The MySchool Saga
The Australian government released some statistics on how school were performing in teaching reading and writing. They called it the "My School Website".
This website (www.myschool.edu.au) allows you to look at those stats. Now there's another MySchool website with a very similar address www.myschool.com.au, which allows people to discuss those statistics.
But the second site is not run by the government, and when I asked the individual running that second site why he didn't make it clear that he was not an arm of the government, he said the government (or the responsible agency) is happy to have it that way.
How interesting. Thousands of people using a website they think is run by the government but really it's run by a private operator. And the government would like the charade to continue. Why?
When one of the site's participants found out that it was actually run by an entrepreneur, she was horrified and called it "evil."
The reason I raise this issue is not to dwell on the issue itself, but ask the question: "What would the world be like if people started to actually started to think and question? Where it would not be so easy to con thousands of people? Where individuals do not talk of "good and evil" but of "interesting and important"?
I'm guessing that society would be a substantially altered.
Tags: thinking
Add a Comment
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Comment by Kim Jones on March 23, 2010 at 5:46am -
People are suckers, Phil. I was suckered into it. I indicated on the Curriculum thread that I nonetheless felt some good might come of it but it has kind of died in the bum now because the initial mad rush to perv on the League Tables is over and everyone knows by now what a load of crap is their school and how behind the eight ball the Australian education system truly is. Very low volume of traffic there now. Everyone had a quick bitch and a whinge and now they've all lost interest.
People mistake whingeing and whining for thinking. It's not even good Black Hat thinking - it's just emotional rubbish.
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Comment by Franis on March 23, 2010 at 1:10am -
Yes, we are witnessing the alteration as it is happening. What you say is already happening NOW. Everyone has a voice now. The barriers to not being able to get your message out are melting away.
Everyone can publish a book. Everyone can say whatever they think is important (for instance, on Twitter) to thousands of people at once. Twitter is turning into a medium of broadcasting rather than a medium for conversation.
Most people don't use the voice they have to use. It still takes work to collect and make one's own message into a package. Various fears of the consequences of revealing themselves stop people. For some mystery reason, public speaking has always been one of the biggest fears. Our standards about what we will pay attention to has gotten further and further refined and opinionated.
The trouble to collect opinions is deemed a nuisance! That's why the charade is regarded as a valuable service. Let's give people a place to talk about things and let them feel they have expressed themselves and that will be that. We don't even have to read it or support the forum where these ideas are expressed.
Wicked sign of negligence, actually.
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