Q&A and the education policy debate

These leading countries are also countries where educational outcomes are excellent with Finland usually rated first in the world and criminal behaviour is low. In U.S. education outcomes, particularly in poorer localities, are deteriorating and jail inmates numbers are exceedingly high.

An American social scientist, Phil Zuckerman, spent a year living in Denmark studying the life of citizens both in Denmark and Sweden. He conducted very many interviews with citizens from many situations and drew some interesting conclusions. The remarks: "I could go on and on, mentioning other negatives about Scandinavian society. But, these negatives were greatly dwarfed by the overwhelming kindliness, prosperity, intelligence, altruism, and deep societal goodness I experienced while living there. That societal goodness which I felt that afternoon in Aarhus extended far beyond that one particular bus ride. It was a goodness that I experienced on a daily basis at my younger daughter's preschool and my older daughter's elementary school. I observed it when taking my children to the doctor. Or to their ballet and gymnastics classes. Or to the mall. Or to the beach. I felt it while attending the one night a month beer and cheese men's gathering in my neighbourhood. I witnessed it as I observed the (totally free) care that my wife received while pregnant and then during, as well as after, giving birth. I witnessed it at the publicly subsidized, three-story mansion in the centre of town devoted to creativity where anyone could come, and for a minuscule fee, paint, sculpt, weave, sew, etc. It was a goodness that I experienced every day eating lunch in the university cafeteria with my colleagues. It was a goodness that was evident in the humanity and civility that I witnessed while touring a large mental health-care facility. In my experiences with the tax bureaucracy and train system, during my discussions with journalists, policemen, social workers, and politicians, and while visiting public swimming pools as well as the fanciest of hotels, and through conducting so many face-to-face interviews with Danes and Swedes from all walks life, I experienced a society - a markedly irreligious society - that was, above all, moral, stable, humane, and deeply good."

Yet, we allow American sourced propaganda and locally sourced similar nonsense funded by tax-deductible business expenses, funnelled to right wing think tanks, to undermine our Common Good and other desirable aspects of our society, even education. One right wing think tank, The Centre for Independent Study (CIS), had the last question at the Q&A discussion. When an organisation uses 'Independent' in the title I always cynically wonder whether it is. The CIS get several mentions in the collection of Alex Carey's papers titled, "Taking the Risk Out of Democracy" and subtitled, "Corporate Propaganda versus Freedom and Liberty.”

Why, in education matters, and to a lesser extent in attitudes to social justice, are Australian authorities following the U.S. rather than Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and The Netherlands?