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Baby I'm hot just like an oven, I need some lovin'. And baby, I can't hold it much longer, it's getting stronger and stronger...


Some time ago I posted the shocking story of the natural world in all of its brutality. It should not take a Mensa-level EQ to recognise both the severity of the initial act and the trauma that inevitably, tragically echoes throughout the lives of all parties.

Shockingly, there were people on this very blog who felt the incident a simple lark, a joke, and maybe even that one party was asking for it.

Unfortunately this seems the way of modern life. The moral certainties provided by institutionalised religion, the rigid hierarchies inherent under a notion of the divine right of kings and feudal serfdom, the 'traditional' family and stark gender roles have all withered away leaving a hodge-podge of post-modern, post-materialist 'values' where anything goes but everybody reserves the right to be offended and offend in equal quantities.

Thankfully, the Hobart City Council are a more enlightened bunch, and they've erected these statues to recognise the horror the original Antarctic offence, and the horrors of inter-species sexual assault more generally. The shame in the seal's eyes when it realises the shame that the penguin feels. That's beauty. That's about real understanding, not simplistic explanations or condemnations.
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Debbie Courson Smith said…
They probably aren't going to ask you to be a tour guide for the city, are they? :)
10 February 2009 at 04:48
KL said…
Kris,
Seems like you know about Hobart policies. So, it would be great if you can one day write in your blog about about mathematics teaching and mathematics/science education and all such related policies in Hobart or Australia. Danke.
10 February 2009 at 05:54
Kris McCracken said…
Diva, I don't know, I can spin a yarn, add a bit of colour and what-not.

The statues are all about the exploration of Antarctica and so on, but I like to think that we can interpret statues however we like. This was me yesterday!
10 February 2009 at 08:45
Kris McCracken said…
KL, it has been a long time out of school for me, and I'll be honest and admit that Maths was not really my strong suite, so given that Henry and Ez are some ways short of school my knowledge is scant.

That said, the Tasmanian Curriculum is online , and may well hold some answers there.

I know that there was a lot of talk about the shortage of Maths and Science teachers a few years back, but they have churned a few out in the interim.

My main problem with the subjects at school was that the teachers didn't seem to put any effort into engaging students in the subjects (this was especially true in Maths). That said, I never had a 'specialist' Maths teacher in high school. Rather, they were:

Grade 7: an English teacher with less of a clue than 40 percent of the class. Gee she was dumb.

Grade 8: a Horticulture teacher with only the basic understanding of the subject. He was even dumber than the Grade 7 teacher.

Grade 9: a Business Studies/Social Science teacher who was too scared of the students to teach, and on stress leave for a fair whack of the time which meant a rolling period of substitute teachers who felt that just being in the room constituted teaching.

Grade 10: a Computing teacher who was actually pretty good really. I wish that I had him earlier.

I am really selling Parklands High School well there, aren't I?

I did a simple maths class at college in Grade 11 (when it was optional), but it was far too easy and I can’t say that I learned anything new.

I was always lazy with maths. I could do the basics easily and that seemed enough to coast once you were not streamed in the advanced classes.
10 February 2009 at 08:57
yournotalone said…
I can just add that I can not apply the term brutality to any life form other than Human.
10 February 2009 at 19:03
Kris McCracken said…
Aigars, I don't know about that, it's been shown that chimpanzees will kill and torture to make a point and for pleasure. Dolphins have also been observed to utilise rape as a mechanism in the same manner as human social groups.
10 February 2009 at 19:18
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