Still As Life

I was just reading a response Tim over at SpyJournal had written to a Herald Sun columnist, Cheryl Critchley about her article on home schooling and the benefits it may or may not have for kids. I realise I’m a little bit late with this, but I’ve been busy and only just read it so I think I have a pretty good excuse.

Now, I realise that Tim is not attacking the regular school systems be it public or private, but as someone who has been at both public and private schools I have some thoughts that I think are worth adding.

I agree with the majority of Tim’s points, however I do have some different opinions on them. There is a paragraph discussing the differences of learning in school to learning in a work-place environment, which I completely agree with, however, at the end of this paragraph he has said, “To the contrary a homeschooled child has learnt to learn from mentors and usually can self learn and look after themselves.” I think this is a bit of an unfair statement to those in school. Sure there can be a pack mentality of people who studied in a school environment, but I self learn far better than I do in a group, and I am quite capable of looking after myself. I moved out of home straight after year 12 while I was still 17 so that I could start uni in Brisbane and thus far have not had any trouble at all. I think that it is not just about the schooling system but about how the parents raise their kids. My parents were teaching me to read before I started school, taught me how to manage money, how to treat others, how to behave in general. My parents taught me as much as my teachers did, just in different area’s. I can see this is one reason why home schooling would be appealing, but I really don’t see it as a necessary way to impart this extra knowledge.

“Most homeschooled children are disciplined at home by their parents in a way a school or teacher never can and as such are usually far better behaved.” Again, this is not something that I think is up to the school to do, but the parents. My parents disciplined me as a child, as Tim says, in ways a school/teacher never could, but my parents didn’t have to home school me to do it.

“What happens to a child who has grown up in the public school system and had everything handed to them on a plate - routines, timetables, courses of study, homework, goal setting? How do they manage a job where they must set their own schedules, work to self imposed deadlines and choose their own further education in order to get ahead? You probably have these same people in your office as I meet in offices around QLD. They cannot self manage, cannot handle a diary, are rarely punctual, and are propped up constantly by their co workers.”

I wouldn’t say you have everything handed to you, in fact, school helped me develop time management. Keeping a diary, keeping track of deadlines, making my own deadlines, organising and doing my own study on top of work and uni study. I will admit that on occasion I am late to casual events, but as far as work and work related meetings go, I am almost always early, and occasionally on time, but never late. Now, yes I agree, there are plenty of people who went through the school system that do have the problems mentioned, but by the same token, I think this is largely due to parents. School provided me with the tools to learn to manage time and deadlines, but it was my parents that enforced the deadlines, pushed me to get work done on time for school and do study outside of school and to read outside of school. For example, by year 3 or 4, I was reading 6 or 7 80-200 page books in a week. I read the Wheel of Time book 4, the biggest book in the series at 1400+ pages in 2 days. I started learning web design when I was 7. School definitely didn’t teach me that. Then there is my regular week day during a uni semester that is planned down to 5 minute intervals, any change in my mentally timetabled day and I have to adjust it on the fly, down to 5 minute intervals, I don’t have any trouble with that at all, this is because school showed me how to timetable things, and my parents made sure I learned it. Now that’s just a couple of examples. So again, I can see how this would be a reason for home schooling to be appealing, but I don’t see it as a problem with a regular school system either. I think it is largely affected by how parents choose to raise their children.

“What happens when a public school child who has learnt safety in numbers, travelled in a pack of kids at school, succumbed to peer pressure in their dress, language attitude and behaviour, learnt that its cool to make snide, cutting, taunting remarks to the “uncool” kids gets exposed to the real world outside. None of that behaviour is tolerated in a workplace.”

Nope, it isn’t tolerated in a workplace, and yes, I agree with this to an extent. However, I again think that this is affected by how a kid is raised by their parents. I didn’t learn those things. I spent all of my high school years either on my own or with 1 or 2 people. Yeah, I do see people maintaining that mentality, but by the end of year 12, the majority of my grade had gotten beyond these sorts of things.

“How many wild and crazy homeschool leaving parties have you heard of that the police had to turn up to? How many homeschoolers do you hear about causing a ruckus at schoolies week? On the contrary homeschooled children are largely polite, well mannered, excellent achievers, motivated to excel and perform, well read and able to hold intelligent conversations with adults. Yes public school children can do this also.”

Just some thoughts on this, I spent schoolies week with a group of friends, we didn’t cause a ruckus, we had no complaints, in fact, the place we stayed at even thanked us for how well behaved we were and for looking after the facilities so well. Nor did we have police called to our school leaving parties. Yes, there are plenty that cause a ruckus and have police called, but the vast majority don’t. Similarly, there are many, many, excellent achievers in the school systems that are well read, can hold intelligent conversations and are motivated to excel and perform. However, I think that much of this drive and success is affected by the parents and how they teach and push their kids outside of school.

“…public schooling is the poor cousin to homeschooling, where the richness of our lives and the interactions we have with other people, families, businesses, government officials, public institutions (like galleries and museums) are shared with our children so they can learn from us…” Again, I think this is vastly up to the parents anyway. As a kid, my parents took my siblings and I to so many different places. We went to the Australian War Memorial Museum in Canberra, the Royal Australian Mint, the Science Centre in Brisbane, Underwater World on the Sunshine Coast, all of the theme parks at various times, the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, Kings Park in Perth, the Southern-most tip of the Australian mainland in Western Australia, Freemantle, Lightning Ridge and down in some of the mines, the Botanic Gardens up at Mt. Cootha in Brisbane many times, Bundaberg and the rum distillery, Dubbo Zoo, Toowoomba and the Australian Gospel Music Festival, the oceanic museum at a place on the South NSW coast that I don’t remember the name of, and thats just some of the places we all went as a family, not to mention the hundreds of places we have stayed at.

I learnt heaps from my parents on our many trips all over the place. So while I am sure that there are benefits to both home schooling and the regular schooling system, I think the main difference is how the parents raise their kids and what they do with them. As such, I can see that home schooling would have an advantage there since parents would have more time available to spend with their children and do these sorts of activities with them. However, I don’t think it is a matter of one system being better than the other, but simply how parents choose to raise their kids. I know that many of the people I got along with at school, their parents took them all over the country to various things the same way mine did, and I have no doubt that there are many others who’s parents manage these activities as well.

Anyway, this isn’t an attack on you Tim, or on home schooling (I know you stated at the end that school kids often behave no different to home schooled kids etc), this is just the way I see some of the advantages of home schooling being had along with attending a regular school affected entirely by how the parents choose to spend their time around school with their kids. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a parent, so I have never had to make any of these decisions and I don’t really know what affects the decision making process, but I do know how I was raised and how my parents educated me, and maybe I’m biased, but I think I turned out pretty good.

Popularity: 57% [?]

I have noticed over the past month or so that there have begun to be some more obvious changes in transport in response to the increasing fuel costs.

Over the past year there has been an increase in Camry’s/Aurion’s as taxi’s and police vehicles in place of some of Falcon’s and Commodore’s, and over the past month or so, I have noticed smaller 4 door vehicles such as Toyota Corolla’s and a few of the more expensive Toyota Prius hybrid car’s.

I have also noticed that freight and logistics companies like the Toll Group have been using small vehicles for smaller runs, such as the Hyundai Getz. In addition, during my travels up and down the east Australia over the past couple of months, I have noticed that there are becoming less single trailer trucks around, and the length of both trailers on dual trailer’s has been extending to the point where they are both getting to around the same length.

This is understandable given the prices of fuel, so this brings me to my title, some thoughts and observations about electric cars.

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Popularity: 40% [?]

“Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.” (Benjamin Franklin, from Wikiquote)

Or, a more commonly known re-worded version, “Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.” (Wikiquote)

I’ve been reading in the news lately that with the push by Mr Rudd and his Labor ministers to censor the internet of Australians, that there have been pushes from other groups to censor more than the originally proposed pornography sites, including pro-anorexia websites and so on. Now that’s all well and good, I understand their reasoning for wanting to do so. However, once you start censoring content, the question myself and others have asked many times before, is where does it stop?

The above quote rings very true, give up a little liberty for a little security, and there is a good chance that you will lose both.

Popularity: 28% [?]

Not only are Labor disappointing federally, but they are locally as well.

Steve Griffiths is the local Labor councillor for Moorooka Ward, and with the upcoming election for Brisbane’s Lord Mayor and so on, he sent out an application for postal votes, which I filled in and returned to his office.

I received a letter, signed by Mr Griffiths last week to confirm that I had in fact applied for a postal vote through his office and that I should soon receive my ballot papers. It also said he had included his “how-to-vote” card that would show me how to vote to re-elect him in Moorooka Ward, and Greg Rowell for Lord Mayor.

It also went on to state that he (Mr Griffiths) has worked to:

1. Increase bus services on 120, 124 and 125 services along with extra air conditioned buses on the busiest routes.
2. Fund the Toohey Forest bikeway and park upgrade designs.
3. Fund major road upgrades.
4. Fund a buyback program for flood affected properties, flood mitigation work and an early warning system.

This is all well and good, great work Mr Griffiths.

Except, I take the 120 bus service regularly, and occasionally the 124 and 125. The only increased bus services that I have seen is the addition of the 119 on almost the same route as the 120, except that it skips my stop coming back from the city, and it doesn’t run at a time useful for me going into the city, and some additional runs during peak hours. Aside from that the service has gotten worse. So, his claim there is only partially true and his “work” has resulted in a worse service for me. That’s a great way to make me want to vote for Labor.

I received another letter today about a proposed mobile phone tower in the middle of one of the parks near here, Brittain Park. Now, mobile phone reception here is perfectly fine, so I see no need for this tower. The letter included a petition form to fill in. Cool, great, we agree, there is no need for a mobile phone tower in the middle of a park.

However, I still haven’t seen my ballot papers. If his office can send me a letter confirming my application, than surely they can send the ballot papers. Their inability to do something as simple as this is appalling. Then there is, as I mentioned above, their only part true claims about the buses here. I can’t comment on the other things except to say that if I can’t trust him and his office on one claim, how can I trust them on the others.

So my point is, if they can’t manage something as simple as sending me ballot papers, and they are more than happy to lie to me on paper, how can I have any confidence at all that they will do anything about the phone tower even if I return the signed petition?

I sent an email expressing my concerns to both of the email addresses provided on the two letters that I have received from his office. Hopefully I will hear something soon.

Popularity: 12% [?]

Yes, Translink is so awesome. I left an hour early because last week I only just got to uni in time. Now, having left an hour early, you would think I would have gotten to uni earlier than I did last week where I was here just as the lecture started.

Well, that is far from the truth.

My first bus was half an hour late and then took an extra 10 minutes to reach my stop than it normally does. Thus I missed 3 runs of my second bus.

The 4th run of my second bus was then 15 minutes late as well. Absolutely excellent. So, I actually got here 15 minutes after the start of the lecture. The lecture only runs for an hour, so thats a quarter of it gone. Great.

I thought they were putting an extra 96 buses on to try and reduce these problems, yet this is the latest bus I’ve had yet.

Popularity: 9% [?]