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@ElsevierAUS
What have you experienced
in remote Australia that
has changed your world
view?
The experience that really changed
my world view when we went out to
Kununurra was when we set up this
scavenger hunt and I set up what was
called the ‘Education Station’. The kids
would come around in groups and I had
a little blackboard set up and I would
ask them some general knowledge
questions that someone in their age
range would be able to answer for me.
So, I’d ask the 15 year old kids something
like ‘what’s 7 x 7’ or ‘name two pieces of
fruit’ and it was astounding, they couldn’t
answer these basic questions for me.
The first thing I asked them was ‘how old
are you?’ so that I knewwhat sort of general
questions to ask them. But the question
I really should have asked them is ‘how
many days a week do you go to school?’.
It was a real ‘aha’moment for me because I
didn’t realise that they didn’t go to school,
these kids, or they went to school once a
year or once a term. So that reallymademe
wake up and realise how lucky we are here
to have such a big emphasis on education
and how good our education is here.
They don’t have those facilities available
to them out there and there’s not people
telling them to go to school and telling
them how important education is.
