The Complete Destination for Home School Graduations

Homeschool is a different perspective on education. Parents are undoubtedly the best teachers, so homeschool is considered a sometimes a good way to educate a child. Though you do not follow the rigid schedule of a regular school, the facts remain that homeschool is also a school; on that is rapidly growing in popularity! If you are a student, you are probably facing this feverish excitement enroute to your homeschool graduation. If you are a parent, you are probably wondering what is on your child's mind with respect to after his homeschool graduation. Is he anxious, excited or simply confused?When your teenage student has passed all necessary test, excelled in the academic environment and is ready for new challenges in the world around, then it is time for his graduation from homeschool. At this time, you will need some personalized homeschool graduation announcements. Homeschool graduation announcements are just like the regular graduation declarations, but homeschool announcements are even more special. These announcements signify your child is ready for a transition and indicate you have done a good job of raising and educating the student!Homeschooling can be a great opportunity for both parents and students. When graduation time arrives, people might think that there's not much to be done, as there is no class to graduate with or a formal Rosetta Stone Portuguese home school graduation ceremony. But this could not be further from the truth.When a homeschool student is graduating, graduation announcements should be sent. Parents may choose to purchase these from a stationery store or an online retailer. In either case, the HomeSchool graduation announcements are no different from other types of schools. If they are different, it's only because they can be made much more personal. While others may have a school crest or mascot on them, the HomeSchool announcements can have their own symbol that the family has created together. A family crest with a picture of a school behind it is a wonderful idea for personalized HomeSchool graduation announcements.The graduation announcements should include the date of graduation, the name of the graduate, the date the graduation ceremony, if there was one, and the fact that it is a Home School graduation. Adding personal comments from the graduate or the parents is another very nice touch. Many parents wonder how to word graduation announcements. Something as simple as, "We are proud to announce the successful completion of high school studies of our child, Rebecca Smith. Rebecca worked hard for four years at home while we were honored with calling her our student and our daughter." The HomeSchool graduation announcement is simple and clearly states that it is a home school graduation.Having a ceremony could be an important part of homeschool graduation for both the parents and the graduate. If this is the case, parents can choose to have a small ceremony with just family and close friends at home or they can ask around the neighborhood to find out if there are any other home school graduates. If there are, a larger ceremony can be coordinated for all graduates to celebrate together. In either case, printed HomeSchool graduation invitations should be sent. These can also be created with very personal touches.

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Home School Preschool

Teaching your child to read is one of the most important things that you can do for their future.? The reasons for you, the parent, choosing to undertake this very important task personally, are as varied as the people who are doing it, but it can also be the most intimidating thing that you have ever done.??When you are preparing to home school preschool your child it can be an intimidating prospect if you do not have a plan and a method; as there is no room for failure.?Then again, sending your child to school and leaving the responsibility up to the school system also does not leave room for failure either, only for blame.?On the positive side however, teaching a child to read can be done by anyone regardless of their level of education.? It does not require a lot of time or effort but it does take dedication.? You are their parent however, and you have dedication in buckets!By using the right method and with the right attitude you can leverage your time and your child's strengths to easily teach them to read a book in as little as 30 days.?The biggest obstacle in your way will be how to keep your child's interest. By following the same old reading systems that have been out there Rosetta Stone since before the beginning of time, you are guaranteeing the opposite. To get and more importantly keep your child's interest during your reading lessons, you need to use an alternative to what is so commonly flouted in the mainstream.?You can do this in 3 ways:?1. Keep your reading sessions very short?Reading is like exercise.? When you start, you will not be able to do it for very long.?In the same way, when you teach your child to read, it is a new experience for them and you have to keep your lessons very short.? By doing this, you will ensure that they leave their lesson wanting more and looking forward to their next lesson.?2. Engage your child with his or her interests?The only way that you can get your child to be a good reader is if they enjoy reading; and the best way to make sure that they will enjoy reading is if they read things that interest them.?If you use themes and books that are relative to your preschooler's interests you will have them reading in no time, and not only will they be reading, but they will want to read on their own.? This is when their reading ability will shoot through the roof.??Engage your child with material that interests them and you will keep their interest long after the lesson has finished.

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Home school programs

Before knowing about the Home school programs you have to know what Homeschooling is. Homeschooling is one of the best alternative educations provided by parents or tutors to their children at the comfort and safety of their home. It is good especially for those parents who wish to provide their children a different learning environment along with the safety and for those too who live in isolated rural locations. Today, most of the parents believe that public schools are not the best way to educate their children due to the safety purposes and have lost confidence in the ability of the public school system in properly educating their children. . Homeschooling is best option also for those who are unable or unwilling to pay for private school. In these cases, Home school programs offered by the HSSEGUE are the best option. HSSEGUE facilitates connections between homeschooling families. Along with the safety, the quality of the education is also very important. Nowadays there are different identifiable techniques of homeschooling supported by different sites depending on the type of curriculum and the medium of learning, online learning or community learning. HSSEGUE is the best one in all regards and is widely used in the area of study. The students who are educated via Home school programs do well in standardized tests. In fact it let the children grow according to Rosetta Stone Spanish (Latin America) their own style. Homeschooling has come a long way and your child can be the biggest beneficiaries of such innovation and progress because it gives your children the freedom to learn whatever he/she likes. The tendency to find the most comfortable way to grow will increase as it ensures the best learning environment for children. The main goal of HSsegue offering Home school programs is to provide a homeschooler a venue to organize local Co-Ops, Classes and Events. In fact it desires to introduce the homeschooling as the best option for the success of the children. It specifically supports the pros and cons of homeschooling, methods to manage a homeschool in an easy manner without having any inconvenience. Those who wish to become a best homeschooler may utilize this site. It will help homeschoolers to share information and connect with other homeschoolers in the area. Moreover, Home school programs provide accurate and current information especially for the homeschoolers so that they can answer questions and work with local superintendents and legislators in an informal manner. Home school programs support a homeschooler with the ways that he needs to connect with other homeschool support families in his area. It will help you by letting you to continue your homeschooling relationship with the families that are deeply determining the needs of their child. It monitor and influence legislation that affects homeschoolers and co-ordinate grassroots endeavors of homeschoolers around the state to maintain the constitutional rights of parents to direct their child’s education.

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Names Removed From Taxi Driver Identity Cards Due To Cultural Fears

From the end of the month, cab drivers in Brisbane and the Gold Coast will be required to display ID cards in their taxis. Photo: Michelle Smith Photo IDs set to be introduced in Brisbane taxis will no longer include drivers' names, due to a fear passengers may verbally abuse cabbies over their foreign names. From November 30, cab drivers in Brisbane and the Gold Coast will be required to display authorised Queensland taxi driver display cards in their cabs. The cards will include a photo and driver identification number, but not a name. Advertisement: Story continues below The government printed ID cards with full names for the Toowoomba roll-out earlier this year, but reissued new licences without names due to privacy and cultural concerns. brisbane times.au understands during the Toowoomba roll-out in June, some drivers with names such as Muhammad were the target of racial abuse and harassment from customers. "The taxi council made representations on behalf of their members to remove drivers' names from the Authorised Queensland Taxi Driver Display Card," a statement from Transport Minister Annastacia Palaszczuk read. "This decision was made for privacy and cultural reasons. This is consistent with other states." The cultural issue of what name was used on the card was also a stumbling block for the program, with drivers unhappy their preferred common Rosetta Stone name, or anglicised name, was not displayed. Taxi Council of Queensland chief executive Blair Davies, who flagged privacy concerns with the identification program with last year, said there had been an issue with what names were being transferred across from government records to the licences. "The average person born in Australia has a first name and surname but depending on where you come from sometimes the first name is your family name, so it can get complicated, particularly in some cultures," he said. "So we were seeing some quite strange results coming out on these cards. "They were typically using the first name and that can produce some quite inconsistent results. "But for some drivers their whole names were to be printed on the IDs." Mr Davies said the IDs would provide an extra level of reassurance for passengers who would be able to match a driver with their photo, as well as use the identification number to report any issues. But he indicated the current security system for cab drivers was better than those used in others states, with all Queensland drivers being required to enter a pin on dispatch to log on for their shift. Mr Davies said Queensland was the only state using this system. The licence introduction is part of a raft of reforms introduced under the Queensland Taxi Strategic Plan, 2010-2015. Ms Palaszczuk said the plan's implementation was progressing well, with the introduction of national training standards for taxi drivers improving customer service and passenger safety. "These standards raised the bar for taxi drivers across driving skills, geographical knowledge, customer service and safety issues," she said.

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Focus on the eyes when photo graphing people or wildlife

Orientation Consider whether the subject would look best photographedhorizontally or vertically. Camera orientation is an easy andeffective compositional tool, but one that's often overlookedbecause it feels much more natural to hold the camera horizontally.Start experimenting by framing vertical subjects, such asbuildings, vertically. Focus Take care when focusing. If something other than the mainsubject is the sharpest part of the composition, the viewer's eyewill rest in the wrong place. Focus on the eyes when photo graphing people or wildlife. It doesn't matter if other features are out offocus: if the eyes aren't sharp the image will fail. Depth of field This refers to the area of a photograph that is considered to beacceptably sharp. Understanding and controlling depth of field isone of the most important creative controls available to thephotographer. It allows you to take a landscape that's sharp fromone metre in front of the camera to the horizon, or to take aportrait where the subject's eyes are sharp but the background isthrown out of focus. Depth of field is controlled by the lensaperture; to make best use of the technique you'll need a camerathat allows you to manually override the exposure controls. The smaller the aperture, the greater the depth of field, andvice versa. An aperture of f16 will give maximum depth of field,while f2 will give minimum depth. For general photography use f8 orf11 as your standard aperture setting. These apertures willgenerally allow you to use a shutter speed of 1/125th of a second,give enough depth of field for most shots and even give you somelatitude against inaccurate focusing. Two other variables affect depth of field: the focal length ofthe lens and the distance between the camera and the subject. Atthe same fstop, shorter focallength lenses such as 24mm or 35mmwill give greater Rosetta Stone Spanish (Latin America) depth of field than telephoto lenses, such as135mm or 200mm. The further away your subject is, the greater thedepth of field. So maximum depth of field can be achieved by focusing on asubject over 50 metres away using a wideangle lens at an apertureof f16. Depth of field will be minimised by focusing on a subjectunder five metres away using a telephoto lens at an aperture off2. Light Once you've got your composition techniques sorted out, how youuse light will really determine the success of your images. Mosttravel pictures are taken with the natural light of the sun. I'm inno doubt that my photography took a great leap forward when Irealised that there's always a best time of day to photograph asubject. The key elements to good photographic light are colour,quality and direction. These elements change constantly throughoutthe day and the trick is to match the subject to the light. The colour and quality of natural light are determined by theposition of the sun and the weather and can vary from one moment tothe next. A small break in heavy cloud just above the horizon cantransform a scene from ordinary to spectacular in a split second.On a clear day, early morning and late afternoon light is warm andmany subjects are enhanced by a yelloworange glow. The low angleof the sun also produces shadows with some length, bringing outtextures and adding interest and depth to subjects. As the sun gets higher in the sky, the colour of daylightbecomes cooler and more "natural". However, it's also harsh,shadows are short and deep, and contrast will be high. On overcastbut bright days, or when the sun disappears behind a cloud, shadowsbecome faint and contrast is reduced, making it possible to recorddetails in all parts of the composition. Observing where light strikes your subject will also improveyour pictures significantly.

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Grieving And Funeral Services

This is the second of the Rites of Passage Triple Bill, dealing with ceremonies that celebrate change and how they assist people with change. This blog looks not at the funeral (which celebrates the ultimate change) but commemorations after that. Grief can be shared or private. When shared in a ceremony, grief is given a different context – the context of the group. The intensity of ceremony is twofold. First, it is an activity that stresses our membership of community and our place in it. Second, many ceremonies, particularly religious ones, have been so well crafted that they have a particular power. Advertisement: Story continues below Before Christmas I went to The Avenue Uniting Church in the leafy eastern Melbourne suburb of Blackburn to attend a moving ceremony of commemoration. In my case I was there in remembrance of my deceased and still missed motherinlaw. The ceremony is held before Christmas for, as the Minister explained, it is on the days of celebration that the loss of friend or relative is most jarringly felt. Nothing makes the trauma of death more palpable than a notable absentee from the joy of a celebration. It seemed an appropriate moment of genuine reflection and sobriety at a time when drunken debauchery is the more usual condition. In many ways, the service held no surprises. We gathered to the entrancing sound of a harpist. We sang some of the more sober and restrained carols. We reflected on the nature of our losses. Eyes filled. There was a simple yet powerful candlelighting ceremony. Eyes filled again. There was prayer. Being godless, prayer leaves me cold so I used the intoning of the words as an opportunity for an internal conversation with myself. The community, which I understand included many who were not usual congregants, demonstrating the need for Rosetta Stone French this ritual, had arrived in quiet groups and dabbed their eyes through the service. They had made a clear decision to remember the dead not in the privacy of their homes but in the ceremonial gathering of their family and peers. In doing so, in the company of the community, their remembrance resonated with power, for humans are herd animals. When we gather, we amplify our emotions. Some months earlier I had communally grieved with my community on Yom Kippur. Jewish liturgy offers mourners many opportunities to mourn and the primary vehicle is an ancient prayer called the Kaddish. It is written in Aramaic, the conversational language of biblical times (Jesus, though multilingual, would have spoken primarily Aramaic) to make the prayer more accessible for the masses. Of course my Hebrew is appalling and my Aramaic is worse (well nonexistent) so let me transliterate it for you. Boiled down to its basics, the Kaddish says: ''God’s a great guy. God’s fantastic. God’s fabulous. We love God.'' Clearly, I am not seduced by the literal meaning of the Kaddish prayer. Yet it moves me seismically every time I intone it. My parents died suddenly, shockingly and together. As a son, my duty and privilege was to recite the Kaddish at their grave. I didn't want to stuff this up and so endanger their esteemed position in the community. So I practised it continually night and day until their burial. Given my primitive Hebraic skill, an abomination of recitation was really on the cards. If I buggered it up, I could imagine in my mind their loving parental eye roll at yet another iconoclastic moment of their problematic boy. It was my final filial duty and against the odds, I think I got it pretty well right. So the Kaddish has real meaning for me, even though I am an atheist and even though the events of which I speak occurred a quarter of a century ago. It binds me anew to my community and it once again is an opportunity to pay homage to my parents by repeating my final filial responsibility of their earthly presence. So on certain holy days, this hardcore atheist can still be found in a synagogue stumbling my illiterate way through the Kaddish.

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Children of the tech revolution

Pinned to the wall of my daughter's grade 1 classroom is a sheet of butcher's paper, listing questions she and her classmates would like to answer. Will the water run out? How many children travel to school in a sustainable way? Are cities a good idea? The next sheetlists ways they will find out the answers. First on the list: checkthe internet.These six and sevenyearolds are part of the emerging generationZ. Demographers and social researchers have banged on endlessly about gen Y and their rapid embrace of new technology but gen Z isthe first generation born into a digital world. It's a bit likelearning a language in high school compared with being a nativespeaker (hence an alternative name for gen Z: digital natives).This key difference, and others, is now attracting the attention ofthose who want to know the answer to the question: what kind ofadults will gen Z this century's first generation grow up tobe?First things first, though: the age group. It's a bone of contention among the experts, who argue that the first gen Zs wereborn as early as 1991 (making the oldest now 17) or as late as 2001(so the oldest is seven). "I get frustrated beyond belief with allthe age spans," says IBISWorld founder Phil Ruthven, who firmlyplumps for a 2001 start point and a 2020 end point, supported by150 years of charts. Others, including social researcher MarkMcCrindle, say gen Z began around 1995, so the oldest are nowhitting 13, and the last gen Zs will be born next year.That's a huge discrepancy, based largely on differing start and endpoints for the preceding generations Y, X and baby boomers. Untilthe experts sort out their differences, it seems safe to assumethat today's babies to sevenyearolds are definitely gen Z, Rosetta Stone Spanish (Spain) andkids aged eight to 12 are on the fuzzy line between very young genY or the oldest gen Zs. Certainly, these older preteens weretoddlers when the internet took over the world, so on that pointthey can be classified as "digital natives".McCrindle, founder of McCrindle Research, says that understandingwhat sort of adults will emerge from today's primary schoolsrequires a close look at their home environment. Families aresmaller, parents are older and most mothers are in the workforce.There's less smacking, a lot of structured afterschool activitiesand a bit of a "bubblewrap" mentality where kids are drivenevery where and playgrounds have rubberised surfaces. All thistranslates, McCrindle says, into a generation that's "fairlydemanding and maybe a bit precocious" with high expectations andplenty of material comforts and toys.If this sounds scarily like "all about me" generation Y (raised bythe baby boomers), it is but with an important difference.McCrindle says generation X parents are reacting against the babyboomers' overindulgent and freespirited parenting style. Althoughgen Xers have a tendency to be "helicopter parents" hovering overevery aspect of their kids' lives they are also swinging back towhat might be termed traditional values.McCrindle explains this as an emphasis on oldfashioned notionssuch as work ethic, etiquette, resilience, fortitude and takingresponsibility for oneself."This character development is the key thing to watch," he says."All the research we've done shows gen Y lacks resilience and awork ethic. Generation Z is different." He detects a move away fromthe past decade's rampant materialism, a stronger emphasis onsocial justice and a generation of highly educated, technologicallysavvy, innovative thinkers."They will be incredible achievers, leading the nation throughissues like the ageing population and climate change," saysMcCrindle, himself the father of four gen Zs aged six months to sixyears. "I'm optimistic." His research predicts that rather thantaxpayer Z resenting their entry into the workforce just whenageing peaks, they will soar up income and power ladders fasterthan their forebears.IBIS World's Phil Ruthven is also optimistic about gen Z. Heclassifies them as "adaptives" a "silent" generation that isobedient and socially aware and has scruples.

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Keating says Bishop should lead Libs

Paul Keating says Tony Abbott is a "young fogey" and has compared Malcolm Turnbull to a firecracker a "bit of fizz but then nothing". But putting aside the typically colourful language, the former Labor prime minister has one serious suggestion for who should now lead the Liberal Party outgoing education minister Julie Bishop. Mr Keating was predictably scathing about defeated prime minister John Howard, saying he did not feel sorry for his former adversary and was relieved the "toxicity" of his government was gone. Advertisement: Story continues below John Howard defeated the Keatingled Labor government at the 1996 election, but Mr Keating said Mr Howard had squandered his time in office, and made Australia a more divided nation. The former Labor leader turned his attention to the upcoming contest for the Liberal leadership, following Peter Costello's decision not to stand. So far only Mr Turnbull and Mr Abbott have announced they will stand. Joe Hockey has ruled himself out and Alexander Downer and Brendan Nelson have yet to announce their intentions. Mr Keating said he did not have a solution for the Liberals, but knew who he would not choose. "If they take Tony Abbott, they are just going to go back downhill to wherever they've been," he told ABC radio. "He's the one most like Howard ideologically. "He's what I call a young fogey. Howard was the old fogey, he's the young fogey." Mr Keating said he liked Dr Nelson more "when he had the ring in his ear". Dr Nelson, the outgoing defence minister, famously used to wear an earring and was once a member of the ALP. Mr Turnbull Rosetta Stone English was a bit like a big red bunger on cracker night, Mr Keating said. "You light him up, there's a bit of a fizz but then nothing, nothing." Mr Keating spoke up for Ms Bishop, who is being touted as a potential deputy leader of the party. "I don't know her, but if I was voting this very second, I'd probably give it to her," he said. "Most women, I think they are battling in public life. "You look at the girls in Labor caucus, I always battle for them." Mr Keating, meanwhile, said he was not surprised by Mr Costello's decision. "I'd said to someone last week, he'll be out next week with (Victorian Liberal powerbroker Michael) Kroger in investment banking and I wasn't wrong. "He never had the bottle to take Howard on." Mr Keating said he was more relieved than happy about Labor's election victory. "I was just so relieved that the toxicity of this government had gone, this dreadful vicious show which had been around for all these years, the active disparaging of particular classes and groups. "I felt like you know sometimes you see people at factories, they've been in a plant that's got toxic stuff on them and they get hosed down later. I felt on Saturday night like I'd been hosed down." Mr Keating said he did not feel sorry for Mr Howard when he conceded defeat on Saturday night. "Howard is a fighter, he was fighting always about the wrong matters. He said Mr Howard's social agenda had damaged the country, and he had misstated his government's economic performance. "Saturday night's victory was not just a victory for the Labor Party; it was also a victory for those Liberals like Malcolm Fraser, Petro Georgiou and Judi Moylan, who stood against the pernicious erosion of decent standards in our public affairs," Mr Keating wrote. "The Liberal Party of John Howard, Philip Ruddock, Alexander Downer and Peter Costello is now a party of privilege and punishments. One that lacks that most basic of wellsprings: charity." Mr Keating said Mr Howard had not taken advantage of the economy's growth or the improvement in relations with country's like Indonesia.

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I was in the righthand turning lane in Elizabeth St

The pictures illustrate a casual female driver [the average] and a concentrating older driver watching the road ahead [also the average]. Agreeing that speed kills I know that the youngsters are more likely to speed and kill, they kill the slower older drivers, is this not part of the statistics ? The doctors are the ones who assess every old driver ability to drive on the medical form required from the age of 80, this should be all that is required and not a driving test. Older drivers drive mainly to the shopping centres, most youngsters treat driving as a game. William Lister Johnson An unbelievable sighting!! Dear Sir, Let me say that I enjoyed..wrong wordnobody could enjoy reading the truth about Sydney motorists,..I read with disappointment, the behaviour of my fellow man. In recent years I witnessed an amazingly daring and outrageous event which occurred in the middle of the day in the very heart of our city. I was in the righthand turning lane in Elizabeth St. waiting for the lights to change to make the turn into Park St. I had just joined the end of the queue from Bathurst. As I sat waiting patiently, a young lout drove past our lane on the wrong side of the road and parked himself at the head of our turning lane!! Incidentally, I passed the same smart idiot halfway along the next block and he was laughing his head off!! Amazing as it may be, there was no tooting of horns, when this took place. Either the motorists at the head of the queue were too stunned with disbelief, or they were sensible people who realised that such an act would not improve the situation. I should like to add that I used to tremble with fear at the thought of being a passenger in the car with my daughter when driving her twins to Kincopple from Double Bay. I thank the powers that be that they were never involved in an accident. Tail gating is quite terrifying if you Rosetta Stone Hindi happen to be driving to places like York, WA. I was travelling well over the speed limit when a semi came up behind me. There was nowhere for me to pull over, slowing down to pull to the side would have been rought with danger, so my alternative was to put my foot down and loose him completely. I had French tourists with me at the time.. As a very young driver, I was not without perfection. I confess to having knocked down a fruit barrow in the city. The policeman came to my aid and told me that the barrow should not have been parked there and to just drive off. I have always found our constabulary to be most obliging. Driving my old aunt home late one evening without tail lights, I was stopped by a friendly copper. Naturally, I asked with a dumb blond look, Oh dear Sergeant, (he was a constable) what have I done wrong? After an explanation, I innocently asked what I should do, and was told to continue driving carefully and if stopped again, to act in the same manner with the next member of the force and all would be well. Sincerely, Helen Mayd well My pet hates on the road 1. The majority of drivers using the outer lane on city streets thereby preventing drivers coming the other way from overtaking slow moving or stationary traffic. 2. The obsession again of a majority of drivers with using only the middle and outer lanes of three lane motorways.

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The town hall gathering was considered very briefly

The class sometimes incorporates ethics material, perhaps developed by the St James Ethics Centre, and activities developed by approved religious providers, who sometimes visit the classrooms to discuss ideas and practices in depth. The yearly excursion takes children to churches, mosques, temples and synagogues so they ''know what those buildings are''. The main project is one of social engagement a charity or environmental endeavour where children from different religious and philosophical backgrounds work together. Schools have international partner schools to learn together about religions and world views. The national curriculum and teaching approach emphasises active listening, building children's skills to take up and defend a position without belittling other points of view. The children learn the basic differences and similarities between a variety of Western, Eastern and indigenous forms of spirituality, including the practice of stillness and silence. At an appropriate age, when the basics have been covered, they debate interesting and difficult topics and engage with their world in a complex way. This multitradition approach is used and is being researched in many countries. It contributes to a greater ability to think laterally, to explore ideas deeply and practically and to develop empathy. It does not urge belief or nonbelief. It builds confidence with the language and concepts of philosophy and theology. That is how. If only the educators would stand up and make their case. Cathy Byrne East Ballina Rudd's request was lowkey and proper I attended the meeting at which Kevin Rudd expressed his interest in attending Hillary Clinton's town hall event at the University of Melbourne (''Rudd ruffles feathers to be in Clinton limelight'', November 10). Mr Rudd was present. The US Assistant Secretary of Rosetta Stone V3 State Kurt Campbell conducted the meeting. The town hall gathering was considered very briefly. The Foreign Minister expressed a desire to attend, which was quickly and readily accepted by Mr Campbell. At no time was the proposition of the Foreign Minister sitting on the stage raised. The discussion was lowkey, lasted less than a minute and occurred only in passing. Kim Beazley Ambassador to the United StatesAnger not enough Bruce Hulbert (Letters, November 10) writes with passion about the tragic level of indigenous infant mortality. However, he does not explain why this happens, or offer any solutions. He just wants the government to do more. The Northern Territory intervention was hardly welcomed by indigenous people, and its outcome is uncertain. Can someone be specific for once? John Christie OatleyPlane nonsense Anyone who believes quieter aircraft will solve Sydney's noise problem is deluding themselves or trying to con the rest of us (''Fast rail to a second airport'', November 10). Since Qantas started early morning departures of an A380 this year, I have had the joy of being woken between 6.05am and 6.15am most days, though the longterm operating plan for Sydney Airport (what a misnomer that was) says takeoffs to the north should not be considered before 7am. The A380 may well be quiet for its size, but when it is a couple of hundred feet above you it is bloody noisy. As far as I am concerned, the A380 can remain grounded forever. For the past few days peace has reigned, at least until 7am. Anne Buckley LewishamSave poets a corner I read with great pleasure the announcement of the Prime Minister's Literary Awards (''Dogs have their day as PM presents her literary awards'', November 9). Yet there was sadness, too, for there is one great gap: no award for poetry. I am baffled by this. Poets such as Les Murray and the late Peter Porter are recognised on the world stage. It seems probable Murray will be numbered among our Nobel laureate. An Australian poet, Ross Donlon, has just won the inaugural (English) Arvon Foundation Wenlock Prize.

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Holes open in Labor's advantage

Illustration: Dyson At a fundamental level, the government is strong, but a series of debacles has changed the dynamics. FOR the first time since the election, Kevin Rudd and his government are looking seriously ragged. Environment Minister Peter Garrett is on the ropes over the ceiling insulation program, which has involved four deaths and become highly emotional as relatives hit the airwaves and the ACTU declared unions had consistently raised concerns about safety; and former Labor operative Mike Kaiser has turned up in a $450,000 ''job for the boy'' with the new government broadband company, after he was suggested by Communications Minister Stephen Conroy. As well, the emissions trading scheme is not only headed for defeat again in the Senate but this week's Age/Nielsen poll shows it is losing public support. Advertisement: Story continues below And Rudd finds himself under criticism especially, but not only, for his communications failures. The PM got a rigorous workout from an audience of young people on Monday's ABC Q and A. Yesterday The Australian Financial Review, interviewing leading talkback hosts, reported listeners ''see his language as contrived, his personality as plastic''; the hosts are detecting ''a sharp mood swing in the electorate''. By the time the House of Representatives rose yesterday after the first fortnight of the new parliamentary year, it's a fair bet the PM's short fuse was alight. Several factors have converged to multiply the government's problems. Its rapid, massive response to the global financial crisis kept Australia out of recession, but has meant overloaded, shoddy administration. Garrett's environment department was simply not capable, in the time available, of properly planning and supervising the insulation program. The minister himself has not provided enough oversight. The spotlight this week is on environment programs, but the faults are repeated in other areas. No one has died in the huge school building spend, but it has been too rigid and wasteful. The appointment of Kaiser, a Rosetta Stone Spanish Latin former Queensland state MP named in an electoral fraud inquiry who has had several senior Labor staff positions, is only the tip of the iceberg. That $43 billion broadband scheme has not had a proper cost-benefit analysis; last week the Auditor-General criticised the process for the aborted initial broadband plan. It's mostly not the government's fault that the ETS has bogged. An intransigent Senate, an opposition that switched positions, the failure of the Copenhagen conference and the impasse over the American legislation all helped drag the government into quicksand. But Rudd's failure to ''sell'' the scheme publicly is being increasingly highlighted. Rudd's political style, whether his prolixity or his obsession for control, was always destined to be viewed more harshly when the politics became tougher. Some of the present troubles come from a clash between Rudd's desire to do too much and the electoral timetable. The most dramatic example is the timing of the Henry tax review, a gift to Tony Abbott's scare campaign about a second-term Rudd government. Abbott has started more strongly than the government expected. He has plenty of downsides, from the trivial to the serious. His virginity comments consumed the media for days. This week, a visit to a dry cleaner to highlight higher power costs under the ETS brought tut-tutting over his obvious unfamiliarity with an iron, and his use of the term ''housewife'' (though he quickly added ''house husband''). The ''housewife'' reference had minister Greg Combet out chiding Abbott (''carrying on about housewives doing the ironing at home … only demonstrates that he really is stuck in the past''). The government is trying to reinforce the impression of the Opposition Leader as old-fashioned, out of touch and right-wing.

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Now that would require the sort of stamina

Tony Abbott is a homophobe, and not even his Palinesque ''some of my best friends are gay'' defence deflects from the fact that his religious beliefs will never allow for full equal rights for gay people. Morgan Smallbone Potts Point Lovely set of figures I would be far more impressed with the Opposition Leader if he could produce 3.8 carefully nurtured policy statements a week, spend 180.1 days a year in parliament providing constructive criticism of the government and come up with 42.2 innovative ideas for dealing with climate change. Now that would require the sort of stamina, determination and vision we'd prefer to see in an alternative prime minister. Tim Wilson Neutral Bay End public school blame game I agree with Yola Center that the collapse of the local comprehensive school is a crisis (Letters, March 27-28). And yet I am a teacher and parent in a private school. Like most teachers, I love strong, free, egalitarian, state education, and fret at night about what my professional choices might be doing to inclusive society. If public schooling is to survive as a great social equaliser it must start to care about what drove teachers and parents like myself away. My choice - and that of the families of well over a third of students - has been so far met with contemptuous cries of religious bigotry, classist oppression and neo-liberal radicalism in an increasingly irrelevant attempt to shut the public school gate long after the students have bolted. Until the blame game ends, until there is a real attempt to understand - and ameliorate - why state education lost our love, the stampede will continue, leaving many comprehensive schools in an inevitable spiral of compounding social disadvantage. David Hastie Blaxland East Ocean becomes a giant rubbish bin It seems farcical that householders are busy sorting their rubbish into recycling bins and the former HMAS Adelaide is to be dumped into the easy rubbish bin of the ocean. It comprises more than a few tins and glass bottles. Hardly sustainability and responsibility at its best. Gretchen Wheen Canada Goose jackets Richmond We can do without formula one Ian MacDonald has memory problems if he cannot recall the V8 debacle that cost millions, hundreds of trees and had to be sweetened with a teaspoon of Cold Chisel to get the punters in. Now he wants the formula one race that Melbourne - if truth be known - would pay to have NSW take over. The cost will only be in the tens of millions (if we are lucky), it will cause disruption to millions for negligible amusement for the few and that other dubious and unquantifiable benefit ''international exposure''. If they don't know where we are after the Olympics, they never will. John Glennon Balmain Lives wasted Irrespective of the debate about whether the Bureau of Statistics elects to increase its numbers on the suicides that occurred in 2007 (currently 1881) those numbers remain appalling (''Unfinished data could mean suicide rate higher'', March 27-28). Five suicides a day, with about 25 failed attempts for each death. A death rate more than 16 per cent above the road fatalities that occurred in the same year. Ted Keating Tallai Lead by example The US administration has called upon various Iraqi politicians not to use ''inflammatory'' language in their dealings with each other. One is left wondering whether these same officials ever listen to the political discourse going on in their own backyard? Andrew Sarkadi Double Bay Inkling of stupidity Can someone please tell me what is so Australian about Southern Cross tattoos (''When patriotism gets under your skin'', March 27-28)? It's hardly a unique insignia, since we share it with the flags of New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Samoa and Brazil. Sam Spence Leichhardt Batsmen averse to close shaves In reference to Gordon Ramsay's comments regarding Ricky Ponting's appearance on TV on Tuesday night (Letters, March 26), Ponting is merely observing a long-held tradition among cricketers that players do not shave during Test matches as it is perceived as bad luck.

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