Catherine a Runcie

This book is a series of essays by distinguished scholars concerned with the improvement of primary, secondary, and tertiary studies, most especially in arts but also in mathematics and science. It is concerned with past ideas about education in Australia, most particularly with the traditions that have yielded an education that has proven most beneficial to Australia in terms of comparison with other countries; and it advocates and emphasises how this tradition can be maintained and improved in specific ways. Essays focus on primary and secondary education in music, and art, mathematics, history and the classics, on the improvement of memory and vocabulary, but more particularly on university education, discussing the purpose of education, learning in general, the use of the seminar, the necessity of freedom of debate, the inadequacies and contradictions of French and Anglo-post modernism, the teaching of history, of philosophy, and its branch aesthetics, mathematics, equality in education, teaching at university and funding of the whole enterprise. The authors are all well known in their disciplines and some are experts, internationally recognised in their fields. This book features essays by: David Daintree, Karl Schmude, Simon Haines, Kevin Donnelly, Matthew Lesh, Chris Berg & Bella d'Abrera, David Furse-Roberts, Greg Melleuish, Steven Schwartz, Blaise Joseph, James Franklin, Christopher Allen, Richard Gill, Jeremy Bell, Barry Spurr, David Brooks, Natalie Kennedy, Sarah Williams, Sarah Lawrence, Ivan Francis Head.

In 1979 Australian teacher and education administrator, Valerie Horniman, began mentoring Chinese postgraduate scholars at the University of Sydney. They were the 'Gang of Nine' and were among the first scholars from mainland China to be awarded degrees at a Western university, since the establishment of the Communist government in 1949. The 'Gang of Nine' arrived in Australia in 1979, at the very moment that China began its head long rush into 'Reform and Opening Up'. The 'Gang of Nine' had endured academic repression and personal hardships during the intellectual calamity of the Cultural Revolution. Now, they found the intellectual freedom and the intellectual rigour of a Western university, as well as life in Western society, liberating, confusing and confronting. Valerie Horniman extended her friendship, support and understanding to the 'Gang of Nine', who would become important scholars upon their return to China.That mentorship was turned full circle in 1990, when Valerie began a new career as a teacher of English Literature and Western culture to postgraduate students in Chinese universities. Valerie plunged head on into Chinese universities in the immediate aftermath of the 1989 Tiananmen Square student protests and the June 4th massacre.Valerie arrived to find Chinese students seething with barely concealed discontent. Repression of intellectual freedom had returned to Chinese universities, as the hard line conservative leaders sought to regain control of university campuses. Yet the 'Cultural Fever' for Western thought and ideas which had gripped China since its 'opening up', was a genie that could not be returned to its bottle. After the 1989 Tiananmen Massacre, China forged on with reform, continuing to wind back stifling totalitarian controls, while at the same time, carefully building new forms of authoritarianism over a rapidly changing society and economy. It was amidst this ambiguity and uncertainty that Valerie was given a free hand in curriculum design and content. Valerie tapped into this curiosity and thirst for Western knowledge amongst Chinese students, whilst walking on a knife edge, teaching in universities haunted by the shadow of Tiananmen. Valerie faced vast cultural gaps between Chinese and Western culture. She bridged those gaps by drawing upon her love of Chinese literature and art. Expertly guided by Professor Hou Weirui of the 'Gang of Nine', Valerie used the universal ideas she found in Chinese literature as a key to unlock her students' understanding of English literature and Western thought. Valerie's students studied a broad range of English literature, free from the constraints of ideologically mandated scholarship. Her students studied George Orwell's 'Animal Farm' - watching the animated film and singing 60's protest songs - on an anniversary of the Tiananmen Massacre as police patrolled the campus. Challenging and innovative, Valerie's teaching satisfied both her students' thirst for knowledge, as well as their desire to covertly express critical and taboo topics in the wake of Tiananmen.'When Dragons Whisper - Haunted by the Shadow of Tiananmen' is Valerie Horniman's memoir documented with photographs. It is the story of her seven year odyssey in China - her journeys and her teaching in a China still opening up in the wake of the Tiananmen Massacre.