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Elitism' holds the key to Excellence
FAILURE to distinguish between social and intellectual elitism is damaging modern Australian education, one of Victoria's most experienced academic administrators has warned. The chairman of the Phillip Foundation at Victoria's Phillip Institute of Technology and the former head of the Victorian Institute of Colleges, Dr Phillip Law, said Australia had to change its attitude to elitism in education in order to achieve distinction as a nation. Speaking at a scholarship- award ceremony at Phillip, Dr Law criticised attempts by anti-elitists to suppress competition in education. "I become depressed when quite influential members of our education structure espouse an anti-elitist philosophy,'' he said. "They speak not only about equal opportunity but also about equality of outcome which is nonsense."
Dr Law said he believed that political paranoia was the basis of intellectual anti-elitism and it had received its main boost from Maoist philosophy and the Chinese Cultural Revolution."Both in China and in Russia, the antagonism to social elitism with its preserves of privilege for those with wealth and class, spilled over into the education field," he said. "Failure to distinguish between social elitism and intellectual elitism is at the root of some of the most damaging developments in modern Australian education."
Excellence grew out of and was measured by competition -- a basic part of human behaviour." he said. "To excel, you must exceed the average score; indeed must be among the very few right at the top. "You must compete; excellence itself is comparative. not absolute, and competition is essential for the production of excellence".
Dr Law said that only a tiny section of the nation's population had high intelligence, high stores of physical and nervous energy: and high motivation and dedication "If Australia is to achieve any distinction as a nation and if our material and cultural well-being is to be assured." he said, "we must seek out these people, nurture their endeavours and develope their competence by competition "This is something Australian are happy to do in sport." --
Reported by JONATHAN PORTER, The Australian
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