Latest Articles
We are encouraged to rely more and more on government officials to do for us what we could equally well do for ourselves—and, maybe more importantly, not to do what might help us solve our own problems.
Sep 08 2024
10 mins
If we imagine a metric called the Pinocchio Scale, which measures the number of lies told by a politician as a percentage of his or her overall public statements, our current prime minister (for want of a better description), Airbus Albo, has moved well into uncharted territory.
Sep 06 2024
5 mins
The Smart Play to Lift Our Schools
By all accounts, 2019 has been an emotive year in our education landscape. Australia has been alive with disdain for apparent stagnant literacy and numeracy results. In our obsession, barely a week transpires without critics asserting their opinion about NAPLAN, teacher training, phonics, mobile phone bans, student suspensions, or school starting age; all claiming to be in the name of improving student achievement.
Australia is not alone. UK media outlets report ‘More than one in four children falling behind by age five’ and in the US it’s been asserted that scores are not improving despite ‘stronger academic standards, more tests, stricter teacher evaluations and laws that discourage schools from promoting third graders if they can’t read proficiently’. US Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has labelled the current situation a ‘student achievement crisis.’
Educator and researcher, Linda Darling-Hammond, gifted the US with the statement, ‘If all that testing had…
Madam: Archbishop Fisher (July-August 2024) does not resist the attacks on his church by the political, social or scientific atheists and those who insist on not being told what to do.
Aug 29 2024
6 mins
To claim Aborigines have the world's oldest continuous culture is to misunderstand the meaning of culture, which continuously changes over time and location. For a culture not to change over time would be a reproach and certainly not a cause for celebration, for it would indicate that there had been no capacity to adapt. Clearly this has not been the case
Aug 20 2024
23 mins
A friend and longtime supporter of Quadrant, Clive James sent us a poem in 2010, which we published in our December issue. Like the Taronga Park Aquarium he recalls in its 'mocked-up sandstone cave' it's not to be forgotten
Aug 16 2024
2 mins
