Curios of the week #71

Clippings, endnotes and other ephemera

Image via AI

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This week, we spent a few days in Bright in Victoria’s high country. We took the opportunity to visit Mount Buffalo. Unfortunately, as far as my daughters were concerned, there has been no snow yet this year and we had an interesting discussion about the extent to which this may reflect climate change.

While there, we visited the Mount Buffalo Chalet. Built of wood by the Department of Public Works in 1910, the chalet was Victoria’s first ski resort and became a luxury holiday resort. It closed in 2007 but due to its historic importance, it has been maintained in reasonable order, making for a spooky place to visit. Travellers can peer through the windows into the ballroom or at the old fitted-out rooms, complete with bathtubs.

This week’s Curios include Nick Gibb, a watchdog, some creative thinkers and much more.

Question of the week

I have noticed that, these days, all the cool kids on Twitter are asking questions. So, I decided to give it a go:

I received a lot of different and interesting answers. I have always thought of inquiry learning as being very difficult to plan and so was surprised that so many people thought teachers favoured inquiry through laziness — that they could sit back while the students investigated for themselves. I wonder whether this varies from subject to subject, with those subjects with the mostly clearly defined objectives being the ones where it is harder to sit back.

I was reminded of early in my career when I would assign poster work in science lessons. There would always be the student who spent 20 minutes on writing the title. If I pushed them, it was hard work, but if I just let them go, it was 20 minutes they were quiet, occupied and not causing any disturbance.

Valedictory article of the week

Nick Gibb is a Conservative politician who has been a driving force behind England’s positive education reforms. He decided not to stand in the recent election and this week penned a valedictory piece for Britain’s super soaraway tes magazine. In it, he made some valid points about the fact that education reform should not necessarily be a partisan matter:

“I have never taken the view that the drive for higher standards in schools is the exclusive preserve of Conservative politicians. Far from it. Some of the most passionate advocates of a knowledge-rich curriculum, strong discipline and the relentless pursuit of ever-improving standards see themselves as being firmly on the centre left of politics.

During my time as a minister, I worked alongside Labour MPs who were as determined as I was to turn around struggling schools. And why wouldn’t they be? The evidence is clear: if you want to help the most disadvantaged children, a school education that puts the transfer of knowledge at its core is key.”

Gibb is right and this issue has mystified me for a long time. It seems pretty clear that giving disadvantaged kids a good education helps reduce that disadvantage and it also seems pretty clear that a good education involves the effective transmission of knowledge in a calm and orderly environment. If you are of the left, what is not to like?

However, I have started to realise that many see the world as they would wish it to be rather than as it really is. Their romantic views then lead them into educational progressivism. It is no coincidence many of those figures Gibb refers to who are ‘firmly on the centre left of politics’ who backed his reforms are teachers. Teachers cannot afford to buck reality whereas those long retreated from the classroom are subject to no such constraints.

Webinar of the week

One of those who is well aware of the practical constraints and potential of educating the disadvantaged is an activist and educator, most recently in the news for backing the ‘Yes’ camp Australia’s recent referendum on an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to Parliament.