'What is education?', asked this week’s speaker Cheryl Lacey. My dinner badge lists my vocation as 'Teacher Education'. So, if there's anyone in the Club who should be able to provide an informed answer to this question, it should be me. Of course, I have my perspective, but my answer is there isn't a definitive answer, and I doubt there will be one any time soon.
The word 'education' is like several other related terms including 'schooling', 'teaching' and 'learning' that are casually bandied about as if we all know and agree what they mean. However, teachers and academics would disagree both with the simplistic ways in which the terms are used in everyday language, and with each other. Ask the question, 'What is education?', of a philosopher, a psychologist, a sociologist, an anthropologist, an educational academic and a teacher, and you'll get at least six different answers. The questions, 'What is learning?' and 'What is teaching?' are every bit as problematic. Discussions, opinions and arguments on these questions fill volumes. There are few agreed answers, and indeed, the way the layperson understands the concepts is very different from the professionals.
Before we look at some things about which we might agree - or not - let me illustrate one difficulty inherent in reaching an agreed answer to the question 'What is education?'.
Firstly, 'education', if we mean institutionalised education (i.e. schooling), is inevitably political. Addressing the slightly different question, 'What is the purpose of education (schooling)?', highlights the political dimension more clearly. Is the purpose of education fundamentally focussed on the development of the individual, or is it moulding the individual to be part of the group (society or community)? Your answer is likely to be that it's both. But clearly there are times when the freedom of the individual and the demands of the community are at odds. Which takes precedence? Education for the utterly free individual sits at one end of a spectrum, while education for social compliance sits at the other. Where is the balance? Where you place the pointer along the spectrum is a reflection of your political perspective. You can see already we are into very deep water and we've hardly started our search for an agreed answer to the question.
We do probably agree that education should enable each child to become sufficiently literate and numerate to function in society. Everyone should leave school with sufficient knowledge, reasoning skills, resilience and flexibility to be able to make informed decisions, to appreciate art, literature and music, to pursue a career and be prepared for the challenges that will confront them in the years ahead. Young people should grow up in a system that is safe and does not detrimentally impact their mental health. Citizens should have a knowledge of the origins of our laws and values, and of the history that has shaped them. Uh-oh! Some more issues about which we are likely to disagree. Whose history? Whose values?
Before I leave the topic, I must emphasise that just because finding a conclusive answer to the question 'What is education?', is difficult, if not impossible, does not mean that the exploration of the question is not essential. It is. We owe it to our children to clarify our meanings and to shape our systems to ensure our children receive the best preparation for life we can offer them.
If you want to explore the topic further, you could do worse than read and reflect upon John Dewey's 'My Pedagogic Creed'. http://dewey.pragmatism.org/creed.htm
Also on the topic of education, I should mention that this week we heard from Scott Bolton (MEd (SLP) Graduate, 2018 Rotary Global Scholar, Harvard Graduate School of Education) (left) whose scholarship was sponsored by the Rotary Club of Hawthorn. Scott has extracted every last drop of education and experience from the opportunities that the Global Scholarship has offered him. We very much look forward to catching up with Scott when he returns to Melbourne.
Finally, also education related, I'd like again to acknowledge the work of Hans Carlborg, (right) who has gathered together a group of Rotarians, in conjunction with Swinburne University, to work on a project that involves the mentoring of migrant students learning English language and planning their lives and careers in Australia. It is a wonderful initiative. Congratulations Hans.
Cheryl Lacey is an educationist, speaker and author. She has published several books, writes a weekly newsletter and has another book on the way.
She traced her philosophy in teaching back to her early days, when a class clown and bully was caught smoking at school: instead of punishment his teacher instilled him with belonging, opportunity and responsibility. Since then she has wanted to be involved, especially in the education of children with special needs. She believes in integration, the right to be enrolled in school. Cheryl herself only understood the application of involvement after she became a teacher.
Cheryl gave her opinion on NAPLAN: approving of the concept of assessment, but not of its delivery.
She delivered some hard facts:
1) there are 3,000 suicides a year of young people (under 25)
2) One third of the families have a single parent
3) 81% of school teachers are female.
She also questioned the real unemployment figures, as the numbers of those in crafts and trades may not be accurate.
Before fielding several robust questions from the floor, Cheryl closed her talk with two questions for us to ponder upon:
“What is education?”
And: “What is our responsibility to contribute to it?”
Cheryl's professional diversity includes teaching & consulting spanning the early childhood to tertiary sector, business owner, and radio and print media. She's a lively, well respected and thought-provoking contrarian.
A conversation at last weeks meeting, and some encouragement from our indefatigable Editor, has prompted me to put pen to paper with some reflections on this recent event at Tabcorp Park in Melton.
As we arrived at the venue, the buzz of activity and energy levels were impressive, especially early on a wintery Sunday morning and with the realization that many had come from quite far afield and been there for some time setting up displays etc.
The Assembly is all about getting the incoming teams from Clubs and the District together on the eve of the new Rotary year, so it was good to hear from, and be enthused by our next DG, Grant Hocking, and to have most of the members of the District Support Team introduced in the opening session. Even greater encouragement came however, when I joined other recently anointed Rotarians at a session for new members led by PDG Julie Mason. As many Bulletin readers would know, Julie has made a huge contribution to Rotary over many years and has an infectious enthusiasm. It was quite inspiring to be in a room full of motivated and community minded people, from twenty somethings to seventy somethings, with widely diverse backgrounds, all sharing their thoughts on what was most positive for them about the Clubs they had joined and the projects and activities being undertaken.
At this session I talked to a new member who is in his sixties and recently joined the Rochester Club to become one of just six members, making me appreciate even more the depth and breadth of Hawthorn’s membership and the wealth of experience and talents our Club has to call on. It was also encouraging to have so many people really interested in our initiative of starting the group meeting monthly as a means of widening the scope of our membership and activity.
The day continued for me with a really informative session on community service projects, hearing directly from many inspirational people about projects underway or planned that I was only aware of, if at all, through items in the District newsletter. The final session provided the opportunity to learn more about Foundation funding and the processes involved.
Overall the day was really worthwhile, particularly for one as new to the “inner workings” of Rotary as I am.
Photos: Denbigh Richards, District Governor Elect Grant Hocking, and then most of the District Leadership Team (with several absentees being at the RI Convention in Hamburg)
In this year’s photo contest, we received more than 600 entries from 59 countries and geographical areas — from Argentina to Zimbabwe and many places in between. Through your photographs, we traveled to a glacial lagoon in Iceland and a mountainside in Bolivia. We saw Rotarians working on projects and met the people they encountered along the way. Taken together, the photos you sent us create a composite portrait of our world and the ways Rotarians experience it.
Our judge, George Steinmetz, brings to the task his decades of experience traveling and photographing the world. In addition to the winners and honorable mentions in this issue, you’ll see photos from the contest in The Rotarian throughout the year.
First Place went to Santosh Kale, Rotary Club of Shirol, India. Location: Pandharpur, India.
Steinmetz: I love the energy of this picture. It documents the flow of humanity experiencing the Pandharpur Wari pilgrimage and shows the architecture of this Indian site, the vibrancy of its storefronts. I also like that the photographer had the prescience to wait for his subject and took an unconventional approach by shooting the action with a time exposure.
‘We’ll see far more audits and more letters’: ATO to ramp up crackdown on dodgy returns.
Hundreds of thousands of Aussies are expected to receive “please explain” letters this year amid a dramatic escalation in the ATO’s crackdown on the $8.7 billion “tax gap”.
Dodgy, work-related claims like dry cleaning and car expenses will once again be the most closely scrutinised, along with investment property deductions and earnings from cryptocurrencies and sharing economy platforms like Uber.
“I think just the intensity of the focus is probably different this year,” said H&R Block director of tax communications Mark Chapman. “The ATO has been given additional resourcing by the Government to back up the work they’re doing in relation to noncompliance. I think we’ll see far more audits and more letters in relation to incorrect claims around work-related expenses and property, and we’ll see far more data-matching around cryptocurrency and the sharing economy.”
Mr Chapman said “hundreds of thousands of people” had received letters last tax time after their claims were flagged as unusual or the ATO discovered undeclared income by cross-checking data provided from third parties.
“An audit is really just one component,” he said. “They do a lot of investigation in this space through technology — they data-match, they have benchmarks, if expenses are outside the norm people will get a letter which is not a full audit, it invites them to think again.” Mr Chapman said the most important thing to remember was that if you “can’t substantiate it, you can’t claim it”. “Make sure you’ve got the receipt or invoice or bank statement that proves you incurred the expense,” he said.
The expense must also be legitimately related to your job. “If you’re not sure whether you can make a claim or not, go and get some help or advice, speak to a tax agent who’ll be able to tell you what you can claim and what you can’t,” he said.
More than 2.2 million Australians claimed over $47 billion in deductions in the 2017-18 financial year, led by work-related expenses and rental claims.
The Shadow hopes you had a lovely holiday weekend, but asks himself a couple of questions:
Why is the Queen's birthday celebrated in June?
The day has been celebrated since 1788, whenGovernorArthur Phillipdeclared a holiday to mark the birthday of the King of Great Britain.
Originally, the Monarch's birthday was celebrated on the anniversary of the actual date of birth of the King or Queen. On the second Monday in June, the Queen's Birthday honors list is released
What date is the queen's real birthday?
Queen Elizabeth II was born on 21 April in 1926 to King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. She celebrated her 93rd birthday – the 67th since she ascended the throne – earlier this year. Her second, ceremonial birthday celebration is marked on the second Saturday in June, which this year falls on the eighth.
How are you going with your “Elevator statement”?
The Shadow knows you are having trouble with it, and is always willing to help with a tip:
Rotary is a worldwide community of business and professional men and women whose focus on health, hunger, clean water and literacy spans over 100 years.
With over 1.2 million members, over 30,000 clubs in over 200 counties, Rotarians are committed to making a difference in the lives of people around the world.
We promote the ideals of peace, understanding and goodwill for all.
Rotary Hawthorn ChangeoverJun 20, 2019 Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club
Dr Stephen Carbone, Chair, Prevention United
Jun 25, 2019
Prevention: Anxiety, Depression, Other Mental Health Conditions
Dr Stephen Carbone has a passion for promoting people’s mental wellbeing.
He holds qualifications in medicine, psychology and social work and has firsthand experience in supporting people with mental health conditions in both his professional and his personal life. He was an active contributor in several key mental health reforms in Victoria and nationally and has held senior positions in organisations such as Vic Health, Headspace and Beyond Blue.
Mental health conditions are not inevitable and there is now good scientific evidence to show many conditions can be prevented. The problem is we are just not using this knowledge effectively. This talk focuses on the prevention of mental health conditions. It discusses what prevention is, why it’s important, how we can prevent depression, anxiety and other conditions from occurring, and what our organisation and others are doing about it.
Chair: Dr Kevin Rose
Visit To The Rotary Camberwell Art Show
Jul 02, 2019
The 2019 Camberwell Art Show is Australia's largest art show. It celebrates 54 years as one of Australia’s leading art events where the cream of Australia's artist elect to exhibit.
Zoo Based Conservation Organisation, Zoos Victoria
Jul 09, 2019
Craig Whiteford, General Manager - Threatened Species, Wildlife Conservation & Science at Zoos Victoria
Kim D'Arcy always seeks to finalize numbers by Monday 8.30am by collating responses about attendance at the next meeting. So please try to email back to her by that time; and, at the same time, forewarn of any guests. (Predicting our numbers as closely as possible helps to minimize our catering costs.) kimcco@tpg.com.au
Invitations to Tuesday Club meetings now look slightly different. To indicate your attendance or apologies, you will not be required to write an email to Kim. You will simply need to click on the link attached to your name and follow a couple of simple steps. You can pay for your meal on the site.
Geoff Wright collates the attendance information. He needs to know of "make up " events. geoffbwright@bigpond.com
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ith Scott when he returns to Melbourne. 
ssembly is all about getting the incoming teams from Clubs and the District together on the eve of the new Rotary year, so it was good to hear from, and be enthused by our next DG, Grant Hocking, and to have most of the members of the District Support Team introduced in the opening session. Even greater encouragement came however, when I joined other recently anointed Rotarians at a session for new members led by PDG Julie Mason. As many Bulletin readers would know, Julie has made a huge contribution to Rotary over many years and has an infectious enthusiasm. It was quite inspiring to be in a room full of motivated and community minded people, from twenty somethings to seventy somethings, with widely diverse backgrounds, all sharing their thoughts on what was most positive for them about the Clubs they had joined and the projects and activities being undertaken.
First Place went to Santosh Kale, Rotary Club of Shirol, India. Location: Pandharpur, India.
t,” he said. “They do a lot of investigation in this space through technology — they data-match, they have benchmarks, if expenses are outside the norm people will get a letter which is not a full audit, it invites them to think again.” Mr Chapman said the most important thing to remember was that if you “can’t substantiate it, you can’t claim it”. “Make sure you’ve got the receipt or invoice or bank statement that proves you incurred the expense,” he said..jpeg)
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knows you are having trouble with it, and is always willing to help with a tip: 
