Keep an eye out!

Image above: Check out this great site for newspapers.


Contact me at malcolm.mcinerney@thebartonsc.sa.edu.au
 
The address for the Socialsense blog
http://culturalscene.blogspot.com.au/

The Thebarton Senior College Moodle



Thanks for the great talk lessons this week.  After throwing ideas around we have the following draft topics. They are:

• Population – growth or not, refugee intake, asylum seekers
• Banning smoking in public – smoking near children
•  Same sex marriage
• Controlling media violence
• Body modification – control or not?
• Immunisation – compulsory?
• Religious discrimination –  Burka laws? Headwear removal, religious holidays - to be a holiday for all mainstream religions
• Should sheltered workshops pay their workers more – is it fair competition for other manufacturers/service providers
• Raising the retirement age
• Dealing with domestic violence – can the law effectively deal with what happens in the home – between couples
• Child abuse - corporal punishment by parents?

As I mentioned on Wednesday, we have two guests coming in next week for us to explore their views on your issues, plus much more. They will be invaluable lessons for you to 'fine-tune' your topics for the Investigation - don't miss them!!

Now that you have these topics and are into your Investigation I suggest you 'keep an eye out' for articles in the media (print and visual) for stories involving issues and associated values and ethics. Every page has an issue on it!! 

There are two reasons I ask this of you:
1. You might get an article directly related to the issue you have chosen for your Investigation.  Such current news in your investigation will really add to your discussion and evidence of your research skills.
2. You may get a new idea of an issue that you may wish to do.
3. It will give you an idea of how to look at (or not to look at) an issue and provide a possible framework to follow when discussing an issue.

I would also like to refer you again to the Issue Deconstruction process (file called Deconstruction task) I developed for you to analyse an issue.  I suggest you visualise this page every time you read about an issue.  For your investigation I suggest you complete this deconstruction page as soon as you can to aid your research.

Here is an article to get you thinking about an ethical issue: the right of parents to stop medical treatment based on faith.  Go to this link for the full article.

DOCTORS have made an urgent plea to the Supreme Court to help save the life of a Jehovah's Witness girl dying of leukaemia.
On Friday, Justice Richard White ordered the girl, 4, receive treatment, including a blood transfusion to which her parents had objected on religious grounds.
Paediatric oncologist Dr Petra Ritchie said without treatment the girl "will die ... I would say in weeks".

Other articles with an issue based in the media recently are:

• Breastfeeding in public
• The young rejecting democracy
• Homebirths

I will be adding to this Socialsense blog posting as I come across issues in the paper in coming weeks.  Keep an eye out!!!