Education and equality

I was raving about Noel Pearson recently over on my other blog - not to mention that on facebook I said that I wanted him to be the next PM. Well anyway he's written the latest Quarterly Essay, entitled Radical Hope: Education and Equality in Australia. I really recommend a read. It's not written quite as sharply as his other work, but it's still a lucid and pleasurable read. And as always, his thinking is insightful, visionary and wide-ranging. He addresses such things as: the place of minority ethnic groups in sovereign states and in modern times; President Obama's promotion of 'No Excuses' and the American educational system; the repetitious and blinkered history of Aboriginal education in Australia; the benefits of (unremarkable teachers) providing effective instruction; government's responsibility for cultural transmission; the cultivation of skills, creativity, critique and self-esteem and the danger of ethnically-based pride.