All Sorts of Stupidity 4

As I was researching a bit to write my post on The Slap, I came across a news article that just left me astonished.

Radio National is a branch of our Australian national public broadcaster The ABC. I moved on from JJJ to Radio National quite a few years ago. JJJ is the youth broadcaster, and I listened to it longer than most I think. But it comes a time when you want more thought, more content and less indie rock. So you start listening to Radio National. And it's great!

So many fabulous programs. Radio National can make stuff that you're not really interested in, interesting. You can download most of it from their very good websites, and listen to it whenever it's convenient.  One of my great favourites is of course The Bookshow. Ramona Koval is fabulous. They explore a wide range of books and literature, big sellers and little known. You always learn something. Recently I listened to a story on the literary life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis while I was cooking one Saturday afternoon. I'd had no idea that she'd worked as a book editor. I'd had no idea that she'd worked actually. It was unexpectedly fascinating.

And now I find out that The Bookshow is under threat! RN are apparently planning to turn The Bookshow into an hour long books and arts show (up from the current 45 minutes), and claiming that this will increase the coverage of books! The Age has taken up the story. And The Australian. I haven't come across anything in The Herald as yet, which I presume is why I didn't know about this.

Thankfully Christos Tsiolkas has come out swinging. And I will too. Earlier this year I became old enough to write my first letter to the ABC. My second letter, well alright email, is under construction.  I hope yours is too. As the news reports have said of The Bookshow- everyone loves it just the way it is, and if it ain't broke- don't fix it!

Random photo of tulips in Launceston last month

All Sorts of Stupidity 3

It's been a while since a mere newspaper article got me this stirred up. Perhaps it's because it combines my two great loves- children's books and food.

Eric Carle's 1969 classic The Very Hungry Caterpillar is under attack in Melbourne.

I wasn't lucky enough to have this book be part of my childhood but I made sure that my son enjoyed The Very Hungry Caterpillar as a toddler. And enjoy it he did. He loved that book. We read it over and over and over again. I think it was one of the very first (and few actually) books that he "read" to me.

For those not overly familiar with the story- a little caterpillar is born on a leaf one fine Sunday morning. He sets about to eat as caterpillars do. Ravenously. Initially he chomps his way through a mountain of fruit, on the way teaching kids counting and days of the week. But he was STILL hungry. So he goes on a binge. And it's funny, and gross. And the kids get that it's funny and gross, and too much, and way over the top.

But clearly a bunch of do-gooder parents in Melbourne hasn't worked it out. They don't get the joke. They have replaced Carle's OTT 1969 binge with what? Low fat yoghurt! And Steamed Broccoli.

Picture credit

Oh please. Spare me. The world really is going insane.

All Sorts of Stupidity 2

So, a woman in Berlin jumps over fences at a zoo, to finally jump into the water with the polar bears during their feeding time and the headlines on the SMH screams Woman attacked by polar bear in Berlin! HELLO. She jumped into their water during feeding time, the polar bear hardly "attacked" her. Do we seriously have no personal responsibility left? OK she probably is mad, but she wasn't attacked.

All Sorts of Stupidity 1

It seems it's been quite a while since anything has fired me up enough to remember how to log in to my blog. But eventually someone, somewhere will be stupid enough to do it. Just in the last week there's been a few examples of crashing stupidity.

First off the rank, career counselling for preschoolers. What a fantastic idea that is. Let's plough money into career advice for those not old enough to tie their shoe laces, or think as far ahead as what they'd like for dinner. Tremendous. Forget about giving them access to books, making sure they can read, or checking that they can see or hear, or have access to a decent meal. We need them to think outside the box about career choice.

Next: career counselling for toddlers

Natasha Bita | April 04, 2009

Article from: The Australian

TODDLERS in daycare should be given early career counselling, Principals Australia has told the committee drawing up the nation's first childcare curriculum.

The call comes as the state and territory children's commissioners caution against pushing academic-based teaching on children still in nappies.

And a leading childcare operator insists it is "crazy stuff" to start telling pre-schoolers about their career options.

Kate Castine, who runs the Principals Australia career education project on behalf of the federal Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, is calling for "career development concepts" to be included in the new curriculum to be introduced nationally by July 1.

Her concern is that little children rarely think beyond what their parents and relatives do for a living.

"The argument that children should be exposed to career development concepts at an early age has been endorsed by current worldwide research," she wrote in comments posted on the department's official online forum, seeking feedback on the latest draft of the "early-learning framework".

"Reference to career development competencies needs to be explicit so teachers understand its importance."

Ms Castine said research showed students as young as six could identify what they wanted to do when they grew up.

"They identify very, very limited careers, usually associated with their family," she told The Weekend Australian. "That makes quite good sense but what needs to happen is that children who are very young need to identify there's a whole range of possible careers ... and not just what they see at home."

Ms Castine said childcare workers could casually canvass career options with children while watching a film, playing, or on an excursion.

"If they go on an excursion on a bus, you can talk about how we need people to drive the bus, or you can go to the museum and talk about scientists. It broadens their thinking at a young age."

Queensland's biggest childcare chain, the community-based C&K, yesterday rejected the kids' careers counselling as "crazy stuff". "What about letting children be children?" said C&K's chief executive Barrie Elvish.

"It's bad enough that kids in years 11 and 12 have to choose a career. How on earth can you get a four-year-old to think about what they'll be doing in 20 years' time?"

But Ms Castine said career education needed to start early. "If they don't start considering other careers until high school, there's less possibility they're going to consider the whole range," she said.

The federal Government's plan for a national curriculum -- a prerequisite for giving all pre-schoolers 15 hours of free care each week from 2013 -- has sparked squabbling between academics, bureaucrats, childcare workers and parents.

Criticism of its politically correct jargon forced a rewrite of the original draft, released last November, and now the authors are working on a third version.

The nation's children's commissioners -- state government agencies charged with safeguarding the rights of children -- have warned against an "academic" curriculum for babies, toddlers and pre-schoolers.

"Care needs to be taken that we are not creating additional years of school for our youngest children through a stringent academic-based way of teaching," the commissioners from NSW, Queensland, Tasmania, Western Australia and the ACT say in a submission.