Education, Language and the Public Good; What difference can the odd millennium or two make?

It is a great joy and honour for me to be invited to deliver the Memorial Lecture this evening. 

I would like to frame a few personal observations about current and possible future directions of education within an historical framework and one which recognises, indeed celebrates, the powerful role of language in reviewing our past, assessing our present, and the shaping of our future.  Rarely do we hear speeches these days about the future without some reference to the millennium: whether people incorrectly assume that event will take place in 5 weeks time or, correctly, on the date when Australia celebrates its centenary of Federation on 1 January, 2001.  So I will have my two bob's worth tonight - while trying to avoid the ranting nonsense and cliches that too often characterise talk about the 'new millennium'.