Colleen Harkin, director of the Institute of Public Affairs’ schools program and research fellow, recently alarmed the good people of LinkedIn by posting four bulging binders full of Australia’s maths curriculum, next to Singapore’s slimline curriculum.
Harkin explained that Australia’s prep to year 10 maths curriculum is “3500 pages long – bursting with ideology: climate change, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders History and Culture, Sustainability, social justice etc ( yes – this is in maths).”
Colleen Harkin says the left pile is Australia’s maths curriculum and the right pile is Singapore’s.
According to Harkin, Singapore’s maths curriculum is about 80 pages long with “no ideological pollution”.
Astounding. Shocking. Also untrue, according to the body that writes the curriculum. The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority says the foundation-to-year-10 maths curriculum is only 273 pages long, including optional resources.
The core content – the achievement standards and content descriptions – comes in at a whopping 33 pages.
In the face of doubters, Harkin posted to LinkedIn that she would be sticking to her guns: “Unsurprisingly, some people cannot believe the image of our math curriculum. (See my immediate past post). I don’t blame them.”
Harkin later told CBD that it would not be honest to suggest that the national curriculum is straightforward.
More layers of the onion
CBD is thrilled to see Fox Corp director Tony Abbott, you might remember him as a prime minister, livening up this snore-fest election campaign.
The onion-eating former PM blessed the fair shores of Frankston and continued his fine tradition of gaffes by referencing He Who Must Not Be Named (Donald Trump).
Australia is the best country in the world, Abbott told a gathering for Liberal candidate for Dunkley Nathan Conroy, but the Liberals are best for “making our country great”. Again.
Abbott continued that the Best Country In The World ™ is home to a “green left” who “just don’t like Australians very much” and are “in every sense” making our country “poorer, weaker and more divided”.
It’s not his first notable intervention in a must-win Victorian contest after a bumpy appearance talking potholes with Dan Tehan in Wannon.
From Succession to more success
Sarah Snook, the Adelaide girl made good, burst into the big leagues with her depiction of Roy family middle child Shiv on HBO hit Succession. Now, her star turn in a solo production of Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, adapted for the stage by former Sydney Theatre Company artistic director Kip Williams has wowed audiences in the theatre capitals of the world.
Sarah Snook in the London production of The Picture of Dorian Gray.Credit: Marc Brenner
After a huge run on London’s West End, Snook’s show hit Broadway this year, and a few big names have already popped up at New York’s Music Box Theatre.
Last week, the terrifying fashion matriarch and Conde Nast boss Anna Wintour was seen at the New York show, as was underwear mogul Calvin Klein, both seated in row F.
Wintour snuck out during curtain calls, presumably to avoid being mobbed by the next generation of aspiring Andy Sachses, the young assistant in The Devil Wears Prada. Plenty of other celebrities have also popped up at the show in recent weeks, including Kylie Minogue.
Generational change
Generation Development Group, an investment bond business led by former swimmer Grant Hackett, will host an EGM on Wednesday in Melbourne, where shareholders will be asked to sign off on a capital raising to pay for the company’s $320 million-plus purchase of Evidentia.
Evidentia is a financial planning advice business, which is very on trend in the market. It’s a sweet deal for some: Evidentia is only seven years old, has 29 staff and is barely profitable. The sale is based on 15 times future pre-tax earnings, which some say is more reminiscent of a bull market than whatever’s going on right now. Watch this space.
Grant Hackett leads investment bond business Generation Development Group.Credit: Eamon Gallagher
Speedy work
CBD salutes the promotional skills of the Great Western Hotel in western Victoria, which welcomed Gout Gout for a hot meal shortly after the running sensation was bested in the Stawell Gift on Monday. Quick as a flash, the hotel told its 1163 Instagram followers that Gout was “fast on the track, even faster on the rib-eye” before adding #FastFeetBigEats”.
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