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Aboriginal education
Sunday, 02 April 2006 16:14 | Written by Graham Young

Posted for Bill Gale

I do not know if what I am suggesting is your line of enquiry but here goes.

Some years ago the ABC interviewed an Occupational Therapist from Western Australia who had gone to great lengths to live and then study aboriginal children comprehension.

it was a simple test. I am 75 and when a scout it was called Kim's game. I wonder if it still a test. about 25 items were set out in square say 2 ft sq. they were simple things like a peg, a pen top a rubber =, a paper clip and so on -- any small thing. The O T did the same and gave the aboriginal children a minute or two to study the items they were covered and the children asked to recall the items and a score kept. she did same for Caucasian children at another time.

the findings were aboriginal children scored poorly compared with the Caucasians. BUT when she changed the question and asked Aboriginal children What was next to the rubber their recall was far ahead of Caucasian.

she then tried with Caucasian children who had low attention span in school and had not scored well in the "recall" test by asking them "What was next to the rubber etc?" she found they performed as well as the aboriginal children.

her conclusion was that Aboriginal children need a different form of schooling and why has it fascinated me? I have a son and grandson who are very bright but fit clearly into the ones who's attention is poor and school results to match.

I have tried to get the original research because it could be fundamental to a different approach to the education of the average aboriginal child. As I said I guess this is outside your realm of enquiry but I have been busting to tell someone.

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