Week 9 Reflection

The final week of classes were fun and interesting, even though I missed Thursday’s classes. I learnt a lot about health and violence and how to stay safe at parties.

I thought that Galileo was a great experience and I learnt a lot about Melbourne and I got some life experiences such as community service and camp. The skills and knowledge that I have gained along the way will help me in my future. The term has to end at some point though, and I feel as though I enjoyed Galileo while it lasted but I am prepared for mainstream classes. It will be a challenge at first, readjusting to the rhythm of typical school, but I will get used to it.

I am feeling alright about final presentation next week but I have a couple of concerns. Alex is not going to be here on Tuesday and he needs to record himself and send it to our email. If not, then we will be missing one quarter of the work. But I have faith in him and in the rest of our group to do a great job!

A highlight from health week for me was the sport session. It was a lot of fun and I have missed being able to play sport in class time at school this term. The girls beat the guys again at keepings off, no matter what they say! I also enjoyed the last community service because I was in a room with interactive kids with whom I got to play dress ups and make chocolate flavoured sand cake.

Galileo this term has been very fun and has exceeded my expectations!

Week 8 Critical Question- Do Wealthier People Have an Advantage Over Poorer People Because They Can Afford Private Health Care?

Wealthier people have an advantage over poorer people regarding health care. Not only they have an advantage over the poorer people, but they also help the poorer people receive proper medical attention in two ways. Firstly, by having private health care, the wealthy free up more beds in public hospitals. Secondly, some of the money which they pay to the private health insurers goes towards public hospitals. The Options Trail on Friday further proved this hypothesis with majority of the people we surveyed agreeing that wealthier people have an advantage over poorer people regarding health care.

Wealthier people who have private health care are, in the eyes of many, advantageous over those without private health care. On Friday for our Options Trail, we surveyed thirty people and all of the people surveyed said that they would go to a private hospital if they could. However, when they were asked if it was unfair if people without private health care couldn’t access private services, the votes were split down the middle, some believing it is fair and other unfair. So why could it be unfair? The general idea in most peoples’ heads is that private health care is better, and that people without it may suffer. But is this truly the case? Public hospitals have the same equipment as private hospitals and they charge less for their services. Having said that, it could be fair because the difference between public and private hospitals is not that great. Both patients in public hospitals and patients in private hospitals receive the care that they need. The only major difference between a public and a private hospital is that public hospitals are funded by the government and private hospitals are profit organisations. Because of that, the prices in private hospitals are greater. However, as they are privately owned, they come with better views and more spacious rooms because they are further out in the suburbs.

Although wealthier people may get better views and more spacious rooms, they do not skip the queues and get around the same level of care that others receive. Private hospitals are less efficient than public hospitals when it comes to emergency care. Therefore in emergencies, wealthier people treated in private hospitals do not actually benefit from having private health care. Dr David Isaac explained how this is possible in our interview. He stated that once it gets to a certain hour in a private hospital, most of the doctors leave but in a public hospital, they have doctors working around the clock to service those in need. He contradicted himself when he said that the nurses in private hospitals have less patients to look after and this results in higher levels of care. Does he have proof of this or has he only stated what he thinks is right? I interpret this into meaning that public hospitals have a faster response system but the focus on their patients is less. According to an article published by GMHBA Health Insurance, if you have an accident and need to get your knee reconstructed, you could go to a public hospital and Medicare would cover the whole cost but you would have to wait for a long time to receive treatment unless it the operation is seen as critical. You could also go to a private hospital without private health insurance but Medicare would only cover around three quarters of the cost. Or if you are covered by private health insurance, the fee is minimal with your provider paying majority of the costs. With that article, there is a heavy bias to be expected as they are trying to sell you private health insurance which in reality, it is not that far from the truth. This proves that people with private health care have an advantage over those without but more so for arranged procedures such as operations. I think that people would only be in emergency care at a private hospital if they had a health insurance or if the public hospitals are on bypass because they have reached their maximum capacity.

In conclusion, wealthier people have an advantage over poorer people because of their private health care. Private hospitals have shorter waiting periods than public hospitals and for non-life-threatening procedures, wealthier people do benefit from having their own health care.

Bibliography

https://www.gmhba.com.au/about-health-insurance/private-vs-public

Week 8 Reflection

A highlight of mine would probably be taking the city circle to St. Vincent’s Hospital. I had never taken the city circle before and I enjoyed that experience, although it did move very slowly and we were almost late to our interview. Another highlight for me was the third interview we did with Dr. David Isaac from St. Vincent’s Hospital. He had some very interesting things to say and he was also very helpful in explaining how hospitals work and how they used to work. Because he is a GP, he also provided us with some vital answers regarding doctors and nurses and their pay.

I think there was only one major challenge throughout the whole day which was after our first interview at St. Vincent’s Hospital. We were meant to have two back to back interviews, one from 11:30-12 and the next one from 12:00-12:30 but our second interview got pushed back half an hour which meant it would be cutting into our lunch break. We didn’t know what to do in the half hour we had to wait because we were all the way out in Fitzroy. In the end, we decided to quickly go to the state library and come back so we wouldn’t have to visit the state library in our lunch break.

Next time, I would allow more time for our interviews. Initially, they were supposed to go for 15 minutes each but they each went on for longer. With our first interview at ANMF, Ms. Fitzpatrick spoke a lot! We only had 9 questions so we thought it would only go for around 15-20 minutes but it went for half an hour and we didn’t even get to ask her all the questions because then we would run late for our interview at St. Vincent’s. We encountered the same problem for all our interviews so next time, I would definitely allocate more time for the interviews.

I think because our group works so well together and we know each other much better, there was more of a casual vibe and it was very relaxed compared to our mini trail. We talked to each other as if we were talking to our friends and I thought that was a really positive thing because it meant we could enjoy it more. The options trail wasn’t very stressful apart from when we were waiting at the tram stops for the trams and we kept on checking the time because all the trams were late and we didn’t want to be late.

Week 7 Task- Melbourne’s Future

I think that Melbourne will be very different in 25 years. Melbourne’s population is said to explode and soon we will be living in a city with over 8 million residents. This is a very high number and in order for Melbourne to house all these people, there will have to be more high-rise buildings. This is already evident in Docklands, Melbourne’s newest suburb. On our trail on Wednesday, we visited Docklands and something I found interesting was the lack of houses. I only saw about 10 houses, the rest of Docklands’ population seemed to live in apartment buildings. Another change that could occur in the near future is less roads closer to the city in order to encourage people to ride or take public transport. Some of these changes have come already with the transformation of Bourke Street into a pedestrian mall, not allowing any cars or buses to go through the area. Another change is the addition of a wider bike lane and wider tram stops, narrowing streets to one lane per direction. I think that there is a lot more of this to come and in the city, there will only be trams and bikes to transport people around. Another change will be making use of every square inch of Melbourne. E-Gate is a new suburb which is going to be built where it had previously been, pretty much, an industrial junkyard. There were old train lines and discarded cranes as well as scrap metal when we visited the outskirts of the new suburb’s area. I think that more old or unused land will be taken over by buildings and this may have an impact on the number of parks and trees in Melbourne. The high rise in the population is good for the economy yet I believe it will have some negative impacts on the liveability of our city. Take New York or London for example. Both these cities have a population of over to 8 million people. Both these cities have fewer parks and neither of them were in the top ten for the ‘World’s Most Liveable City’. Melbourne, however, with a much lower population is the ‘World’s Most Liveable City’ for the fourth consecutive year with very good living conditions. This liveable city of ours has a bright future if we know how to plan.

Week 7 Reflection

I am pretty confident about my immediate future, more specifically my options trail. I was away on Friday when we had a double session to work on team project so I’m not 100% sure where we stand at the moment but as of our team project session before Friday, all we had to do was finalise our interview questions and start working on our survey questions. I believe that we are all pulling our weight and the workload is even.

The biggest a-ha moment this week was resume writing, even though I missed half of the double because of guitar. Resume writing was one of my learning goals and I think that I have definitely improved. Now I have a pretty good understanding of what to include and how to express my information whereas previously, I had no idea where to start. I think that it had the most to do with my own self-awareness and growth as I improved on one of my skills. It could be linked to what is going to happen in the future though because I will apply for jobs in the future and use my resume writing skills to complete my resume.

Week 6 Critical Question- The Subjects We Learn in the Classroom Effectively Prepare Us for Life After We Finish High School – Agree or Disagree?

The subjects we learn in school effectively prepare us for life after we finish high school academically but we still need to learn life skills somehow. The subjects are designed to give each individual student the best possible chance for their future career but do not focus on life skills which are more important in some aspects. Life skills such as compromise and team work can be taught outside of school through sports or other means but skills such as surveying may be harder to develop. Thus, the subjects we learn in school do leave some gaps.

There is a wide range of subjects taught in schools. According to VCAA (Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority), there are 144 subjects available for study in VCE. This is a real figure however, not all of these 144 subjects are available for study at all schools. In fact, around a third of them are languages which are more commonly learnt outside of school. What people fail to realise is that despite Victorian students having all these options, fifty of them are languages and out of the 94 remaining subjects, not all of them are offered to every student in every school. Besides not having access to all of the subjects, this is still a wide range which is able to cater for the many different interests and talents of students and by having so many choices, it can often be difficult to focus on around six subjects. These subjects will prepare students for life after high school by teaching vital knowledge and skills which can be carried into universities and workplaces. Traditional classroom schooling is very effective as students can use their initiative and look at other resources to help prepare them for tests, exams or provide them with some extra knowledge if need be. The academic subjects help students get qualifications and jobs in the future. However, there are some gaps in the curriculum.

Life skills are often hard to learn in school as many are developed through experiences which are uncommon in schools. Some skills, such as team work and collaboration, are explained and developed in schools through sport or group projects or even through friendships. One of the skills needed in the workplace is public speaking. Public speaking cannot be taught and is a skill developed over time. Secondary schools assist their students with their public speaking skills by setting tasks and encouraging more involvement in class. If the student chooses to take advantage of the opportunity, however, is up to them. A personal quality that many students do not develop during their time at school is independence. This can sometime become a challenge once they leave school because they are unsure of themselves and have no one to follow. This is evident even in the young children at The University of Melbourne’s Childcare on Queensberry Street. There is often one leader of the group and the other children just follow him or her around and do what the leader tells them to. Of course, some children will grow out of their obsession to follow another, but some will continue to practice this habit right through school and even in universities and workplaces. Another skill which is rarely taught in schools is personal sustainability. It was obvious on camp that we needed to be able to sustain ourselves and pack wisely. Some students may not have had experience with that before and they found it challenging without having the proper equipment or too much of it. Some other inner-city schools may not even have a camp similar to ours and the students there may never learn or gain experience to help them be personally sustainable. In more rural schools, it might be commonplace that they know all this already, and if not, they are taught. But do we all need to learn the same things?

Traditional schooling in the eyes of many is the normal way of life. For others, they wonder why they have to learn skills and information that they are never going to use anyway. Why should we be forced into doing music if we want to be an athlete? Why should we be forced into art if we want to be a mechanical engineer? These are both valid questions and should be asked. Many teachers and experts argue that students do not know what they want to do with their life and therefore should do a wide variety of subjects. But why not let students choose all their subjects in year seven? Or even earlier? With the right guidance, such as students having to cover at least four domains, this should not be a problem. In fact, it could be a solution. Just because someone likes drawing, which is an art, does not necessarily mean that they like creating things out of wood, which is also an art. Furthermore, by having specific subjects, it will assist students to learn in areas they are interested in. By allowing students to choose their subjects, there will be fewer holes in the curriculum because the course will service the needs of each student. Also, some parents put too much pressure on the schooling system to teach their children all they need to know, including life skills, when in fact, many skills should be developed at home. With the right support from parents, skills such as respect, punctuality and keeping promises can be developed at home, lessening again the number of holes in the education system.

In conclusion, traditional schooling works and opens doors but there are some gaps in what is taught. The academic side of schooling works amazingly well but the intrapersonal development area needs some more thought put into it, as do the concepts covered in subjects. After all, why study biology if you want to be a geographer?

Bibliography:

www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/pages/vce/studies/index.aspx

Week 6 Reflection

I found it quite easy to settle back into the rhythm of school after camp. I like the fact that we have toilets at school; we didn’t have proper toilets for most of camp. I think that I am definitely closer to some people from 9C2, mainly the ones in my cooking group or walking group. I also strengthened my relationships with the people in 9C1 on my walking group, just by talking to them on the bus and the hike. I feel more comfortable around some people, not that I wasn’t comfortable before, but I feel like I know what I can talk to them about and there won’t really be many awkward silences.

The highpoint of my week was Wednesday’s trail when I went to the Japanese Embassy and HSBC. I won a lucky dog at the embassy for being the last one standing in a quiz, as well as a chocolate. At HSBC we also had two quizzes and I was in a team with Lucy, Milly and Patrick. We didn’t win but it was heaps of fun! They also had a really nice assortment of biscuits for us at HSBC. I must have been having a lucky day because at a tram stop, I found an unused $30 gift voucher for food. It would be hard to pick one highpoint of my week so I would say that Wednesday as a whole was my highpoint.

I feel like I have learnt a bit that I didn’t know before but I feel like I could have just as easily accessed them in a classroom. Most of the things I learnt were from quizzes so the information would have been easy to get in a classroom, provided that it was related to the subject. I did, however, listen to a couple of very inspirational speeches which I wouldn’t have heard usually, from one of the men at HSBC. His speeches were mainly about life and waking up and realising your potential.

My hopes for the remainder of the term are that we get to go the State Library more often because we have only been once so far and I happened to be sick on that day. I also would be interested in spending more time in the CBD than around it because one of my areas of knowledge is related to Melbourne’s streets. I would like my knowledge to be more on the CBD than in a suburb which I would hardly ever visit.

I think that a skill I have improved on already is public speaking. At the start of the term, I found it more difficult than I find it now and I frequently find myself in situations where I am talking to a stranger for surveying or on the phone, which has definitely helped. My child skills have improved as well because of my placement at The University of Melbourne’s childcare for community service. A skill that I have not made any progress with is resume writing. We haven’t had any practice and I am hopeful that it will come. My knowledge of Melbourne’s streets is expanding but I would like to continue to work on it for the rest of the term. My knowledge of public transport is also growing but as with my knowledge of Melbourne’s streets, I would to work on it some more. An area of knowledge I think I have achieved is sustainable buildings. I think I achieved this back in sustainability week when sustainable buildings were one of the main focuses. I have developed my self-esteem but as with most of my goals, it still has room to grow. I don’t think that I will be too focused on it though because I am happy with where it’s at. My ability to collaborate was strengthened on camp. I realised that I am happy with the level it is at when we had the quizzes at HSBC and we worked as a team to come up with an answer. Believing in success still needs work because there haven’t really been too many assessments and I haven’t had time to doubt myself because of this. I am still working on many of my learning goals and hope to improve each and every one of them.

Week 5 Reflection

One of my personal quality learning goals is collaboration. I believe that I really improved on my collaboration skills while on camp, especially while setting up the tent. I had to communicate clearly and work with Isy and Anna, who were also in my tent group, to get the tent set up as quickly as possible so we could do other things. A skill I improved on was caving. I had never been caving before so I definitely improved and learnt how to cave properly and safely. An area of knowledge I developed was map reading. I already knew how to read a map and use a compass but I think I improved and now I have a better understanding of how to orient yourself and find yourself on a map. Surprisingly, I only developed one of my learning goals, collaboration. Outdoor skills was not an objective of mine because I had other priorities, but if it would have been, my other more developed areas would be linked to that.

A challenge I overcame was setting up a tent with frozen fingers. That probably won’t come in handy very often but hiking might. The 12km hike was one of my highlights and I enjoyed it very much, apart from getting whipped by ferns in the face. Walking through the mud was hard work because it was hard to know where to step but standing on solid ground looking back at the mud, I felt good because I did it. A challenge I overcame that might come in handy in the future was carrying a heavy pack on my back for hours. My schoolbag is often heavy and I carry a lot of things on my back so by hiking with a heavy pack, I hopefully strengthened my back.

My view of the Yarra previous to camp was brown and narrow. Seeing the Yarra before it reached Melbourne made me realise the city and the people living there are the ones to blame for all the pollution in the river, not just people in general. I think that our relationship with the Yarra is good out in the country but the city-Yarra relationship needs to be improved and we need to look after our water more. The Yarra in Warburton was very blue and crystal clear whereas the Yarra in Melbourne’s CBD is brown and yucky. This is proof that we need to do more in the CBD to help the beautiful river. My message for people to help look after the Yarra more would be put all your rubbish in the bin and try to use vehicles that don’t have oils that can pollute the Yarra and use bikes or trams or trains instead.

Week 4 Critical Question- Is Melbourne Fair?

Melbourne is both a fair and unfair place. But what does ‘fair’ mean? According to the Heinemann Australian Student Dictionary, fair simply means to be honest or in accordance with the rules. Based on that definition, it is reasonable to say that Melbourne is a fair place. However, to the poorer and richer people, these rules are mostly unfair. There are some concessions for poorer people, as seen on our trail on Friday but hardly any for the rich or middle-class. The Magistrate’s Court does alter sentencing, depending if people are dependent on the accused. One man stole some clothing and got fired from his job as a security guard. He was supporting his family and got off with a good behaviour bond because the people he was supporting needed him to help them survive.

Melbourne is unfair to the less-fortunate people of the city. On Wednesday’s trail, we visited Frontyard Youth Services which provides ‘integrated services to address the physical, social and emotional needs of young people aged 12-25 who spend time in Melbourne’s CBD’, basically meaning it provides assistance to young homeless people. We discovered that although Melbourne has many provisions in place to help the poorer people, there are hardly enough for the growing population of poorer people. Centrelink payments to young homeless people are only $201 a week, making it difficult to survive. In addition to that, the cost of staying in a hostel per night is around $188. This data came from Frontyard, a service run by Melbourne City Mission, which should be a reliable source. The amounts may be different from real life amounts to help promote the need for assistance in the area of youth homelessness but the information should be mostly truthful. In the last decade, the number of young homeless people has more than doubled and now stands close to 10,000, proving that Melbourne needs to help the less fortunate people more.

Some might argue that the poorer people should work to make their own money so that they can afford a home but many do work and it is often very complicated. People do not become homeless because they want to, there are usually many factors contributing to them becoming homeless. In order to sustain themselves, they need to have an income and when they begin searching for employment, an obstacle they must overcome is competing against smarter people with higher qualifications for the same job. This often proves difficult and it can be extremely hard for people who do not have an extensive education to get a job. And even if they manage to become employed, it is exceptionally difficult to maintain the job. According to Melbourne City Mission, only 51% of homeless youths stay in the Victorian School System. This number seems about right as many would not have the means to pay for school or the transport to get there, but the number may actually be higher because no one can count the exact number of homeless youths or the number of them still attending school. What should be happening is finding out why more people are becoming homeless and try to stop them from sleeping rough, not focusing all the attention on getting people out of the situation.

Our city is also unfair to the rich. It makes sense that the rich should give money to the poor but how much is too much? The rich people worked very hard to get to where they are now and, more often than not, are deserving of their high wages. They should be able to use more of the money that they worked for and not have to pay so much in taxes. According to the Australian Taxation Office website, an Australian resident who earns more than $180,000 (July 2014-15) has to give more than 30% away in taxes. This 30% starts from $54,547 and only increases with the increase in wage. The money taken away could be better used to buy an apartment or a car or be donated to charity. Instead, it is instead going to the government, and what they choose to use it for may not be going towards what you want. The Australian Taxation Office website is reliable as many people go on it to find out how much they will be taxed. It is true that without the taxes, society would not be able to function and the poor people would only get poorer without the assistance from the government, but is excessively taxing the rich the way to solve the problem?

Melbourne is a fair place if you have a reasonable amount of money. As soon as you only have a bit or have too much, the city makes you pay in its own way. Some poor people end up homeless and the rich people have to give so much money away in taxes it does not matter that they have a high income. Melbourne is fair to most, but for some, Melbourne is an imbalanced city.

 

Sources

melbournecitymission.org.au/services/homelessness/young-people-25-years/frontyard-youth-services

https://www.ato.gov.au/individuals/income-and-deductions/how-much-income-tax-you-pay/individual-income-tax-rates/

http://www.melbournecitymission.org.au/docs/default-source/Fact-sheets/youth-homelessness-fact-sheets.pdf?sfvrsn=0

Week 4 Reflection

My understanding of the justice system is now more complete and I have a better understanding of how the convictions work. The trip to the court was very educational, and I got to see real people get convicted. One new thing I learnt was that every case goes through the magistrate’s court in one form or another.

Melbourne is not fair for everyone but I don’t believe that much can be done about it. It isn’t fair for the very rich or very poor but is fair for the middle-class people. The way to spread wealth would be to tax the rich people more and give it to the poor but then the rich people won’t have the money that they worked hard for and then people may stop working hard. I believe that finding the right balance is an ongoing battle and will be for a long time.

I am very proud of my group’s mini trail presentation. I am happy with the score we achieved, especially since there were only two people present at the time. I am also happy with the quality of the work I got done while researching for the presentation. Hopefully our group stays consistent and we can do well in the final presentation.

I have learnt that teamwork is very important. I was in charge of the Popplet and it was sometimes difficult to get members of my group to email me their research as they wouldn’t reply to texts and seemed to be ignoring me. I think that I contribute my ideas to my group pretty well and keep everyone on track but our group doesn’t have an uneven workload.