You excitedly report a six-week teacher training course for graduates in law, economics, science and arts (''Program puts pressure on to learn to be teachers in just six weeks,'' September 10, p5) but the teachers union condemns it, saying that teachers need a three-year course to prepare them to teach.
But these are the very teachers we want! And good luck to these new graduates, who have proved themselves in their respective disciplines and are no less than the equals of fellow graduates in other fields of endeavour.
Maybe the best elements of teacher preparation for a highly educated graduate can indeed be conveyed in a mere six weeks, rather than the 12 months it took until the late 1970s the Diploma in Education, a course that certainly did little to prepare us for the classroom.
But in the meantime teacher preparation has come to take a full three years with the Bachelor of Education.
This amounts to no more than a ''stretched'' two-year primary course: bewildered lecturers asked themselves, ''What else can we pack into it?'' Worst of all, a trainee's proficiency in history, physics, maths or literature was essentially frozen at their matriculation level of three years earlier not the kind of mental equipment they need if they are to stand confidently before an eager class of high school students.
Barrie Smillie,
Duffy
Your article ''Program puts pressure on to learn to be teachers in just six weeks'' (September 10, p5) correctly identifies the Australian Education Union as a vehement critic of the Rudd Government's ''Teach for Australia'' program.
The notion that one could successfully operate in any other profession, eg medicine, law, plumbing, after six weeks training, not including any on-the-job experience, is patently preposterous.
Why, then, does anyone imagine that it's OK for their children to be taught by untrained teachers?
Curiously, the two pictured graduates seem unnervingly naive.
One is quoted as saying, ''Any new teacher would surely feel [challenged and somewhat terrified] fronting up to thirty kids, no matter how much preparation they have had.'' Absolutely wrong. During conventional teacher training, a potential teacher has many classroom opportunities to confront their fears. If these fears prove disabling and incurable, they seek a different profession.
They thus avoid burdening a class of students with their inadequacies.
The other graduate, an arts/science student, seems to have finished uni without being challenged to substantiate claims. How else could she make a statement like ''I see the program has had success in other countries''? Evidence, please?
I wish these people all the best.
They are merely the victims of our Government's persistent refusal to implement successful strategies to address teacher shortages. However, ''lambs to the slaughter'' is among he thoughts which come to mind.
Philip Rasmus,
president, Australian Education Union-ACT Branch
DELLA BOSCA AFFAIR
Congratulations to John Warhurst for his lucid and perceptive analysis of the Della Bosca affair (''Not quite the end of the affair'', September 10, p17).
However, I disagree strongly with his conclusion that this affair sets no binding precedent at all for similar cases in the future.
Under our system of government a minister of the crown is chosen because of his or her proven ability to serve the public good and to administer the human and financial resources of the state in a prudent and conscientious manner.
Such responsibility must include the ability to avoid ''personal choices'' which seriously damage such duties.
Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius summed up the inescapable conclusions from this affair: ''If it is not right, do not do it; if it is not true, do not say it''.
Robert Willson,
Deakin
FRONT-LINE WOMEN
Junior Defence Minister Greg Combet's push for women to be allowed into combat roles ignores many important considerations.
Firstly, the Israeli army tried women in combat roles and found that it simply didn't work as it undermined unit cohesiveness and male morale.
This brings me to the second point.
In an era besotted with gender inclusiveness, it must be stated that positive male role models have all but disappeared. Young men confused over sexual identity turn to violence and alcohol. Would it not be a good idea to preserve some positive role models for men rather than destroy the little we have left?
Thirdly, given the fact that the nation's birthrate is well below replacement levels, finding additional roles for women seems to be the least of our problems.
A. J. Barron,
Grovedale, Vic
PARTY POOPERS
Oh, for Pete's sake (''Party Time: $580,000 for official events'', September 10, p1). Should visitors bring their own Vegemite sangers and lime cordial to Australian Government events?
Should we not farewell our governors-general or welcome foreign leaders with food and, shock of horrors, alcohol?We are not an impoverished nation and can afford basic hospitality.
What do you offer visitors when they come to your house?
Mary-Anne Brownlie,
Narrabundah
How dare the non-Labor senators reject Labor's health reform.
Are they so dense that they don't realise that that money is needed to cover the cost of the Government's parties?
How dare they.
F. Kish,
McKellar
EDUCATIONAL SIGNS
It seems perfectly appropriate for any government to inform the passing public that construction activity is part of some funding program.
Voters like to know what their taxes are buying.
Signs in schoolyards where work is being undertaken should be informative but not extravagant.
If the signs are deemed to contravene electoral regulations, couldn't they be covered up from the announcement of the election until after polling day?
Noel Haberecht,
Ainslie
ACTION ON BUSES
The defence of current ACTION employee drug and alcohol policies on the grounds that they involve stringent and regular medical testing for its drivers (''ACTION quizzed on drunk driver'', September 10, p.1) is surely reminiscent of the classic defence that the surgery was a success but the patient died. As the Chief Magistrate has pointed out, there is something wrong if ACTION fails to identify a driver with a longstanding and serious drinking problem who recorded a blood alcohol level in excess of 0.2 while behind the wheel.
While ACTION obviously needs to overhaul its processes and examine its organisational culture, there is also a role for greater legislative and public scrutiny. This could start with instructing ACTION to include information in its annual reports about the nature, number and costs of accidents in which buses are involved.
Karina Morris,
Weetangera
Can any ACT Government minister explain or justify why the blood-alcohol limit for ACTION bus drivers is not zero?
Paul E. Bowler,
Holder
CATHOLIC CASTES
Jack Waterford's untitled expose of the caste system of Catholic education (Times2, September 10, p2) was truly enlightening about Mr Waterford, that is.
His egalitarian pretensions are really quite elastic.
He represents Marist students, of whom he is apparently one, as middle class, in contrast with doctors, solicitors and other professionals.
Members of the so-called professions are, for the most part, considered as members of the middle class by my recollection since I last opened a sociological tome.
Yet, under the guise of wit, Mr Waterford goes further and declares the vicious caste hatred and violence between the products of various Catholic teaching orders to be a ''noble tradition''.
Is the Editor at Large of The Canberra Times modelling a medium focused upon social intransigence?
Gary J. Wilson,
Hackett
CAGE EGGS NO BARGAIN
Let's hope the ACT Government sees sense, shows some leadership and passes the Greens' bill the Eggs (Cage Systems) Legislation Amendment Bill 2009.
This would set a great precedent in banning the cruel farming practice of cage eggs in the ACT; perhaps other states would follow suit.
And with the drop in demand for cage eggs, it seems unlikely that Pace Farms would replace their battery facility outside of the ACT.
Cage eggs may be cheaper, but to save those few dollars on a dozen eggs, buyers require the torture of a hen for a week or more.
That's not a bargain price.
Miranda Bone,
Kaleen
AYELESS IN GAZA
Antony Loewenstein (''Drop rose-coloured views to lift Gaza peace hopes'', September 9, p11) claims that Hamas is boycotted because Israel and the West refuse to accept its election.
This is simply untrue.
Hamas is boycotted because it refuses to agree to the three simple demands from the US, UN, Russia and the EU that it renounce violence, recognise Israel's right to exist and accept existing agreements.
Gaza is partially blockaded not because the wrong party was elected, but because of the terrorism it has carried out since its election.
Loewenstein claims that Hamas is willing to negotiate, but if that was true, it would accept the three preconditions.
If Israel's attack on Hamas ''emboldened'' it, as Loewenstein claims, why is it that only now have the rockets and other attacks practically stopped?
Loewenstein's allegations about Israel's general nature are similarly flawed.
All of Israel's Arab citizens have absolutely equal rights, while West Bank and Gaza Palestinians are restrained only to the extent required by the security problems they have caused.
Yosi Tal,
Leichhardt, NSW
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