Here's Why

	Penny Serenade Touching romantic comedy starring Cary Grant and Irene Dunne. Find out more about this film at its IMDB page. Keywords: romance; comedy Downloads: 123,454 Average rating: (7 reviews)
	His Girl Friday iPod - Howard Hawks Hilarious romantic comedy starring Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell. Russell is rough and tumble reporter looking to get out of the news racket by marrying and becoming a house wife after her divorce from newspaper publisher Grant. Just when she is about to leave town with her husband-to-be the still lovesick Grant drafts her to cover one final breaking news sensation. Keywords: romance; comedy Downloads: 11,627 Average rating: (2 reviews)
	The Amazing Adventure - Alfred Zeisler, Robert Garrett, Otto Klement Cary Grant plays Earnest Bliss a rich socialite who makes a bet with his doctor that he can make a living for one year using none of his current wealth. Keywords: Romance; Comedy; Drama Downloads: 25,315 Average rating: (7 reviews)
	His Girl Friday Hilarious romantic comedy starring Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell. Russell is rough and tumble reporter looking to get out of the news racket by marrying and becoming a house wife after her divorce from newspaper publisher Grant. Just when she is about to leave town with her husband-to-be the still lovesick Grant drafts her to cover one final breaking news sensation. Along with plenty of laughs and fast paced dialog this film provides a witty and cynical look at news business... Keywords: romance; comedy Downloads: 230,267 Average rating: (22 reviews)
	She Done Him Wrong From 1933, this features Mae West and Cary Grant. Nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture, awarded by the National Film Preservation Board in 1996, and one of the films given as a reason for the necessity of the National Legion of Decency. Ms. West is a singer and nightclub owner, while Cary Grant is a member of the local temperance league trying off and on to get her and others to mend their ways... Keywords: Mae West, Cary Grant, Comedy, Best Picture Downloads: 11,981 Average rating: (6 reviews)
	Love Affair - Leo McCarey Directed by Leo McCarey, this 1939 romantic classic is the first and best version of the old warhorse of a fateful shipboard romance between an aimless playboy and a nightclub singer, both engaged but appearing to be destined to reunite on the top floor of the Empire State Building. The elaborate, shot-for-shot 1957 remake again directed by McCarey with Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr is much better known, and Warren Beatty even saw fit to remake it yet again with his wife Annette Bening for a 1994 ... Keywords: Comedy; Drama; Romance; Irene Dunne; Charles Boyer Downloads: 3,086 Average rating: (0 review)
	Topper From IMDb: The fun-loving Kerbys, stockholders in the bank of which henpecked, stuffy Cosmo Topper (Roland Young) is president, drive recklessly once too often and become ghosts. In limbo because they've never done either good or bad deeds, they decide to try a good one now: rehabilitating Topper. Lovely, flirtatious Marion (Constance Bennett) takes a keen personal interest in the job. Will Topper survive the wrath of jealous ghost George (Cary Grant)? Will Mrs... Keywords: comedy; ghosts Downloads: 12,656 Average rating: (3 reviews)
	Hollywood Without Makeup - Ken Murray A collection of behind the scenes and home movies from the golden age of Hollywood. Hosted by Ken Murray with a Special appearance by Kirk Douglas. Features footage of: Eddie Albert, June Allyson, George K. Arthur, Mary Astor, Lew Ayres, Max Baer, Lucille Ball, Richard Barthelmess, Rex Bell, Edgar Bergen, Sally Blane, Humphrey Bogart, John Boles, Pat Boone, Eddie Borden, Hobart Bosworth, Clara Bow, William Boyd, Fanny Brice, Paul Brooks, Joe E... Keywords: Classic TV; Hollywood; Ken Murray; Movie Stars; TV Special; Home Movies; Behind the Scenes Downloads: 2,215 Average rating: (2 reviews)
	Howard Hawks' "HIS GIRL FRIDAY" movie trailer (1940) The original movie trailer of the comedy classic inspired by a play by Ben Hecht which was brought to the screen a couple of other times, with far less "panache", to say the least. More info on http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032599/ Keywords: His; girl; friday; howard; hawks; rosalind; russel; Cary; grant; ben; hecht; ralph; bellamy Downloads: 358
	Designing Woman - trailer Trailer. You can find more information regarding this film on its IMDb page. Downloads: 1,652 Average rating: (2 reviews)
	The Black Rebels (1960) Gang violece and racism among high school kids is the order of the day in this juvenile delinquent film with Rita Moreno making an appearece that Pre-dates her role in "West Side Story". Also known as "This Rebel Breed". Keywords: crime; racism; feature films Downloads: 513 Average rating: (4 reviews)
	Laughing At Life You can find more information regarding this film on its IMDb page. Downloads: 5,986 Average rating: (8 reviews)
	Made for Each Other - David O. Selznick Jimmy Stewart plays John Horace 'Johnny' Mason, a young lawyer who marries Jane Mason (Carole Lombard) after only know her one day. Keywords: Comedy, Drama, Romance Downloads: 20,625 Average rating: (6 reviews)
	Mysterious Mr. Wong, The - George Yohalem You can find more information regarding this film on its IMDb page. Downloads: 7,990 Average rating: (5 reviews)

I had a cup of hot chocolate in a coffee shop with Futurist Janine Cahill from Future Journeys, about how we're living in an age where the impossible is becoming possible.
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The Australian government, whichever party is in power, funds private schools with public funds, but fails to fund public schools with private funds. The result is that public schools are seriously under-funded and many are using photocopies of texts because they can't afford to buy books. All new funding is for infrastructure only. Strangely, private schools get more public funding than public schools.

This double-funding of private schools at the expense of public schools has been justified by the argument of "freedom of choice". Two freedoms are invoked. The argument runs that religious schools must be funded by public money because this supports the constitutional freedom to choose to be religious. However it was established in the High Court in 1981 that Australians do not have this freedom. The High Court established that the "establishment clause" of the Australian Constitution means that there is no separation of Church and State. Of course the other legal principle is that pupils in schools do not have the freedom to choose whether to be religious, or which religion they will practice. They have few rights at all. Their parents effectively own them as chattel, and are legally able to choose to have them attend compulsory religious instruction at a public school or a private school. The sole purpose of private religious schools is to indoctrinate children in the faith of their parents. There are no freedoms exercised here.

The other freedom claimed is a "freedom to choose a school". Lets break this one down and see what freedoms are being argued for. Who can exercise this freedom? A private school will have high fees which only wealthy people can afford. Are people arguing that poor people should be given extra money to pay private school fees? No, they're arguing that private schools should be able to charge any fees they like. So the real argument is for freedom of wealthy families to choose a doubly funded private school over a single funded public school. Worse, the government has chosen to fund private schools at a higher rate than public schools. The rich families are getting more school services from the government than poor families. This is justified by the "entitlement argument". Its asserted that wealthy parents pay more tax than poor families, therefore they are entitled to receive more government services than poor families. They are saying that wealthy parents should have more privileges in our egalitarian society than poor parents. Rich and poor are not the same before the law. The Coalition and the Labor party agree.


The real choice that wealthy parents are demanding to exercise is for their children to get better privileges than yours. Its whispered that if you send your children to a private school, that unlike you, they will do better than children who go to a public school. By attending an elite school it is hoped that your child will join the elite classes in society. How could this happen? Its been shown that the teaching and curriculum are the same, as they have to be by law. If you push a parent on why their child must go to a private school, you're told that its because of who they socialise with. The children of the privileged classes go to your child's school, so your children will befriend them, and be known to them when they are inevitably raised to positions of power. Your child will network their way to a higher class. Unfortunately this doesn't take into consideration the reality of school society. All the kids know how poor your Mum and Dad really are, and they know what their background is. Class is everything. So your kids won't get real leg up from socialising with children of the ruling class. The best they can hope for, is that they will have an accent to their English that reflects the wealthy suburb of the private school and the rich kids that attend, instead of the accent of the parents that aspire for a higher class for their children.

If the only true benefit of going to a wealthy private school is gaining a new accent, then I suggest that we train kids in public schools to speak with the accents of the posher suburbs. This way they can have a good education without driving their parents bankrupt, and still be treated as if they come from a higher class when they graduate.

The only choices on offer in the public school versus private school debate is for the wealthy, which is against any fair democratic principles. The only choice on offer by religious schools is for parents to indoctrinate their children before they are old enough to give consent.

I can't see any reason for private schools to exist. If the funding were put into public schools, then they would have all the resources our children need to take their place in society as good citizens. They could read books instead of photocopies of books. They could be trained to have a posh accent, so that they weren't be discriminated against. Any indoctrination in a religion of the parent's choice could happen after school hours, unless we set an age of consent for indoctrination, to avoid taking advantage of children.

Then perhaps we can either recognize that the same families get elected to govern each century, or we could create the equality so that this doesn't happen anymore, and create a genuine meritocracy.

References:

[PDF] AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT FUNDING TO PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SCHOOLS

Private School Funding: Time to Fix the Inequity -- John Kaye

Public funding of private schools | newmatilda.com

Green Left - Issues: Private schools: no government funding

Tim Matthews | IQ2 debate | no excuse for funding private schools

Private school myths

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I spoke with designer Deborah Kneeshaw about how the creative thinking philosophy of design can be used to solve the world's problems.
(This is the full version of the interview that was cut for size for Diffusion) Deborah regularly participates in the Foresight Innovation Sustainability Hothouse run by Future Journeys