Re: Australian Boat People Saga - lesson ideas

[Jenny Campbell <gaffcam@mira.net>]

Hi from Jenny,
Actually I'm surprised my email was accepted by LM. Lately they have
been moderated, so I didn't explain what I meant very well. I agree that
this lesson plan of Barbara's is excellent. I jumped the gun a bit,
because this issue has been consuming all of us in OZ and is very
emotive in itself. But I won't go into that.
My position is that no-one is without bias and I thought Barbara's own
position on this issue was shown by the research questions she suggested
with the implication that if your country was in this situation, then
what would you do + an implied support for what our government has done.
It's all over now by the way, but I think our international reputation
has suffered and I wanted LM people to realise that Barbara's implied
support for what our government has done was not shared by everyone in
Australia. I apologize profusely if I have misrepresented Barbara's
views but she will not reveal them to me, so it is difficult to
establish whether her questions in the lesson did come from a political
position she shares. You see, if I were doing this topic and wanted my
students to research it, there are different issues to be explored that
I would have suggested. That was my point about the fact that our
questions are full of bias and no-one is unbiased. Teachers have to be
careful about the way in which they pose questions because they too
reveal our biases.
On the other hand, no subject should be banned.
Barbara has replied to me and to LM supporting her lesson. I accept her
reasons for using this topic as a research issue whereby the Internet is
a very useful tool to develop it.


Seth and Betsy Budney wrote:

>Barbara,
>
>I am always grateful when someone posts lesson plan ideas.  Current events
>are not off-topic.  This lesson is exactly the sort we should be bringing
>to our teachers.
>
>Thank you for the heads up, and the websites. If possible, we could also
>obtain copies of the papers, or make visits to the public libraries for the
>students to compare the Internet edition of the newspapers, and the print
>additions.  What information was left out of the Internet edition because
>of space and time restrictions?  What are the different opinions they might
>form based on only one source of information?
>
>Jenny,
>
>If you see bias in Barbara's suggestion, perhaps you could use this
>information for precisely what she suggested:   a lesson in biased
>reporting, propaganda, and misinformation.  Also, you might have the
>students discover the "bias" that other countries had during several
>different periods of time.  For example, quotas in different countries
>during the early part of this century, countries turning away refugees
>during WWII, the British forcibly turning  away Jews before Israel became
>independent, and why is it so hard for military personnel to bring brides
>back to their home country?  People have always been turned away at the
>borders.  Have them search for the reasons why.
>
>Thank you again Barbara, for the great idea.
>
>Betsy Budney, Librarian
>Harte Elementary School
>Chicago, IL
>sbbudney@enteract.com
>
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--
Cheers,
Jenny Campbell, unemployed teacher librarian
Melbourne,
Australia
http://www.knowledgecollegetutors.com
gaffcam@mira.net

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