Your say: week beginning September 29

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 September 29

Tobacco addiction

“A friend recently landed in a psychiatric hospital and came out addicted to both vapes and cigarettes – he purchases them from several local shops in various flavours and is constantly asking to borrow money to fuel his habit. While I will not give him any money, I have paid for his food out of my pension, because I cannot stand the thought of anyone going hungry. How do we protect those like him?”

Anna Zamecznik

Vape waste

“As a cyclist, I frequently see vapes that have been thrown out of cars on roads and in gutters. Likewise at beaches and on nature walking trails. As one who has been picking up waste in natural areas for over 70 years, I find this new "invader” particularly abhorrent. Hard plastics that don’t break down in any acceptable time, if ever?“

Bep Van Ginkel, Coolum Beach QLD

Everyone’s buying it

"Anecdote from a regional Queensland town: a friend was buying illegal tobacco (chop chop) and was surprised to see a local police officer also in the shop – purchasing the same tobacco.”

Philip Benjamin

Tuesday September 30

Palestinian recognition

“It was interesting to read Michelle Grattan’s interview with Ian Parmeter about the recognition of a Palestinian state. I would have to agree that it’s highly unlikely to happen, but I would like to know what he thinks a ‘one-state solution’ would look like. If history can teach us anything, it’s that one group trying to dominate another within a country leads to bloodshed. Even if the dominant group keeps its place, it lives in suspense knowing the suppressed will be wanting to fight back.”

Jo Kinnane

The Rapture

“I appreciate the way The Conversation presented information in an unbiased, objective manner regarding the rapture and the tribulation – beliefs that many Christians have. I believe it, actually. But even if I didn’t, I would have found it an interesting read.”

Madeleine Calcutt

Opting out

“I was once a customer of Optus and about three years ago I cancelled my account. Optus continued to bill me for months afterwards in spite of reminders that I had cancelled. Then I got a solicitor’s request to pay. After their most recent debacle, I put my experience out there and found someone on Reddit had experienced the same fate. How many others, I wonder.”

Anna Searls

Wednesday October 1

The benefits of tutoring

“I am a trained teacher who became a private tutor after the government system cut Reading Recovery funding and students who were behind in literacy were left in free-fall. The school day gave me no opportunity to help them meaningfully. Tutoring allows detailed and immediate feedback, in conversation, followed by practical activities tailored to the specific weaknesses exposed by prior work. It’s hard to overstate how superior this form of education is. Students who have been struggling and confused for years make explosive progress, and frequently report having ‘learned more in one session than in years of school’. It’s a lovely compliment - and a scathing indictment of our private and public school systems. Tutoring works, and is the main reason many students are able to keep up in a school system that denies teachers the chance to help everyone without burning themselves out. Get rid of the private school system and fund all schools generously and equitably, if you care about fairness and helping the biggest number of students.”

Jessica Graham

Thursday October 2

Cheap cigarettes

“I’m an 87-year-old pensioner and I smoke. To my surprise I found out that I can buy a carton of cigarettes for $160 whereas I had paid $560 earlier. Why would I not purchase the cheaper version and save $400? You tell me. I think it’s wrong that the government makes money out of my pleasure. If I were to ask for $400 extra to my pension, do you think they would give it to me? I am very pleased with the current social-economic system in Australia. But to charge so much for cigarettes – my only enjoyment in my old age – is just too much!”

Name withheld

Bring back oral tests

“Given the AI revolution, it’s totally sensible and practical to introduce oral exams, rather than stick with the anachronistic closed book written format. I can tell exactly what each student knows, relative to subject learning objectives, much more accurately in a 10-minute discussion than reading their essays or exam papers. Assessment problem solved.”

Professor Danny Samson, Department of Management and Marketing, University of Melbourne

Sovereign individuals

“The so-called ‘sovereign individual’ is not sovereign at all, but dependent on a society they disdain. Their ideology masks fear and privilege as virtue. By withdrawing from shared responsibility, they undermine the very conditions of their own security. In the long run, selfish withdrawal is self-defeating: no bunker or blockchain can substitute for trust, cooperation, and community.”

Ang Ung