CHILL AND LEARN

AMID the storm of online outrage from parents caught in a never-ending bid to fund airconditioning for their children’s classrooms, there have been one or two posts revealing dinosaurs still walk among us. “Harden up cupcakes. We survived without aircon,” wrote one person.

These people like to wear the hardships of yesteryear like campaign ribbons. If we followed their argument, we would not use electric lights either, and dreadful diseases like polio and measles would still be rampant because vaccinating would be a sign of weakness.

Education Minister Grace Grace dumps the classroom airconditioning problem in the lap of individual schools. The State will aircondition schools in the hot tropics, but our local state primary and high school communities have to do the hard yards themselves if they want their children to enjoy an education without struggling in the summer heat.

It is not good enough. Old attitudes and miserly governments belong in the last century. Australia needs smart people and we have to give our young every chance.