Monday, January 24, 2011

Notes: Thursday-Monday, January 20-24, 2011

http://wdtprs.com/blog/2011/01/catholic-institutions-are-failing-because-of-failing-catholic-identity/#comment-248843
http://wdtprs.com/blog/2011/01/catholic-institutions-are-failing-because-of-failing-catholic-identity/#comment-248899

Labels: Catholic schools, education

3. "Program to take on homophobia in schools"

I wonder whether, amid moves against "homophobia" and, so to speak, "Holocaust"ophobia, we could see some action against the kind of Catholicophobia which motivated the two anti-Catholic letters published, under the respective headlines of "Vatican bluster" and "Saintly hiatus", in the Herald on the same day as this story was:

[...] The Education Minister, Verity Firth, has announced a $250,000 program to tackle homophobia in schools. The program, ''Proud Schools'', will be trialled at 12 high schools in Sydney and the Hunter and on the Central Coast.

[...] The program will include teacher training and workshops with students and parents.

[...] The 12 schools to trial the program this year will be announced after consultation with school communities.

The Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society is preparing a paper that will identify how schools can improve support for young gay people.

A committee comprising government and non-government agencies will monitor the program and report back to Ms Firth's office.

A spokesman for Ms Firth said while strategies to tackle homophobia were embedded in welfare programs, this was the first homophobia-specific initiative to be developed.

[http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/lifematters/program-to-take-on-homophobia-in-schools-20110120-19y3r.html?skin=text-only]

(Today Mr. Muehlenberg has published a blog post dealing with similar recent developments, though apparently he is not aware of the "Proud Schools" programme.)

Labels: education, G.L.B.T., Proud Schools

4. (Part of) Mr. Coyne's curriculum vitæ

http://www.catholica.com.au/forum/index.php?mode=thread&id=65550
(in the paragraph which begins with the words "My own involvement")

Labels: Brian Coyne, Catholic schools, education

5. "A Lesson in "Globalism""

http://mauricepinay.blogspot.com/2011/01/lesson-in-globalism.html

Labels: globalism, multiculturalism

6. An amusing letter on areas of workplace inequality which feminists tend to overlook

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/more-equal-than-others/story-fn558imw-1225993286421

Labels: feminism, work

Reginaldvs Cantvar
Feast of St. Timothy, Bishop, Martyr, A.D. 2011

1 comment:

Cardinal Pole said...

Regarding item 3: The N.S.W. Department of Education and Training's official press release on "Proud Schools" is available here:

https://www.det.nsw.edu.au/about-us/news-at-det/news/pilot-program-to-tackle-homophobia

The thing which I've been wondering is: How does one spend $250000--the equivalent of paying four people $62500 each for a year--on "the professional development of school staff, student and parent workshops and the development of resources to assist schools build their capacity to support same-sex and gender questioning young people" at twelve schools--equivalent to each of our $62500 p.a. workers covering four schools for the year? That seems like a lot of money for a pretty small programme.