Saturday, 8 November 2014

...Victoria: The State of Inertia


Some overpaid mastermind has decided that the new slogan to represent our state, the catchphrase that will grace all new car registration plates, should be ‘Victoria: The Education State’. How embarrassing. I fear it may be a necessary to teach millions of people how to pronounce EsseNdon with the middle –N, or that ‘you’ remains the same, whether it is singular or plural before we go speeding around advertising the level of our collective genius.



Really, do we want everyone else in Australia to think Victorians are a bunch of polysyllabic tossers who drive around blowing their own horns? And if we did make the change, would we replace the current system of identifying numbers and letters with algebraic equations, tricky scientific terms or little used but sensational words like frippery and folderol? Or would we stick with such wittily personalised plates as 8ooBEZ and Pen15?



No, I don’t think the new slogan is going to do much for our image. And it’s certainly not going to do anything for school retention rates or literacy levels. Here’s a kooky out-there suggestion for all those political think-tanks and enquiries into the economic value of switching to a new motto. Instead of worrying about promoting The Education State, how about worrying about the state of education? Perhaps increasing the status and salaries of teachers may be more useful. Too kooky for you?

2 comments:

  1. Slogan, schmogan. Waste of money. You are right: give the money to schools and pay teachers more instead of paying pony-tailed morons in suits to swan around drinking lattes in meetings and commissioning focus groups.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Pre-election gum flapping... Gotta make it look like they're doing something when they're not

    ReplyDelete