IT’S that time of year when end-of-year school reports are sent home with children.
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Many of us can uncomfortably recall comments such as “can do better” or “must try harder”.
My grade 4 report stated “Keith must be good at something, but it’s nothing we teach at this school”.
Having retired almost 20 years ago – after 30 years as a primary school principal and having worked in 14 very different schools during my 40-year career – I sometimes wonder about the value of school reports.
I seem to recall that some of my report cards were folded into boats and “accidentally” found their way sailing along creeks as I walked home in Newcastle.
Keith Curry
STADIUMS PRIORITISED OVER SCHOOLS AND HOSPITALS?
WHICH spending of $2.5 billion is more relevant to the needs of the NSW electorate?
Demolishing two stadiums built over recent years and rebuilding them – or expanding seriously overcrowded public hospitals that have been awaiting new facilities and equipment for several years; and building new public schools to relieve the pressure on scores of overcrowded primary and high schools (let alone many schools awaiting urgent repairs for years) to ensure their students receive education appropriate to their and societies' needs.
The state government has outrageously diverted revenue away from the essential functions of government and does not deserve to continue in office.
Harold Levien
SEVEN MILLION REASONS TO BELIEVE IN A FAIR GO
THE 2016 census counted just under 50,000 same-sex couples: 100,000 people. Call it 200,000, counting LGBTIQ people not currently in couples.
Multiply that by, for argument's sake, four, to count close friends and family. Take away a few: Let's say best guess, around 800,000 people voted "yes" because it directly affected them.
That leaves seven million people who voted "yes" even though there was absolutely nothing in it for them.
They voted "yes" because they wanted to live in a society where everyone is equal before the law. Because Australia is still the land of the fair go. Because they knew it was just the right thing to do. Because they refused to buy into the fear-mongering. Or just because, why on earth not?
Young people, old people, men, women, people in the city, in the suburbs, in the country towns and in the outback, in every state and territory.
I am astounded and humbled by that number. Seven million people. It gives me great hope for the future. Thank you from the bottom of my heart to each and every one of you.
Kate Deakin
FRACTIONALLY MIFFED BY SAME-SEX MARRIAGE STATS
IT seems we have voted "no" to mathematics equality. 61.6 per cent is not almost two-thirds as many in the media assert, but almost five-eighths or a little over three-fifths.
What has happened to our knowledge of fifths and eighths?
Peter FitzSimons states that the "yes" was within four percentage points of doubling the "no". Not in my classroom.