The Australian Education System

English is often described by people as a subject that tests your ability to learn, more than actually you teaching you anything.
My ability to learn is limitless. And I can honestly say it taught me a whole heapin' helpin' o' nothin'.

Although I just reminded myself of an old line I used when the Secretary to the NSW Education Minister visited our school years ago. He asked me what I was studying. I replied with this gem:

"Well, mine English teacher done learned me to talk myself the English good."

I think I escaped punishment because everyone was too horrified to come up with one.
 
It's all a big Orwellian plot by the fascist state government to institute Newspeak.

Finally someone says the truth about language classes for native speakers where you have to read pure crap. And they even call it "selection of our best literature". Our best literature? Some crappy book written by John Doe cannot compete with the FULL versions of Verdaguer's poems or El Tirant lo Blanch, whose CUT versions are also mandatory at school.
 
I just remembered something we were forced to read. That eye, the sky, by Tim Winton, who's supposed to be one of Australia's best authors. If I ever meet the meet, I will punch him full-force in the face. I mean that.

Only one girl in the class even bothered to finish it, and she actually had headaches for days afterwards. I've read literally thousands of books in my time, many of them bad, but this was hands-down the worst tripe I've ever seen. It made less sense than porn flicks, and the characterisations weren't as good either.
 
Camikaze said:
The use of juxtaposition in this 'humorous' way, coupled with your subsequent statement, was used to make the point that 'advanced literary knowledge', in Australian English courses (assumed to be Advanced English courses through the invocation of the word advanced), included the latter grouping of works stated. The juxtaposition was used to show the stupidity, yet connection, between the two groups. However, this subsequent statement of yours would be false, as shown in previous posts, as passing the Advanced English course invoked, as explained above, with flying colours, could not be achieved through the use of such texts.

Your erroneous assumption not mine. Why would I in the Northern Territory be talking about a New South Wales specific course?

Camikaze said:
And yet this partial qualification qualified the whole post as a factual statement. Which it isn't.

You've misinterpreted what I wrote and placed it in the wrong context.

Camikaze said:
By this stage, we were past the point of requalification. My brain had locked on to the fallacy/fallacies of your original statement, and had become inextricably attached to arguing the point.

It wasn't a fallacy, when properly contextualized. Confirmation bias ftw!

Camikaze said:
It's was kind of hard to continue an argument against your original statement, pertaining to advanced English, established through the aforementioned invocation of the word, when you requalified to basic English. It is possible to pass basic English with, well, basic English skills, I am not arguing that. I am arguing your initial statement, due to the fixation of my brain against such falsities presented in that post.

Your trying to construe an argument I presented as something it is manifestly not. Confirmation bias ftw!

Camikaze said:
As explained, the invocation of advanced, despite its seemingly ironic connotation, forced your statement to become one regarding Advanced English. Your disavowal of said qualification, in your subsequent post, was made past the stage at which my brain is capable of detaching itself from the horrendously atrocious fallaciousness of the former proclamation.

... your assuming that the advanced part of advanced English had a specific connotation for me. When it doesn't. "Advanced English" is called English Studies, or simply Studies in SSABSA, I was not aware that NSW used "Advanced Studies" as a course title. Confirmation bias ftw!

Camikaze said:
'Twas merely to inform you that Advanced English was not the elite and remote stratum that you seemed to deem it as. Those tiers would be English Extension 1, and English Extension 2.

Again I don't care, it was superfluous to my argument.

Camikaze said:
It would most likely not. Unless you analysed Harry Potter spectacularly, then you would get a horrible mark for it, not the kind of mark that would be considered one to boast about. I can't comment on the example you have provided, other than to say it could not possibly be as remotely popular as Harry Potter, and as such, would be marked in an easier fashion, due to the psychology, or at least, knowledge, of the markers, and their bias against populist text choices. However, despite this, students would still need an analysis of the text, in terms of the essay question, above and beyond the mere synopsis you suggest.

Essentially, if the text is easier to analyse, a far greater depth of analysis would be required to obtain equal marks, levelling out the playing field, in regards to people who choose easier, and more populist texts, than those that choose more technically proficient works.

Markers are overwhelmingly populist in inclination when it comes to marking, they read from a limited pool of literary sources and tend to be fairly conformist in mindset. It's common practice in private schools to choose obscure texts which the markers have not read on the same logic as your film example. I know I choose Dante Alighieri's, Divina Commedia: Inferno for my final year analysis specifically for that reason on the advisement of a former English exam marker and well regarded English teacher to choose something obscure. The same texts overwhelmingly crop up in English essays, including The Great Gatsby, 1984, A Brave New World for instance, which are populist classics and say Khaled Hosseni's works which are topical and populist at this present moment. The same poetry and films also overwhelmingly crop up, simply because it is easy for teachers to help students with works they are familiar with. Teachers tend to have a rotation of poetry and texts they will cover, they switch every year, but come back to the same texts in a few years with minor modifications.

It is also eminently possible to pass English at a middle tier level with a very simplistic understanding of the texts. Most of which is derived from the teachers themselves dropping unsubtle hints or even sitting down and hammering out prepared notes.

Camikaze said:
Was I meant to assume that for a seven syllable sentence, you have switched from talking about high school English, to not? You clearly stated, 'in the final year of high school...there is also no exam.' I apologise if I didn't quite catch the invisible and momentary subject change. So what exactly were you referring to?

Context...? Is there such a thing?! Because the English I'm talking about doesn't have an exam. It also appears that adjusting for state boundaries in middle tierEnglish, that Victoria does indeed have an exam which requires

PiMan said:
Although passing year 12 English is still very easy. I don't think I wrote more than a page in total for the final exam (3 hours), and I passed. Although my mark was well below average, since I got a 23 and the median score is 30 on a (imperfect) bell curve that goes up to 50.

And this bell curve is shifted more towards the lower end of the scale than in other subjects, due to the difficulty in obtaining an equivalent mark. Which is clearly against your initial statement (the one you apparently aren't arguing, but which I am), which stated that you could pass high-school English (implied) with flying colours very very easily. Which, as the comparative statistics show, you cannot.

It would help if you understood how the system operates, adjusted your expectations to fit everyone else and understood that your just being a fool (I've bolded the reason why).

Camikaze said:
Ah. Now I see! Communications English doesn't have an exam! That clears it up a bit. Well, seeing as I don't exactly know the NT, or NZ, education system (what I'm assuming you're referring to) back to front, I automatically assumed that this was comparable to Standard English (which I think was a fair enough leap), which does have an exam (or two, IIRC (just including the final external exams, not the numerous internal assessments)). So, from this, it seems your original statement can be applied to the NT (a very small percentage of Australia). But the NT is like a foreign country, they do things differently there.

Contextually where do you think I was talking about? Because if you think I was talking about NSW specifically or anything aside from Australia in a broad contextual statement then you have issues. Bolded, confirmation bias ftw!

Your also ignorant of the fact that the Territory operates under the Senior Secondary Assessment Board of South Australia (SSABSA).

Camikaze said:
I would be very happy with above 90, or a Band 6. That's because of my school, which is dodgy at English. Whereas we get ~100 Band 6's every year in Maths courses (including me last year, 'cause the school teaches it better, and focuses on it more), we get ~10 Band 6's in English every year. So, I would be quite happy with a Band 6. This also explains why I argued your original statement, that it was exceptionally easy to pass English with flying colours, even if you are functionally illiterate.

You argued it because you were caught in a confirmation bias and ignored my repeated qualifications.

Camikaze said:
Edit: Who are you and what did you do with Masada? Translation: 'Interesting' new avatar, and location.

I'm currently residing in a Hotel in less than sunny Russian climes. I'm not the one arguing at parallels :p

*

Sharwood said:
The English system in NSW at least is pathetic. I learnt to write essays by reading essays, certainly not at school. Public speaking, literature, etc., are all taught very badly. The fact that I have people at university coming up to me asking how I avoid getting nervous when speaking in public - people that have been at uni far longer than I have - is evidence of the poor quality of teaching in this area, as is the amount of people who just flat-out can't spell.

You were taught stuff in English?

Sharwood said:
I recently got asked to quiet down in the library at uni after spending a good fifteen minutes in absolute hysterics after reading one of my friends' presentation on the Fernch Revolution, which for some bizarre reason included a mention of King Herny IV. Many people, my bimbo cousin included, have taken to claiming to be dyslexic when they're just stupid. Now, I know people who are dyslexic, and I can tell the difference between someone who's dyslexic and someone who just can't spell. And most people I meet who routinely make mistakes can't spell.

I lay the blame at the education system which taught me to sound out words when I couldn't spell them. Anything slightly curve-ball and it would throw me off. It's only been after I've forced myself to spell and ironically use my mobile phones auto-text thingy that I've improved my spelling to its present mediocre level. Sentence structure can probably be laid at the altar of Victoria's terrible education strikes when I was younger, one of my teachers was a Union Organizer and was out of class most of the year and left us to the tender mercies of a series of useless replacement teachers.

Sharwood said:
My ability to learn is limitless. And I can honestly say it taught me a whole heapin' helpin' o' nothin'.

English taught me to learn nothing about nothing in the most possible time!

Sharwood said:
I just remembered something we were forced to read. That eye, the sky, by Tim Winton, who's supposed to be one of Australia's best authors. If I ever meet the meet, I will punch him full-force in the face. I mean that.

Only one girl in the class even bothered to finish it, and she actually had headaches for days afterwards. I've read literally thousands of books in my time, many of them bad, but this was hands-down the worst tripe I've ever seen. It made less sense than porn flicks, and the characterisations weren't as good either.

Australia's authors are horrible for the most part. After reading Fly Away Peter by David Malouf's and asking a good literary friend of mine if he was as awful a writer as I thought I got a rather interesting response "He's an awful writer" this was the same person who had been a teacher for a good thirty years.
 
I just remembered something we were forced to read. That eye, the sky, by Tim Winton, who's supposed to be one of Australia's best authors. If I ever meet the meet, I will punch him full-force in the face. I mean that.

Only one girl in the class even bothered to finish it, and she actually had headaches for days afterwards. I've read literally thousands of books in my time, many of them bad, but this was hands-down the worst tripe I've ever seen. It made less sense than porn flicks, and the characterisations weren't as good either.
One of my additional texts for this year is a Tim Winton (Dirt Music). The actual story and writing style seems horrific, and the characterisation just makes you hate all the characters. But English teachers love Tim Winton, because he is, apparently, technically masterful. Perhaps it's the lack of punctuation or the indecisive and ever changing tense. You can drag a great many techniques out of his writing, and that is what the BOS regards as technically proficient. But the stories themselves are not the most enjoyable, all though I did really enjoy his book of short stories, The Turning. Cloudstreet was marginally more enjoyable than Dirt Music, because you can actually develop empathy for some characters.

Apparently, Dirt Music is being turned into a movie starring Colin Farrell, Russell Crowe (replacing Heath Ledger) and Rachel Weisz. Because Colin Farrell would be an accurate potrayal of Australiana.
 
Any book, play or film that has to be studied is horrible. Maybe not always as bad as the book you discribed, but still bad.
I would probably have liked Gattaca had I not been forced to study it in year 11, but studying it means I will never like it.
Everything else I studied, I wouldn't have read or watched otherwise. My school had a weird thing of choosing books that I had no interest in whatsoever.

The only Tim Winton I had to read was Lockie Leonard: Human Torpedo. That book was horrible, but I think the English teachers chose it because they wanted something we would like. They failed from my perspective.
I'm not sure how anyone thought it should be made into TV series, I'm just glad the series was made after I passed year 8, else I would probably have been forced to watch it.
 
Being a year 12 NSW HSC student this year... being doing 3u maths and doing okay at it. 3u is slightly above 2u maths which is in my opinion the average level of maths, and then general maths which i wouldnt call directly below average.

For those not educated in Australia, 3u studies a respectable more than 2u, and 2u has a concentration on trig functions, logs and the etc, nothing advanced. General mathematics is more on life maths like finance, and is a rehash on everything people learnt during year 9 and 10, it doesnt go into applications of algebra. There is a 4u course, which in my school would require quite mathematical talent to partake in, they learn a higher application of 3u. This is however all my opinion which ive observed in my school only, i cant speak for the more prestigious schools in sydney ;)

I wonder how behind the NSW education system is behind for mathematics... ive heard in other parts of the world they learn calculus and integrals in year 9, while ive just learnt it only a year ago.

Also im wondering if the physics i learn as part of the HSC course is very basic or average compared to others in the world
Ive learnt Lenz Law, basic projectile motion, and applications of Newton's universal gravitation, as excerpts of the physics HSC course.

Im particularly wanting to be compared to what Europe, Japan and China do at my age.

someone care to enlighten me on my place in this world :P
I am becoming more cynical towards my educational system, recent trivial news was that it was reconsidered whether marking in red pen was suitable towards students, it might be too "harmful" and "aggressive". In my opinion thats a tad... no comment. Any thoughts?

lastly my english is a product of the Australian education system, ive been in it since kindy :)
I dont know if it matters if im technically ESL, english second language, my first being chinese

cheers
 
Camikaze said:
One of my additional texts for this year is a Tim Winton (Dirt Music). The actual story and writing style seems horrific, and the characterisation just makes you hate all the characters. But English teachers love Tim Winton, because he is, apparently, technically masterful. Perhaps it's the lack of punctuation or the indecisive and ever changing tense. You can drag a great many techniques out of his writing, and that is what the BOS regards as technically proficient. But the stories themselves are not the most enjoyable, all though I did really enjoy his book of short stories, The Turning. Cloudstreet was marginally more enjoyable than Dirt Music, because you can actually develop empathy for some characters.

Apparently, Dirt Music is being turned into a movie starring Colin Farrell, Russell Crowe (replacing Heath Ledger) and Rachel Weisz. Because Colin Farrell would be an accurate potrayal of Australiana.

The biggest problem I have with Tim Winton is he wants so desperately to make an overarching point using the most literary devices he can. What you end up with is a jarring mass of junk, it reads poorly, the characters become sock puppets ad the story is secondary at best. Malouf is also guilty of this, only infinitely worse.

Wong512 said:
Being a NSW HSC student this year... being doing 3u maths and doing okay at it, i wonder how behind the NSW education system is behind for mathematics... ive heard in other parts of the world they learn calculus and integrals in year 9, while ive just learnt it only a year ago

I believe that Australian mathematics standards are covered in a comprehensive national framework, so it's fairly uniform. I can compare it to New Zealand and Indonesia for mathematics if that will help. In which case I can say its broadly similar to the New Zealand model and the level of educational attainment is roughly parallel year on year. Indonesia's mathematics I gather broadly follow an Asian model which focuses more on basics, doesn't tend to rely on calculators and uses significantly more manual workings. You will not be as advanced mathematically if you come out of that system (assuming of course you finish high school) but you will have a stronger grasp of non calculator based mathematics.
 
Even its title makes no sense at all. It must be really bad.
It's about a kid who's father left who urinates on his new neighbours' petrol station - no reason is given - gets into a fight with his old neighbour and best friend when the guy calls his mother a "piss-tank" - no reason is given for the friend suddenly changing from a normal kid into an arsehole - and a random bum starts living with them out of the blue, and has epileptic fits while the kid looks at his erection - again, no reason is given for either. Said bum certainly isn't much of a replacement father figure, if that's his role, what with the public masturbation. Oh, and the 16 year old sister sleeps topless and goes swimming naked. The kid likes this, much as he enjoyed watching his parents have sex. The bum likes it also, leading to the aforementioned routine public masturbation.

And no, the title is NEVER explained. Although, considering all I've mentioned, why would you want it to be?

Your erroneous assumption not mine. Why would I in the Northern Territory be talking about a New South Wales specific course?
Because no-one in their right mind would ever discuss the Northern Territory when they could be discussing New South Wales. You don't even have an NRL team, nor did you have an ARL or Super (:rolleyes:) League team. Sissies.

You were taught stuff in English?
I was taught plenty, it was all just taught very poorly. It's sometimes difficult to distinguish poor teaching from no teaching though, so I'm not surprised you're a little confused.

I lay the blame at the education system which taught me to sound out words when I couldn't spell them. Anything slightly curve-ball and it would throw me off. It's only been after I've forced myself to spell and ironically use my mobile phones auto-text thingy that I've improved my spelling to its present mediocre level. Sentence structure can probably be laid at the altar of Victoria's terrible education strikes when I was younger, one of my teachers was a Union Organizer and was out of class most of the year and left us to the tender mercies of a series of useless replacement teachers.
I believe I may have been part of the very last year who was actually taught to read and write correctly, instead of this "sound it out" crap. Either that, or my Kindergarten teacher, who was a really great teacher, just ignored the curriculum and just did what she thought was right. Considering how great Mrs Barton was, it was probably the latter.

My sentence structure brings the awesome. That's actually the cause of one of my problems with creative writing; I write too well (from a technical standpoint, I make no judgements on my own creativity). People aren't used to reading such condensed and technically-sound stuff in stories - I basically rip off Timothy Zahn - and, unless they're more intelligent than average, get confused. How many people here find high school English teachers more intelligent that average?

English taught me to learn nothing about nothing in the most possible time!
I think Communications at university might just top English. Depends on how long a course it is.

Australia's authors are horrible for the most part. After reading Fly Away Peter by David Malouf's and asking a good literary friend of mine if he was as awful a writer as I thought I got a rather interesting response "He's an awful writer" this was the same person who had been a teacher for a good thirty years.
Bryce Courtney is okay, but inconsistent. Then again, he's South African, so he doesn't count.

My grandmother recently acquired the second copy ever printed of a book called Stumped, or something like that, about a murder involving the Australian cricket team, from some ****wit - my grandmother doesn't swear, so he made quite an impression - while holidaying in Tasmania. Said ****wit is the author.

My grandmother consistently reads a good-size novel a week, and is probably part of the reason I loved reading as a child. Her taste in books, while different from mine, is good. The last book she recommended to me was Shogun; before that, The Bourne Identity. In other words, her opinion is valuable.

She is bringing this book up for me to read as part of her quest to convince me to start publishing some of my older stuff, because in her exact words: "If this ****wit can get s*** like this published, you should win the ****ing Nobel Prize in Literature." Remember, my grandmother doesn't swear. So I may have something that knocks winton off his, ahem, pedestal soon. If it's as bad as she says, I'll make a thread about it, and even put it on Wiki.

One of my additional texts for this year is a Tim Winton (Dirt Music). The actual story and writing style seems horrific, and the characterisation just makes you hate all the characters. But English teachers love Tim Winton, because he is, apparently, technically masterful. Perhaps it's the lack of punctuation or the indecisive and ever changing tense. You can drag a great many techniques out of his writing, and that is what the BOS regards as technically proficient. But the stories themselves are not the most enjoyable, all though I did really enjoy his book of short stories, The Turning. Cloudstreet was marginally more enjoyable than Dirt Music, because you can actually develop empathy for some characters.
That guy who wrote Clockwork Orange is technically masterful. Shakespeare was technically masterful, despite his penchant for making words up and changing their pronunciation just for fun. Tim Winton is a true post-modern artist in literature - he writes weird bullcrap for the sake of it being weird bullcrap. Then we can all masturbate while drinking spring water and eating wet cucumber on triangles of bread while discussing how "ground-breaking" it all is.

No, Stranger in a Strange Land was ground-breaking. Gulliver's Travels was ground-breaking. That eye, the sky, is pure grade A horse****. Put that on your damn bread triangle.

Apparently, Dirt Music is being turned into a movie starring Colin Farrell, Russell Crowe (replacing Heath Ledger) and Rachel Weisz. Because Colin Farrell would be an accurate potrayal of Australiana.
I'd watch it if Mick Jagger was in it.

Any book, play or film that has to be studied is horrible. Maybe not always as bad as the book you discribed, but still bad.
I would probably have liked Gattaca had I not been forced to study it in year 11, but studying it means I will never like it.
Everything else I studied, I wouldn't have read or watched otherwise. My school had a weird thing of choosing books that I had no interest in whatsoever.
I read a great book - the aforementioned The Year of Living Dangerously - and some fantastic poetry, the names and authors of which unfortunately escape me, when studying at TAFE. I've also read some great stuff at uni. It's not the fact that we're forced to study it that makes it horrible, it's the general crappiness of what is studied, copmbined with the pathetic manner in which it is taught that is the trouble.

I really need to watch Gattaca, I watched it once while half-asleep years ago, I remember nothing except that Uma Thurman looked almost attractive for once. That could have been the sleep deprivation though. Also, that British guy who starred in the remade Alfie and screwed his nanny was in it.
 
Your erroneous assumption not mine. Why would I in the Northern Territory be talking about a New South Wales specific course?

I don't mean I thought you were talking about NSW, but naturally assumed that what you were talking about was the equivalent of it, due to your invocation of that sacred word, advanced. And when you say Australia, as a whole, I don't usually think you are just referring to just the small and insignificant part, but more the whole in general.

You've misinterpreted what I wrote and placed it in the wrong context.

So, your original statement, saying that you could pass high school with flying colours in Australia with the 'advanced literary knowledge' of Harry Potter and Dan Brown, was in fact not referring to passing with flying colours, any sort of high school examination, or anything remotely pertaining to the word advanced (despite its ironic connotation, it's use invoked advanced English). Was I meant to interpret it as 'I left the fishcakes in the freezer, Moses'? Because from your attempted comedic use of 'advanced literary knowledge', meaning in fact, the opposite to just that, combined with the proclamation, and later clarification, that high-school English could be passed without a grasp of the language, would imply this statement about as much as the one you say it does.

It wasn't a fallacy, when properly contextualized. Confirmation bias ftw!

What can I say? I target insignificant details of what is intended to be meaningless passing comments.

Your trying to construe an argument I presented as something it is manifestly not. Confirmation bias ftw!

I still maintain that, from by context, your post was obviously stating that in passing Advanced English with a very high mark, you can employee JK Rowling, and be functionally illiterate (later added). Whether you were saying this or not, that is what my brain saw. And when my brain sees, it argues.

... your assuming that the advanced part of advanced English had a specific connotation for me. When it doesn't. "Advanced English" is called English Studies, or simply Studies in SSABSA, I was not aware that NSW used "Advanced Studies" as a course title. Confirmation bias ftw!

See above.

Again I don't care, it was superfluous to my argument.

I apologise. I should instantly know and interpret your every desire and preference in what I add to my post.

From my argument's point of view, though, it was quite relevant, which is all that matters. To me.

Markers are overwhelmingly populist in inclination when it comes to marking, they read from a limited pool of literary sources and tend to be fairly conformist in mindset. It's common practice in private schools to choose obscure texts which the markers have not read on the same logic as your film example. I know I choose Dante Alighieri's, Divina Commedia: Inferno for my final year analysis specifically for that reason on the advisement of a former English exam marker and well regarded English teacher to choose something obscure. The same texts overwhelmingly crop up in English essays, including The Great Gatsby, 1984, A Brave New World for instance, which are populist classics and say Khaled Hosseni's works which are topical and populist at this present moment. The same poetry and films also overwhelmingly crop up, simply because it is easy for teachers to help students with works they are familiar with. Teachers tend to have a rotation of poetry and texts they will cover, they switch every year, but come back to the same texts in a few years with minor modifications.

This. I can't really remember what I'm arguing about that drew this response, but I gather it was somewhere along the lines of 'you can't use populist texts, firstly because they are generally of a lesser level, and secondly, because they are well known by markers'. Was that it? I think it was. But anyway, I concur with, and declare valid, the above.

But, you still need to do less popular and familiar texts well, or at least sound like you are. Which would require functional literacy, and long words. You get extra marks for using long words. For example, in my last essay, instead of the saying something like, 'the desire to learn stuff was central to Bearing's life, due to Edson's context, in which the human was most important, compared to Donne's more religious context, creating religious like themes', I wrote, 'the inherent anthropocentricism of Edson's era and surroundings, caused the portrayal of Bearing's epistemological lifestyle, in comparison to Donne's antidisestablishmentarianist sentiments, causing his theocentric portrayal of thematic concerns in his works' This is needed to get a good mark, and is above and beyond what I would call the level of functional literacy. My favourite phrase in an essay was 'extemporaneous perspicacity', which one of my friends used to describe Duke Senior's role in a scene of As You Like It. Again, this shows that some importance is, in fact, put on language, and the good use of it, despite its use as padding, and its essential wanky-ness.

But that's not what we're discussing, right? ;)

It is also eminently possible to pass English at a middle tier level with a very simplistic understanding of the texts. Most of which is derived from the teachers themselves dropping unsubtle hints or even sitting down and hammering out prepared notes.

Well, I'm not arguing that you can't pass, but arguing that you can't pass with flying colours, like you initially stated.

It would help if you understood how the system operates, adjusted your expectations to fit everyone else and understood that your just being a fool (I've bolded the reason why).

Well, in life, it would help if you understood how everything operates, but that cannot happen. And I don't like the idea of only posting on a forum in subjects that I have a large fount of knowledge in. I would never have got far past 0 posts. But, I can add my thoughts to the argument, and understand how my system, the largest system in Australia, which is what you were referring to, works.

And...a fool? Perhaps a naive, stubborn and ignorant child, but a fool?

Contextually where do you think I was talking about? Because if you think I was talking about NSW specifically or anything aside from Australia in a broad contextual statement then you have issues. Bolded, confirmation bias ftw!

Sure I have issues. Issues with a statement saying that in Australia (with NSW being the dominant state (and NT not being)), you can pass (with flying colours, no less) English courses (with the word advanced invoked) if you are functionally illiterate, or resort to simplicity in your work.

Your also ignorant of the fact that the Territory operates under the Senior Secondary Assessment Board of South Australia (SSABSA).

Okay then. Well, SA is small too. :p

You argued it because you were caught in a confirmation bias and ignored my repeated qualifications.

Do you not expect me to see statements from my own contextual perspective? I mean, come on, everything in life is seen from your own contextual viewpoint, and from mine, your statement was something that was completely wrong and was begging to be argued.


I'm actually quite stuck as to whether I actually agree with what I now think you are saying or not. You still haven't straight out said that what I assumed you were saying, was something that you disagree with, although I have (perhaps only in this post) stated that I don't really have a problem with your statement that the education system sucks, and that generally, literacy standards have decreased. That would possibly be a more beneficial argument, as, quite frankly, I don't know what I think you think I think you think I'm arguing about, or something like that.
 
Being a year 12 NSW HSC student this year... being doing 3u maths and doing okay at it. 3u is slightly above 2u maths which is in my opinion the average level of maths, and then general maths which i wouldnt call directly below average.

For those not educated in Australia, 3u studies a respectable more than 2u, and 2u has a concentration on trig functions, logs and the etc, nothing advanced. General mathematics is more on life maths like finance, and is a rehash on everything people learnt during year 9 and 10, it doesnt go into applications of algebra. There is a 4u course, which in my school would require quite mathematical talent to partake in, they learn a higher application of 3u. This is however all my opinion which ive observed in my school only, i cant speak for the more prestigious schools in sydney ;)

I wonder how behind the NSW education system is behind for mathematics... ive heard in other parts of the world they learn calculus and integrals in year 9, while ive just learnt it only a year ago.

Also im wondering if the physics i learn as part of the HSC course is very basic or average compared to others in the world
Ive learnt Lenz Law, basic projectile motion, and applications of Newton's universal gravitation, as excerpts of the physics HSC course.

Im particularly wanting to be compared to what Europe, Japan and China do at my age.

someone care to enlighten me on my place in this world :P
I am becoming more cynical towards my educational system, recent trivial news was that it was reconsidered whether marking in red pen was suitable towards students, it might be too "harmful" and "aggressive". In my opinion thats a tad... no comment. Any thoughts?

lastly my english is a product of the Australian education system, ive been in it since kindy :)
I dont know if it matters if im technically ESL, english second language, my first being chinese

cheers

Yay! A fellow 2009er! I finished my half-yearlies today, so I'm on holidays! How's the endless pain and suffering going for you. Don't worry, you will belong here (in joke).

To actually answer your question. I gather that in, say, Britain, subjects are more in depth, but whereas you have to do 5 here (5 2U courses, anyway), you have to do 3 there. Or something.

no reason is given

Reasonable plots are so 19th century. Tim Winton needs no reason for this, he is the reason.

Because no-one in their right mind would ever discuss the Northern Territory when they could be discussing New South Wales. You don't even have an NRL team, nor did you have an ARL or Super (:rolleyes:) League team. Sissies.

:lol:

That guy who wrote Clockwork Orange is technically masterful. Shakespeare was technically masterful, despite his penchant for making words up and changing their pronunciation just for fun. Tim Winton is a true post-modern artist in literature - he writes weird bullcrap for the sake of it being weird bullcrap. Then we can all masturbate while drinking spring water and eating wet cucumber on triangles of bread while discussing how "ground-breaking" it all is.

No, Stranger in a Strange Land was ground-breaking. Gulliver's Travels was ground-breaking. That eye, the sky, is pure grade A horsecrap. Put that on your damn bread triangle.

Which highlights the obtuse and abstract nature of English. Rambling incoherently could be construed as a technique, so Tim Winton can be too.

I'd watch it if Mick Jagger was in it.

But I don't think it's meant to be a comedy.
 
Sharwood said:
My sentence structure brings the awesome. That's actually the cause of one of my problems with creative writing; I write too well (from a technical standpoint, I make no judgements on my own creativity). People aren't used to reading such condensed and technically-sound stuff in stories - I basically rip off Timothy Zahn - and, unless they're more intelligent than average, get confused. How many people here find high school English teachers more intelligent that average?

Apparently I write rather well apparently (I maintain that is a load of hogwash). In any case it tends to be dreamy, hazy and deeply metaphorical. Typically without much in the way of punctuation; I like it to read like prose poetry. I had a number of teachers who had no idea what it was I was writing about and had to submit it to senior teachers to read and mark. It's not my fault they couldn't follow my metaphors and analogies.

Sharwood said:
Bryce Courtney is okay, but inconsistent. Then again, he's South African, so he doesn't count.

Often overwritten and often boring.

Sharwood said:
My grandmother consistently reads a good-size novel a week, and is probably part of the reason I loved reading as a child. Her taste in books, while different from mine, is good. The last book she recommended to me was Shogun; before that, The Bourne Identity. In other words, her opinion is valuable.

Good book, less keen on Bourne...

Sharwood said:
That guy who wrote Clockwork Orange is technically masterful. Shakespeare was technically masterful, despite his penchant for making words up and changing their pronunciation just for fun. Tim Winton is a true post-modern artist in literature - he writes weird bullcrap for the sake of it being weird bullcrap. Then we can all masturbate while drinking spring water and eating wet cucumber on triangles of bread while discussing how "ground-breaking" it all is.

No, Stranger in a Strange Land was ground-breaking. Gulliver's Travels was ground-breaking. That eye, the sky, is pure grade A horse****. Put that on your damn bread triangle.

Post modernist literature is terrible. I don't know why... but it rings false to me. Cormac McCarthy more or less summed up my literary beliefs via Wikipedia:

Wikipedia said:
McCarthy is described as a "gregarious loner" and reveals that he is not a fan of authors that do not "deal with issues of life and death," citing Henry James and Marcel Proust as examples. "I don't understand them," he said. "To me, that's not literature. A lot of writers who are considered good I consider strange."[

To be entirely honest I don't read enough quality literature... I don't have a decent bookshop and I'm to caught up in either work or my studies to devote the time. A current audit of the books on my bed and desk gives you a hint:

O.W Wolters: Early Indonesian Commerce
Coedes: The Indianized States of Southeast Asia
Munoz: Early Kingdoms of the Indonesian Archipelago and the Malay Peninsula
O.W Wolters: Indonesian Trade and Society
Kilcullen: The Accidental Guerrilla;
W. Durant: Our Oriental Heritage (reccomended by Dachs it's a solid read)
Various: The Cambridge History of Southeast Asia Volume One, Part One
Wicks: Money, Markets and Trade In Early Southeast Asia
Findlay and O'Rourke: Power and Plenty: Trade, War and the World Economy in the Second Millennium

I discounted all the government stuff I have sitting at home including annual reports.

EDIT: I missed the other pile :( and I'm ignoring the whole rest of the books not in a pile on my desk which are patiently awaiting my attentions nicely stacked against the wall.
 
Camikaze said:
So, your original statement, saying that you could pass high school with flying colours in Australia with the 'advanced literary knowledge' of Harry Potter and Dan Brown, was in fact not referring to passing with flying colours, any sort of high school examination, or anything remotely pertaining to the word advanced (despite its ironic connotation, it's use invoked advanced English). Was I meant to interpret it as 'I left the fishcakes in the freezer, Moses'? Because from your attempted comedic use of 'advanced literary knowledge', meaning in fact, the opposite to just that, combined with the proclamation, and later clarification, that high-school English could be passed without a grasp of the language, would imply this statement about as much as the one you say it does.

You've again placed it in the wrong context.

Camikaze said:
What can I say? I target insignificant details of what is intended to be meaningless passing comments.

Re: above.

Camikaze said:
I still maintain that, from by context, your post was obviously stating that in passing Advanced English with a very high mark, you can employee JK Rowling, and be functionally illiterate (later added). Whether you were saying this or not, that is what my brain saw. And when my brain sees, it argues.

Confirmation bias?

Camikaze said:
I still maintain that, from by context, your post was obviously stating that in passing Advanced English with a very high mark, you can employee JK Rowling, and be functionally illiterate (later added). Whether you were saying this or not, that is what my brain saw. And when my brain sees, it argues.

I was a hundred percent aware of the contextual significance of "Advanced English" to you Camikaze! You have a very simple way of extricating yourself from this, acknowledge that you contextualized a part of my post in a way I did not mean and let it go. [refer above]

Camikaze said:
Well, in life, it would help if you understood how everything operates, but that cannot happen. And I don't like the idea of only posting on a forum in subjects that I have a large fount of knowledge in. I would never have got far past 0 posts. But, I can add my thoughts to the argument, and understand how my system, the largest system in Australia, which is what you were referring to, works.

You've erroneously made the same argument again and again, despite clarifications and codifications which effectively neutered your argument. You've also admitted to understanding that your arguing at parallels to what I've said. You've also missed the whole point of the argument, you've posted for a portion of the New South Wales system and not the portion that anyone else seems to be talking about or the part I intended (re: Sharwoods post, I'm guessing qualitatively it seems closer to what I suggested; re: PiMan's post which I've referenced as well).

Camikaze said:
But, you still need to do less popular and familiar texts well, or at least sound like you are. Which would require functional literacy, and long words. You get extra marks for using long words. For example, in my last essay, instead of the saying something like, 'the desire to learn stuff was central to Bearing's life, due to Edson's context, in which the human was most important, compared to Donne's more religious context, creating religious like themes', I wrote, 'the inherent anthropocentricism of Edson's era and surroundings, caused the portrayal of Bearing's epistemological lifestyle, in comparison to Donne's antidisestablishmentarianist sentiments, causing his theocentric portrayal of thematic concerns in his works' This is needed to get a good mark, and is above and beyond what I would call the level of functional literacy. My favourite phrase in an essay was 'extemporaneous perspicacity', which one of my friends used to describe Duke Senior's role in a scene of As You Like It. Again, this shows that some importance is, in fact, put on language, and the good use of it, despite its use as padding, and its essential wanky-ness.

Much as I hate to say it, I did much the same, but then I didn't do communications (which is what we are looking at for about the fifth or so time). Nevertheless I can assure you that it is possible to get 80%+ with minimal skill in Communications English, I actually tutor people who are functionally illiterate (I tick all the boxes in the first session usually) and then walk them through some simple techniques, this is an analogy, this is symbolism, this is alliteration, I point out the very basic examples, help them write out an assignment there and them check it and get paid for allowing them to write crap. It's also amusing that they write essays which are simply summaries of the plot with the occasional technique I've provided stuck in like a sore thumb. I'm not exaggerating, and this is something I'm fairly knowledgeable about.

Camikaze said:
But that's not what we're discussing, right?

You are correct for about the first time thus far. :lol:

Camikaze said:
Well, I'm not arguing that you can't pass, but arguing that you can't pass with flying colours, like you initially stated.

Re: above. Re: previous argument about your relative standards.

Camikaze said:
Well, in life, it would help if you understood how everything operates, but that cannot happen. And I don't like the idea of only posting on a forum in subjects that I have a large fount of knowledge in. I would never have got far past 0 posts. But, I can add my thoughts to the argument, and understand how my system, the largest system in Australia, which is what you were referring to, works.

I personally believe your ignoring the mid tier or bottom level of New South Wales English education and deliberately attempting to be disingenuous in the doing. That is what my argument was about and yet to my knowledge you have thus far only invoked Advanced English as proof to the contrary which isn't reassuring given what I'm talking about.

Camikaze said:
Sure I have issues. Issues with a statement saying that in Australia (with NSW being the dominant state (and NT not being)), you can pass (with flying colours, no less) English courses (with the word advanced invoked) if you are functionally illiterate, or resort to simplicity in your work.

It's a Federation and to be honest in the Federal stakes, Queensland matters more. NSW is hardly ever subject to a major swing nor does it ever significantly deviate from what the pollsters and statisticians predict will happen. It is also fairly static in its voting patterns. You make up numbers in the House of Representatives but seldom decide on who will be in government. Your also ignoring the Senate your equal to everyone bar the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory in those stakes. New South Wales is also the most fiscally and politically dysfunctional state in Australia, even Western Australia has more competent governments and the opposition there has Troy Buswell. You've been overtaken in influence at the Federal level by Victoria and Queensland, the political machines of both your major parties at a state level are either at the point of collapse or collapsed. Most other states also immensely dislike your attempts to leverage the Commonwealth for more money every-time your state government messes things up, it's the only reason that the Territory manages to keep its relatively large chunk of per capita funding because every-time New South Wales raises the issue everyone else uses it as an excuse to strike back. Even Victoria which is against the Territories high stake of Federal funding normally sides against New South Wales out of spite.

Again I refer you to the above argumentation for the rest of your point, I really only had a desire to shoot down New South Wales supposed ascendancy in the Federal Stakes.

Camikaze said:
Okay then. Well, SA is small too.

It's more or less the same as Western Australia's system apparently, normally has solid dealings with Queensland and provides technical assistance to Tasmania :p

Camikaze said:
Do you not expect me to see statements from my own contextual perspective? I mean, come on, everything in life is seen from your own contextual viewpoint, and from mine, your statement was something that was completely wrong and was begging to be argued.

No, you saw my statement as being completely wrong, based on your own contextual awareness. I qualified what I said and you still continued to build up your own argument via the judicious use of confirmation bias.

Camikaze said:
I'm actually quite stuck as to whether I actually agree with what I now think you are saying or not. You still haven't straight out said that what I assumed you were saying, was something that you disagree with, although I have (perhaps only in this post) stated that I don't really have a problem with your statement that the education system sucks, and that generally, literacy standards have decreased. That would possibly be a more beneficial argument, as, quite frankly, I don't know what I think you think I think you think I'm arguing about, or something like that.

Your discussing the functional bit of the English sector; I'm dicussing the dysfunctional bit serves the other 60% by your own numbers. If that helps.
 
I just realised it doesn't actually matter what people study in English in high school. Most of what people study in HS doesn't matter cos the majority gets forgotten very very quickly. I guess what matters is the bullshitting and writing and analytical skills that get taught, not the content.

Hmm.
 
I just realised it doesn't actually matter what people study in English in high school. Most of what people study in HS doesn't matter cos the majority gets forgotten very very quickly. I guess what matters is the bullshitting and writing and analytical skills that get taught, not the content.

Hmm.

Really? Well, in linguistics what you learn in high school is an elementary basics and without it you can't go anywhere in this field. I suppose that the same happens with mathematics, even though this last one isn't my field.
 
I was a hundred percent aware of the contextual significance of "Advanced English" to you Camikaze! You have a very simple way of extricating yourself from this, acknowledge that you contextualized a part of my post in a way I did not mean and let it go. [refer above]

Well, firstly, in my previous post I had subtly suggested just that. I admitted to seeing it from a different context, before explaining that viewpoint, asking what you actually thought about that viewpoint (OMG! I deviated from your sacred argument! How could I possibly have done that!), which you haven't yet done, before stating that a different argument would be more beneficial. And that sounds like it's slightly bordering on confirmation bias to me.

You've erroneously made the same argument again and again, despite clarifications and codifications which effectively neutered your argument. You've also admitted to understanding that your arguing at parallels to what I've said. You've also missed the whole point of the argument, you've posted for a portion of the New South Wales system and not the portion that anyone else seems to be talking about or the part I intended (re: Sharwoods post, I'm guessing qualitatively it seems closer to what I suggested; re: PiMan's post which I've referenced as well).

My erroneous arguments were admitted repeatedly as not being applicable to what you had said your clarification was. They have instead addressed the points which my 'confirmation bias' caused me to see as flagrantly wrong. And I have been meaning to address those points, and have stated that I agree that there is a lower standard of literacy in Australia.

It would not have generated much discussion if I addressed your second post of 'low level English courses require low levels of English skills, and low levels and standards of literature, and knowledge about literature, no pass'. A simple 'yes' would not have brought about a conversation fully discussing the pros and cons of the English courses of Australia.

As for Standard English, the Area of Study used is the same as Advanced English, but with slightly varying texts. It is obviously at a lower standard, but still requires a reasonable use of techniques, not just plot regurgitation. It does have a lower level of texts, that's a given, but as stated in previous posts, this does not lead to passing with flying colours. And why are you wanting to know about the Standard English course of NSW when you are so fixated with the comparatively small NT & SA system representing a thread, and a post, referring to the 'Australian' system?

Much as I hate to say it, I did much the same, but then I didn't do communications (which is what we are looking at for about the fifth or so time). Nevertheless I can assure you that it is possible to get 80%+ with minimal skill in Communications English, I actually tutor people who are functionally illiterate (I tick all the boxes in the first session usually) and then walk them through some simple techniques, this is an analogy, this is symbolism, this is alliteration, I point out the very basic examples, help them write out an assignment there and them check it and get paid for allowing them to write crap. It's also amusing that they write essays which are simply summaries of the plot with the occasional technique I've provided stuck in like a sore thumb. I'm not exaggerating, and this is something I'm fairly knowledgeable about.

This is one of those things I agree with. But it seems more like dodgy marking, and a dodgy course, than obligatory illiteracy. And my point was not to comment on the NT & SA system, but the NSW one, which is the largest one in Australia (I assume), and therefore is a better representation of your comments regarding the Australian system.

Re: previous argument about your relative standards.

Band 6 refers to a mark of over 90. I don't know how you regard the statement 'passing with flying colours', but a mark of 70%, whilst being regarded as excellent by some people, would not be regarded as passing with flying colours on a general scale, unless you insist that over half the population does, in fact, pass with flying colours. But, that, of course, would mean that marks are relative anyway. Getting in the top 10% could possibly be considered passing with flying colours, and for that, as previously outline, you would need a Band 6.

I personally believe your ignoring the mid tier or bottom level of New South Wales English education and deliberately attempting to be disingenuous in the doing. That is what my argument was about and yet to my knowledge you have thus far only invoked Advanced English as proof to the contrary which isn't reassuring given what I'm talking about.

See above in this post.

It's a Federation

Of which NT is not a state.

and to be honest in the Federal stakes, Queensland matters more. NSW is hardly ever subject to a major swing nor does it ever significantly deviate from what the pollsters and statisticians predict will happen. It is also fairly static in its voting patterns. You make up numbers in the House of Representatives but seldom decide on who will be in government. Your also ignoring the Senate your equal to everyone bar the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory in those stakes. New South Wales is also the most fiscally and politically dysfunctional state in Australia, even Western Australia has more competent governments and the opposition there has Troy Buswell. You've been overtaken in influence at the Federal level by Victoria and Queensland, the political machines of both your major parties at a state level are either at the point of collapse or collapsed. Most other states also immensely dislike your attempts to leverage the Commonwealth for more money every-time your state government messes things up, it's the only reason that the Territory manages to keep its relatively large chunk of per capita funding because every-time New South Wales raises the issue everyone else uses it as an excuse to strike back. Even Victoria which is against the Territories high stake of Federal funding normally sides against New South Wales out of spite.

Again I refer you to the above argumentation for the rest of your point, I really only had a desire to shoot down New South Wales supposed ascendancy in the Federal Stakes.

I am by no means trying to elevate NSW to the supreme and onely worthy state. I am not saying that it has most influence on government. I am not saying that NSW is the best state in which to live. I am saying that, as it has the largest population and the biggest education system, when referring to the Australian education system, it is more applicable to talk about the NSW system, like I am, than the SA & NT system, like you are.

It's more or less the same as Western Australia's system apparently, normally has solid dealings with Queensland and provides technical assistance to Tasmania :p

The Victorian system is similar to the NSW one, as PiMan, I think, has clarified.

No, you saw my statement as being completely wrong, based on your own contextual awareness.

Yes! And that is what I have been saying, what you have been saying I should say, and what I am now telling you I have already said!

I qualified what I said and you still continued to build up your own argument via the judicious use of confirmation bias.

But I was only trying to argue the point I saw, not you. By arguing that first point of yours, or what I saw in it, I did not automatically bind myself to compulsory argue all of your points. I bound myself to argue that one point I saw, and you have obviously bound yourself not to argue that one point. You are only arguing things from your perspective, and are refusing to see mine.

Your discussing the functional bit of the English sector; I'm dicussing the dysfunctional bit serves the other 60% by your own numbers. If that helps.

I addressed the non-dysfunctional 'dysfunctional bit' of the system above in this post.

And I clarify those figures a bit. 43% for Advanced English. 50% for Standard English.

To summarise this post: I am trying to not argue this anymore, but you have sustained the argument. Besides, the SA & NT system aren't really representative of the Australian system that you referred to, and you have continued in your refusal to listen to my arguments about the largest education system in the country.
 
It's about a kid who's father left who urinates on his new neighbours' petrol station - no reason is given - gets into a fight with his old neighbour and best friend when the guy calls his mother a "piss-tank" - no reason is given for the friend suddenly changing from a normal kid into an arsehole - and a random bum starts living with them out of the blue, and has epileptic fits while the kid looks at his erection - again, no reason is given for either. Said bum certainly isn't much of a replacement father figure, if that's his role, what with the public masturbation. Oh, and the 16 year old sister sleeps topless and goes swimming naked. The kid likes this, much as he enjoyed watching his parents have sex. The bum likes it also, leading to the aforementioned routine public masturbation.

And no, the title is NEVER explained. Although, considering all I've mentioned, why would you want it to be?

LOL! That eye, the sky is the garbage day of literature!!! I must read it!!
 
Really? Well, in linguistics what you learn in high school is an elementary basics and without it you can't go anywhere in this field. I suppose that the same happens with mathematics, even though this last one isn't my field.

We don't do linguistics in HS, we start from zero at uni.
 
Back
Top Bottom