Matters educational and grammatical

Some items from today's media:

# Geography teaching is to be restored, or elevated in importance in secondary schools, at least until year 10, reports The Australian . Federal Education Minister Bishop's media release, announcing a " new study into [shouldn't that be "study of"?] the teaching of geography in schools" is here.

An extract:

The Institute of Australian Geographers and the Australian Geography Teachers Association have raised concerns with me that too little geography is being taught in schools, and that in some cases, environmental and political studies are masquerading as geography. Parents have also raised concerns about the lack of rigour in the teaching of geography...The teaching of geography is vital to link students with society, culture and the physical environment at the local, national and global level.

Among other things the study will "investigate the fundamentals that every Australian student should know in the subject before they complete Year 10. " I've previously posted about similar developments (or proposed developments) in history teaching, so will be interested to see what the study identifies these fundamentals to be. I'd also like to know why, if geography (like history) is so important, it will cease to be compulsory after Year 10.

#The Australian also reports that Sharyn O'Neill , sister of writer Tim Winton has just been appointed director general of education in Western Australia.Whatever other talents she may possess she is not in her brother's league as a writer of English prose if this is any guide:

"We've over-cooked some things, we've made some things overly complex, but the line in the sand is that we are listening, we are keen to restore confidence and the very clear focus is on standards," she said.


# Minister Bishop also appeared on today's ABC RN Life Matters talking about performance based pay for teachers and how to encourage greater business involvement in schools.