Comments on: Rev. Fred Nile: Protecting Muslims from Topless Beaches

By: Paul

Paul — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 04:31:48 +0000

Thought you might like to know your friend Pastor Danny’s at it again. I’ve written about it here.

By: Yobbo

Yobbo — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 03:22:31 +0000

“Me and my mates will start the ‘Real Aussie True Blue Bushcraft School’. The curriculum would be trail-bike riding, shooting and drinking.”

Not as strange as you might think. My younger brother went to an Agricultural high school where his school days were spent learning hot to operate and repair machinery, shear sheep and even such things as dog obedience classes.

Even though he completed year 12, the only academic subject necessary to achieve his high school certificate was English.

By: antish

antish — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 20:47:54 +0000

Here’s my nefarious plan, which would work if only we got rid of those pesky bureaucrats. Me and my mates will start the ‘Real Aussie True Blue Bushcraft School’. The curriculum would be trail-bike riding, shooting and drinking. The teacher-pupil ratio would be something like 1:1 – we’d be the teachers, of course. As we live on the dole anyway, the extra money will be pure profit. Our kids will love it. Win-win.

By: jay

jay — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 10:41:18 +0000

School can be compulsory but still user-pay.

By: Cinna

Cinna — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 09:56:59 +0000

“I think the schools must be paid directly by parents”
And what if parents ecide their children don’t need any book-learning, Amir? That’s why compulsory education was introduced.

An obvious example of a long-term prestige project in the UK where the state just throws money to private contractors and hopes for the best is the plans for the Olympics, Antish. I think you’ll find that the state support for private schools funds those parts of the education- most in fact- that aren’t religiously based. British public- i.e. private- schools select pupils from wealthy and probably well-educated families and charge and spend much more per capita than is available to state schools.

By: antish

antish — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 08:38:59 +0000

Apologies, you are correct – it isn’t in the constitution, nor in the state constitution I checked as well.

Still, it’s an admirable goal.

By: Amir

Amir — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 06:28:45 +0000

Antish, where does it say that in the constitution?

By: antish

antish — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 05:53:17 +0000

Well, it’s one of the fundamental issues of funding religious education. The solution would be to not fund religion-based education. As per the constitution.

By: Amir

Amir — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 04:27:42 +0000

And I suppose Creationists would be hoping that their funds are not going to fund non-Creationist classes. Hence, one of the fundamental issues with public and homogenised education.

By: antish

antish — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 03:59:24 +0000

Defence is a pretty murky area and you are perhaps correct, but I doubt it. As for ‘long-term prestige projects’ examples, please.

I don’t know how British public schools are funded, but all Australian schools, state and private, receive a lot of government funding, based mainly on the number of students they have.

I’ve no idea how closely non-state schools have to stick to the curricula (there are 6 States in this state) but I certainly hope that my taxes aren’t funding any Creationism classes.

The whole issue of religious schools is fairly dubious in Australia, as the constitution states that education shall be ‘free, universal and secular”.