Nice People Thread No. 14, all Nice and Proper

zagubov

Generali wrote: »

Primary school runs for 7 years from Kinde (5 years old roughly) to year 6 (12). Almost all Aussies go to state primary school at first. Some go private in year 3 but most that go private do so in year 5. Going private in many ways means removing your kids entirely from the local community as they are expected to play sport for the school at the weekend, not for the local team.

There are basically 4 types of state High School: wholly selective, partly selective, non-selective and school of the air (these days done via internet).

Selective schools can select on the basis of general educational attainment or something else like ability at drama or science. Partly selective schools will have a general cohort and then a group, normally half the students, who are selected. Selection is done using a standardised set of tests AIUI. Non-selective schools will generally have special provision of some sort for outliers in achievement levels at the upper and lower bound (thick kids and bright kids get extra classes).

School of the Air is basically schooling via Skype. It's for kids who live in very remote places that can't or don't want to go to boarding school. It's very Australian to say the least.

Years ago a lot of the educational videos you could get were Aussie ones, as I think they sent videocassettes to rural areas, so the country put a lot of effort in it.

I'm always amused by the number of people who think that school could be replaced by videos. I've seen attempts at that and it isn't pretty.;)

I'm speaking as a big fan of distance learning, which for adults was a vastly neglected area in recent years. For kids, maybe not quite such an effective option.

Generali

zagubov wrote: »

Years ago a lot of the educational videos you could get were Aussie ones, as I think they sent videocassettes to rural areas, so the country put a lot of effort in it.

I'm always amused by the number of people who think that school could be replaced by videos. I've seen attempts at that and it isn't pretty.;)

I'm speaking as a big fan of distance learning, which for adults was a vastly neglected area in recent years. For kids, maybe not quite such an effective option.

Distance learning would be the only alternative to compulsory boarding for many kids in Aus once they hit High School and so require specialised teachers.

This is the official schtick on the SOA:

http://www.australia.gov.au/about-australia/australian-story/school-of-the-air

the fact is that for many Australian children and especially children living in small, remote Aboriginal communities the choice is SOA or the death of their community. As it is, many remote Aboriginal communities are living on borrowed time IMHO. White settlers (including me albeit passively) pushed Aboriginals from the prime parts of Australia to the margins and now complain about the cost of supporting Aboriginal communities in remote areas. Aboriginal people want to live on Sydney Harbour as much as I do!

The same thing has happened for centuries as a result of colonialism: force the indigenous population to the marginal land and then mock them for their 'lifestyle choice' of living in crappy places. Seriously, if you had the run of Australia, why would you live in the middle of the desert rather than by the Murray-Darling basin or by Sydney Harbour?

If it doesn't come across, I feel quite strongly about this!

Spirit_2

ivyleaf wrote: »

Spirit That's great news about the car and your being able to drive :T:T

Re funerals, I was telling DS that you could get cardboard coffins these days and I liked the idea of having one when the time comes. He thought about it, then said "Sturdy cardboard." Cheeky so-and-so!

Though to be fair, he meant sturdy cardboard in general, not just for me

My Mum had said she did not want anything expensive andwould have a cardboard coffin. She changed her mind after seeing her best friend depart this world in a "cake box".

Doozergirl

GDB2222 wrote: »

I don't know how big your dog is, but, how about getting a really large bin, say 50l if you need 30l of usable space. Fill the bottom third with bricks, then insert your bin bag. The idea is that it's too heavy for the dog to overturn. It's also tall enough that he can't reach in, even if he can open it. That obviously works better for medium sized dogs than huge ones.

Big dog. Looks like a child in a dog suit. The only thing he is missing is thumbs.

We have a heavy 50l Branantia. He reaches in, doesn't pull over. The more time he has available, the further he will reach.

Viva's suggestion looks like a possibility although some people's dogs still get into it and I can almost guarantee he will be one.

If I could find a bigger one to half-fill and see in the flesh, I may well buy it.

He drives me up the wall because he is exceptionally bright (he is a bearded collie x poodle) and gives me the feeling that he 'should know better' when he's skulking under the kitchen table. Twozerdog is a King Charles, as thick as the proverbial, has no comprehension of anything much and is smaller, therefore no trouble.

My advice to anyone consideringn a dog is to get a small, unintelligent one. Impossible to get angry with and incapable of stealing your dinner from the worktops anyway.

Generali

Aussies have the perfect solution: keep your mutt outside. :money:

GDB2222

Doozergirl wrote: »

Big dog. Looks like a child in a dog suit. The only thing he is missing is thumbs.

We have a heavy 50l Branantia. He reaches in, doesn't pull over. The more time he has available, the further he will reach.

Viva's suggestion looks like a possibility although some people's dogs still get into it and I can almost guarantee he will be one.

If I could find a bigger one to half-fill and see in the flesh, I may well buy it.

He drives me up the wall because he is exceptionally bright (he is a bearded collie x poodle) and gives me the feeling that he 'should know better' when he's skulking under the kitchen table. Twozerdog is a King Charles, as thick as the proverbial, has no comprehension of anything much and is smaller, therefore no trouble.

My advice to anyone consideringn a dog is to get a small, unintelligent one. Impossible to get angry with and incapable of stealing your dinner from the worktops anyway.

Aversion therapy? Something nasty happens when he goes near the bin. How cruel do you want to be?

You could just put something smelly on the bin lid. Some old perfume, or maybe marmite? That wouldn't be cruel, but electrifying the bin might be. :eek:

If I could get away with it, I would keep our mutt outside. But she's not used to it, so that would be unkind.

vivatifosi

Generali wrote: »

Primary school runs for 7 years from Kinde (5 years old roughly) to year 6 (12). Almost all Aussies go to state primary school at first. Some go private in year 3 but most that go private do so in year 5. Going private in many ways means removing your kids entirely from the local community as they are expected to play sport for the school at the weekend, not for the local team.

There are basically 4 types of state High School: wholly selective, partly selective, non-selective and school of the air (these days done via internet).

Selective schools can select on the basis of general educational attainment or something else like ability at drama or science. Partly selective schools will have a general cohort and then a group, normally half the students, who are selected. Selection is done using a standardised set of tests AIUI. Non-selective schools will generally have special provision of some sort for outliers in achievement levels at the upper and lower bound (thick kids and bright kids get extra classes).

School of the Air is basically schooling via Skype. It's for kids who live in very remote places that can't or don't want to go to boarding school. It's very Australian to say the least.

I wonder how much that's changed since I went to school there. I just looked up my old school and to get in it must be the closest school to where you live. What surprised me was how big it is compared to schools here.. over 500 students in a primary/junior school sounds really large. Getting in was easy as I lived opposite, only my next door neighbour was closer.

We also had v big classes back then, but I'm not sure whether that was the result of mass immigration under the White Australia policy (an unpleasant component of Genererali's comment re Aborigines) or the norm. There were 50 kids in my class with two teachers and we were streamed within the class into five groups.

kabayiri

Personally, I think the time will soon be right to revisit distance learning.

I remember a demo not so long back of a very highly specced video conferencing system.

It had a hi-res screen bisecting the round desk, and the whole desk surface was an interactive zone able to scan documents and present on the other side.

It felt a completely different experience to the normal stilted video conferences you get.

As the technology matures and becomes more widespread, it will get cheaper and filter down to the masses.

I'm hoping that it can bring the best teaching practise to the widest range of pupils.

Of course, it won't solve the problem of teaching those who don't actually want to learn. I'm not sure what will.

vivatifosi

I have not been able to do my garden for five weeks. At first I was on holiday and since I've been back I have either had other commitments or it has rained. Last night I had a nightmare in which I couldn't get out of my back door because a tree had grown up against it, nor out of my window due to a forest of brambles. This coming weekend not looking too good either.

kabayiri

Doozergirl wrote: »

...
My advice to anyone consideringn a dog is to get a small, unintelligent one. Impossible to get angry with and incapable of stealing your dinner from the worktops anyway.

Our dog is small enough to struggle getting anything but her nose up to the level of the kitchen worktops.

She can't be that intelligent either.

She hasn't worked out where we keep the ladders and step stools (I won't say where here in case she can read ).

She hasn't even tried to fashion some kind of rudimentary zip wire to run from the dining table over to the kitchen area.