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Saturday, 15 April 2006
Yes, I am annoyed... I give you this just as I wrote it on my personal site. What a stupid, stupid story! It beggars belief completely that anyone would be surprised by this, or even call it news! Where have these people been for the past five years: under rocks?
"I find the question sublimely stupid," Professor Bloom, an internationally renowned literary critic, the Sterling Professor of Humanities at Yale and Berg Professor of English at New York University, said yesterday.
"It is another indication that literary study has died in Australia."
The question was an assessment task in March set for advanced English students in Year 11 at SCEGGS Darlinghurst, an independent Anglican girls' school in inner Sydney. Considered one of the nation's leading schools, it charges almost $20,000 a year in fees for senior students. My main complaint is that this approach, while commendable, is far too time-consuming to be done properly, and that is not the fault of SCEGGS or any other school. It is this potted treatment that the constraints of the examination system make inevitable that I object to, not the enquiry itself. Indeed, I do not see how anyone even slightly informed about the nature of literary study in the 21st century could avoid the fact that a multiplicity of critical approaches to literature exists, and that students of literature must be asked to examine that. The sensible and bleeding obvious point is saved to the last paragraph of The Australian's muckraking report: "The president of the English Teachers Association of NSW, Mark Howie, said the assessment question was in keeping with the syllabus - that students develop a personal understanding of the text and can relate to the notion that it can be interpreted differently in different contexts." Indeed if SCEGGS was not asking such questions that would truly be a scandal, as it would mean the school was remiss in preparing its students for the HSC. See also my English Studies Page here.
Posted by neilwhitfield at 10:58 AM KDT
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Updated: Saturday, 15 April 2006 11:40 AM KDT Friday, 7 April 2006
Students and teachers, especially at Sydney Boys High: Make use of the materials here for you. I will be maintaining them in my retirement.
Must-see TV. Did you see this on ABC over three Monday nights in January and February? Race: the Power of an Illusion takes you to an excellent PBS support site for the series.
Some things definitely need defending, our cultural pluralism and need to live in harmony not being least. Do visit Sue Ellson's blog Living in Harmony Australia.
 Late last year I helped the Library set this up. There's not a lot there yet, but I am sure there will be in 2006. This present blog has now become more personal, reflecting its change of name, but will continue to be dedicated to education, linguistics, TESOL, English Studies and multiculturalism. You may also be interested in my personal blog. In February 2005 about 475 visits came our way. The record in the rest of 2005 was 900 in May, but March 2006 topped 1,500! Visitor #20,000, from Blackpool inthe UK, arrived at 12:16:28 am on 4 April, looking for information about Orlando, which they found here. Recently I checked links on all the FAQ pages and some other popular sites, but maintaining such a large number of pages is like painting the Sydney Harbour Bridge, a never-ending task. Do assist by letting me know if you find dead links. I will be adding some new HSC topics soon here on the blog. These reflect my current tuition clients, but should help many more of you.
Posted by neilwhitfield at 12:01 AM KDT
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Updated: Friday, 7 April 2006 2:48 PM KDT Tuesday, 28 March 2006
I found this site today while looking for something else and I have already mentioned it on Books and Ideas, but I really don't want anyone to pass up the chance of visiting it. Charles Notess is informed, positive, and also American. Perhaps there is hope.
Sunday, 12 March 2006
Aside from having the good taste to link to this blog, Charles Nelson offers a great site of his own over at Kean University, Union, NJ, USA. This entry, Critical composition, shows the quality you may expect. Critical literacy and "an understanding of diversity and social justice" go hand-in-hand. Spot on!
And the music playing? See Songs of Flight: "This CD features musicians who came to Australia as refugees. These musicians are some of the finest in Australia and have made an indelible mark on Australia's music culture. From the traditional sounds of Tibet with Nyima Tashi and Dawa Dolma, to the new jazz of Wanderlust." It's good.
Tuesday, 7 March 2006
Afterwards I went to Newtown and bought Iain Lygo, News Overboard (Southerly Change Media 2004), with a preface by SBHS Old Boy Marcus Einfeld. It is a disturbing but important book. For more information, go to my Books and Ideas blog. News Overboard will also interest students studying Frontline in Year 12.
Thursday, 2 March 2006
This came my way by email tonight, indirectly from Iraq via a source not unknown to some of my readers. I find it quite delightful, and an interesting comment on last December here in Sydney.
Tuesday, 28 February 2006
I really believe that, and many of our leading politicians -- from the Prime Minister down -- have aided and abetted this shameful regression. Have you ever heard of Sydney University anthropologist Ghassan Hage? I used to think his ideas, developed in such books as White Nation and Against Paranoid Nationalism: searching for hope in a shrinking society, were a bit too extreme, and I have to admit he still makes me uncomfortable. But that he is on to something has become increasingly apparent. Seriously. See Peter Costello adopts missionary position on my personal blog for February 24. For the sake of argument, go to a contrary view -- if not 100% contrary -- on Adrian Neylan's famous Man of Lettuce, Sydney cabbie blog.
Monday, 27 February 2006
In 2002 I had a Year 12 Extension 1 class at Sydney Boys High. I created a site for them -- "Pomosh": POstMOdernism Sydney High -- on Diary-X. Unfortunately, in February 2006 Diary-X totally crashed and burned. Nor did I have back-ups. However, using Yahoo Search I have been able to find those now vanished pages and they have now been revived as Neil Whitfield's English and ESL Pages: "Pomosh". They can still be helpful for students and teachers.
Tuesday, 21 February 2006
When this site was badged under the name "Sydney Boys High School" I judged my careful comparative analysis Revision or Ideological Makeover? HREOC's "Face the Facts" Rejigged to be too political and published it in my personal pages. I have now revisited it and published it here where it really belongs. When I first wrote this analysis in 2003 and shared it with my ESL colleagues in other schools it received much assent and praise. I commend it to your attention. We are living in a time when concepts like "diversity" and "acceptance" really do not have the endorsement of government, who have moved towards the weaker concepts of "harmony" and "tolerance", and who are most comfortable, indeed, with contemplating the material and economic benefits of our cultural mix more than other aspects, rather than pursuing the robust multicultural policy which began above all under the Prime Ministership of Malcolm Fraser even more than under that of Gough Whitlam. The impact of Pauline Hanson on the current approach has been more profound than many care to acknowledge, and this is in the main because Hanson's views in fact coincided in many respects with those of John Howard, views John Howard famously espoused back in 1988 and earlier.
Later Howard sought to redefine what he'd said about too many Asians spoiling our "social cohesion" by talking about curtailing the family reunion policy...
On August 31, 1989 Howard told the Federal Council of Polish Associations, "I don't have a prejudiced bone in my body."
In 1998 when Pauline Hanson was bagging Aboriginal welfare and Asian immigration, Howard said he would never call One Nation supporters "racist".
So with all this context is it any wonder, for a man who has spoken out of both sides of his mouth for 30 years on race, that he wouldn't detect just the tiniest hint of racism in the land he leads, and moreover not lift a finger to do anything about it? -- Richard Ackland. Nonetheless, HREOC is still a very valuable body, and I support Harmony Day and commend it to you.
Monday, 20 February 2006
That is what amazes me most about the abysmal five minute in-depth item on education in tonight's Frontline -- sorry, Today Tonight on Channel Seven. With prior warning before you click on the link that I go for the jugular on this and also say a few other things which may offend some sensibilities, see what I have to say on it on my personal site. I begin thus:
I also refer you to "Study reveals rising standards in pupils' English"
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