People are funny cattle

Why can't we end high stakes standardised testing and phony school accountability and stop being pushed around by big money interests? Seriously! Take Bernie's [above] advice. NAPLAN's totalitarian mode of operation uses too many authoritarian [dare I say 'fascist'?] principles. There is no longer any freedom to learn in our schools. We are in for a pretty tough 2007 if NAPLAN is still in place.

It might be noted that some Australian states will be running some standardised tests in this coming February for little five-year-od, Year 1 pupils, to brand children for comparison with their NAPLAN results later in Year 3. Other reasons, whose reliability is quite suspect will be provided. Love and care and proximity to the learning act is usually more than enough for teachers to identify the strengths and weaknesses of five year olds. The collection of data for suspicious reasons, from children so young, is a bit over-the-top

If our school managers, principals and teachers are too timid to challenge the big boys, why can't our law-makers introduce some acceptable democratic principles like......an easy one...for starters....

Since NAPLAN destroys elements of cognitive behaviour in children, parents should actually give permission for their children to take the tests. This democratic right was removed when it was established and will, one day, be the source of litigation. As it is, parents give schools permission to take their children on excursions, school camps and the like because there is a risk of physical injury. Mental injury can be worse and longer lasting....and the threat of NAPLAN is real. There have been too many victims to date....turned off learning forever. No child should take the risk, unless mum and/or dad say so. It doesn't take much to handle. Parents and their children have rights.

You know, we adults have allowed this state of affairs to persist for eight years, now. We do do some funny things, don't we?