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Thank you. Your newspaper’s exposure of the mismanagement of state education
authorities should be welcomed by every parent and student in Australia. As a retired
teacher, I have witnessed at least one generation of teachers and students confused
and misdirected by unaccountable state education departments with their minds set
on objectives other than learning. Keep up your persistent and insightful attach on
the charlatans in our systems. Our students deserve nothing less. (J. Gould, 2006, p.
16)
Others called for the current system to be abolished, for example John Hill of Pearce, ACT
writes, “Why don’t we depoliticise the business of setting high school curricula by adopting
the International Baccalaureate everywhere? Then we’d know our secondary education was
internationally competitive” (2006, p. 16). In the same edition of this newspaper the editorial
clearly expresses its views on what it calls a “crisis in education” (Editorial: Students left
behind, 2006b, p. 16), calling for an end of the “...outcomes-based education and politically
correct curriculums in our schools” and placing the blame on teachers’ unions, writing “the
excess of teachers’ unions must be curbed, by the federal government if need be, to allow
rank-and-file teachers to do their jobs properly” (Editorial: Students left behind, 2006b, p.
16).
Included in the October 7-8 2006 edition of The Weekend Australian, in addition to the
Letters to the Editors and Editorial feature, an additional three articles were included focusing
on the national curriculum debate. Reflecting the diverse views held and expressed by the
public (see, for example, the Letters to the Editor) on the topic of the national curriculum the
newspaper included features articulating and reflecting these views. Individual teachers were
held up as examples to be followed in History teaching, with their own professional concerns
for the current state of History teaching and curriculum reported. For example, Mike
Goodwin from Mackay North State High School who had attracted positive media attention
(through, for example, ABCs Australian Story, newspapers, news telecasts) for his taking
school students on excursions to Australian battlefields, such as Gallipoli, was interviewed a
week prior to the national history summit taking place and is reported as saying “Apart from
what they’ve learned from Anzac Day, the facts of our role in all conflicts are patchy and
inconsistent...They don’t have a big understanding of the social impact the wars had”
(Salusinszky, 2006, p. 25).
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