Abstract:
Recently, the media had a good laugh at the story of Rose Ashton-Weir, the former Geelong Grammar student now suing her old school for failing to get her into Law at Sydney University. Whatever complexities the story had it was quickly reduced to a humorous mismatch between heightened expectations (not just any law course – it had to be Sydney) and a perceived lack of ability (all that time and money at one the country’s most elite schools and she still couldn’t get in). It was possible to see the remnants of the national ‘character’ at play in the reaction to all this – the cutting down of tall poppies, the antipathy toward elites, a certain joy in seeing those trying to gain the advantages of privilege fail – and fail ironically – as Ms Ashton-Weir was now engaged in the very activity she was prevented from doing as a professional career. However just like jokes that paper over deeper divisions, the case of Ashton-Weir revealed more than the mockery of failed aspirations. Is not the idea of education as a ‘failed investment’ one that now dominates discussion of the crisis of education in this country? Does not our current and future education policy try to construct us all as variations upon Rose Ashton-Weir? The assumptions behind the ALP’s recent education ‘crusade’ certainly push us in this direction.
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