#010 - The Australian Education System is Failing 📚📉

Our money is currently funding a totally outdated, factory-style method of education. It's f***ed. Welcome to Neuroeducation, where we're exploring the neuroscience of how to switch on the brain to supercharge learning. I'll be sharing with you innovative teaching techniques, effective parenting strategies, and educational advocacy. I'm your host, Angie Dee. Together, let's revolutionize children's learning. Hello and welcome back to Neuroeducation with Angie Dee.

Today we're talking about politics and education and what you can do. We have an education system in Australia that is funded on the backs of taxpayers. That's you, that's me, that's your brother, your sister, all of the people you know. When you look around they are the people that are literally funding our education system. Now we are funding this education

system. If we are the funders we should also have a say and in this democratic nation that we live in We have a democratic right to have a say how our

education plays out. What is our money currently going towards? Sadly, our money is currently funding a totally outdated factory style method of education. And excuse my French, it's fucked. Because children are sitting there day after day bored as batshit. I feel like what we need is a total education revolution and you and I can have a massive impact on how that plays out. In so many other areas of politics, people feel like they have a say. They want

to put their hands up and they want to have their two cents heard. in voice to parliament, in renewable energy, in all of these areas, people are talking about what

they want to see happen in our current political climate. But when it comes to education, I hear crickets. but we have the power. It is a totally democratic area where we have the power to make positive change. Now the most dramatic areas of positive change I have seen in education has been on the backs of parents. In two incredible schools in Brisbane, Australia, they are running a

Montessori program. That means alongside the mainstream method of education that's running in the traditional school, they

have started a Montessori method of education through the schooling process, starting in prep and every year gaining one grade more. Groverley State School in Brisbane and also Capalaba State School in Brisbane have been running these innovative programs, bringing Montessori, an alternative method of education that is highly, highly recommended by neuroscientists worldwide, into our

public education system. This is one of the first times we have had something that is usually private, incredibly expensive, that is only available for the, let's say, high echelon of society, of people that can afford it, bringing it to the people. Now, how did these two schools implement a totally alternative method of education? A parent group in Grovely who had their children going to a

Montessori community kindergarten wanted a Montessori primary school option for their children. There was nothing available to them in the area. So they approached Groveley State School and as a parent body, they advocated for their children and they advocated for an alternative method of education. Lo and behold, six months later, Groveley

started the first Montessori program. The same thing happened at Kapalipa State School an incredible woman, Rebecca Gruen, who was running Montessori childcare centres, wanted a Montessori option for children, for her own children, and for children in that area of Brisbane. There was nothing available, and after trying also to start an independent school, She decided with the parent group that was supporting her to take it to the state school. She took it to Groverley

State School. Lo and behold, six months later, Montessori had started. Now we know Montessori is backed by neuroscience. It's backed by educational research and it's backed by child psychology. What we have now in two schools in Brisbane is a innovative educational approach to learning. and the two parent groups that brought this education method in brought it in by advocating on behalf of

their children. Now this is no different to you or I where we can approach another school For your children, you can get together with a parent group. You can talk to people about how we can create change in our school community. Obviously,

there are so many things you can do without even dramatically changing it to the point of introducing an alternative method of education. There are other things you can do. Participating in school maximizes your child learning. As the old adage and the quote goes, it takes a village to raise a child. And the best classrooms that I have personally seen across Queensland are classrooms and schools that have had the maximum amount of community support.

That means there are grandparents that are coming in and reading and helping with the classroom. There are parent volunteers that are helping to run reading groups or math groups to make the hands-on learning more available to the children. And at these schools, the maximum amount of input from parents and grandparents and the community members is where I see learning excelling the most. So it comes down to our capacity as

parents to be able to activate change. Teachers, God bless them, are so overworked and have so much demand put upon them by the curriculum, by the state board, by the national government, and every single other thing that they have to tick off to be able to teach our children. So yes, we can come in and we can advocate as parents, to the PNC, the parent teacher communities at the schools, and we can also do this for

the principals, and it can propose different options. But the Montessori curriculum in Australia is

now approved as an independent curriculum, which means state schools have the capacity to be able to do what Groveley State School did and what Kapalaba State School did. They have the capacity to come in and to implement an alternative method of education like Montessori, even if it's co-aligned with the school. Montessori being a very independent method of learning where the children are slowly building their independence from a very young age is really important that it is started

from the age of prep and that slowly builds in. Montessori is not something that can be implemented school wide in one shot, but it can be implemented step by step slowly as one prep class moves into grade one and grade one into grade two and so on. These are things that we can advocate in our local community and I hope I have inspired you to talk to your parents

and teachers and even your principal to make positive change in your local community because if it's not you then who? Thank you for listening. Please

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