Teaching the teachers

Those responsible for teacher training, such as the Australian Council of Deans of Education, are also guilty of pushing wacky, New-Age curriculum ideas. New Learning: A Charter for Australian Education says there are no right or wrong answers and that memorising, including rote learning, and testing are things of the past.

The so-called "new basics" is all about "autonomous and self-directed learning". And, according to the edu-babble much loved by "educrats", learners will be "equipped with problem-solving skills, multiple strategies for tackling a task and a flexible solutions-orientation to knowledge".

The council also argues that "mathematics is not a set of correct answers" and that correct spelling is "something for spell-checking programs". So much for 1+1=2 and the fact that no amount of spell checking can distinguish between the correct use of "to" and "too" or "knight" and "night".

Dr Brendan Nelson's inquiry into teacher training followed the furore over remarks by NSW English Teachers Association president Wayne Sawyer, that teachers were failing students because they could not think critically - a fact he said was underlined by their failure to vote against the Howard Government.

Given that controversy and the wacky curriculum ideas held by those responsible for teacher training, it is time to see whether the inmates have taken control of the asylum.