I’m sure most of us could tell a similar story: in my high school years, it was common schoolyard knowledge that one of the teachers was “shagging” a student. The pair married almost immediately after she finished school in Year 11. Whether they’re still married, I have no
Dr James McDowall ACT MP A Bill introduced to the UK Parliament this week shares the same goal as my Member’s Bill and should be debated here in New Zealand. Free speech on campus is critical. Fostering the ability of students to discuss and debate ideas is an essential
righttolife.org.uk The Queen’s Speech has set out the Government’s intentions to introduce laws designed to protect freedom of speech at universities. In her speech this Tuesday as part of the State Opening of Parliament, the Queen outlined the Government’s intention to push ahead with the
Dane Giraud Spokesperson Free Speech Union A University of Waikato professor has apologised after saying the n-word during a lecture, as part of a discussion about the reclamation of offensive terms. According to the NZ Herald: The University of Waikato professor was teaching a lecture on representation and reclaiming terms
David Seymour ACT Leader The Government needs to start looking at evidence and data before it rushes out a policy that is nothing more than a marketing campaign. The Waikato Times has revealed that up to 1500 lunches from Labour’s free school lunches programme are going to waste each
Sir Bob Jones nopunchespulled.com In 2004 my comic novel “Degrees For Everyone” was published. Its salient theme was the decline in universities of legitimate academic subjects and the growth in their place of non-academic nonsense studies. I centred the plot around a fictitious Rubenesque Studies Department targeting fat girls
You have to admire Geoffrey Blainey’s courage. His academic career was practically ended when he dared to stick his head ever so slightly above the parapet in the 1980s and murmur that perhaps unending mass immigration might be a strain on social cohesion. Perhaps appropriately for a historian, Blainey
It’s not coincidental that Karl Popper titled the first volume of his The Open Society and Its Enemies, “The Spell of Plato”. While indisputably one of the greatest of Western philosophers, Plato’s politics left a lot to be desired. Not least his loathing of democracy and urging of
Gladys Berejiklian is generally regarded as one of Australia’s more sensible politicians. Apart from a notable lack of judgement in turning a studiously blind eye to a former boyfriend’s corrupt land dealings, the NSW premier mostly seems to live up to her image: a bit boring, but competent
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If you’re of a certain age, you’ll remember sitting in class, robotically reciting the times tables. You’re probably hearing the sing-song in your head, right now: “One times two is two, two times two is four…” It was dull, repetitious – and absolutely foundational. You can probably almost
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Notorious Australian criminal and raconteur Mark “Chopper” Read once commented to a journalist that “Posh people love gangsters”. People who live safe, cosseted lives seem to yearn for what gay slang once dubbed “rough trade”. Academics are definitely posh people. A US academic with a PhD averages more than twice
Another hare-brained idea from a government full of them! Education has failed predominantly Maori and Pasifika children for over a decade so what does this government do? They abolish charter schools – which were producing great results – and unveil their solution: moving toward te Reo becoming mandatory. In 1996 school attendance
It’s said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Australia’s education bureaucrats must be barking mad. For the past few decades, Australia’s international education rankings have steadily fallen. In line with demands by education bureaucrats and teachers’
