Every day, we publish a selection of your emails in our newsletter. We’d love to hear from you, you can email us at yoursay@theconversation.edu.au.
Monday August 10
“After reading the article about student disengagement, I was struck by the absence of relevance being questioned by the research. With so much emphasis on academic achievement has anyone asked students what they want to learn? There used to be so much more offered in the areas of practical skills, trades, art and music. We all have such diverse ways of learning – sitting in a classroom is only one way.”
Christine Wright 
“Increasingly bigger cars on the road is an issue I raised around 20 years ago, with a talk on ABC Radio National’s Ockham’s Razor program. My main concern was the disparity in size between large SUVs/4WDs and smaller vehicles, although I also recognised the increased risks to pedestrians. Since then, my fears and predictions have come true!”
Bob Holderness-Roddam, TAS
Tuesday August 11
“Kim Munro’s article on ethics in documentary film making has answered my unease about the current iteration of Race Around the World. While I had continued to watch the weekly episodes, I found myself increasingly uneasy about the content and, in particular, whether local participants had given informed consent during the filming and editing processes. Ms Munro’s analysis has given me an ethical framework for future documentary viewing.”
Melanie Carter, Largs Bay SA
“Reading about the research suggesting the dodos of Mauritius probably had vision suited for darkness transported me back in time to my youth when I kept homing pigeons for 14 years. Dodos simply look just like giant squabs (pigeon nestlings). These birds apparently evolved retaining juvenile characteristics into maturity. There’s another creature said to have done the same, and that’s us – humans. Nowhere is that more evident than our behaviours of playfulness and curiosity that persist right into old age, which underpins culture, sport, art and science. Perhaps there’s a message here from the dodos, namely that there were particular circumstances influencing human evolution in such a way that retention of juvenile traits is perhaps our major defining characteristic. So what were they?”
Alex Nelson, Alice Springs
Wednesday August 12
“The article on AI and uni degrees states, "The challenge for universities is therefore not to choose between specialisation and generalism, but to combine the strengths of both.” Or, to put it more bluntly, universities need to provide students with an education setting them up for the rest of their lives as productive citizens in a society, instead of its current business model as a degree factory churning out STEM-based cogs for yesterday’s machine. In other words, universities need to become universities … again.“
Andrew Holliday, Tasmania
"I’m working on the census this year. I’m very proud to be a field manager. Filling in the form though, I was disappointed that the options did not allow for de facto relationships. We are still categorised as ‘never married’! I’m surprised in this day and age that the Census defines us in such terms.”
Kay Pavlou
“A doula saved my son’s life, that doula is now a midwife. In 2007 I was to give birth during a busy time (September) at a public hospital. They had hardly any room for me and it was my doula who notified the clinical staff that something was wrong and I ended up with an emergency caesarean. Two years later, I had a VBAC with no doula in the same hospital, but still during a busy time where I was labouring in the corridors. However, this time, I had confidence in what I needed to look out for and do, thanks to my doula from the first birth and to the luck that the midwife who had also been present at my first birth, was on duty.”
Emma Hain, Brisbane
Thursday August 13
“Melanie Carter’s letter [Your say, Tuesday August 11] sent me back to an article I missed about [ABC program] Race Around the World. Reading the article opened up the whole new consideration of ethics in documentary making. I have enjoyed the series but will have to view any future series with a heightened sense of responsibility and sensitivity to the effects on the subjects concerned. Thank you Melanie Carter.”
Judy Hardy-Holden
“I wonder if the religion question on the census might need to be rephrased. Many people no longer practice any organised religious faith, but do [they] still believe in some higher power? What information does the question on religion want to capture? If the Australian Bureau of Statistics wants to capture a sense of whether Australians as a whole have a sense of spirituality rather than participating in formal worship, it may consider asking an additional question, or changing the question altogether.”
Kim Sami, Lake Cathie NSW
Friday August 14
“I totally agree that anyone, including students, should have the right to protest whatever they like. However, why not do it on a Saturday? School is compulsory after all, and students need to get an education, not an indoctrination by the National Union of Students. The union should make their underlying political leanings clear. Students should be getting an education that fairly and in an unbiased way looks at both sides of the political spectrum.”
Karen Galvin
“The two areas of concern for me in the census questions are beliefs and sexual preference: both of which are ever-evolving cultural influences in Australia. I would suggest an option for ‘own spiritual beliefs’ or similar encompassing wording in the religion section. I’d also appreciate an option for ‘non-sexual’ in the gender section, for those of us who for whatever reason choose not to use or require sexuality as a determining factor in their life choices. Under the current form, I had to use the ‘other’ option for both of these questions: fortunately there was space for me to write a response, but how is that going to be included in the statistics which influence policies and attitudes, when it’s lumped together in the vague ‘other’ basket. Perhaps ‘none of the above’ would be a more revealing option.”
Marjorie Simmons