Next on ACA: How left-wing English teachers are intellectually sodomising your children . . . and what the PM plans to do about it

Yawn. Another Tory is sooking about outcomes based education and the fact that English syllabi have moved on somewhat from "when he was a lad."

Said Tory then whines that the fact that it has moved on constitutes a "dumbing down" of the English syllabus, and a sign that, at the expense of "quality traditional literature" (i.e. the literature produced by Dead White Englishmen that little Johnny studied at Canterbury Boy's High), educational authorities are succumbing to "political correctness" (i.e. anything not produced by the Dead White Englishmen that little Johnny studied at school).

When asked about the West Australian government's "outcome-based" education program, Mr Howard replied: "That is gobbledegook - what does that mean?"

Um . . . Johnny? Not knowing anything about a subject is not a refutation of it. Didn't they teach you that at Canterbury Boy's?

Stay tuned for the usual triumphalist diatribe in the editorial of the Australian, accompanied by the usual triumphalist diatribe by Kevin Donnelly. Ho hum.

P.S. Things started looking up once Brendan "students in state schools should be taught intelligent design in science classes if that's what parents want" Nelson was replaced by Julie Bishop--who ostensibly seemed to have a good head on her shoulders, relatively speaking--but they don't seem so hopeful now.

UPDATE: There's a great post about this at Larvatus Prodeo.