Category: Australian Home Education

SA Hsers produce HSing Myths exposed film

Originally posted at Adelaide News A GROUP of home-schooled students from the Adelaide Hills will make their film-making debut as part of the Little Big Shots Film Festival. The five students, aged between 10 and 14 years, made We're Homeschooled! which explores the myths and realities of non-traditional education. Co-director Maisie Fabry, 14, of Aldgate, said the short documentary had taken a month to shoot and edit. "When you go into shops, people say things like `Oh, are you home-schooled? Where do you do that?' " Maisie said. "We say `At home'. Hopefully, the film will help to clear up some of those questions." Maisie said they interviewed people on the street: "Most people said they wouldn't want to do home schooling because there was no social interaction, but in the film we prove there's no problem with that." The international festival, to be held between October 9 and 11, is aimed at youth. The 6 1/2-minute film will be screened at 12.30pm on October 11. It's just one of 55 films from 20 countries in the fourth annual Little Big Shots Festival. The full program is available at...

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Welfare Payments Reform: School Attendance Tied to Welfare Payments

Welfare Payments Reform: School Attendance Tied to Welfare Payments   © Beverley Paine, July 2007 Many in homeschooling land have seen this coming for a long time, largely because our politicians are still for the most part ignorant of the option of homeschooling but also because our society is indoctrinated with the dogma that the only education available is a school education. I believe that educating both the population and politicians about the success and viability of home education is the best path to changing this perception. This is what a small number of dedicated home educating volunteers have been doing, to my knowledge, for over two decades. It would be good at this critical time in home ed history in Australia to see some wide-spread support for those activists, or better still, ALL home educators making their ideas, philosophies, thoughts and concerns and NEEDS more widely known. Now is not the time to sit back and let others fight for the freedoms we currently enjoy or have let slip in the past… There is an excellent website called How to Get Politicians Attention which outlines the relative effectiveness of the different methods you can use to contact politicians, as well as offering links to help you find their contact details. The Department of Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs has produced a downloadable paper called Welfare Payments Reform:...

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National Curriculum for Australia

A National Curriculum for Australia © Beverley Paine, 27 Nov 07 A media statement issued by Kevin Rudd and Stephen Smith on the 28th February 2007 outlined the newly elected government’s plans to set up a National Curriculum Board with the aim of developing a “rigorous, consistent and quality curriculum for all Australian students – from kindergarten to year 12” within three years. A National Curriculum has long been sought largely to eliminate the problems that arise when students move between states. According to the statement “the National Curriculum Board will bring together Australia’s best and brightest educationalists to ensure the best aspects of State and Territory curricula are available to all our children.” It would be wonderful to see some input from home educators, but I suspect that this education sector will be overlooked. In reality, a National Curriculum is yet another move towards eliminating the sovereignty of the States. Nationalisation is probably an inevitable outcome of Federalism, it’s just taking a century or so to completely weasel the authority away from the States… In the 1990s a National Curriculum was vociferously rejected, principally in the first instance by universities, and then by private schools and most senior high school staff. It was implemented fully in only one state (SA) and then abandoned. I can hear SA teachers groaning at the thought of learning yet another new curriculum...

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