A lot of our local schools have brought it online.
When it was first announced, I thought it was a good idea. Kids moving schools picking up where they left off and all that stuff.
Now between my friends who teach, my kids who tell me what they’re doing and my own observations from two different schools, I’m no longer convinced. There is no room for kids who find it difficult. Queensland was already behind the other states and kids are expected to make huge leaps to reach what is now deemed the appropriate standard.
In FNQ it seems that teachers now essentially must deliver a script that they are not to deviate from. I have a friend who teaches at a school in an indigenous community. The kids have no idea whatsoever about what’s going on and simply can’t keep up. No allowances are made.
My kids attend the local state school. What I’m seeing in terms of education regarding most of these areas does not foster critical thought and seems more geared to producing a generation that are compliant rather than inquisitive with a standardised knowledge that appears to have huge gaps.
Certainly in regards to indigenous culture, what my kids are being taught is largely a caricature not far removed from the “no clothes and bark huts” image I was taught at primary school. It’s not quite as bad as that, but it’s still pretty poor. It’s quite embarrassing when a significant portion of the school population is of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent. They certainly don’t seem to make mention of any genuine local history. My kids are lucky in that I have indigenous friends who can tell the stories of our local area.
note to self…. Must prime kids to ask their teachers how skeleton creek got it’s name