Here we go again

Here we go again. This time it's the federal Education Minister, Julie Bishop who says it is "unacceptable" for students in English classes to be studying Jerry Springer or learning how to send text messages. A report in Today's The Age reported the ministers remarks.

"It is unacceptable for students in English classes to be learning SMS, which is a travesty of English, studying television chat shows such as Jerry Springer, and other topics that are a distraction from their need to learn communications skills that will support them in a job and in further education and training," she said.

This is interesting as in a previous post I referred to an article in the Guardian which says that researchers at Coventry University found that contrary to popular belief, the use of text message abbreviations is linked positively with literacy achievements.

I sometimes wonder if politicians have any real idea of what happens in a real classroom om a day by day, week by week.

I often wish teaching students to be influence to adopt some idea was as easy as politicians seem to imagine.