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Unfortunately and as similarly experienced by the connection of the history/culture wars
debate into at the coalface teaching, the debates have caused polarisations of perspectives
(see, for example, extensive coverage of this issue in The Weekend Australian September
23-24, 2006). A diverse range of commentators outside of journalists, columnists and
educators also participate in this ongoing debate of critical literacy and postmodernism
incorporated in school classrooms. For example, Australian playwright David Williamson,
although otherwise a “fierce critic of John Howard” (Donnelly, 2006f, p. 8), stated “...to
treat our best literature as being nothing more than ideology would seem to be abandoning
our greatest repository of human wisdom” (Donnelly, 2006f, p. 8), suggesting that human,
universal truths should be retained in the school curriculum asserting “what great writing
does is identify the enduring truths about human nature that cross time and culture”
(Donnelly, 2006f, p. 8).
Common attacks outside of any specific syllabus include topics such as a decline in standards
(Giles, 2006), or as reports “Ms Bishop, who released a report this week showed a lack of
national consistency in classroom curricula...it made ‘a compelling case for higher standards
and greater national consistency in schools’” Madigan (2007, p. 7, emphasis added); low
literacy standards (Ferrari, 2007a; Bantick, 2006; Livingstone, 2006; Lawrence 2006); “...the
needs for plain-English report cards” (Donnelly, 2006a, p. 17); educational basics missing,
for example as reported by Brown and Rowbottom, “teachers and academics claim students
are being taught ‘sandpit science’ dictated by the dumbed-down syllabus that ignores basic
scientific training” (2006, p. 7); the negative impacts of outcomes based education (OBE),
cited as a “destructive impact” (Donnelly, 2006a, p. 17) with the reversal of Western
Australia’s OBE to criteria based curriculum welcomed due to claims that “...an outcomes
approach to learning that focused on what students should achieve and assessed what they
learnt rather than traditional syllabuses that focus on content and how and when it is taught”
(Ferrari, 2007c, p. 3); and a general claim that “...the state education system has been
“dumbed-down” by education departments and teacher unions to the detriment of students”
(Williams, 2007, p. 52).
Even the radical suggestion of education vouchers has been suggested as “...the best way to
strengthen schools, raise standards, and in an increasingly competitive and challenging
international environment, ensure that more Australian students perform at the top of the
league table” (Donnelly, 2007c, p. 28); and the more sensational idea that “militant Islam
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