Today, across Australia, state Labor governments and teacher's unions encouraged public schools to feature Prime Minister Rudd's apology to the "stolen generation" and to "educate" its pupils of the historical importance of this largely symbolic gesture. The kind of impetus and vigor with which this was pursued has not been seen in Australian life for well over a decade. Not even the "Public Schools: A National Priority" campaign was so shamelessly promoted...
Almost from swearing in of the new government, the leeching and corrupting the youth has recommenced.
Education, politics, and anything else that catches my attention.
Thursday, February 14, 2008
National Pity-Party In The Schools
From Australia, where the government has officially apologized to the Aborigines for past policies and treatment:
I lived in Australia from mid-1979 to early 1983 and attended public school at Gordon West Primary, and later at Turramurra High School. We were taught Darwinian science and that the Aborigines were most assuredly "Stone Age" people who were not capable of higher thought. We looked at the shape of their heads and compared them to primates during sixth grade.
ReplyDeleteNO, I am NOT kidding.
Do you wonder why I have a *big* problem with evolution as an adult? There ya go.
That's not to say that I am some great Aborigine-defender or that I know anything at all about Aborigines despite living in that land. I never personally met *any* during my entire stay in suburban Sydney. They must have lived and gone to school somewhere else then...
I'm not sure that a national apology is very smart, however, as it may well open a legal can of worms. Another story.
If experience is any guide, the national apology will lead to the opening of lots of casinos.
ReplyDelete