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Australia News on Feb. 8. 2020
Saturday, February 08, 2020
VietPress USA Source: www.reddit.com
Is anyone else having issues with 4G internet. Both my smartphone and my iPad is not getting proper 4G. Streaming services are cutting out constantly, and often stopping altogether, requiring me to restart the app.
I'm sure the storm has something to do with it, but just wondering if anyone else is having trouble with the 4G service?
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My partner is studying for her licence and this question came up which seems to be a little confusing even to myself who's already got my licence.
If vehicle Y is travelling straight and vehicle X wants to turn onto vehicle Y's road, unless there was appropriate signage or traffic signals why would vehicle Y give way?
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Hello, I have been back in america after living in Australia for 5 years and absolutely miss the sausage rolls. Most of the sausage I run into here is pork based and doesn't quite taste the same for making sausage rolls. Are there any aussies living in america that have found a great replacement or recipe?
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I'll try to avoid getting overly political. All I'm gonna say is, I love Australia, it's my home, but holy fuck our education system has some major problems. Maybe I just haven't been in the system long enough, but even the difference from my first year of placements to now is stark.
I'm a fully registered teacher in South Australia. I'm relatively fresh, but I've got some solid experience, and I like to think I'm pretty good at my job. Below is my rant about the failings of the Australian education system. To teachers, students, and parents, yes, I understand that every situation is different, education varies from state to state and city to city, but there is an overall feel I have got from teachers across the country.
Elementary school children aren't learning the proper social etiquette and behaviour required to be a part of a society. I suspect this is because there's a real fear to punish kids for their bad behaviour. Many schools around SA (and I suspect other states) seek to use "restorative practices". Restorative practices is basically a conversational technique to encourage the student to behave better. It sounds great on paper. "What happened? What were you thinking about at the time? What thoughts have you had since? Who was affected by your actions? What will you do next time?" Genuinely good questions to ask someone who has been involved in some sort of antisocial behaviour. Unfortunately, this straight up will not work with kids who don't have a fundamental understanding of their place within a community. You start trying to talk to kids, they immediately leap onto the defensive, or try to deflect the blame. If all else fails, they answer "I don't know." It also really needs students to relate to other parties. If students haven't built up sufficient empathy to fully understand the effects of their actions, restorative practice falls apart. At that point, stand in the corridor, sit in the corner, no recess, detention, go to the principal's office, help the duty teacher pick up rubbish, whatever. Also, we need to directly engage the parents in these instances, which at least in my experiences, doesn't happen. School and the home are kept far to separated. If bad behaviour is happening at the school, parents need to be made aware so the behaviour can be addressed at home.
These students enter high school with no understanding of how to be a student, or respect or empathy for other people. Of course, kids will be kids, but when you have students making nazi salutes in class "because it's funny", referring to advertisements as being funny because it "has some asian cunt", and advocating for the extermination of their coloured classmates "as a joke" you start to see a lack of understanding in these children. EDIT: I just want to say those things are real things that happened. This is not an exaggerated in the slightest.
There's also a real focus on passing kids. Not getting them to do their work required to achieve the grade necessary to pass, just passing them. During my placements a few years ago, I had a student not hand up a single piece of work, and was encouraged to give them a minimum passing grade because she had a history of producing acceptable work. It is so hard to fail kids, even when they so very clearly deserve it.
And if you do fail someone, you'd best be prepared for their parents to come in and bat against it no matter how well reasoned you are. I have failed students for very clear and blatant plagiarism (literally copy paste an entire article), and have parents try to argue that "they didn't understand that wasn't allowed". I could accept that to a certain degree if they were in year 5, or year 6. This kid was in year 10. So either mummy dearest is lying through her teeth, or there's an even worse failing than I had ever thought. Of course, I gave this guy the opportunity to resubmit (I have a blanket policy of resubmission for 51% of the grade after any fail), and he submitted another plagiarised piece, just from a different article.
I have friends in university education, and some university student friends, and they tell me these kids have started to enter university in the same way. Not understanding how to be a student at the most basic of levels, and lacking respect for their educators. I've been told that they come out the other end just fine, but that's where my direct experience ends.
So, here's where I try to blame things. I could go the route of my own parents, and try to blame video games. I could swallow my red pills and try to blame PC culture, for making punishments on elementary aged children socially risky. Or of course, I could blame parents. All of them would certainly make me feel better.
I think the overall blame is a shift in society and culture, brought on by the information age that I grew up in. Unfettered access to the internet has exposed children to more behaviours they shouldn't be replicating. The most common hobby in my classroom is video games cough cough fortnite, and that's fine, I'm a big gamer as well, but for many of these kids, it's their sole hobby. I have had students who game in the morning before school, play games at recess and lunch on portable game consoles (which is obviously against the rules, but they're sneaky gits), and then go home and play games. Rinse and repeat for their entire educational career. Again, nothing wrong with gaming being the main hobby, it's mine as well, but where does this leave room for parental interaction, another hobby, and of course, study.
Parents aren't observing what their kids are doing online, or what games they're playing. It is so much easier as a parent to drop your kid in front of a playstation or a smartphone than to actual do some parenting. Case in point, fortnite is M, don't let your 7 year old play it.
Hạnh Dương
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