Thank you David Dale, for your refreshing column in this week’s Who We Are column in the Sun Herald “Better living through English”.
Dale describes his reading of the NSW 7-10 English syllabus, and finds “that it doesn’t just give students tools for communicating clearly in adult life, but it actually wants to turn them into decent people.” He also was surprised to find such a high level of rigour in the syllabus, observing that in contrast: “In my day, the teacher was happy if you left school able to quote a bit of Shakespeare and tell the difference between a metaphor and a simile.”
One element that Dale praised especially was the fact that English is “not just about books any more. The syllabus uses the word ‘text’ to cover movies, TV shows, articles, books, plays and even video games.”
This column made such a nice change from the usual (misinformed) bile that we see from the likes of Donnelly and Devine. Nice to start the teaching break on a positive note…it sure has been awhile!
Kelli McGraw 
#1 by Eva Gold on September 29, 2008 - 7:38 am
Yes indeed. I sent a quick response congratulating him on encouraging positive discussion – and of course comparing him to other commentators who are stridently against the syllabus without having read it. I was tempted to draw attention to the fact that David Dale seemed to understand it despite its impenetrable edubabble but drew back in favour of a little lesson on the role of texts in the English syllabus. I was sure readers would appreciate that 🙂