“Don’t worry about it, your ATAR doesn’t matter.” This line is thrown out by all sorts of people so frequently, that it has lost its meaning, and become a shallow affirmation. I think we need to think a lot more about what this phrase means. It has a very significant and sinister meaning. The secret to understanding it, is to first realise that there are in fact, multiple meanings to this phrase. The meaning changes based on your social class.

The problem with school is not a new one. If one studies the early educational literature that are many decades old, they will find observations that are uncannily similar to the modern classroom. A stale classroom failed to develop creativity or critical thinking, and students were graduating completely disempowered of the ability to learn on their own.

In both principle and practice, acceleration has a net negative effect on student learning.