sometimes timing is everything. Australia's John Howard...My students just learned

[greenbriar]

about Australia and their type of government and their prime minister and we talked about him and compared and contrasted a prime minister and a president.


Students came today and told me they thought John Howard was a douchebag

I had to chide them of course for their choice of words, but told them that is why they are learning about different continents and people so they can make informed decisions and opinions

they are 7th graders :)

[donco6]

1. That's hilarious.

Of course, it's only because "you liberal teachers are indoctrinating them" blah blah. No, it can't be that they actually have minds of their own and they've reached their own (accurate) conclusions.

God I get so sick of that.

[Lisa]

2. no shortage of "teachable moments" these days ...

I'll bet there are lots of people active in Australia's peace movement who would love to talk to (or e-mail) your class -- and show that there are lots of non-douchebags! One of my friends who is working outside of Sydney said that many of her co-workers have been lamenting how things are going, and are very upset with Howard ... they have been telling her that Canada "did the right thing" in not following Bush, and wish that Australia had done the same.

Your students might be interested in the book "The Fatal Shore", by Robert Hughes, about Australian history ... it's well-written and I bet even in Grade 7 they would get something out of it, if you gave them an excerpt to read and had a class discussion. I found the section on World War One rather moving (some eerie parallels with Iraq?). Australia lost so many people, and those who got them into the war were just taking them for granted. The anti-war song "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda" reflects on that (and Australia's Vietnam involvement). I remember one of my teachers played a recording of it for us, when I was in high school.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/And_The_Band_Played_Waltzing_Matilda
I guess I'm not the only one who thought it was a great song:
"American Vietnam veteran and Medal of Honor winner Senator Bob Kerrey sang the song to his supporters at the end of his Presidential campaign in 1992, and borrowed the first line for the title of his autobiography, When I Was A Young Man: A Memoir."


Links to some Australian peace groups
http://www.mapw.org.au/
http://www.nswpeace.org/
http://www.peacetasmania.org/

[greenbriar]

3. hey

thanks

[Lisa]

4. you're welcome!

A while back, I gave the Iraq war dossier example to my (college) class on research methods ... by the end of our discussion, the students were pretty clear on why using fudged, misquoted, or stolen information in their reports is a bad thing! If nothing else, the Bush administration has given educators, from kindergarten to university, a massive treasurehouse of material on how NOT to do something.

[greenbriar]

5. true

and I think they will almost all be dems because even they see the hypocrisy of the "conservative family values"

[greenbriar]

6. didn't even know KO talked about him

this will make a great current events topic





also, the current event magazine I get had Hugo Chavez on the front