Peter Garrett, the education revolution made safe for the glorious principles of L. Ron Hubbard, and greetings from Newtown ...

There's much excitement and activity at the local school.

In the old days it was St. Josephs Girls School - ah the Joeys of yore, where are you Mary MacKillop, lost and forgotten in the streets of Newtown - but you can see that these days it's run by a mob going by the name of Athena.

Athena, as history buffs will know, is the goddess of war, civilization, wisdom, strength, strategy, crafts, justice and skill. (here)

Phew. Sounds like the Athena school is on the job. Naturally the federal government is on hand to help them out and achieve their wide ranging mission statement, so they can do justice to their goddess ...

Stop gawking at the mini.

Yep there it is on the back fence, a notice showing a nation building project helping to transform the school is happening right now. Our taxes at work, the federal Labor government on the job, helping the school grow. On the far right of the snap, you can see another sign. Here it is in MCU:

Persistence, integrity, understanding. Singular virtues and a worthy school motto. Hang on a tic toc, what's that down in the left hand corner? And did you notice another notice like it on the first snap?

Let's go into an ECU, as we liked to say in the old days:

Phew. Suddenly I feel so much more reassured knowing that the federal Labor government is helping out Applied Scholastics, and doing the right thing by an organisation providing education services and materials based on the works of L. Ron Hubbard.

Hmm, I wonder if I start my own cult - Loon Pond School of Universal Reknown, based on the works of Dorothy Parker - whether I can get a federal grant or three?

It made me wonder what Ben Jensen was imbibing when he scribbled Five steps to fixing schools, offering up five initiatives that would greatly improve the education we offer students.

Thanks to firm steps taken by John Howard and carried on by the Labor government, and the principles of L. Ron Hubbard, as aided and abetted by the Australian taxpayer, we're already well on the way to greatly improving the education we offer students. Put them in the clear, so to speak, and on speaking terms with Xenu.

There is to my knowledge only one scribbler on education who regularly talks about the many elephants in the education schoolroom, and that's the invaluable Maralyn Parker, who strangely has found a home at the Daily Terror.

There she was in August scribbling Back to the days of god, chalk and being caned:

For Tony Abbott school chaplains are more important than school computers. If elected the Coalition intends to spend $220 million to put chaplains in Australian schools but only $120 million on computers and technology.

Yes, the lower case 'g' in the header was appreciated.

Here she is welcoming the worst arts minister for many a long year in to the ambitious job of becoming the worst schools minister in many a long year in Garrett now the new boy in extremely tough school:

The appointment of Peter Garrett as Minister for School Education and the carving up of the education portfolio into school and tertiary portfolios could both end in disaster.

Garrett has already started out well, by announcing there'd be no changes to the funding model currently in operation until the next term of government, pending the results of a review. Always the handiness of an ongoing review.

But lordy has the blather factor risen exponentially:

LYNDAL CURTIS: And are you prepared to wear the political heat if the funding model decides that private schools get too much government funding now and more needs to go into the public schools?

PETER GARRETT: Well, look it is a good question but I don't reckon we should get ahead of ourselves here. What I am absolutely committed to doing, as I did when I was environment minister, is being a very, very positive consulter. (here).

A positive consulter? Is that like being a consultant who consults by avoiding the actual use of English?

Well maybe we've abolished the cane, but here's hoping Maralyn Parker spanks him hard and spanks him often. And keep on asking such bemusing questions as Did you toss your NAPLAN report in the bin?

Meanwhile, after a wander which took in the Athena marvel, here's a snap of a sign offering greetings from Newtown, addressed to Penbo, who as noted in our last post snickered at the lefties in the local neighbourhood.

Click to enlarge, so you can read how the anarchists and Penbo are at one on the matter of freedom of speech, sharing a deep anxiety about the way "self organised forms of communication like street art and posters are not tolerated."

Who'd have thought a Murdoch hack from Adelaide was at one with Newtown anarchists? Yes, let's hear it for freedom of speech.

And now, since this has turned into a kind of Postcards from Newtown entry, here's our local fire station, standing by to ensure nothing gained by way of conspicuous consumption is lost by way of fire.

Eek. What's that on the front of the fire truck? A feral stuffed dog that looks just like a wild anarchist wolf hound in the "hands off Newtown" poster?

Have the firies gone anarchist? Is this secret code, or does the feral dog help put out the fires by pissing cotton wool? Not to worry. Between a firey attending my house fire, or Penbo, or an anarchist, I'll take the fiery every day ...

Yep, we encourage everyone to take a walk around your local community and enjoy the rich glow of eccentricity. From scientology to anarchy.

It's always fun, and at the end I always come away with a warm inner glow and the thought: Australia, I'm standing in it ... Put that another way: Australia, you're standing in it ...