set 1987: no. 1

Just kids, aged nine to twelve, so you wouldn't expect any great insights from them about the world, would you? I asked them how they thought houses would be different when they grew up. Most thought they'd be bigger and better. One thought they would be smaller because people would have fewer children, and one predicted a few big houses for the rich and many small ones for the poor. Nothing surprising in all that. Just stuff they pick up from their older brothers and sisters or their… Read more

It is profoundly disturbing to learn that 70% of Australian 15-year-olds' expect the future to be ended by nuclear war. The research which revealed this was not elaborate. It was called 'Images of the Future'; Australian secondary students at Years 9 and 10 (approximately 15-16 years old) were asked what their futures would be like. The researchers used interviews, questionnaires and asked for written imaginings of what the world would be like in 20 years time. It came as a shock to me to… Read more

The story I have to tell is not a particularly cheerful one. Discrimination on grounds of ethnic origin - racial discrimination - is widespread. The evidence for it is well established by research, by the investigations of Commissions and by what we see in front of our eyes in our cities. Teachers, principals, inspectors and politicians all declare themselves concerned about the levels of discrimination in society at large and are committed to doing something about this within the schools… Read more

Helping children become less prejudiced. That is one of our airns as teachers. In Social Studies prejudice often shows up as, 'My
culture, my ways, are right and other cultures, other ways not like mine, are wrong.' Strictly speaking, prejudice is pre-judging, making up our minds without evidence and we can be prejudiced for or against something. In Social Studies we are usually trying to help children to be less ethnocentric, that is, that special sort of prejudice just described.… Read more

The sweeping and controversia1 1978 American Education Act is now challenging many assumptions about the integration of handicapped with nonhandicapped children. The Act stated that al1 handicapped children should be educafed in mainstream schools, except in the most extreme cases. Professor Douglas Biklen of Syracuse University, New York, was commissioned by the Federal
Government to conduct a four-year evaluation of 45 different schemes. His fmdings knock down four particular myths… Read more

Children often enjoy play fighting and wrestling together. From the preschool years onwards, this kind of play - often called rough-and-tumble play - is a common feature of school playgrounds or any open spaces where children can play. But attitudes to rough-and-tumble (or r&t for short) vary considerably. Some adults favour it (parents rnay do it with young children, for example), others regard it as harmless but of little benefit, yet others see it as noisy, dangerous and like real… Read more

Teachers are the keepers of attendance registers. They have a legal obligation to do so. But where there are absences, what can be said? What can be inferred? What can be done? Most research into attendance difficulties has focused on families and their problems. It is true that the vast majority of children with attendance difficulties have home circumstances that are causing them stress. However,
many of the children who are regular attenders have the same home circumstances and they… Read more

This discipline strategy is designed for schools rather than single classes. A proper implementation process involving in-service training for all staff is recommended. The strategy requires consistent application by all teachers and administrators. It is only for use when students are being difficult and their disruptive behaviour is making it hard for the teacher to teach and pupils to learn. In other
instances when students are not disruptive but rather day-dreaming and just not… Read more

Schools do not create jobs. They do create school leavers. However, there is no reason why they should create school-leavers who do not have the practical know how to participate competently in life beyond school. In Melbourne schools programmes which join academic study with practical experience have been underway for 14 years. They have been given several names: youth participation programmes, youth action, or youth advocacy projects. These have been observed and reported on.