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The day my bum went Psycho
 Best
selling children’s author Andy Griffiths joined Deakin
researchers Associate Professor Catherine Beavis and Dr Christopher
Walsh for the annual Research Services forum at St Michael’s
Church in Melbourne, this year called YES I CAN’T READ
AND WRITE BUT IT IS NOT MY FAULT.
While there was a lot of light-hearted exchanges, the forum
was also a genuine and serious look at the always important
and always controversial issue of children’s literacy.
Andy Griffiths described how his experiences as an English
teacher in northern Victoria convinced him that the way to
get young people to read was to use humour, anarchy and taboo
to create a good story.
From that came such defining and successful works as The Day My Bum
Went Psycho, the Pencil of Doom and the critically acclaimed play Just
MacBeth.
Dr Walsh told of his experiences working in Chinatown in New
York, while Associate Professor Catherine Beavis urged people
to accept that the new digital world had to be taken into
account when encouraging people towards books.
The forum was pre-recorded and broadcast on ABC Radio National’s
Life Matters program.
Click on to:
http://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/rn/podcast/current/audioonly/lms_20081017_0905.mp3
Deakin University would like to thank Radio National for its support
of these forums, and also Dr Francis Macnab for his on-going generosity
in providing such a wonderful venue.
There was also on the night a tribute to one of the speakers from last
year’s forum YES IT IS UNSUSTAINABLE BUT IT IS NOT MY FAULT.
“Peter Cullen spoke brilliantly on that topic last year,”
said Alison Hadfield, Director of Research Services.
“Sadly, he passed away this year, something which was a great
loss. However, we feel that Peter’s words that night were heard
in the right places as we look at some of the initiatives now being
taken to help restore the environment in Australia, particularly along
the Murray River.
“This is what these Research Services forums are about, getting
the best thinkers and speakers together and getting their ideas out
to the widest possible audience so that they can make a difference.”
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