'Satire' published

'Satire' is finally available on the shelves and I think that most schools will have received details in the pre-holidays mail-out from Phoenix Education. It has taken me longer than anticipated but I am really pleased with the range of classic and more contemporary texts that I have included. There were many others that I would have included but that would have taken two volumes instead of one.  Satire used to be a very popular and successful and productive unit of work in high schools in earlier years but it works well as a Preliminary AOS in preparing analytical response skills and conceptual links across varied texts. Now that it is finished I can begin working on the next project before the new HSC text list is distributed about this time next year and the preparation begins for the first new cohort beginning in Term 4, 2014.

Teachers are obviously concerned about the percentage of new and familiar texts but also the conceptual framing for each of the modules as well. It takes so long to read, research and develop resources that the lead in year is frantic, especially with so many experienced teachers reaching retirement age. When combined with speculation about the changes ushered in with the introduction of National Curriculum and what it will generate in terms of teacher workload, the next year or so will be busy. I am looking forward to the upcoming holidays and along with all teachers, the absence for a short time of bells, staff meetings, assessment tasks and marking deadlines. Perhaps teachers need a great satirist to point out the follies of political educationalists who often fail to make goals achievable or at times even appropriate. To quote Edwin Percy Whipple:

"As men neither fear nor respect what has been made contemptible, all honor to him who makes oppression laughable as well as detestable.—Armies cannot protect it then; and walls that have remained impenetrable to cannon have fallen before a roar of laughter or a hiss of contempt."