A strangely reflective, even melancholy day. Is that because, unlike our cousins in the northern hemisphere, Easter is not associated with the energy and vitality of spring but with the more subdued spirit of autumn?

It seems inevitable that the magic of the written word will fade.

Some researchers sensibly suggest that rather than worrying too much about which programs our children are watching, we should concentrate on trying to reduce the total amount of time they spend in front of the screen.

Perhaps it's the people whose lives have taken sudden new twists - people who have learned to embrace the creative possibilities of change - who stand the best chance of penetrating life's mysteries.

Indeed, in the present climate of mistrust of institutions, many people who yearn for a more meaningful and fulfilling life would regard the church as an unlikely place to go for guidance.

A strangely reflective, even melancholy day. Is that because, unlike our cousins in the northern hemisphere, Easter is not associated with the energy and vitality of spring but with the more subdued spirit of autumn?

One reason we resist making deliberate choices is that choice equals change and most of us, feeling the world is unpredictable enough, try to minimise the trauma of change in our personal lives.

Reading is a huge effort for many people, a bore for others, and, believe it or not, many people prefer watching TV.

Parents should be encouraged to read to their children, and teachers should be equipped with all available techniques for teaching literacy, so the varying needs and capacities of individual kids can be taken into account.

On average, Australians watch more than three hours of television a day, compared with 12 minutes a day spent by the average couple talking to each other.

No one welcomes chaos, but why crave stability and predictability?

Actually, I can't imagine anything more tedious than a perfect person, especially if it was someone who also demanded perfection from me.

The copycat effects of media violence, similar to those previously attributed to westerns, radio serials and comic books, are easy to exaggerate.

It's Australian to do such things because, however uncivilised they may seem, it's human to do them.

I'm in total sympathy with Dick Smith's sentiments; I only wish there were grounds for saying we Australians would never tolerate such appalling treatment of refugees being carried out in our name.

Recounting their histories, people often sound like interested bystanders to their own lives.

The underlying message of the Lancet article is that if you want to understand aggressive behaviour in children, look to the social and emotional environment in which they are growing up, and the values they bring to the viewing experience.

But the rule seems to be that the bigger and more life-changing the decision, the less it will seem like a decision at all.

Is it possible that literacy standards are falling because young Australians are growing up in a culture in which they can be entertained and informed, and in which they can communicate effectively, without having to master any but the most rudimentary literacy skills?

So, if falling crime rates coincide with the rise of violent video games and increasing violence on TV and at the cinema, should we conclude that media violence is causing the drop in crime rates?

Universal literacy was a 20th-century goal. Before then, reading and writing were skills largely confined to a small, highly educated class of professional people.

Obviously, every child should be given the best possible opportunity to acquire literacy skills.

Nothing is perfect. Life is messy. Relationships are complex. Outcomes are uncertain. People are irrational.

Although we love the idea of choice - our culture almost worships it - we seek refuge in the familiar and the comfortable.

The question is, will we continue to fight what may be a rearguard action to defend universal literacy as a central goal of our education system, or are we bold enough to see what's actually happening to our culture?

I wish we didn't have to own up to a policy deliberately designed to inflict suffering on people who have already been traumatised in the countries from which they've fled.

Still, most of those effects occur in the context of harmless play and it is patently obvious that children are not normally turned into aggressive little monsters by TV or video games, since most children do not become aggressive little monsters.

I suspect the secret of personal attraction is locked up in our unique imperfections, flaws and frailties.

I suspect the secret of personal attraction is locked up in our unique imperfections flaws and frailties.

Autumn arrives in early morning, but spring at the close of a winter day.

Unless a tree has borne blossoms in spring, you will vainly look for fruit on it in autumn.

I came back out here from England and I was there for a while and it was beautiful and it is just great to see London going from Spring to Summer and Autumn.

We cling to our own point of view, as though everything depended on it. Yet our opinions have no permanence; like autumn and winter, they gradually pass away.

In spring they lie flat at the first warmth, they ruin my summer and in autumn they smell of women.

It is only the farmer who faithfully plants seeds in the Spring, who reaps a harvest in the Autumn.

A strangely reflective, even melancholy day. Is that because, unlike our cousins in the northern hemisphere, Easter is not associated with the energy and vitality of spring but with the more subdued spirit of autumn?

I know the lands are lit, with all the autumn blaze of Goldenrod.

Shuddering under the autumn stars, each year, the head sinks lower and lower.

There is a harmony in autumn, and a luster in its sky, which through the summer is not heard or seen, as if it could not be, as if it had not been!

Summer ends, and Autumn comes, and he who would have it otherwise would have high tide always and a full moon every night.

My Department has already recognised this and has been working specifically on the technical support issue since January and will offer advice to schools during the Autumn term.

As early as the autumn of 1862, I was made very happy by being sent to school.

Autumn's the mellow time.

Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.

The sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality.

And getting married this autumn was certainly an additional incentive to spend rather more time in England.

My sorrow, when she's here with me, thinks these dark days of autumn rain are beautiful as days can be; she loves the bare, the withered tree; she walks the sodden pasture lane.

Cheyenne Autumn was received not too successfully. I still think it was a very good movie. It was kinda Ford's apology for the way he had treated Indians in his past pictures.

Now Autumn's fire burns slowly along the woods and day by day the dead leaves fall and melt.