The Watermelon Blog Green on the outside, social justice inside
"We can do better" (Kennedy)
Richest fluency
"This is what you shall do: Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to everyone that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul; and your very flesh shall be a great poem, and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body." Walt Whitman
I recently phoned my old English teacher from high school in 1961 having found his address. I just wanted to say thank you, not only for teaching me how to write, and have an appreciation for literature, but for giving me confidence in myself. A few days ago I once again saw the students at the Gundaroo public school, also the outcome of amazingly dedicated and hard-working teachers, instilling wonderful values into their students. Not only do the students strive to excel, but they strive to look after each other as well. And they learn from a wonderfully varied curriculum, far better than anything I was being taught at primary school 50 years ago.
Gundaroo school would be typical of any country school in Australia. Not only important for what they do for students, but because the teachers and their families themselves form important parts of the bush community. Surprising and very distressing then to hear the Australian prime minister recently attacking public schools and their teachers. It seems to me that Australian public schools have long been an important part, perhaps the most important part, of the way in which the Australian character has developed. In public schools you can mix with people from all walks of life, girls and boys, rich and poor, people from different cultures. It is a mixture that has developed Australian egalitarianism and mateship. This ethos has been critically important in wartime, soldiers and officers working together cohesively in a common cause.
The British army of course, its officers the sons of the rich, educated at Eton and Harrow, the other ranks not, was, at least until recent times, famous for the contempt with which officers regarded their men and their men regarded their officers. Not a recipe for a cohesive fighting force. Similarly British politics was long the preserve of the rich and powerful, not a recipe for social cohesion. In Australia it is usually said that politicians are said to be held in contempt, although I think it is more the case that they are seen, healthily, as being no different to, and certainly no better than, us. A good recipe for keeping some sense of balance, and some common sense, in public life and policy. And quite different to countries where the leader is seen as being beyond criticism.
The recent policy of the government in starving public schools of funds, not valuing teachers with decent wages, and supporting the rich schools and those with a very narrow purpose and student base, is a recipe for changing Australian society away from the mateship that we value so much in the bush. I wonder if John Howard has phoned any of his old high school teachers to say thank you for an Australian education?
"You are a person of some interest,one comes to you and takes strange gain away." (Pound)
"I find that I can have no enjoyment in the world but the continual drinking of knowledge. I find there is no worthy pursuit but the idea of doing some good for the world." (Keats)
"nothing startles me beyond the moment. The setting sun will always set me to rights - or if a sparrow come before my window I take part in its existence and pick about the gravel." (Keats)