The School of the Air

February 12, 2006 12:29 PM

The School of the Air is a unique accident of time and space; serving as the link to the wider world for thousands of isolated children in Australia's Outback, providing classes by correspondence and evolving into a social network. Radio provided these sheep stations with access to medical care, community life and education. There was no choice.
posted by infini (7 comments total)

Web 0.1

Very interesting reading.
posted by public at 1:36 PM on February 12, 2006

Web 0.1 is an apt term indeed these days when we tend to look upon technological advances as the only form of innovation. Though now satellite tech provides a far richer experience to the community, it says something about those pioneers doesn't it?
posted by infini at 1:57 PM on February 12, 2006

thanks. great post.
posted by eighth_excerpt at 2:02 PM on February 12, 2006

While the School of the Air does a great job for remote stations, I've always been concerned that their service has focused on children on pastoral stations, rather than kids in remote aboriginal communities. Maybe they've been improving in that area lately, I don't know.
posted by Jimbob at 4:18 PM on February 12, 2006

It depends on the school, though Australia's track record hasn't been been particularly good. One of the schools listed has this titbit,

Kimberley School of the Air caters to the educational needs of isolated children from Kindy to Year 7 in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. Spread across an area of some 450,000 sq kms, these children today live on cattle stations, stations now catering to tourism, small Aboriginal communities or outstations and smaller rural farming blocks.
posted by infini at 6:17 PM on February 12, 2006

great post.
posted by wilful at 7:16 PM on February 12, 2006

nice post!
posted by shoepal at 8:08 PM on February 12, 2006