Seeing history – bridge over River Kwai

in June 2023 I visited the small town of Kanchanaburi, in Thailand that was the site of the bridge over the river Kwai built during the Second World War by Allied prisoners of War.

The bridge was made famous by the 1957 film, Bridge over the River Kwai (starring Sir Alec Guinness and William Holden). Even though the film referred to the bridge over the River Kwai, it’s actually the river Khwae Sai Yok.

The bridge is 3 hours north east of Bangkok. When I visited the bridge, I knew very little of its construction apart from what I had seen in the 1957 film. The current bridge is built on the pylons of the metal bridge, that was destroyed by Allied bombing in February 1945.

The Japanese wanted to be able to transport troops from Burma (modern day Myanmar) and Thailand. To build the bridge, the Japanese used 60,000 Allied prisoners of war as Australian, Dutch, British and US soldiers. But the Japanese forced more than 200,000 Thai civilians to build the railway bridge.

Not far from the bridge, are the cemeteries of the graves of the Allied prisoners of war that died building the bridge. Suffering from exhaustion, beatings and murder, Allied soldiers were not given medical treatment and many died from diseases as malaria, dysentery and malnutrition.

If you go to Thailand, the tropical heat gives you some idea of what the prisoners of war suffered. It’s estimated 16,000 Allied prisoners of war were killed building the bridges.

But there was another bridge, a wooden bridge, constructed by the Allied prisoners of war. When I was in Kanchanaburi, I visited the war museum and tried to get more information on the original wooden bridge as depicted in the 1957 film.

There is much more I want to write about this visit, but I will leave that to a post about my visit to Hell fire pass, 45 minutes drive from the bridge . I used my own pictures taken on the trip.

But for more detailed information I referred to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website at cwgc.org. I also want to recognise the hundreds of thousands of Thai and Burmese civilians that suffered under the Japanese occupation.

if you want to visit kanchanaburi in Thailand, you can hire a car with driver for the day or get the train from Thornburi station to Kanchanaburi

The Devil Next Door – Guilty?

John Demjanjuk accused of being an infamous Nazi Death camp guard

In 1988, an auto worker in Cleveland, Ohio named John Demjanjuk was arrested and sent to Israel on suspicion of being an infamous guard at the Treblinka death camp in Poland. For anyone that has seen the Netflix documentary ‘The Devil Next Door’, there is little doubt that John Demjanjuk was the notorious guard at Treblinka. That the Israeli courts found him guilty is not surprising considering the eyewitness testimony and the evidence. But that the Israeli supreme court overturned the verdict and found John Demjanjuk not guilty surprised many, including me. How could this be?

The whole case against John Demjanjuk rested on identifying him as Ivan the Terrible, a sadistic Ukranian guard at Treblinka death camp that brutally beat the jews towards the gas chambers but also operated the diesel engines from Russian tanks that fed carbon monoxide into the ten chambers that murdered at least 850,000 people at Treblinka. Despite several eyewitnesses identifying John Demjanjuk as the notorious Treblinka guard, several former Ukranian guards or Wachmann identified another man called Ivan Marchenko as the notorious Ivan the Terrible at Treblinka. It was believed that this Ivan Marchenko had escaped to Yugoslavia after the war while Elliahu Rosenberg had written that he and another prisoner had killed the real Ivan the Terrible during the Treblinka uprising.

Were the eyewitnesses wrong? It was heart breaking to see eyewitnesses Joseph Czerny tell the court about the horrors he endured as a child at Treblinka. To see eyewitnesses as Gustav Borax and Elijah Rosenburg not only discredited but to be called seniles and liars or both by the defense prosecutor Yoram Sheftel. The testimony of Elijah Rosenburg whom not only claimed John Demjanjuk to be the notorious guard but to have participated in the killing of Ivan the Terrible in the uprising at Treblinka on 2nd August 1943 was hard to watch. In 1944, Vasily Grossman, a Jewish journalist with the Red army wrote about what happened there called ‘The Hell of Treblinka’.

Other accounts of what happened at Treblinka were told by survivors Samuel Willenburg and Jankiel Wiernik who wrote his moving account ‘A Year in Treblinka’. In his account, Jankiel Wiernik wrote ‘That suddenly the entrance door would fly open and out would come Ivan, holding a heavy gas pipe, and Nicholas, brandishing a sabre. At a signal they would begin admitting the victims, simultaneously beating them, mercilessly. The yells of the women, the weeping of the children, cries of despair and misery, begging for mercy, for God’s vengeance ring in my ears to this day making it impossible for me to forget the misery that i witnessed’. This would also be corroborated by an SS officer Hermann Matthes that the jews were forced into the gas chambers with rifle butts.

The Eyewitness Accounts

The eyewitness accounts of what happened at Treblinka are confronting to say the least. But just as the victims presented their accounts of what happened, there were also the accounts of the perpetrators themselves, including the former wachmann captured by the Soviets and later executed for their collaboration with the Nazis. One of the accounts was from an SS Oberscarfuhrer or senior squad leader Hermann Matthes corroborated the story of two Ukrainian guards being stationed in the upper camp at Treblinka where the gas chambers were and took and took care of the engine room when the SS officer Fritz Schmidt was absent. Another SS Officer, Otto Horn’ also stated for the Demajanuk case in 1980 that assisting Schmidt were two Ukrainians, one was named Ivan and he could not remember the name of the other.

Otto Horn’s testimony should have sealed Demjanjuk’s fate. For Horn stated that not only did Ivan direct the jews into the gas chambers but also was in the engine room that operated the gas chambers. But as the prosecution against Demjanjuk had found that Horn’s testimony describing the Ivan of the gas chambers was different to that of John Demjanjuk. Because of this difference in the description between John Demjanjuk and the notorious Ivan the Terrible, they had to aquit Demjanjuk on the grounds of doubt. This was shown in the Netflix documentary when the defence counsel Sheftel received evidence from the Soviet archives of fellow Ukranian wachmenn from Treblinka that corroborated the description of Ivan the Terrible.

Justice?

Like the survivors, I believe that John Demjanjuk had been at Treblinka. Was Demajanjuk the notorious Ivan the terrible? It seems probable that he was – the survivors had seen him and the Israeli court believed he was and sentenced him to death. But of course there were doubts – Like the Netflix documentary had shown that there were doubts including from the OSI or Office of Special Investigations. And because there was a reasonable doubt, the supreme court of Israel had to acquit John Demjanjuk.

Does it matter if he was or not Ivan the Terrible? I dont believe it does. Every guard that was at Treblinka was Ivan the Terrible. They participated in the death and beating of the Jewish inmates there. Without the Ukranian guards, the wachmann or Trawniki guards, the death camps as Treblinka could not have functioned. And this is where the whole prosecution against John Demjanjuk went wrong. The focus had been on if John Demjanjuk was Ivan the Terrible not that he was a guard at Treblinka. The eyewitnesses knew that John Demjanjuk had been at Treblinka – even though John denied he had been at Treblinka.

It was much more important to establish that John Demjanjuk was at Treblinka and had therefore helped to run Treblinka that made the holocaust possible. The prosecution should have been about establishing that John Demjanjuk was at Treblinka – not that he was a notorious guard. Despite the eyewitness testimony, the evidence of the Trawniki card issued to Ukranian guards, the facial recognition by Professor Patricia Smith – the emphasis of the prosecution was that John Demjanjuk was Ivan the Terrible – not that he had been a guard at Treblinka.

Oskar Groning – ‘The Accountant of Auschwitz

The prosecution then did what it should have done – went after John Demjanjuk on the grounds that he had been at the Sobibor death camp and had participated in murder, if not been a willing accomplice. And Demjanjuk had also been at Majdanek as well as Flossenburg concentration camp.

And John Demjanjuk set a precedent – going after former Nazi guards on the grounds that they had served at the camp and had been complicit in the murder of hundreds of thousands, if not a million jews. And it was on these grounds that they went after another former Nazi, Oskar Groning, the so-called ‘Accountant of Auschwitz’. Although only in the sorting area of Auschwitz, Groning participated in the BBC documentary ‘The Final Solution’ and told about life in Auschwitz. It was on these grounds that Groning was later sentenced to stand trial for his participation at Auschwitz and that he had been an accomplice to the murder of a million jews.

If you get a chance watch the Netflix documentary on Oskar Groning ‘The Accountant of Auschwitz’. Not as riveting as ‘The Devil Next Door’ but it explains more on the arrest and trial of John Demjanjuk. Although acquitted, some good did come out of the John Demjanjuk trial.

New Discoveries of Ancient Egypt?

I dont know how many people keep up with archaeological discoveries but On October 3rd, Arab News printed an article titled ‘Egyptian Archaeologists unveil discovery of 59 sealed sarcophagi’. According to Arab News, archaeologists discovered the 59 sealed sarcophagi at Saqqara, outside of Cairo. The mummified remains can be dated back almost 2,500 years and egyptologists expect to find many more.

This image courtesy of Arab News https://www.arabnews.com/node/1743621/middle-east

Saqqara gains its importance for its close proximity to Memphis, the first capital of Egypt. Small square tombs were built by the kings of the first and second dynasties with the step pyramid built by the first king of the Third dynasty, Djoser. Kings of the fifth and sixth dynasties also built pyramids and tombs for their high officials. In 2008, the tomb of Wahyte, a high ranking priest and official of the King Neferirkare Kakai. from the Old Kingdom’s fifth dynasty.

The Step pyramid of Djoser of the Fourth Dynasty

What is interesting is that the 59 seal sarcophagi have been found near otther important officials including the ambassador of Rameses III, the nanny of the boy king Tutankhamen and the prime minister of the pharoah Amenhotep III (ruled from 1386 B.C to 1349 B.C). Saqqara continued to be used as a cemetary for the important high ranking officials of pharoahs for at least 3,000 years.

The discovery of 27 sarcophagi in Saqqara which dates back to 500 B.C, the time of the Persian control over Egypt until 404 B.C. Could the sarcophagi be evidence that the ruling Persians continued traditional Egyptian practices than enforced their own customs on Egypt? Or could the sarcophagi be from the period of 404 B.C when Egypt was ruled by the Pharoah Amyrtaios II of the 28th Dynasty and by the pharoahs of the 29th Dynasty that ruled from 399 B.C until 380 B.C. Egypt continued to hold off the Persian attacks under the pharoahs Nectanebo I and Nectanebo II of the 30th Dynasty until Egypt fell to Alexander the Great of Macedon in 332 B.C.

Continued discoveries of undisturbed sarcophagi in Saqqara will continue to show that Saqqara was still used as a burial place for not only the earlier pharoahs and those of the new kingdom, but the pharaohs of the late period of Ancient Egypt and maybe even provide tombs dating back to the reign of Alexander the Great and the Ptolemies.

Conservative politics in Ancient Sparta

Facing external pressures and internal revolts, Sparta turned inward to adopt a conservative political system that affected every aspect of Spartan life When we look at Spartan society and politics…

Source: Conservative politics in Ancient Sparta

Conservative politics in Ancient Sparta

Facing external pressures and internal revolts, Sparta turned inward to adopt a conservative political system that affected every aspect of Spartan life

When we look at Spartan society and politics, we see a system which was extremely conservative. To define what is meant by conservative, Roger  Scruton believed that for conservatives, the value of individual liberty was not absolute but was secondary to the authority of established government (Scruton, 1980), But we should also see a conservative political system as an attempt to preserve a way of life and institutions in the face of change.

In Sparta fears of external threats and internal unrest was at the heart of the ‘great rhetras’ of Lycurgus in the late 7^th century B.C. But the main concern was that of a declining population and the inability of the state to meet these threats.  The importance of this declining population is seen in the start of Xenophon’s discussion of the constitution and the importance of women to undertake physical exercise so that they would produce vigorous and healthy children (Const. Lac. 1.4).

To ensure Sparta could maintain a strong standing army, it was the role of men to become soldiers and it was the role of women to produce healthy males that would become soldiers. Plutarch (Lyc 15) tells us that Lycurgus considered children to belong not exclusively to their fathers, but jointly to the city. To produce healthy children, polygamy was not only sanctioned by the state but husbands had no say in the child’s education. As Sarah Pomeroy (Pomeroy, p38).noted that in Sparta, the authoritarian patriarchy took over the husband’s exclusive rights to his own wife as well as denied his rights as a father.

A common theme which comes out of Xenophon’s writings on the Spartan constitution of Lycurgus is a fear of change. Even for Xenophon, writing 250 years after Lycurgus, the fear of a changing world is prevalent for Xenophon (Const. Lac. 14.2) laments that the Spartans in his own time were no longer content to live modest lives but preferred to ‘expose themselves to the corrupting influences of flattery as governors of dependent states.

An example of this fear of change in Sparta is the banning of all gold and silver coinage as told to us by Plutarch (Lyc, 9), who claims that Lycurgus wanted to remove inequalities and contrasts in Spartan society and instead used iron as the new currency. But H Michell believes that the ban against gold and silver could have originated much later in 404 B.C with the Spartan victory over Athens (Michell, p44) rather than the time of Lycurgus.

We know from Xenophon that Spartan citizens, excluding the perioikoi, were not only banned from engaging in business but that in the days of Lycurgus, it was illegal to live outside of Sparta. Xenophon (Const. Lac. 14.4) believes that the reason for this was to ‘keep the citizens from being demoralized by contact with foreigners’. Plutarch (Lyc.28) expands on this that foreigners bring in ideas with them and therefore there was the need to protect Sparta from harmful practices by ‘unhealthy immigrants’. This fear of outside influences corrupting Spartan’s escalated into xenophobia.

Extreme change in Spartan politics and society was guarded against through the political power of the council of elders or gerousia, an elected body of twenty eight men over sixty years old. We know from Plutarch that the gerousia was to act as a balance against both the tyranny of the kings and democracy. Although elected, Finley suggests that dominant families in Sparta controlled the appointments to the council in favour of their own members (Finley, p32). Although the assembly of Spartans voted on proposals, only the two kings and the council of elders could place and could veto decisions by the assembly.

Inside Sparta, we also see a society being held together against these forces of change through virtues of obedience and discipline that were to be instilled through training and embedded in the citizen’s character (Plut, Lyc. 13). From the age of 7, young males were taken away for compulsory state run training, the Agoge. The system was clearly approved by Xenophon (Const. Lac. 2.14)as he tells us that the system produces more ‘obedient, more respectful and more strictly temperate’ men. Xenophon believed that the decline of Spartan virtues following the Spartan victory over Athens would lead to Sparta’s decline.

But discipline and obedience were more than just admirable virtues as they were essential to being a Spartan citizen, an equal or homonoi. Those that did not obey the rules were considered cowards to be shunned from society. We know from Plutarch (Lyc 15) that Lycurgus ‘placed a certain civil disability for those that did not marry’ which meant that they were publicly shamed. But more harsh treatment awaited those considered to be cowards or to have led a ‘disgraceful life’ as they faced beatings and social exclusion.

Conformity to Spartan virtues and obedience was one of the primary goals of the Spartan education system. Discipline was enforced through regular beatings by older boys, Wardens and even older males in society. The use of older men, the erastai, to accompany teenage boys was used to educate young males in Spartan virtues. Enforcing the laws was the office of the Ephors, which Xenophon (Const. Lac. 8.4) tells us that the Ephors had wide powers in which they could issue fines. Even a king as Agis was not above the laws and was fined for refusing to eat at the public mess and attending the sacrifices.

The historian Xenophon lamented the decline of Spartan virtues and believed that shutting Sparta off from change and enforcing traditional values on her citizens was the key to Spartan military success. But Sparta was to pay a high price for avoiding change at the battle of Leucta against Thebes in 371 B.C.

Bibliography

Finley, M.I ‘Economy and Society in Ancient Greece’ published by Chatoo and Windus, London, 1981

Michell, H ‘The Iron Money of Sparta’ Phoenix, Volume 1, Spring 1947 pp42-44. Accessed: 05-12-2016 08:30 UTC

Plutarch ‘On Sparta’ translated by Richard A Talbert, Published by Penguin Group, 1988

Pomeroy, Sarah. B ‘Spartan Women’ published by Oxford University Press, 2002

Scruton, Roger ‘The Meaning of Conservatism’ published by Penguin Books, 1980

Xenophon ‘The Constitution of the Lacaedomanians http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=xen.+const.+lac.+1.1

Duty of Care for Teachers

As teachers and schools are being held more accountable for the quality of education, they are also being held more accountable for providing a safe environment for students. In Australia, the Occupational Health and Safety Act states the role of the department of Education to provide an environment that is free from risks and hazards.

The moment that students enter the school gates on to school grounds, the school and the department of education has a duty of care to ensure that students will not be injured.

For teachers this means that we have a duty to

* Take reasonable care of the health and safety of themselves and others at the workplace

* cooperate with the employer to comply with OH@S legislation

* report any unsafe conditions which come to their attention

Because teachers work with and around students, OH@S has established a ‘duty of care’ in which teachers are required to take reasonable measures to protect students against risks of injury. For example, if your the teacher on playground duty you have a duty of care for the supervision of those students. If your in a classroom with your students, you have a duty of care to provide a safe environment and take reasonable steps to prevent injury.

As teachers we need to consider safety and what could possibly go wrong or ther risks. To help us make a risk assessment we would need to consider

* The number of students in your care

* The age of the students

* The activity taking place

* The environment where the activity will be taking place

Of course if teachers are working with special needs students, there will be alot more to consider. Teachers may require further assistance from other teachers or special needs staff.

The ‘Duty of Care’ also establishes that teachers must take steps to protect students against injury in circumstances which could be ‘reasonably foreseen’. Now this is where it gets tricky. For teachers we have to think of circumstances where it is possible for a student to be injured. One classic example is when students leave their bags outside the classroom and the handles of the bag are hanging loose from the bag which could be a trip hazard for any student walking or running.

Now as we know accidents do happen. Duty of care is not to ensure that their is no injury but that teachers and the school have taken reasonable steps to prevent injury.

Here is another scenario. You have just started school at 8.10am and you see a student climbing up in a tree. Now you know that they could get hurt. What do you do? A duty of care is established on your part when you see the students in potential harm. So you need to act either by supervising the students yourself or calling for another teacher on playground supervision to watch the students.

Under the Duty of Care, teachers personally cannot be sued or held liable in a court but it is the school or the department of education that takes responsibility under ‘vicarious liability’ in which the school accepts liability on behalf of teachers. However a teacher can be held personally responsible if they are found to have acted negligently if

• an action which could reasonably have been expected to contribute, directly or indirectly, to causing harm to a pupil;
• a failure to take action to prevent reasonably foreseeable harm to a pupil.

So what does this mean for teachers in their daily duties? It means that teachers or staff must be on duty half an hour before school starts and thirty minutes after school ends while students are stilll on school grounds.

It means being aware of the school supervision plan which is usually compiled with the consultation with teachers and parents. The plan should be based on a comprehensive assessment of risk, taking into account factors relevant to the school such as: the age, number and nature of students; the finishing time of classes; the layout and terrain of the school grounds, including split sites; proximity of play areas to busy roads; fixed playground equipment; climatic conditions; the activity being undertaken; emergency situations; potential hazards; transport arrangements; as well as the duties and workload of individual teachers.

Teachers have a responsibility to report any incidents and hazards to the principal. When going on excursions or outside the school grounds, teachers should check with principals if they need a risk assessment register for potential hazards to be aware of.

  

 

 

Further information

NSW Department of Education Professional responsibilities of teachers

NSW Teachers Federation http://www.nswtf.org.au/pages/legal-stuff.html

 

Engaging beyond the classroom

Today’s communities are faced with problems as domestic violence, broken families, drugs and alcohol, bullying and violence. All of these problems can impact student’s learning. But they are problems which require solutions beyond the classroom. This paper will look at how and why schools like Bourke High School need to engage with the local community to meet the needs of their students.

The town of Bourke in North-West NSW could be like any town in outback Australia. The decline of the rural sector and the loss of jobs has resulted in low incomes, high rates of unemployment and poverty. The Bourke Aboriginal community suffers extreme disadvantage due to the isolation of the town and the shortages of adequate health resources and overcrowded housing. The town is plagued by a high crime rate with problems as gambling, drugs and alcohol and violence. In February 2013, the Sydney Morning Herald reported that Bourke has the highest rate of crime in NSW and tops the list as more dangerous to live than any other country in the world.

How these social and economic problems impact on students is evident in Bourke High School where high rates of absenteeism are the result of poverty, hunger and a lack of positive role models. These problems are compounded by the lack of a curriculum which students can identify with their Aboriginal heritage and the need for a curriculum which is culturally and socially appropriate (Vivian and Schnierer 2010). But the situation in Bourke is not unique. It has been found that more than 80 per cent of indigenous students achieved minimum national standards with very little improvement in literacy rates since 2008.

In addressing these problems, cooperation between government departments and the local community have been little more than token gestures. Limited cooperation between the various government departments has led to a waste of resources and conflicting decisions as each department receives funding to address the same problem. It is now recognized that one single agency alone cannot resolve these problems but requires the collaboration between schools, parents, the local community and other government and non-government organizations.

In May 2012, the NSW government announced its new strategy ‘connected communities’ where education and training would be linked to other related services as health, welfare, early childhood education and care, and vocational education and training. Schools would act as ‘community hubs’ where health, education, parenting support and anti-gambling measures would all be coordinated from the school grounds. In small communities as Bourke, schools are an important part of the community because they are a large employer and they have the ability to reach deep into the community more than any other institution.

That schools should be the focus of delivering services to the community is elaborated on in the ‘Full Service School’ which Joy Dryfoos defines as a school that has been transformed into a neighborhood hub and that is open all the time to children and their families (Dryfoos, 2005). In the full service community school, a range of support services are provided by community agencies on school grounds. The full service school is more than providing services to the community but is about working together toward improving the outcomes for all school students.

For example, Bourke Public School has developed strong connections with the Bourke Aboriginal Service and Community Health that comes to the school and provides free medical assistance to students requiring help with health issues. Schools as Bourke public school benefit from the support services provided on school grounds as students are absent less from school because of medical reasons. It is one example of a ‘whole student’ approach where schools are not only addressing the education needs of students, but helping to address the health and welfare needs of students.

But as Joy Dryfoos acknowledges that there is no universal approach or ‘one size fits all’ approach that is recommended to schools. In the NSW connected communities strategy, schools provide services to the community that is ‘place driven’ or tailored in their design and delivery to the needs of each school and its local community. For example in 2010 the NSW Ombudsman report into the delivery of services in Bourke identified vulnerable children are disengaging from education in Bourke (NSW Ombudsman report ‘Inquiry into service provision to the Bourke and Brewarrina communities, 2010).

Preventing absenteeism from schools requires resources and funding for which small and remote communities as Bourke does not have. While Bourke depends heavily on government funding, the school attempts to reach out to the community for support. For example, Bourke High School receives support from the Clontarf Foundation which exists to improve the education, employment and life skills of young Aboriginal men. Bourke High School offers free advertising to local businesses as SPAR supermarket in return for sponsorship of the school breakfast and lunch program. Without breakfast, students feel lethargic and can lead to difficulty concentrating and behavior difficulties at school.

The full service school is more than providing services to the community from school grounds but is a partnership between schools, families and the community work together to create better programs and address issues affecting students. Joyce Epstein recognizes that when parents, teachers, students and others view one another as partners in education, a caring community forms around students who are at the center of community partnerships. In a partnership, teachers and administrators create more family like schools and develop a positive image of schools as a caring place (Epstein, 1995).

One partnership that is working to address the problem of absenteeism from school is the involvement of NSW Police working with the Aboriginal Student Liaison Officer and the Home School Liaison Officer that make home visits to students to follow up on student attendance (Bourke High School Newsletter Term 3, Week 4 2013). But addressing a problem as absenteeism from school that leads to crime requires the involvement of the local community in school planning and decisions.

In Bourke High School, high absenteeism rates were a result of lack of indigenous perspectives in the curriculum. Students will not engage in the learning if they do not find it meaningful and relevant to their lives. Teachers need to have teaching strategies that involve real life or authentic learning experiences. For example, teachers can invite the local community as Aboriginal elders into the classroom to talk about a topic from an Aboriginal perspective.

Also absent from Bourke High School is active community involvement in the school. Community involvement in the school allows the community to have a ‘voice’ in school decisions particularly in the school curriculum. In Aboriginal communities where there is already deep mistrust of government agencies resulting from government policies in the past, involving the local community as Aboriginal Elders in school decisions and planning as the curriculum allows both teachers and students to explore Aboriginal history and culture through life stories and provide cultural affirmation and pride for Aboriginal Students (NSW Board of Studies, 2008)

But the most important partners in a child’s education are the parents and carers.  Parents want their children to succeed at school and they want to be involved in all aspects of their child’s development (Epstein). Traditionally parent and carer involvement in the school has been limited to parent and citizen (P&C) meetings or limited to participation in the canteen.  As Joyce Epstein points out, the type of school, family and community partnership programs can determine if parents become involved in their child’s education. If school’s reach out then parents will become partners in their child’s education.

For schools like Bourke High School, collaboration with parents is important for helping teachers with students learning. For example Parents can help their children develop literacy skills by reading to students or help teachers with issues as behavior problems. Unfortunately Bourke High School demonstrates limited parent involvement in the school except for special events. Although the school invites parent involvement through its online newsletter and Aboriginal Elder involvement through a local garden, there is more work to be done by the school to involve the community and address issues as absenteeism.

In conclusion, schools need to take an active role in the community in helping to address its needs. Problems as absenteeism and crime will continue to plague the community unless the school becomes more involved with the community than merely fund raising and special events. If schools are going to engage students, then they need to look beyond the classroom and evaluate school practices as curriculum design and planning. But engaging with the local community should not be a one-way approach but needs to be a partnership between school and the community.

The role of the law in Education

We dont often think of it but the law underpins everything that a teacher does in and outside the classroom. Laws are the basis of policies, procedures and guidelines as the code of conduct.

For example, In NSW the Education Act of 1990 sets out basic principles of teaching. The Education Act sets out that it is compulsory for a child of school age to attend school.

But more importantly, the Education Act of 1990 sets out values that are at the heart of teaching. This includes helping every child to achieve their full potential, providing a high standard of education and encouraging diversity and innovation within schools.

So when we think about how we teach and what we teach, it is not just some fancy or idealistic notions of education, but has the basis in law. Policies of inclusion of all students in the classroom, differentiating instruction for all students, training and collaboration with parents and the community all have their basis in state laws.

Again using the Education Act of 1990 provides that teaching promotes an understanding of Aboriginal history and all culture by all children. If we look at the NSW Year 7-10 syllabus or the new Australian national curriculum for any subject, it is mandatory for teachers to embed Aboriginal perspectives in the curriculum.

While the Education Act of 1990 sets out basic principles of education, laws as the Anti-Discrimination Act 1977 and the Disability Discrimination Act set out that students cannot be discriminated against on the grounds of disability, gender, age, transgender, race or ethnic background. Under the Disability Discrimination Act, it is illegal for any person, business or authority to discriminate on the basis of a person’s disability. The legislation ensures that people with a disability have the same opportunities to access employment, education, transport, accomodation and buildings as other members of the community who do not have a disability.

Teachers need to understand what their obligations and responsibilities are before the law. The Teaching Act of 1980 governs the employment, termination and discipline of teachers. In employing and retaining teachers, the act sets out that the protection of children is to be the paramount consideration. For example, under the Child Protection (Working with Children) act it is compulsory for teachers to obtain a working with children clearance check and it is an offence not to hold this clearance. A teacher whom fails a working with children clearance check is barred from working as a teacher and will have their employment terminated.

While all teachers must report if they have been found guilty or accused of a serious crime, teachers are mandatory reporters of children who are at risk of harm. Under the Children and Young Persons (Care and Protection) act of 1998, teachers have a duty to report if they have reasonable grounds to suspect that a child or young person “is at risk of significant harm if current concerns exist for the safety, welfare or wellbeing of the child or young person because of the presence, to a significant extent, of … basic physical or psychological needs are not being met … physical or sexual abuse or ill-treatment … serious psychological harm.

The law becomes much more serious for teachers when it comes to the protection of children from harm. The Occupational Health and Safety Act 2000 sets out that schools have a responsibility to provide a safe environment for both their staff and for the students. From the OH@S Act comes a ‘Duty of Care’ for teachers to take reasonable measures to protect students against harm.

For teachers we have a duty to protect students from risks that could also be reasonably foreseen. For example if a teacher is heading to a class and sees a student climbing up a tree, the teacher has a duty of care to ensure that the student does not harm themselves. While teachers are safe from legal prosecution because schools take legal responsibility for their teaching staff (vicarious liability), individual teachers can still be held responsibile in a court of law if they are found to have acted negligently.

Knowing and understanding the law not only protects our students, but helps teachers to understand their own roles and responsibilities towards students in and outside the classroom.

Websites

NSW Department of Education Professional responsibilities of teachers https://www.det.nsw.edu.au/media/downloads/…/handbook_ch5.doc

Mandatory reporting http://www.aifs.gov.au/cfca/pubs/factsheets/a141787/

The Disability Discrimination Act http://www.aisnsw.edu.au/Services/GovtRegs/DDA/Pages/default.aspx

The Last Empress of China

 

Have you ever watched a movie or historical drama and ever wondered what happened to those characters? Or have you ever wondered is that what really happened?

One of the best movies i have ever seen is the 1987 film ‘‘The Last Emperor’ directed by Bernardo Bertolucci. The movie is the story of the Last Emperor of China, Aisin-Goro Pu Yi. 

Since the release of the movie, much has been written of Aisin-Gioro Pu-Yi, the Last Emperor of China. Pu-Yi became Emperor of China in 1908 at the age of three and lost his crown in the 1911 Revolution. Despite the Revolution, Pu-Yi was allowed to stay inside the Forbidden City, treated as an emperor by his various army of eunuch’s, courtiers and officials.  But Pu Yi was an emperor in name only.

I cannot help but wonder what ever happened to Pu Yi’s wife, the Empress Wan-Jung better known to the world as ‘Elizabeth’. The story of the Last Empress of China is just as tragic as that of her husband.

In the movie the ‘Last Emperor’, Wan Rong enters Pu-Yi’s life when in 1922 she was chosen to marry Pu-Yi. We know that Pu-Yi selected Wan-Jung from a collection of photographs placed before him. But what do we know about Wan-Rong? Pu Yi tells us that his original choice for Empress was overridden by the High consorts and he was persuaded to choose Wan Rong, also known as Wan Jung and Mu Hung. Pu Yi tells us that she was from a rich family, beautiful and the same age as Pu Yi.

But who was Wan Rong? Gobulo Wan Rong (“Beautiful Countenance”) was from one of Manchuria’s most prominent, richest families. Her father was Rong Yuan, the Minister of Domestic Affairs of the Qing Government and head of one of Manchuria’s most prominent, richest families.

We also know that Wan Rong’s mother was Xin Yu Heng Aisin-giorro, herself descended from the Qianlong Emperor (1735-1796). We know that as a child, Wan Rong had a tutor Chen Tseng-shou who would also be a life long friend. We also know that Wan Rong was highly educated at an American missionary school in Tianjin by the American tutor Isabel Ingram, where she had been given the Christian name of “Elizabeth.

The marriage beween Wan Rong and Pu Yi was not one of love but of necessity. Having come of age, Pu Yi was asked to choose a wife. Given a book of photographs of the eligible young women from wealthy chinese families, Pu Yi originally choose a young woman, Wen Hsiu as his wife. However objections to this choice by the imperial consorts forced Pu Yi to choose another. The second chice was that of Wan Rong. But Pu Yi was allowed to choose Wen Hsiu as his secondary consort or second wife.

The marriage of Wan Rong to Pu Yi seems to have gotten off to a rocky start when Pu Yi showed very little interest in Wan Rong on their wedding night and went to his own chambers. Pu Yi’s own attitude to his wedding was that ‘While all the hustle and busle went on around me one question kept running through my mind: ‘I have an empress and a consort; Im married. But how are things any different from before?’

With this mindset, Pu Yi showed very little interest in his new wife on their wedding night and returned to his own chambers. When i think about Wan Rong and Pu Yi, they seem to be more like brother and sister, or two friends. Pictures show Wan Rong and Pu Yi together happily. But were they ever happy as a married couple?

But Pu-Yi did not only have his wife Wan Rong to look after but also a secondary consort, Wen Hsiu.  How did the Empress Wan Rong feel about having to share with a second wife? Did Wan Rong and Wen Hsiu get along? According to Pu Yi there seems to have been a rivalry develop between Wan Rong and Wen Hsiu.

Pu Yi seems to have resented the money spent and the competition between the Empress and Wen Hsui. Pu Yi complained that Wan Jung knew even more ways of ‘wasting money on useless objects than I did’. Pu Yi also complained of the competition between Wan Jung and Wen Hsiu where if one had something, the other also had to have one. When the secondary consort Wen Hsiu asked for a divorce in 1931, Pu Yi admitted that ‘It appeared on the surface that Wen Hsiu was forced out by the ’empress’ Wan Rong. While this was not the whole truth it was certainly one of the reasonse for Wen Hsiu’s departure’.

After 1924 and their eviction from the Forbidden City, Pu Yi seems to have his mind soley on restoration to his throne. As he admitted that ‘I did not know what love was, and where husband and wife were equal in other marriages, to me wife and concubine were both the slave and tools of their master’.

The restoration of Pu Yi as the Emperor of the Puppet state of Manchukuo or Manchuria under Japanese control did little to improve the fortunes of either  Pu Yi or Wan Rong. Obsessed with becoming emperor again, Pu Yi became the wiling puppet of the Japanese, who held their own ambitions in China. The Japanese manipulated Pu Yi into believing that his life was in danger and that Pu Yi was in desperate need of Japanese protection. Little did Pu Yi realise that the Japanese had carefully set up incidents to scare Pu Yi towards Japan rather than British or American assistance.

Becoming emperor again in Manchukuo did little to improve their marriage. After Wen Hsui divorced Pu Yi in 1931, Pu Yi says that he felt a revulsion for Wan Rong, hardly ever talking to her or paying her any attention. As Pu Yi writes ‘So she never told me her of her feelings, her hopes and her sorrows’. Pu Yi knew that she had become addicted to opium and ‘behaved in a way that i could not tolerate’. What did Pu Yi mean by this?

According to the Manchu princess and japanese spy Yoshiko Kawashima (Better known to as history as ‘Eastern Jewel’), Wan Rong hated Manchuria where she suffered from the extreme climate and was subject to bad dreams and poor health.

Neglecting Wan Rong, Pu Yi married the 16 year old school girl Tan Yuling or ‘Jade Years’ in 1937 taking her as a secondary consort to replace Wen Hsiu. But what is interesting is that Pu Yi called Tan Yu-ling a punishment for Wan Jung. But Pu Yi did not see the new secondary consort as a wife but as necessary like an essential piece of palance furniture. As Pu Yi writes ‘She too was a wife in name only, and i kept her in the palace as i might have kept a bird until her death in 1942’. But it was also believed by Hiro Saga, Pu-Yi’s sister in law, that Pu Yi had a pageboy lover, a male concubine. Rumours of Pu-yi’s bisexuality plagued Pu-Yi for his whole life.

Addicted to opium, Wan Rong’s behaviour became bizarre. According to Edward Behr, Wan Rong’s opium addiction from july 1938 to july 1939 was 740 ounces of opium. Wan Rong never appeared at birthday or New Year parties and relations with Pu Yi had ceased while her own father stopped visiting her in Manchukuo because of what she had become. There is a story of a dinner party where Wan Rong ate a western style meal ravenously that was embarrasing to all that were there.

Pu Yi tells us that Wan Rong came to believe in luck and if she encountered anything unlucky she would blink or spit. Pu Yi says that Wan Rong made it such a habit to blink or spit that it was if she were ‘suffering from some mental illness’.

But there were also rumours that Wan Rong had an affair with her driver. After his second trip to Tokyo, Pu Yi was advised that his empress was pregnant by his driver, Li Tich-yu who gained opium for Wan Rong and smoked with her. Pu Yi gave him orders to leave town. When Wan Rong gave birth to a baby girl, it is believed that the Japanese doctor killed the baby with an injection. Edward Behr believes that from this moment Wan Rong lived in a constant opium daze.

Why did Wan Rong stay? Pu Yi wondered this himself in that the experiences of Wan Rong, ‘who had been neglected for so long would be incomprehensible to a modern Chinese girl’ and wondered what if Wan Jung would have divorced him. Pu Yi believes that where Wen Hsiu believed that ordinary family life was more important than wealth and power, that Wan Jung attached great significance to her position as empress and was prepared to be a wife in name only for the sake of it”.

Another contemporary of Wan Rong, the Manchu Princess ‘Eastern Jewel’ or Yoshiko Kawashima, wrote that she was proud to be the number one wife to China’s true emperor but was a victim of politics and her own snobbery as well as betrayal from the Japanese.

So what happened to the Last Empress of China, Wan Rong? Pu Yi wrote that when he left Manchokuo after the Japanese surrender her opium addiction was very serious. Wan Rong fled with her sister in law, Hiro Saga where they both fell into the hands of Chinese communist forces in Talitzou, Manchukuo. Wan Rong and Hiro Saga were moved to a prison in Yanji, Jilin.

Edward Behr recounts the story of what happened in prison. Suffering from opium withdrawals, Wan Rong begged for opium or halucinated as if she was back in the forbidden city. In Prison, Wan Rong became a curiosity for the local people who came to see the ‘Last Empress of China’. Unconscious in her cell, laying in a pool of urine and her own vomit, Wan Rong was helped by Hiro Saga who washed the dying empress until Hiro Saga and her daughter were moved leaving Wan Rong alone.

What did Pu-Yi think about her death? The last time Pu Yi saw Wan Rong appears to have been in Manchuria before he was to fly to Japan. As the aircraft was too small, he chose only Pu Cheih, his two brothers in law, three nephews and a doctor to go with him. Why wouldnt he have brought Wan Rong? Pu Yi seems to have been more preoccupied with saving his own life than any concern for his wife or anyone else.

It is believed that Pu-Yi did not learn of the death of his Empress Wan Rong until 1951 when Pu Yi was still imprisoned.  In his own words, Pu Yi tells us that ‘When our ways parted after the Japanese surrender her opium addiction was very serious and she was extremely weak; she died the following year in Kirin’. But what is interesting is Pu Yi’s words:

“I had married a total of four wives, or to use the terms employed them, one empress, one consort, and two minor consorts. But in fact they were not real wives, and they were only there for show. Although I treated them differently they were all my victims…….If her fate was not determined at her birth, her end was inevitable from the moment she married me”.

After a short period, Wan Rong died in prison reportedly from a combination of malnutrition and opium withdrawal in June 1946, at the age of 40. Wan Rong was buried in an unmarked grave at the prison. 

In October 2006, Empress Wan Rong’s younger brother, Gobulo Runqi (1912-2007), had a tomb built for Wan Rong at the Western Qing Tombs. Although the tomb did not contain the body of the Empress Wan Rong, the tomb did contain the personal hand mirror of Empress Wan Rong.

The pictures used in this website is courtesy of the following websites:

http://madmonarchist.blogspot.com.au/2010/04/consort-profile-empress-wan-jung.html 

I acknowledge that pictures on this website are courtesy of metrosonus – chris@metro-sonus.com
173.169.78.21

Suggested Reading

Behr, Edward ‘The Last Emperor’

Irons, Neville John ‘The Last Emperor’

Johnston, Reginald ‘Twilight in the Forbidden City’

Pu-Yi, Aisin-Gioro ‘From Emperor to Citizen: The Autobiography of Aisin-Gioro Pu-Yi’

Websites

Empress Wan Rong – The Last Empress Consort of the Qing Dynasty in China’, http://history.cultural-china.com/en/48History6707.html

Integrated Curriculum Design

When we think about Curriculum we think about traditional syllabus and subjects.

But a curriculum is the whole big picture of the learning experience – the total of all that is learnt in schools. The Curriculum is not only the subjects and topics to be learnt, it also the planned outcomes or aims / objectives, it is the structure and range of practical learning activities and assessment or evaluation procedures.

So when we think about Curriculum Design, we have to think about the whole learning process – not just the subjects and content to be learnt.

When we talk about an Integrated Curriculum, it is the idea of a unity between forms of knowledge and their disciplines.

Traditional curriculum design is very much subject centred where we have our subjects as Maths, English, Science. Then we may have the humanities subjects as History, Geography, Politics. Then the Languages, the arts subjects as Music, Drama, Art. Then at the lower end we may have the technical arts as Woodwork and Metalwork. Each one of these areas has its own assessment criteria, practical activities, aims or objectives, assessment types.

We often find however that subjects do overlap each other in certain areas as content or concepts. For example, Science shares many aspects in common with Chemistry and Biology. While History shares many aspects in common with politics and some aspects with Geography. Because there is so much content and concepts to cover in only a 50 minute lesson, it makes sense to group areas together to try to share the concepts so that students can get greater time and different fields to understand those concepts.

For example, History deals with not only the past but concepts as democracy, freedom, civil rights. A History teacher needs more that 50 minutes three times a week to try to cover not only the content but to try to explore these indepth concepts. Teaching the historical context does not help students to fully understand these concepts. If students are not fully grasping the concepts, are they understanding the subject and its historical context?

So what can we do about this?

Many education departments have introduced the idea of an ‘Integrated Curriculum’ where forms of knowledge and their respective disciplines are united together.

The benefits of Integrated Curriculums include not only looking at concepts for an indepth understanding, but of also providing a meaningful learning experience for students through using real life examples. By uniting knowleddge, teachers can help students to make connections among disciplines through solving real life problems together. By making education not only relevant but engaging, it keeps students interested in the learning process.

Some teachers have tried various forms of integrated curriculum where teachers from different subjects have worked together on a single probject. For example if looking at the Pyramids of Egypt, a group of maths students might come in and do the measurements of what a Pyramid might look like in size and structure. While another group of history students might contribute by providing evidence of how the Pyramids were built. Another group of science or geology students might contribute with an understanding of the materials and their strengths used to build it. While geography students may contribute through talking about the weather and conditions of Egypt.

However this has been criticised as it is not an integrated curriculum experience as subjects still retain their traditional subject area and its not an on-going learning experience. Another criticism is that while it is great for teachers to work together, different philosophies of teaching and what is to be learnt may lead to confusion among students if the teachers do not fully co-operate on planning the learning and its experiences.

In Australia, the state governments have introduced various forms of ‘Integrated Curriculum’ designs where areas as the Humanities of History, Geography and Politics are grouped together, while the Sciences of Chemistry and Biology are grouped together, the Arts etc.
In NSW we have the HSIE or Human Society in its Environment, while in Queensland there is the SOSE or Studies of Society and Environment.

However critics argue that it is not an Integrated Curriculum Design but a Multidisciplinary Curriculum Design where subjects remain independent of each other and not integrated at all. For example, Tony Dowden labels curriculum integration as a generic term for all forms of curricula that others have labelled or called integrated. So where curriculum design remains subject centred would be little more than curriculum integration as opposed to integrated curriculums.

Other Critics of these types of ‘integrated curriculum’ believe that the traditional subject centred design is not learner centred as there is nothing to make teachers or subjects collaborate together to make learning experiences more meaningful.

On the other side of the argument, critics complain that the focus of the subjects is not on content but on the concepts. Attempts to integrate and merge subjects was met with harsh criticism when in 2007, the Prime Minister John Howard was critical of the SOSE Curriculum in Victoria for dumbing down the content and Victoria restored a NSW type curriculum shortly after.

Other possibilities?

Franzie Loepp suggests other models of integrated curriculum.

One model is the Interdisciplinary model where schools group traditional subjects into blocks of time. A number of teachers would be given a group of students and teach the group of students in a topic. The problem here is that subjects still retain their independence and unless teachers collaborate, team teaching may result in misunderstandings and different teaching philosophies colliding.

We still have to remember that in an integrated curriculum model that learning experiences, assessment must meet the state or national based outcomes, aims and objectives.

What is also important is that there is no division of subject areas.

A second possibility is that of a problem based model where students work together to solve a real life problem. Franzie Loepp believes that in this type of model, that ideally teachers would place technology at the core of the curriculum. Students would not look at just one aspect but use the real life problem to look at all aspects of the problem.

The advantages of using the Problem Based model is that it offers great potential for looking at and using relevant and highly engaging problems. For example, Climate Change where students would work together to look at all aspects as changes in weather, reduction or increase of temperature or rainfall. However a disadvantage could be that it may not meet state frameworks or national standards in a particular grade level.

Another possibility is a theme based curriculum where students identify with a given discipline or theme. A theme can be for example life in the Australian outback or understanding a culture where students look at all aspects of the culture. Some advantages of using a theme based model include that it is easier to connect the curriculum with national standards and state frameworks. Another advantage is that it is easier for students to make connections among objectives from various disciplines.

However one of the problems of a theme based is that there could be a tendency for a theme to have little relationship with a specific discipline and lead to irrelevant learning.

Whatever choice we decide that is best for our students, we have to make sure that we see curriculum design, topics, assessment, learning choices as a whole process where every component depends on another component.

But viewers can read the blog on Wiggins and Mctighe’s ‘Understanding by Design’ for further information.