Okay, the pond realises it announced that it had shut down for Xmas, done all the obligatory well-wishing and hit the road for Melbourne, and left any stray passer-by with the spectacle of nattering "Ned", and that should have been the end of it all until the New Year, given that the pond is heading to a place where broadband remains but a delusional dream ...
But then along came Kevin scribbling for the Terrorists ...
How could the pond leave dashing Donners out in the cold?
How could the pond ignore his urgent Xmas message, spreading joy for winners, and excoriating dropkick losers, failures and tossers who should be taken to the dump, along with the rest of the Xmas wrapping paper ...
No point in recycling failures ...this is a scribbler who is all in for winners and winning ...
Indeed, indeed, a most excellent set of points, and lets hope that Donners is deeply satisfied by his hagiographic portrait - such a serious suit. Talk about a solemn-looking winner.
Let us have no room for losers!
Donners' message is vitally important, especially at this time of year when the mug punters are out and about celebrating a refugee loser and delusional dropkick turning up and begging for space at the inn, and sensibly being sent off to the stables where losers and dropkicks should go ...
Xianity is all about winning, and getting filthy rich, and the pond is deeply aware that there was at one point a dangerous tendency towards socialism, with some even asserting that Christ was a socialist and citing this sort of heretical thinking, to be found in Luke:
Outrageous, shocking stuff ...
What about meritocracy and competition? What about the 'leets? Sure the reptiles are always banging on about dangerous 'leets in Canberra or wherever, but we need the 'leets.
Let's face it, without dropkicks, losers and tossers, demeaned and humiliated and destined to a lifetime of loserdom, how would we fill all the jails?
Having a decent supply of losers is an important aspect of this vital industry.
As for the churches, if there wasn't an abundance of losers, dropkicks and failures, why their charities might fall on hard times, and then where would we be? It's important for the Ponzi scheme aspect of church activities that churches be hired by government to tend to all the losers and dropkicks. Losers keep the cash flowing through the church door.
And surely the best way to keep a constant supply of losers and dropkicks is to identify them, preferably in preschool, and thereafter, track them through primary school, and make them aware that they're dropkicks and losers, eternally likely to fail.
Give 'em the mark of Cain early, the pond says, so that crime in the streets might flourish, the jails fill to overflowing and the churches be forced to deal with the homeless crisis like it's rush hour in King street ...
And it goes without saying that the best educational system to take care of this sorting and grading and tossing aside is the private one, with centuries of privilege, exclusiveness and exclusion as a guide ...
Now around this point the pond should confess that dashing Donners' thoughts were illustrated by two Jungian library snaps, rich in their archetypal significance.
Wishing to convey the whole scintillating Donners experience, this is what Terror readers saw ...
Indeed, indeed, girlies and Asians ... can a direr threat to the heroic Anglo-Celtic male be possibly imagined?
But why this talk of Anglo-Celtic? Well as always, it's uppermost in dashing Donners' mind ...
Yes, the Anglo-Celts are dropkicks and losers and might even suffer from anxiety, nerves or depression, and serve them bloody well right ...
Once upon a time, there was the Opium Wars and the British Raj, and all was right in the world, and now these bloody upstart losers are ruining things by winning...
Well it's off to prison for the loser Anglo-Celts, or possibly a meal and a bed in a charitable home, though if the pond had its way, they'd be kicked out of Martin place for being unsightly and sent packing for daring to put up a home under the light rail viaduct in Wentworth Park ...
Think of all this as you tuck in to your Xmas pud ... and remember if a sparrow turns up looking for a hand out, make sure to set the cat on the cheeky bugger ...
Now speaking of losers and dropkicks, here's a last little bit of Xmas cheer, because who knows, any old dropkick and loser could someday become President ...
... or might even run for the Senate ... before joining the loser toys ...
Me thinks that donners should buy and read a copy of the book by Alfie Kohn titled No Contest. Kohn describes why competition altogether but especially in sports and what we now mistakenly call "education" is entirely destructive.
ReplyDeleteNever mind too the emphasis on that explicit in the donners misplaced concern is that he reduces "education" to nothing more that vocational training, and training in how to jump over hoops.
Never mind too that in a "culture" based on winner-takes-all competition all but a tiny percentage of the population inevitably become losers all the way down the line. As do the so called winners too.
But it's quite clear from Donners' ramblings that he somehow thinks that the kids' ATAR score is purely a result of the teaching that they receive. Go to one of them sooper-dooper 'selective' or 'private' schools and ipso facto, get a very high ATAR.
DeleteBut then, why don't all the kids that get the same teaching - ie all the 'selective' and/or 'privates' - get exactly the same ATAR ?
Ooops. Could it be that apart from personal effort (whether driven by tiger moms and lion dads or not) and socioeconomic background, personal ability - even maybe that measure-all called IQ - may have something to do with the score achieved ?
So tell me again: are 'selective' and 'private' schools able to choose which students they'll admit whereas government schools are not ? And would the thought that English is not spoken in at least 20% of Australian households have anything to do with anything ?
Otherwise, do have a damn fine Xmas, DP, and return with the fire in the guts raging. And don't forget to celebrate perihelion on 3rd Jsnuary.
Donners appears to be going soft in his dotage. Just the other year he was spruiking the never-did-me-any-harm maiming of children as a useful private educational tool. And that enlightened teacher he cited as taking him behind the shelter shed and daring him to throw the first punch: what a visionary pedagogue! Yep, you don't often get this quality of insight. You really don't.
ReplyDeleteThere is a broader historic/nostalgic element to Donner's views: in the past, Irish-Catholics suffered discrimination for sectarian reasons and because they were predominantly working or lower-middle class. Catholics were excluded from Protestant-dominated companies or even whole professions. Catholic education was therefore meant to allow talented Catholics to enter professions from which they couldn't be excluded, and raise the social and economic position of Catholics more generally. (Of course, it was also meant to school them in the one true faith and prevent them from being exposed to dangerous religious, philosophical or political ideas). There was therefore a strong emphasis in Catholic schools in performing well in exams, gaining university entrance, winning scholarships. It is this approach for which Donnelly now seems to pine.
ReplyDelete