It is important to remember each individual is unique. View this Animal School You tube
In all Australian schools's it is the learning facilitator's (teachers') role to understand and facilitate all students as indicated by the following:
The Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians (MCEETYA, 2008) (Melbourne Declaration) provides the policy framework for the Australian Curriculum. It includes two goals:
Goal 1: Australian schooling promotes equity and excellence.
Goal 2: All young Australians become successful learners, confident and creative individuals and active and informed citizens.
The ways in which the Australian Curriculum has been designed to address these goals are detailed in The Shape of the Australian Curriculum Version 4 (ACARA, 2012). The propositions that shape the development of the Australian Curriculum establish expectations that the Australian Curriculum is appropriate for all students. These propositions include:
· that each student can learn and that the needs of every student are important
· that each student is entitled to knowledge, understanding and skills that provide a foundation for successful and lifelong learning and participation in the Australian community
· that high expectations should be set for each student as teachers account for the current level of learning of individual students and the different rates at which students develop
· that the needs and interests of students will vary, and that schools and teachers will plan from the curriculum in ways that respond to those needs and interests.
The Melbourne Declaration emphasises the importance of knowledge, understanding and skills from each learning area, general capabilities and cross-curriculum priorities as the basis for a curriculum designed to support 21st-century learning. The Australian Curriculum is formed by these three dimensions, and it is the relationship between these dimensions that provides flexibility for schools and teachers to ‘promote personalised learning that aims to fulfil the diverse capabilities of each young Australian’ (MCEETYA, 2008, p. 7).
The Australian Curriculum includes seven general capabilities: (ACARA, 2014a)
· Literacy
· Numeracy
· Information and communication technology (ICT) capability
· Critical and creative thinking
· Personal and social capability
· Intercultural understanding.
To this I would add Information Literacy as an essential skill for the 21st century. Not to mention study skills, and self-awareness, self-determination and decision management. Be a bee! Grow free! There is a place for home schooling, though it needs to be actioned carefully.