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Author: Sarah Klenbort

  • INTERNATIONAL

    The two American freedoms

    • Sarah Klenbort
    • 21 August 2024

    For a nation ‘conceived in liberty’, much of how this U.S. election will play out will hinge on different understandings of the word ‘freedom’, a term that has two distinct and separate meanings depending on whether the person you’re asking votes red or blue.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Americans look after each other because their government won't

    • Sarah Klenbort
    • 03 April 2024
    3 Comments

    Americans, facing high healthcare costs, frequently resort to crowdfunding for essential treatments, highlighting a reliance on volunteerism to fill government gaps. Meanwhile, Australians, benefiting from a higher tax-funded safety net, donate less to charity. So how do differing approaches to social welfare influence the spirit of community and generosity?

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Six books to read this summer

    • Sarah Klenbort
    • 20 December 2023
    1 Comment

    Summer is upon us, and with it — I hope — the reading season. So here are my top reads from the last two years (and one that feels relevant from 2014). What are your recommendations for summer reads?  

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  • EDUCATION

    A tale of two school systems

    • Sarah Klenbort
    • 11 October 2023
    9 Comments

    Parents face a complex choice: public or private schooling? Overcrowded public classrooms contrast with well-funded private institutions, revealing inequalities in educational resources. Australia's educational landscape reveals not just a tale of two school systems but the underlying values and priorities of a nation.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Censorship in the age of social media

    • Sarah Klenbort
    • 01 August 2023
    5 Comments

    When a comedic story is withdrawn from a literary contest for referencing Putin, it bears reflecting on various shades of censorship. In an interconnected world where social media storms can shape the narrative, what does freedom of speech mean for writers today?

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Does ChatGPT have a place in the classroom?

    • Sarah Klenbort
    • 22 February 2023
    3 Comments

    Does ChatGPT have a place in the classroom? Educators worldwide are grappling with this new ubiquitous technology, fearing not only that it will facilitate cheating, but may create an over-dependence leading to cognitive decline. But the same was once said about writing.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Who benefits from Olympic billions?

    • Sarah Klenbort
    • 07 February 2023
    4 Comments

    As Brisbane prepares to host the 2032 Olympics and Paralympics, housing affordability remains a pressing issue. With more residents now facing homelessness, the question arises: with vast amounts of taxpayer money being spent on Olympics infrastructure, how will Brisbane address the homelessness crisis?

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Reassessing assessments in an era of anxiety

    • Sarah Klenbort
    • 03 October 2022
    4 Comments

    Assessments serve a valuable purpose: they give us a way to measure what students are learning. The problem is, they don’t seem to be learning. According to the Australian Council for Educational Research, recent results confirm that Australian 15 year-olds continue to show significant declines in math, reading and science when measured against their international counterparts. Australian students are learning less, and at the same time, never have we seen such an emphasis on assessments in schools. 

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Why I wish I'd never met Philip Roth

    • Sarah Klenbort
    • 01 July 2021
    53 Comments

    While we can’t conflate accusations against Roth’s biographer with his subject, this recent Blake Bailey scandal invites us to revisit, through a 21st century lens, the world of someone considered one of the definitive writers of the 20th century.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    A true history of Mother's Day

    • Sarah Klenbort
    • 08 May 2020
    15 Comments

    This year we’ll be celebrating a different kind of Mother’s Day: there won’t be any fancy champaigne brunches with all the restaurants closed. Some of us in this COVID-19 crisis won’t even be able to visit our mothers. And many of us are out of work, too skint to buy flowers.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Buying local in a global pandemic

    • Sarah Klenbort
    • 24 March 2020
    10 Comments

    This morning there is fresh graffiti in the tunnel on the bike path: ‘No Income Still Pay Rent’. And it hits me like a punch in the gut: I still have a job, an income. I’m lucky.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Our addiction to connection is centuries old

    • Sarah Klenbort
    • 15 June 2017
    4 Comments

    On a recent tour of Vaucluse House in Sydney's east, I couldn't help but notice, in every bedroom, a writing desk. I imagined Sarah Wentworth scribbling away with inkpot and pen 180 years ago. I wonder if the Wentworths went straight to their writing desks first thing in the morning, the way some people check their phones? The desire to receive news from someone somewhere else is century's old. In 1850 Tasmania had 11 newspapers, for a population of 70,000.

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