Holidays should be classed as educational - Woombah, NSW.(School swapping)

It is now time for the final part of the journey and in this last edition we will be heading off to a small fishing-village in Australia, named Iluka. It was here that we were again reunited with our Friends. Only this time we were guests at their beautiful home, situated just out-side Iluka in a town that had the amusing name of Woombah.


Doesn't that just roll off the tongue? A beautiful name for a most beautiful world.

I say "world", because it did actually feel like we had been transported to another point in time. What an absolutely gorgeous place it was is.

I am now going to take you through 12 of the most treasured days I have ever spent on planet earth.

THE WONDERFUL COMMUNITY OF ILUKA :)

It was hugs and smiles all round, as we met Ali and the 3 kids on our arrival(06:30am). It was so nice to see them again and I had not seen Ali as much as the others (Ali had a very demanding job and had kindly saved her holiday entitlements for while we were with them).

Bags in the car? Check. Sun-cream and water? Check. Crusty brain and morning breath? Double check. COFFEE!!

Feeling slightly more awake, we set off on a 1hr drive to see the family home and get our first glimpse of the town we would come to love. With all the girls in the back of the MPV, chatting away like monkeys, Ali and I took advantage and spent the whole drive chatting away, like monkeys... With Ali being from the UK, I think she was happy to speak to another Brit. I wonder. Does that make me an Ambassador?

If I am honest, my first impression was that there wasn't really much to see. Even after we had driven down the Highway and began to enter the outskirts of town, I was a little under-whelmed. Maybe I had just been spoiled over the past 3 weeks? I suppose not all of Australia has to look like the Brochures. Still, the company was excellent and it didn't register enough to bother me anyway.

So after a very chatty car ride, we were taken to meet up with Alan at the local Pub. And man, was it Local!

As we arrived in the car park, I was quite please to see that the bar was on the edge of fishing bay. Probably 50 boats, all sat bobbing up and down in time with each other, on top of the waves. The bar itself, can not be given such a picturesque description. A Shack, is probably the best way I could describe it and the clientele were proper 'Ozzy' Blokes. Singlets and everything! It looked just like an advert for Castlemaine XXXX.

Like everything else here. I would come to learn that it held a mysterious beauty, you had to look a little deeper to find.

"GOOD'AY! WHAT CAN I GETCHA?"(I have yet to meet an Australian with a quiet voice)

"Hi, nice bar. I love the fishing pictures. Can I have an Orange juice and 3 Beers please?"

"HEY, YOUR A POMME, AIN'TCHA?"

What a charismatic place it turned out to be. I think I was talking to these strangers for a good 15 minutes, before I left with my drinks. As I reappeared outside, I saw two extra people at the table. One I recognized immediately to be Alan, but the other I had never seen before.

It was 'Nanna'!! And I can tell you that Australian grandparents get treated just the same as any other.

"Nanna, can I have 50 cents for some sweets?"..... "Please?"

Ha ha. That did make me laugh, and it helped break the ice too. Well, I suppose it could have been the sunshine, the gorgeous views, and the cold beer....

No wonder Australians seem so happy. It just felt different and I began to get the feeling we were about to experience a totally different way of life.

But what about Chloe, how was she seeing all this?

Now there is good reason for there being little mention of my daughter so far. This was of course, because she had been re-united with The girl's, and more importantly with her BFF - AKA - Best friends forever -.

(Come on. Get with the times, man)

The enormity of this reunification came apparent to me after we had left the bar, to go down to one of the many local beeches. By an absolute stroke of fate and almost as if they were all in on it together. The most amazing thing happened...

As we walked across a large concrete wave-breaker/Jeti, we had left the two BFF some way behind. We were all soaking up the sea air and Alan was shouting at the other two kids, who were antagonising him by going too close to the edge. It was then that we were treated to an amazing display of nature, happening right before our eyes...

A Pod of around 6 Dolphins, began jumping out of the water and playing around. That would already be amazing enough, but this was about 20 feet from where I was standing!!

"CHLOE!!!" "COME QUICK!! DOLPHINS!!!!!!!!!!". "Chloe.....?"

Not even a Pod of wild Dolphins could take the girls attention away from each other.

Looking back on that moment now. I realise that my own perceptions of what is classed as fulfilling are not the same as a child's. It seems I may have just missed an even more fantastic spectacle of life. Friendship. Love. Companionship....
(Maybe this is why our public schools never get it right?)

For now, it was goodbye to Alan as he had to go back to work. The rest of us, minus Grandma, headed off 'home'.

Pretty impressive, isn't it? And these picture don't even tell half the story.


As beautiful as this home is, it was the atmosphere and the way of life that won our hearts. I could show you a million photographs of days spent fishing, or driving up to Nimbim for their 'Hippy-market'. But this post is not going to be categorized as 'Holidays' or 'Photos'. No, I want this article to show you how educational holidays can be.

For this to be possible you need to think out-side of the box and arrange something,* a little different....

3 DAYS AT AN AUSTRALIAN SCHOOL.

I'm not sure if I will ever see my daughter so happy to go to School, as she was those 3 days. It was only supposed to be 1 day. But when I went to pick them up, the Head-master asked if Chloe would like to continue attending their school, until the end of the week. It was the school's final week before they broke up for Christmas. Evidently, they were not short of festive spirit. Just short of snow....

As any Parent will admit, it is very pleasing to hear somebody compliment your child's personality. From what I was told, my daughter had been a shining representative. As for what Chloe thought about it, it was hard to say. From her scattered reports, I have gathered she had an amazing time. I did manage to find out, that they do a lot more out-door activities and they all have lunch out-side...

Ha kids. I forget how life was so simple back then.

I must now pay my respects to this amazing school, which had the heart of the whole community invested into it.

I know this to be true, because of what happened on the last day of school...

On the last day they gave out awards and announced the next years Prefects. This was an honour that the eldest sister had her heart set on. I not sure what came over me, but by the time it was announced, I was almost in tears myself.

Giving kids awards and the state curriculum in general, has never been the greatest of educational techniques. But for this moment I will allow it. The girl didn't stop smiling for about a week!! And if that wasn't enough for her parents to be proud of, the girl sings like an Angel.

But let's ignore the fact that almost all nations are blighted with this, agenda driven, education system. This School felt like one big family. Everybody knew one another on a personal level. The achievements and happiness of the children were absorbed and celebrated, by everyone there.

Man it felt good.

The event was ended with one of the most passionate speeches I have ever heard, from any head-teacher. I am used to hearing teachers tell me how they try to work around the national curriculum, in order to make the kid's day at school a bit more fun, and less like a day at the Barracks. Unfortunately, that is a sentiment I hear every Parents-evening. But never have I heard someone talk about it like he did. You could hear the frustration in his voice. But more importantly, you could feel the passion and intent in his words. He vowed to those parents, to keep fighting and try to keep the school the way it was. *I can only assume the people of this small town have seen the encroachment of this bland and limited style of education. And much like my own country, the people of Iluka have had to watch, helplessly, as it begins to erode the foundations of what makes the school so special.

I see now that my daughter had been lucky enough to experience a school, that still had an essence of what education once was. We had seen the ghost of community education and my daughter had been wise enough to notice the difference.

There was one observation my daughter had noted, that really stuck in my mind. She told me that while playing out-side on their breaks, all the different year-groups interacted with one another. (And it wasn't to steal their dinner money)
I am certain that this is solely down to the communities efforts to be actively involved, not only with their children's education, but also with each other. I imagine that the head-master rarely gets to have a quiet 'Scoona' of his favourite beer

It is also worth noting that while there, we attended a neighborhood Barbecue. By the end of the night, I had met the local policeman, the owner of the local fishing tackle shop and almost every other person that you needed to know if you wanted to live there. Which would be pretty easy with the amount of invites we received! Like I said, just great folk.

Australia is one heck of a versatile place. But it is a nation that is being turned into a soulless business. The same as we see happening all over the modern world.

We spent just under a month in Australia and one of the statements I kept hearing people say was very telling.

"Yeah it's nice, but it was even better 20 years ago"

Again, it is noteworthy to add. We were half way around the world and here was this Head-master, speaking about having to jump through the very same hoops as the schools back in Blighty...

For now though, the school and the community it serves are fighting hard against the changes being made. They see what's going on. Their diet of red meat and Vegemite, hasn't totally destroyed their senses. But coming from a country that has dramatically advanced this process, in schools all across the UK, I could just see that the writing was on the wall...

But let's not leave this post on a sad note. That would just be counter-productive against what I want to achieve. This whole series of articles, have been about how positive the experience was. And that is just how I would like to end it.

Whether you live in the UK, USA, France, Australia, even Timbuktu! We all seem to know that our schools are being led down a narrow path. We all know that the Teachers want to break free from constant testing and the target based curriculum. Our Teachers are just being ground down and denied the right to use the creative talents they were hired for in the first place. But this negative has, by the laws of Nature, developed its opposing reflection.

THAT'S YOU

Just think about it for a moment. We here @steemiteducation, do not agree with a State-organised, compulsory, curriculum. Parents in general, also, do not agree with the degradation of services, within the Public schooling sector(I assume those who are fortunate enough to send their children to a private schools do not have the same complaints, or results).
Finally, the teachers who are FORCED to implement this agenda. Teachers have a front row seat and I have NEVER HEARD ANY OF THEM GIVE COMPLIMENTS TO THE MAINSTREAM CURRICULUM. That alone should speak volumes to us.

If you see this the same way, then it appears the only people in favour of this public experiment, are those very few people who seem to be benefitprofiting from it.

The answer to this problem is glaringly obvious, and we all know it. The reaction, however, has taken me completely by surprise...

If you had asked me a year ago, what my opinion was, about folk who Home-school their kids. I would have said they were, more than likely, some kind of religious cult. You know, David Koresh, the Mormons, people like that. Nobody who wanted their children to survive in this harsh new world, that's for sure.

It seems to be the general perception, that life is now a battle to be fought and not a journey to be experienced. So the majority feel they have to arm their children, with the same weapons as the rest, or they will certainly fail in life, and then we would be judged by our peers as 'Bad-parents'

Maybe we all know, sub-consciously, that our rulers have created this hollow, consumerist, world? And have we now began to wake up to the realisation that public schooling is just a greasy rope they have given us to climb?
Many of us have now woken up to this butchery of the mind. But the majority still believe that, in this world, only the strongest survive. What they refuse to admit is that even those who reach the top of the rope only require a nudge, in order to send them tumbling back to the bottom of the hole.

Before I found steemit, I had resigned myself to the notion that EVERYONE ***had given up. What could we do, I thought, when there wasn't an alternative? But it has become apparent to me that there, most certainly, is an alternative. One that has nothing to do with barns or burdens. I was wrong to cast judgment on those who home-school. It seems that myself, and many others, have been conditioned to ignore and ridicule you. But while we have been pointing fingers and laughing, you guys and gals have been cracking on regardless and building a better future. Leading by example. Simple as that...

What I have seen on steemit has honestly made me consider my daughters future in public schooling.***

I applaud you, whoever you are. I have been reading much about how you are all developing and promoting such a natural way of learning. The wonderful approach to educating children known as, UN-schooling, has totally blown me away. What a beautiful concept. One that has made me look deeper into how my daughter sees the world around her. I am now so much more aware of how we must show them, and not tell them, which ways to learn.

And I have only just scratched the surface

Because of my lack of knowledge, I will just give my thanks to steemit. This is where I have discovered the truth about those who home-school. This will have to do, until I am lucky enough to meet one of you for real. Maybe that will be when I take that leap of faith? My heart has always known it would be better, but my head has always talked me out of it with questions like, "But she will lose all her friends" or "people will be mad with me because they won't understand".
Because of steemit and people like those who have set up @steemiteducation, another layer of my conditioning has been dissolved. All because of a platform named steemit, which supplies decentralised education.

I doth my cap to you all.

There was so much more to add, but it is just impossible to fit it all in. It is safe to say that my daughter has been enriched by this whole thing. But before I go, I must highlight that it was also the simple things too. Like making tent-poles out of Bamboo and learning that although you have a garden, nature does not respect your rights of ownership(Especially when the animal is a big-ass Kangaroo).

Like I said at the start HOLIDAYS SHOULD BE CLASSED AS EDUCATIONAL

Peace to you and yours. Thank you for expanding my perspective, that little-bit wider. Education is truly our key to freedom.

Signing out now, for what was the final part of my adventure. Or maybe not...

I'll let you know :) But for now, it is time to jump back on the plane and say a very tearful goodbye to our Australian family. You have taught us so much. Thank you

Written by Rebel Dan.