Frontrunner Learning Centres Rooty Hill

To really get an idea of who these neo-nazis are, just watch the documentary Revealed: Amongst Us - Neo N**i Australia (2022). It is available on Stan. It planted a man into one of these groups. The documentary was done by Australian 60 minutes, The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald. It is terrifying that these people think their ideas are ok.

Our security bureaucrats tell us that the majority of their funding goes to keeping an eye on home grown, far right groups. Not left groups. Not religious groups. Not sporting groups. not knitting groups.

In case you are not aware, these people use symbols like HH (Heil Hi**er) and the digits 88 (the eighth letter of the alphabet is H) and the black sun symbol which looks like a black wheel make up of the arms of a sw****ka nut has also morphed into other, less obvious versions. They celebrate Hi**er's birthday.

Some time ago, I saw a car with the plate HH88. It could have meant that Harry Hudson was born in 1988 or that he played piano. Or it could have meant the owner is a neo-nazi. It's very sad that I have to ask myself which one it really is.

Today is a biiiig day in history. Not just Australian history.

1. Independence Day in Poland. This date, in 1918, saw the establishment of the Polish state for the first time in 123 years. It reunited the Russian, German and Austrian parts of Poland into a single, sovereign state.

2. The hanging of Australia's most famous bushranger in 1880. While he is often cited as Australian last bushranger, that title goes to James and Patrick Kenniff who were active up until 1902.

3. The sacking of the Whitlam government in 1975. This happened because of the then opposition blocking supply, something that is against Australian parliamentary tradition but a constant event in the US. Hopefully, we have our old tradition back and we will never have to go through such a thing, again.

4. Armistice Day which ended the Great War, as it was known then. This was not a German surrender but a mutual decision to stop fighting. The treaties afterwards were so harsh to Germany that they were a major cause for World War 2. Of all countries that fought on the Entente side (our side), Australia had the highest proportion of deaths. This was a foundational event for our country, for the first time, uniting us in ways that earlier events could not.

It is of no surprise to me, that neo-nazis decided to have protest in front of NSW parliament on the Saturday before Armistice Day. It is an attempt to hijack that event in the same way they have attempted to hijack all patriotic events. They try to steal the use of our flag (even though they often use the pre-1953 flag), to steal the Eureka flag, to steal ANZAC Day. They try to make patriotism and support for neo-nazi ideals the same thing. The biggest group among them call themselves the National Socialist Network; sounds a lot like what Hi**er's supporters called themselves: National Socialists.

Our grandfathers, our dads, our uncles fought to defeat those disgusting ideals. Now these people are trying to bring those foul ideas back. The graves of our veterans are sacred to us and the ideals for which those veterans should be honoured by us all.

We defeated that vile enemy in 1945 at great cost.

We must defeat them again so that we never have to pay that cost, again.

Lest we forget.

I did a small experiment today. It would be exceptionally easy for you to do the same thing. It will only take a few seconds and no particular effort.

I asked Siri what she thinks of Donald Trump.

The response?

Silence.

Telling, isn't it?

Over the last holidays, we had a pretty dreadful time. It started well with a little trip to Bowral to celebrate our anniversary. We stayed at the Mercure Craigieburn and had a wonderfully restful time.

Then we got back home.

My brother-in-law, friend and business partner, Craig, was rushed to hospital with heart problems. Over the break, he was rushed to hospital 3 times, twice by ambulance. That put paid to going to Bathurst for a family event but that was just an inconvenience compared to the stress of Craig's health. It seems under control, now.

On the same day he was rushed the second time, I received notification of a cousin's death.

Later that day, I received notification that my 97 year old aunt was rushed to hospital. Luckily, she came out well.

A couple of days later, we received notification of Donna's uncle's death.

All in all, I was stoked to be back at work. Now it's just normal stress.

It makes you wonder, though, about your own future and the future of those nearest and dearest to you.

In an attempt to balance all this, my daughter, Caroline, is engaged. A week later, my nephew, Jacob (Craig's son), also became engaged. Peer pressure works wonders.

Now I wonder how the only un-engaged member of the clan feels...

Last weekend, we celebrated braced my darling Donna's mmmmth birthday.(You didn't expect me to actually put in the number, did you?)

A group of us had dinner at The Boilerhouse at Q Station in Manly. Q Station is the old quarantine station and is now a very strange hotel. It is several clusters of buildings in a large area that is in a national park. You can't drive from section to section but you can call up a shuttle. There are beautiful walks which we couldn't do because of the heavy rain. For the same reason, the views weren't quite as stunning as I'd hoped they would be. The rooms are pretty basic but, then again, they are heritage listed. It was wonderful and we hope to do it again sometime in the future and make use of the ghost tours.

A couple of friends and our kids stayed the night so we got a lot of time together. In the first photo, that's us on the left. See the greenery on the roof? That's where the possum hid while urinating on my daughter's fiancé.

And then there's the birthday cake.

And I can't forget the view.

A deep and heartfelt Happy Birthday, stara. (Look it up. It's Polish)

The Adelaide Oval is amazing! Seriously looking forward to the match.

Great holiday break, so far. The first Saturday, watched the Waratahs play the British and Irish Lions. The next day, drove to Newcastle to watch a hapless Wallaby team barely beat Fiji. Now, I’m in Adelaide, about to watch a combined Australian and New Zealand team take on the Lions. Tickets supplied by the South Australian government. Yes - it’s wonderful to have contacts. Many thanks to my Frontrunner partner, Jeff Quinn, for having those contacts.

Children in Prison?

There has been some media attention given to a High Court ruling about "doli incapax". This term means "incapable of evil" but, in legal terms means the ability to understand that an action is criminal.

The popular understanding of this term is that a child of a certain age is not able to distinguish between right and wrong.

Leaving aside the work of educational psychologists and their extensive bodies of work on intellectual and moral development, we need to understand what doli incapax actually means.

The term actually refers to the ability of a child to tell the difference between the breaking of a law and a naughty action. It is NOT about differentiating between right and wrong; it is about knowing the difference between doing something bad and doing something criminal.

When looked at in this form, we can see why the age of criminal responsibility is actually as high as it is in NSW (14) and why it is, quite likely, unreasonably low in the Northern Territory (10).

It is at those ages that children can be tried as adults.

Only once we understand the real meaning of the term, we can look to those who've spent decades studying the area to try to come to an educated and thoughtful understanding of the age of doli incapax

The horrors of the past can often reach out to get us, all over again. Both my parents went through concentration camps in WW2 and now, here in Rooty Hill, we've seen racist graffiti on a school. You would never had those concentration camps had racist language not been in place, first. Without the language, there is no action. This is a shocking attack on our society and on our kids. Frontrunner strongly supports the kids in our area and will stand up for their rights and their safety.

A pox on those who would do such things! A pox on those whose language allows people to think that such action is acceptable. First, we start by saying that there is only one flag in our country (I wonder how the state flags or the council flags fit into this), then we argue about Welcome to Country. This makes some people think that it's OK to boo at ANZAC Day ceremonies and others to think that it's OK to use racist graffiti.

It always starts with language.

Dear Parents

The new term has started and it’s back to the same old grind. School, sports, music and all sort of other things that parents do for their kids. I remember doing all that stuff for my kids and I remember my parents doing all that stuff for me. Back in the old days, there was almost nothing in tutoring - just older kids tutoring your kids. The older kids’ qualifications were that they were, indeed, older kids. My, how things have changed.

The election is over and the result is vaguely what I expected - I had no doubt, whatsoever, that the current government would be returned in majority; I didn’t expect what actually, happened, though. As usually, the polls from before the election was announced were wildly inaccurate. That’s always the case. During a government’s term in office, the polls reflect how people feel about the government; the polls during an election campaign reflect how people will vote. Those two things are quite different. At least the campaign is over and we won’t have those messages from Trumpet of Patriots (or Saxophone of Silliness of Flugelhorn of Fools). Weren’t those texts annoying?! They were perfectly legal and, according to the law, all political parties are allowed to spam us during an election campaign. The campaign is over - they can stop, now.

So - here comes the bad news. Fees are going up. I always struggle when it comes to this because I don’t want to put anyone into financial hardship. I know how hard it is, currently, and I really don’t want to add to the hardship. I don’t want to put myself into hardship, either. Our fees have been going up muuuuuuch less than inflation, over the last few years, so I have a little catchup to play over the next few years.

As of the beginning of week 4 (21st of May), fees will go up by $2 per student. If you pay the fees for the term before then, you will get them for the current price. If you pay termly fees after then, the price will include the new amount. If this increase is difficult, please talk to me - I don’t want to make things too difficult, if I can avoid it. As I said, I struggle with this decision every time. I didn’t go into this business because I wanted to become rich - I went into it to help students and support my local community. That’s why it is so hard for me to raise fees, I only do it when I absolutely have to. Even then, I often don’t do it.

I’m also going to trial a way of doing receipts. I will trial sending receipts at the end of each lesson whether or not payment has been made. That means that you will receive a receipt showing how much I received from you that week. If you paid nothing that week, you will receive a receipt showing a $0 amount. I will see whether this is helpful by talking to people over the next few weeks. If it is not useful, I will discontinue it. Please let me know what you think of this after I start the process.

Just a very early heads-up: I will be going on holidays at the end of the year. We will be ending Term 4 in late November. I know this is very far ahead but I’m making sure everyone knows and that there are no surprises. This means that Term 4 will be a short one and I won’t be charging anyone for the last few weeks of term nor will I be arranging make up lessons. This is a long-planned trip which will include introducing my better half to family I met only last year. If you were to follow the page, you’d be able to see my pics of the tour.

I have another plea - I would ask that you tell me the things you would like me to work on with your child. While my assessment is extensive and my observations are detailed, I have had some parents showing some disappointment that I wasn’t working on other things. Often, I can easily include what people are after. Sometimes, I have to explain why that is not the best way to go. Please talk to me so we can get the best result for your child.

I hope that the coming term will be one of great progress for all the students. They usually work very hard but - and we’re all human - sometimes they need a bit of a push. Even a lot of a push. Let’s work on that together so that we all succeed.

Martin

Apart from the lights show, we also had the Royal easter Show and the National Poodle Show. Donna did quite well at the Royal; not so much at the National. For the life of me, I have no idea why she was beaten in the National.