Keeping Kurrent Show

For young people growing up in the Aboriginal settlement of Toomelah, New South Wales, life offers few choices. Jobs are scarce, few finish high school and nothing their elders want to teach them seems to matter. As elder Auntie Ada Jarrett says, "I just hurt so much for the young people today. Because they don't know anything, all the good things that we had – traditional dances in the night, story telling. They're not able to survive." Words and pictures by Heather Faulkner

See BBC web site for more pictures.

What's Happening with Education in Oregon & Around the World?

"It [education] has produced a vast population able to read but unable to distinquish what is worth reading, an easy prey to sensations and cheap appeals."

G.M. Trevelyan, English Social History (942) ch. 18.

"Put all your eggs in the one basket, and -- WATCH THAT BASKET."

Puddin'head Wilson (1894) ch. 15

What sort of educational programs best serve the public? There are many opportunities for in your area. In the Greater Portland (Oregon) area there are many excellent public, private and charter schools. They are each impacted by the No-Child-Left-Behind laws and regulations. How does that affect you. Likewise, what adult education and lifelong learning opportunities are there. I am especially interested in identifying and learning more about university programs for persons over 60 years of age. Perhaps you have some interesting stories to tell.

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Our lives are busy. Keeping Kurrent is the place where you can listen to short, reasonably in depth interviews and presentations about a variety of issues, ideas and trends are helpful to you. You are invited to take a quick look some of the broad issues we cover by clicking on the items listed below. Or, you can also examine the details for each category by checking the statements on the right hand side of this page.

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Time in Portland, Oregon

Should the Obama Generation Drop Out?

Article Tools Sponsored By By CHARLES MURRAY Published: December 27, 2008 New York Times -

Education Proposal to Obama

BARACK OBAMA has two attractive ideas for improving post-secondary education - expanding the use of community colleges and tuition tax credits - but he needs to hitch them to a broader platform. As president, Mr. Obama should use his bully pulpit to undermine the bachelor's degree as a job qualification. Here's a suggested battle cry, to be repeated in every speech on the subject: "It's what you can do that should count when you apply for a job, not where you learned to do it."

more ......

Charles Murray, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, is the author, most recently, of "Real Education: Four Simple Truths for Bringing America's Schools Back to Reality."

Pictures of children in the Outback - source BBC*

THERE AND ABOUT: Australia finally says sorry for breaking Aborigine families

Story by CHEGE MBITIRU at Nation Media

Publication Date: 2/18/2008

Australia last week gave meaning to a concept politicians avoid: nations have historical responsibility and can say sorry. That’s thanks to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. Earlier, Queen Elizabeth, inheritor of an empire that colonised Australia and now its head of state and former Prime Minister John Howard missed an excellent opportunity. The issue of the Stolen Generation played big. However, implicit in Mr Rudd’s bipartisan “sorry motion” last Wednesday was an apology for the wrongs white Australia has inflicted on Aborigines and Torres Straight Islanders.

For more on this story you should turn to Nation Media.

* Toomelah Armed with drinks bottles against the near 40C heat of the outback, kindergarten students step out across the hot asphalt to their homes for lunch hour. Only families and their descendants who lived in Toomelah when it was founded in 1938 are allowed to stay here. The population has decreased from 500 in 1987 to around 350 today. But there are still only 35 houses for 350 people – a few new house frames dot the small town, but it's very cosy.

See BBC web site for more pictures.

What's Happening with the Chalkboard Project in 2008?

"The Chalkboard Project has a number of current initiatives helping schools improve their success teaching children. These initiatives include the following:

• Open Book$ Project: This online tool gives you the facts about Oregon K-12 school spending in a simple, easy-to-understand format. You can view your own district's spending, compare districts and see statewide averages.

• CLASS Project: In spring 2007, Chalkboard selected three Oregon school districts (Forest Grove, Sherwood and Tillamook) to participate in this pilot project.

• Running Start: A two-part toolkit and trainings aimed at improving student achievement among Oregon's most at-risk youth by increasing family involvement in schools.

• Partnering with individual districts, local businesses and parent groups to expand parent and community involvement in schools.

• Employer-Classroom Connection Challenge: Challenging employers to commit to helping their employees get involved in Oregon's schools.

• Creating and sharing “best practices” for school district business operations. Chalkboard is partnering with the Oregon Association of School Business Officials to review business practices in five volunteer school districts during the 2007-08 school year. Findings will be used to develop a set of “best practices” in everything from purchasing supplies and services to processing payroll.

• Researching professional development in several Oregon districts. Chalkboard has reviewed professional development practices in several Oregon school districts to share great methods as well as identify professional development support needs.

For more information about The Chalkboard Project go to their web site at http://www.chalkboardproject.org/about-us.php.