MySchool is a Terrible Idea

< Perth's leading school scholar, 1986

One of the things I am most proud of in Australia is the quality of State education. We have very few of the problems that countries like the US and Britain experience, mainly because we don't have to funnel money away from schools to pay for weapons programs. State schools are very well funded by taxpayers, and it is perfectly possible for a kid who goes to a State school to get a great education and rise right to the top. In fact, when I was a child, the two top ranked schools in Western Australia -- Swanbourne Senior High School and Hollywood SHS -- were both government schools. It cost $50 a year to go to those schools. By contrast, the school that I went to (Christ Church Grammar School), cost tens of thousands of dollars per year, but children from that school on average were less successful. Because of this experience, and also because I may want to send my kid to an Aussie State school in the future, I always keep a close eye on developments in State education in Australia.

One story that caught my eye last month related to the Federal Government's decision to rank thousands of Australian schools on a website. This idea is called "MySchool", and it is a perfect example of the shift to the political right of Australia's Labor Party. In an article published in the Sydney Morning Herald by the Australian Associated Press, the head of the Australian Education Union said it was a "sad day" for education in Australia  that the website had been created as it would track the performance of individual students, not schools. As a result, a misleading impression could be created that a school was bad, when in fact groups of poor performing students could be the problem. Reading between the lines, children of recent immigrants or from socially disadvantaged areas almost always go to government schools, which is why the government schools tend to have larger groups of poorly performing students. The idea of "choice" therefore is illegitimate. Can poor or socially disadvantaged kids choose to go to expensive schools? Why does the government keep cutting funding to government schools? Why does it keep subsidizing rich schools?

I though this was quite an interesting article, although not particularly balanced. It only presented one point of view -- the one I agree with -- but then again, I think the arguments for performance based websites are very poor. If the Liberal Party (Australia's Republican Party) had come up with the idea, I could understand it, but for the Labor Party to do this?

Soccer is for Wimps

Many years ago, when I was living in Perth, Western Australia, my English-born father tried to get me interested in soccer. Dutifully, we would watch Arsenal play on the Saturday night sports round-up, but I never cottoned on to the game. Sometimes there were no goals! And what was with all that girly rolling around on the ground after a bit of body contact? It was like watching cricket being played by a bunch of guys in ballet tutus, and I just wasn't having it. Incidentally, neither was my school. Soccer was completely banned on the grounds that it would sap the willingness of young boys to brutally attack each other at lunchtime while going up for Aussie Rules pack marks.

In recent years I have become increasingly perplexed by the willingness of people other than the English to watch this ludicrous game. Even in the PC office, there are Americans, Australians, and, God help me, New Zealanders, who show no embarrassment in admitting that they are fans. Granted, FIFA has invested billions of dollars in gender reassignment and mind control over the past 20 years, but this is something I just cannot understand. Every time I flipped on the tube during the recent World Cup, there was some grown man collapsing  like he had been shot after brushing against an opposing player's blouse. Yuck. I would immediately send my son to bed and switch over to Chuck Norris driving his Hummer out of a bomb crater.

You can imagine my approval then when I read Patrick Hruby's recent excellent piece on ESPN. In it, he quotes the US national coach, Ben Bradley, as saying that he would be "ashamed" if any of his players dived in order to gain a competitive advantage. Hruby then goes on to say that Bradley is a real man whom we should all admire, but a real dumb man nonetheless. As he so accurately points out, if US players had gone belly up every time someone sneezed on them, then the talented Yanks almost certainly would have got into the finals. The inevitable conclusion therefore is that US soccer players must become a lot more corrupt and lily-livered if ever they are going to make any progress in this "beautiful game".

Rereading Hruby's article, I can see he is being sarcastic throughout, which makes it quite difficult to gauge his true attitude. However, on balance, I think it is as fair to say that he is as disgusted as I am by the long-established and continuing blight on what otherwise may be a mildly entertaining sport. I honestly hope it remains a minority game in Australia, which seems guaranteed given the lethal combination of the vuvuzela, the ridiculous salaries paid to a bunch of creatively shaved show ponies, the boring inevitable dominance of Man U and Real Madrid, and the horrible acting. Check out the video below for an excellent example.  



Incidentally, here is how real men play footy.

Gary Ablett - is he staying or going?

Gary Ablett is a star player for the Geelong Football Club ("The Cats") in the Australian Football League. He has been instrumental in the side's success over the past three years, and he is key to Geelong winning the Grand Final again this year. As I am a lifelong Cats fan, I always try to keep up to date with what's happening to "Gazza". I am especially concerned that the Gold Coast football club may take him from us by dangling lots of cash in front of him. Jason Akermanis, one of the biggest idiots in footy, but someone who knows Ablett quite well, has written a story today which gives some very interesting information about developments.

In this story, Akermanis (also known as "Aker") suggests that pro sports is one of the most pressurizing industries you can be involved in. Therefore, players are under a lot of stress, and there can be many factors that can make them move. Do they get on with the coach? Are they in a team that is likely to win a premiership? Do the fans annoy them? Sports stars almost never will let on how they feel about these things, and that is why the footballing public should not be too shocked if Gazza suddenly decides to leave.

When I read this story, I had a pretty negative reaction. Aker, in my opinion, is a self-serving little creep, and there never was much doubt about why he left the Brisbane Lions (his team-mates found him to be unbearable). However, as much as I loathe Aker, it is true to say that he makes some decent points. But does he tell me anything I don't already know? No. Like all of us, he doesn't have the faintest idea about what's going to happen to Gazza. Thanks a lot, Aker.