppered by market forces that we unnaturally created in the last couple of decades.

Nonetheless, our best universities continue to rank well against their global peers. This I find baffling. I suspect, though cannot prove, that the attractiveness of Australia as an educational destination has more to do with certain other advantages, beyond receiving a robust education. For families in overseas countries, one in particular, having a son or daughter in overseas education is a toehold out in case things go belly up at home. This particular place tends to go belly up every generation or so, so it’s hard to blame them for that.

We can couple this with the fact that the universities stumbled across a wonderful business model, one that has more or less accepted that thirteen years of compulsory education is no longer enough, and it should be sixteen at a minimum. This ultimately is the legacy of the Dawkins Revolution. Where once a Year 10 certificate was enough, you now need a bachelor’s degree to do, well, anything. Certainly, you’ll need one to enter the middle class. Most university students are buying indulgences, rather than learning very much. Where credentialism, not education, sets the bar, I don’t expect you’ll see much interest in genuine knowledge, especially in the humanities. Which is a shame, because an elite that could grasp a literary reference, or think at all, would be a welcome change.

The real market force that has driven our downward spiral is that we are now content to look elsewhere for expertise if our own system can’t provide it. This we call the brain drain, and we regularly scalp talent from our neighbouring nations. That we create labour shortages through this mass importation, that then requires fresh labour to manage, trapping us in a cycle that has ramped up to the tune of half a million a year, seems a small price to pay. What this will eventually do to the fibre of our nation is anybody’s guess, because experiments of this scale haven’t been attempted before. We are living in a vast utopian experiment, driven by plutocrats on the one hand, who see matters only in terms of financial gain, and ideological zealots on the other, who see carpet-bombing both the past and the proximate as a religious mission.

Consistent with this model, we outsourced our manufacturing long ago. Increasingly it seems we’ve outsourced our education, too, despite appearances that things run the other way. While we might feel very clever importing foreign-educated professionals, the unwelcome side effect has been that the disintegration of our school system has been allowed to continue unabated, because we’ve been insulated from the immediate economic consequences. Thus the schools increasingly seem to function as pubs without beer, providing a valuable social service insofar as they enable women to participate in the workforce, which naturally is far more important than, say, raising their own children.

The real brain drain has happened in our own backyard, as we’ve lost any sense of rigour in our educational standards, as befits a society that has gone soft by every other metric, too.

Our education system has wrapped itself in bureaucratic bandages to manufacture the visage of life and competence, even as literacy and numeracy crater. Graduates of our benighted system might find their futures cleaning the toilets of those foreign-educated professionals who arrived as university students but remained as members of a new, cosmopolitan elite. It would make for something out of a Greek tragedy, supposing they could manage to read one.

No doubt our “education system” goes part of the way to explaining the rising support for the Greens among the young mentioned above.

Dr Faustus
 July 7, 2024 9:54 pm

Daniel Andrews has engaged one of Australia’s most expensive silks in a bid to keep secret his phone records from the day of a near-fatal 2013 car crash with a teenage cyclist.

Without going into any of the factual or legal details, just on the shifty behaviour exhibited, you would have to conclude, Far King Guilty M’Lord

Quite so.
Had he rung 000 and/or a local GP first up, later calls can be explained away.
If he has rung, for example, his Chief of Staff who may or may not have connections in VikPlod, it starts to fray at the edges.
The Chief of Staff then has his phone records put under scrutiny and the daisy chain is pieced together. CoS gets off phone to Hunchback and calls, say, the Area Commander for the Peninsula.
Nek minnit the Plod in the car are forgetting their breath test kit procedure.
As Bear said, “Will the club save him? Will they even try?”
Hunchback thrived on bullying rather than deep personal loyalties. When his ability to bully is gone, the edifice cracks pretty quickly.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
July 8, 2024 8:28 am – reposted from the old thread.

There you go, all you ex – servicemen. That’s what the Albanese Government thinks of you.
“Nothing is too good for our veterans, and that’s precisely what they’ll get. NOTHING!”

Veterans ‘left behind’ by looming legal service closure
Matthew Denholm
15 hours ago
110 comments
A lauded national legal service helping veterans fight for their entitlements, compensation and rehabilitation is being quietly axed, prompting warnings they will be left to the mercy of legal “sharks”.
The Defence and Veterans Legal Service faces closure because of a federal funding “cliff”, despite a 41,000 backlog of stalled claims and expectations that findings of the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide findings will generate thousands more.
The nationwide service is prized by veterans because its support and guidance is expert, free, confidential and independent of government and military bodies.
However, its funding ends in September.
If the service, also known as DAVLS, is allowed to close, there are fears many veterans will resort to fee-for-service lawyers and advocates, some of whom are described by veterans as “sharks”.
“Applying for compensation can be difficult and veterans often seek legal assistance during that process,” said Katherine McKernan, executive director of National Legal Aid, which set up the service in late 2021.
“Sadly, some law firms charge large amounts for legal support that is freely available from DAVLS … High fees are also being charged by some fee-for-service advocates – non-lawyers who don’t have to cap their fees when helping people to apply for veteran entitlements.
“The compensation claim process is complex and can be stressful, so access to specialist legal help is critical. We are concerned that if the service ends in September, veterans could be left behind without access to free legal help.”
Ms McKernan said the ­expertise of DAVLS’s lawyers and staff would be lost if it disbanded in September.
With the funding cliff approaching, its staff has already halved from about 40 to about 20.
Veteran Billy Starr’s almost 30-year wait for compensation – after being physically injured, bullied, sexually harassed and raped in the army – was resolved only after she obtained assistance from DAVLS.
After discharging in 1994, Ms Starr was never told about entitlements and described her later experience of seeking compensation as “hell”.
“I was so exhausted by the whole process – if DAVLS hadn’t helped me, I would have given up,” the 54-year-old said.
“The outcome they achieved is phenomenal.
“There was a really important human element too. They had genuine care and compassion, and they had my best interests at heart. That is what veterans need.”
Without DAVLS, she feared others seeking justice would fall victim to “sharks”.
“There’s a lot of people making money out of this at the moment,” she said. “There’s a vulnerable group of veterans, so people start to target them because they see that they may not have the capacity to manage an application.
“And then that causes the ­veteran more financial distress – or they just give up.”

Veterans ‘left behind’ by looming legal service closure
Matthew Denholm

Is that the entire article?

Did Denholm not seek out the Minister of Vet Affairs, Matt Keogh, for comment?

There has recently been some streamlining of legislation to make it easier for veterans to apply for their entitlements in line with recommendations of the RC into veteran suicides.

In this context, there was only contempt for ordinary people, who were regarded as “sub-men” to be tended and looked after – via the welfare state – like a bovine herd.”

That, cats and kittehs is *exactly* how our political class think of us.

…they were alarmed by Britain’s performance in the Boer war, where troops had taken a good kicking at the hands of the black man

Eh?

It was “the white man’s war.”

Blacks were used by the Boer’s in secondary roles, not as frontline fighters (the odd exception proving the rule).

The alarm in Britain was raised by the failure of many recruits to pass the general fitness test, meaning they didn’t even get to South Africa.

“A possible solution to the problem of aggressive Islam is to pay people to leave.”

How about not bringing them here in the first place? Remember what PM Erdogan of Turkey said. “there is no moderate islam. Islam is islam and that’s it”.

Rockdoctor on Hunchback

Even if the Oppo Party don’t announce it till after winning an election and get a reliable judge in from overseas in the commonwealth if needed to keep it objective.

Here in Queensland the ghost of Sir Joe is invoked at a drop of a hat to smear conservatives. The stench from the Andrews era dwarfs anything I have ever seen.

The chances of Prosciutto actually going on the attack on something like this are approximately zero.
If the roles were reversed, the likes of Andrews and Allen would be kicking the shit out of whoever it was from the Libs, complete with snide remarks across the chamber about “running over kids on bikes”.
But will Prosciutto ask even the most timid question about who might have been involved and if they still have a job in government?
No.
Because “private matter” and “before the courts”.
Well, the matter of corrupt behaviour in public office is not a “private matter” and it is not before the courts (yet) so it should be open slather. And, if they were smart political operatives they would beat the term “cover up” to death to leave a clear impression that something dodgy has gone on.

A silly person might believe that there is conspiracy in play.

Faruqi has said she was in conversation with Payman for several weeks before her decision to cross the floor.

Labor has been well and truly outplayed here.

A spokeswoman for Veterans’ Affairs and Defence Personnel Minister Matt Keogh said veterans could receive support in making a claim via free advocacy services listed on an Advocate Register. “These accredited advocates have undertaken the advocacy training and development program,” she said.

Volunteer, unpaid advocates….

Andrew Bolt:

It’s karma. Anthony Albanese is just realising – too late! – the danger of the kind of identity politics he last year tried to ram down our throats, now that it’s threatening his Labor Party.

The Prime Minister last week warned deserting Labor Senator Fatima Payman, now Parliament’s unofficial Member for Gaza, not to form a new Muslim political party.

“I don’t want Australia to go down the road of faith-based political parties because what that will do is undermine social cohesion,” he said.

“It is not in the interest of smaller minority groups to isolate themselves.”

What? Who’s this hypocrite?

I agree: our political parties should be for people of whatever faith, colour or origin, so they’re fighting only for what’s good for us all, as Australians.

We’ll be torn apart if we instead get political parties based on race and religion, promoting communal resentments to demand their own politicians and special handouts for “their community”.

No to this ghettoising. This tribalising.

But that’s exactly what Albanese demanded last year, an Aboriginal-only Voice, a kind of advisory parliament, followed by a treaty over sovereignty. That was his own plan for a “smaller minority group” to “isolate themselves” that would undermine “social cohesion” by demanding not just their own politicians but own parliament.

I can see why the scales have now fallen from Albanese’s eyes, because Britain’s election has just shown us the danger Payman and her Muslim supporters are to Labor, and Australia.

Four Muslim independents got elected to Britain’s parliament on Thursday on a pro-Palestine and anti-Israel platform, with one, Shockat Adam, beating a Labour frontbencher in an electorate with 30 per cent Muslim voters.

“This is for Gaza,” Adam crowed.

Another winner, Adnan Hussain, shouted at cheering Muslims: “We will raise our voice for Gaza! We will continue to fight, until death. Inshallah!”

A fifth independent, former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, expelled from Labour after an anti-semitism scandal, also won with the backing of many Muslim voters in his electorate after campaigning hard on Gaza and against Israel.

Meanwhile, two female Labour candidates, who’d just beaten off pro-Gaza Muslim independents in Birmingham, 30 per cent Muslim, said hardliners had threatened, attacked and intimidated their campaigners, even though one of the MPs is Muslim herself.

Backing the winners was a shadowy group called The Muslim Vote – like the Australian group that’s backed Payman. It’s ecstatic.

“Folks, only through the grace of The Almighty, without whom nothing is possible, you did it,” it said, and warned the main political parties: “Muslims are united, in Muslim-heavy areas your majorities will be under threat.”

Formed just six months, it predicted more success when more of Britain’s 4 million Muslims unite behind it.

Something similar could now come here, and Labor is freaking because it holds 27 of the 29 federal seats with solid Muslim minorities. And here they come: Payman and Australia’s version of The Muslim Vote.

Payman claims she suddenly decided just last week, after praying to Allah, to break with Labor over Gaza and demand the immediate recognition of a Palestinian state that’s today led in one half by the Hamas terrorists who started this war with Israel by slaughtering 1200 Israelis, and led in the other half by terrorist sponsors who’ve banned elections for 18 years.

Yes, that’s how extreme – or dangerously naive – Payman is. And that’s how ethnic politics imports foreign conflicts into our peaceful land.

I doubt I exaggerate by calling Payman the Member for Gaza. She says she’ll fight for Palestinians by now sitting in parliament not as a Labor member but as a …. well, she’s not saying, but join the dots.

Before consulting Allah and quitting Labor, Payman actually talked to Australia’s The Muslim Vote, run by a Sydney Iman. She also met Glenn Druery, whose job is helping small political parties get elected. He’s also met The Muslim Vote.

Payman wouldn’t give a straight answer when asked if she’ll now form a Muslim party, an easier job for a sitting senator: “At this stage, I do not plan to form a party … but stay tuned.”

True, a Muslim party would struggle to defeat a Labor MP, even in the seat of Blaxland, held by Education Minister Jason Clare, where 32 per cent of voters are Muslim. Not all Muslims would back a Muslim party, although with Greens and Teal preferences, who knows? Certainly a Senate seat is possible.

So, yes, worry. And hope that Labor stops promoting identity politics, now that it’s paying the price.

Woefully woeful.
Incredible that Labor are looking into Payman’s citizenship not because of anything else than turning on the hand that feeds her.
Now time for Giles and Chesty Blonde to do the same for every other Islamic adherent. Like the arseholes from ISIS coming back and expecting rosy fields.
Islam really has no place in Western democracy and should be avoided.

How lovely to see Cheng Lai, who was imprisoned for 3 years in China, as a news anchor on Sky today.

I see WA Premier Roger Cook gave Senator Payman quite a dressing down via the media today.

“Poisonous” was the word he used, reportedly.

Boeing to plead guilty to criminal fraud charge stemming from 737 Max crashes