brendan gets his letter published :D

[bilgia]

wow

[brendan]

who wants to analyze the language ? xD

[droodles]

what a bloody champ, tats FSN history right there

[midas_touch]

Awesome work Brendan . Doing West Sunshine proud .

[Ahmad]

Nice!

[brendan]

http://www.theage.com.au/letters/?page=fullpage#contentSwap1

Success and failure

WHAT Maureen Douglas proposes is yet another attempt to erode educational standards by pretending that all students can succeed all the time. Children in our schools need to be encouraged to see failure as an event, not a state.

Second, it's a fallacy to suggest that national tests preclude a teacher from communicating his/her perspective or using other assessment tools as a complement to the tests.

Third, testing is about providing parents, teachers and students with valuable and objective information about their school progress. If a student is having trouble, remedial action can be taken as soon as possible.

Finally, it is no coincidence that those who oppose accountability measures are almost always the ones who are being held accountable. Indeed, those who most fervently oppose the testing of students are usually the ones with a keen self-interest in keeping parents in the dark — teachers and administrators.

Brendan Duong, West Sunshine

[squance]

WOW!!! Good job!!!

[Collin Li]

I like the event/state distinction. Where did you get that from? Probability?

[droodles]

see how cool arts people are !

[brendan]

im not an arts student ...

[squance]

im not an arts student ...

ROFL

[brendan]

did anyone read the education section in today's age?  8-)

[jess3254]

did anyone read the education section in today's age?  8-)

Haha yeah, I did. I agree with what you wrote.

[mark_alec]

did anyone read the education section in today's age?  8-)

I read education, but didn't see that you had written anything

[brendan]

here is what i sent in

"Graeme Smithies' opinion piece (Education, 12/5) is highly misleading.
Graeme Smithies points to the research that shows that socio-economic
factors can influence a child's academic performance, but then ignores the
research that shows that the magnitude of these effects pale into
insignificance compared with class/teacher effects. In essence Smithies
ends up using research like a drunk uses a light post -- for support
rather than illumination.

Furthermore, it is no coincidence that those who selectively and
misleadingly cite research to explain away the poor performance of
students, are almost always the teachers or administrators of schools with
poor performing students.

This ideology of social determinism is simply a convenient tool for
administrators and educational unions to escape accountability for their
actions.

Ignoring the connection between teaching and learning not only means
ignoring volumes of educational and econometric research but also flies in
the face of common sense. If there's no connection between teaching and
learning, why should we bother with having teachers at all?"