When I first sat down to write a reply to Nelson’ Budget reply on education, I felt like one of the judges in the first round of So You Think You Can Offer a Cogent Critique of the Education System. The Marcia in me wants to pat earnest Dr Nelson on the head. The Dicko in me is forced to send him home to learn the words, and the music, and how to dance.
To be honest, I’ve sometimes enjoyed the laid-back, anecdotal style of Brendan Nelson’s testifyin’. Journalists call it “homespun”. Ain’t that sweet?
Well, the education section of the Budget reply speech crossed the line from homespun into fabricated. It was a grab-bag of myths and plausible-sounding but incorrect assertions that go straight for parents’ worry-glands and bypass the brain.
