Curios of the week #28

Clippings, endnotes and other ephemera

Image via AI

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These are uplifting and expectant times in the Ashman household. We are currently experiencing a glorious early Spring that has seared smiles onto the faces of the good people of Ballarat and, more significantly, I have received an Amazon delivery.

At a whopping 350 grams, I have purchased the largest tin of Pimenton de la Vera I have ever managed to acquire in Australia. For the uninitiated, Pimenton de la Vera is a form of Spanish smoked paprika and if you intend to offend a Hungarian, you must declare it the finest paprika in the world. It is not the meek red dust of pointlessness and sorrow that is sometimes scattered despondently on poached eggs. No, Pimenton de la Vera is the real deal and I use it by the shovel-load.

Alongside the paprika arrived some Lapsang Souchong. This is a smokey black tea from China that my father is in the habit of blending with a Assam to make his breakfast brew. So, it tastes a little of home.

Only when my package arrived did I notice the common theme. I hope it is not a portent of what awaits us in high summer.

This week’s curios include a misleading statistic, a hunt for cognitive scientists, some excellent news from the U.S. and much more.

Statistic of the week

This has been unearthed by Old Andrew, the Grandmaster Flash of U.K. education bloggers.

If you are someone who does not have to deal with the logical consequences, it can be appealing to campaign against school suspensions and expulsions. You may even think you are doing good in the world. Nevertheless, it is striking how often such groups mangle statistics in the favour.

For example, it is common to see the claim that, in England, black students are excluded from schools at a higher rate than white students. This is simply not true. When someone makes this claim on Twitter, Old Andrew appears and offers a helpful correction.

Yet, this is so common, we have to wonder whether people simply assume it must be true, without checking it out. There’s a word for making assumptions on the basis of race.

This week, Old Andrew has spun some vinyl to challenge a different statistic. The Guardian, who can always be relied upon for this kind of thing, published an article seemingly based on statistics supplied by a campaign group. Sally Weale, the author, claimed:

“School suspensions, where a child is removed temporarily because of misbehaviour, have risen overall since Covid – up 30% in 2021-22 compared with 2018-19 - but they have gone up more sharply among disadvantaged children (up 75% v 4% for those not in poverty).”

On the face of it, that seems compelling enough to at least question whether disadvantaged children are being discriminated against in the use of suspensions. Yet, all is not what is seems. Read Old Andrew’s post to find out how they conjured this figure.

Voice of the week

As regular readers know, I am a supporter of the idea of an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to the Australian parliament (and executive government… which I do have some reservations about). This is an advisory body that Australians will vote on in a referendum on October 14. The question we will be asked is whether to enshrine such a body in the constitution.

I know some of you agree with me and some strongly disagree. It is entirely reasonable to hold either position. I also know many of you are not Australian and so may have no opinion. And that’s fine, too.

But I will be voting YES. Not because I feel guilty or because I think it is a nice gesture, given that First Nations Australians have asked for this. It is because I think it has a real chance of effecting change for some of the most disadvantaged people in our country. You see, for every social problem, there is usually a solution, but that solution comes at a cost. Politicians fear that cost. The Voice will give permission, where it advises, to make peace with that cost.

Unfortunately, this week, we have hit a nadir and there is no escape from it in Australian culture. Although a supporter of the YES side, I think the campaign and the strategy behind it have been ill conceived. Failing to provide the details of what The Voice will look like and asking Australians to vote on the principle, probably seemed like a good way to avoid the fate of the 1999 Republic referendum. So far, it has been a failed strategy. While YES campaigners reach for Australians’ hearts to the accompanying soundtrack of ‘The Voice’ by John Farnham, the NO campaign have been exploiting the details gap to maximum advantage. At one turn, they say, “If you don’t know, vote no,” and at another, make-up their own details — such as that The Voice will be a platform to call for reparations — that are challenging to rebut in the absence of real details.

So, what has this got to do with education? Funny you should ask.