mick wrote:Gillard was very impressive (speaks english, easy to understand AND answers questions in a straightforward way) on the 7.00PM project last night, Rudd is lucky she is perceived as left wing. I totally agree with Gillard's position on teachers, why do they fear this key performance indicator so much? Almost all other workers have their performance measured to some extent. Yeah to protect the students.......right

I've always been intrigued that her accent seems to get more broad Australian when she is speaking in public to a large audience than when she is in a small group situation like a TV interview.
It hints at a certain dishonesty - however, I agree she doesn't avoid directly answering questions as automatically as some.
I think teaching would be a less dysfunctional career if teachers were not forced to spent half their potential teaching time filling out forms for the education clerical bureaucracy, but on the other hand I am a supporter of externally administrated state wide examinations to independently assess both students knowledge and school performance, rather than internally manipulable "continuous assessment - especially at tertiary level.