To understand racism, kids must empathise with its impact — and teachers must embrace discomfort writes Niranjan Casinader. For people who experience racism, the pain sometimes comes as much from words as it does from actions. Indigenous people like Adam Goodes and Latrell Mitchell have spoken...
Ruth Wajnryb reflects on the usage of euphemisms. When my son was little, I took him to the Boston Children’s Museum. The impact of one experiential display stayed with me long after the event. It was a group picture and the task was to count the...
There’s more value to pocket money than just the cash, says Mary Pearl. I was having my morning caffeine fix at the local cafe and overheard two young mums discussing pocket money. One wanted her daughter to learn about the real world and how she would...
“If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, again.” This 19th-Century mantra has been drummed into kids for generations, writes Nicki Letts. Now it’s got new life as the biggest buzzword in education: grit. Did you know Bill Gates’s first business failed astronomically? That Stephen King’s...
Sue Thomson reports that almost one in four (23%) Australian year 8 students were being taught maths in 2018 by teachers whose major qualification was in a field other than maths, hitting disadvantaged schools even harder. Internationally, on average, just one in ten year 8 equivalent...
An attentive canine can boost a shy reader’s confidence reports Helen Lewis Since COVID-19 hit British shores, 3.2 million pets have reportedly been purchased. Animals provide a valuable sense of companionship and a wide variety of species, including dogs, cats, fish, birds and horses have helped...
The arrival of two guinea pigs marks the end of Jodie McEwen’s pet procrastination. I’m just not an animal person; love of creatures is not in my nature. My dad tried to pass on his love of animals, so we had rabbits, guinea pigs, fish, birds,...
Starting behind: more than half of young Australian kids living in adversity don't have the skills they need to learn to read, report Sharon Goldfeld, Hannah Bryson, and Jodie Smith Around one in three (36%) Australian children grow up in families experiencing adversity. These include families...
Not every student needs senior maths, but we can make maths more engaging in the earlier school years, writes John Fischetti. In late 2019, New South Wales announced it would make maths compulsory all through school. Victoria will have an additional, easier, year 12 maths subject...
Parents, your kids are watching you, writes Katy Thomas Recently, Prime Minister Scott Morrison told Australians the treatment of women is not “of a scale that any government can simply change, it is something we must change as a society”. And as a society, we are in...
