Caption: This morning I went to sign my dogs up for welfare. At first the lady said, "Dogs are not eligible to draw welfare." So I explained to her that my dogs are mixed in color, unemloyed, lazy, can't speak English and have no clue who their Daddy's (sic) are. They expect me to feed them, provide them with housing and medical care. So she looked in her policy book to see what it takes to qualify. My dogs get their first cheques on Friday.........Damn, this is a great country!

At the risk of spoiling any humour, contemporary literacy education might lead us to take another look at the above put-down of welfare recipients. But a model that uses critical literacy like this is under attack as a postmodern fad.
Just like England and America before us, literacy education is debated, often in our newspapers, and a very readable book by Ilana Snyder enlightens us about the prevailing politics and ideology which are hugh. But, tell it to the teachers and the experts. Also, where has my sense of humour gone?

The Literacy Wars  Why teaching children to read and write is a battleground in Australia. Ilana Snyder. Allen & Unwin 2008.