Australian Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey 2

Jim Belshaw has posted on the Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey 2006 from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, released just today. I have downloaded the full report, and to be honest have not had time to do more than browse.

Jim’s post does have a good historical introduction.

He then notes:

A second thing stands out when I look at the numbers. Those in the 15 to 19 age cohort had lower levels of literacy than the 20 to 24 year age cohort and by a reasonable margin.

The following graph captures that; I won’t even try to explain the five categories at this stage. The general trend is what Jim is referring to.

Sirdan’s Sunday lunch

The Empress, E, Sirdan’s neighbour and I had our post-election Sunday lunch today. There was no weeping or gnashing of teeth.

The conversation did get around to a remarkable story that was front page news in Saturday’s Sydney Morning Herald even with that day’s election dominating: Lesson for the school of hard Knox, concerning the young man above.

IT TAKES a lot of guts at the best of times to stand in front of 1350 fellow students, 150 teachers and 600 parents in the school assembly hall and tell it as it is.

But when it involves accusing some of your year 12 classmates of being cheats, and fingering influential parents for bullying the school authorities into giving prestigious positions to undeserving sons, the effect can be nothing short of sensational.

Especially when the school is the well-respected North Shore institution Knox Grammar, which counts among its alumni the veteran broadcaster John Laws, Macquarie Bank chairman David Clarke, former editor of the satirical Oz magazine Richard Neville, Hugh Jackman and ethicist Simon Longstaff.

What “Old Teachers Never Die” needs…

…is a bit of ranting. So I have obliged, though it is a rant I deeply believe in. See The literacy we need but many don’t want… That “many” includes just about everyone on Howard’s side of politics and some on Rudd’s, but if you really want an education revolution that might deliver a healthy democracy, this is the way you have to go.

Global warming a hoax? No, the hoax claim is a hoax…

Interesting.

See Global warming a hoax? No, the hoax claim is a hoax. Rush Limbaugh fell for it, though, as did several others who profess to be skeptical of global warming.

If Maths had been like this I may have been interested…

Dear me, there is a nasty left-wing plot brewing in the world of Mathematics of all places, according to Devine pater in today’s Australian.

The square route to hell is paved with good intentions

WATCH out for radical maths, which may be coming to a school near you. Also known as “social justice maths”, it is a teaching theory, gaining momentum in the US, which seeks to use mathematics as a form of instruction in social justice issues.

For example, in studying fractions, a student might be asked to “compare how money spent on military operations could be used to support other important causes (for example, if a bomb costs $10 million and it costs $10,000 to provide health care for an entire family for a year, how many families could get health care for the cost of this bomb?).”

Latest on Old Teachers Never Die…

…though they do, you know. Today I recall Sydney University’s Bill Maidment, who died in 2005. Anyone interested in English Studies or nostalgia about the “good old days” in academia will find the entry worth reading, I hope.