It appears the social engineering is not only occurring in Australian schools and universities. Some years ago I contacted my daughter’s university due to certain problems at the time with prerequisites. I was told by an official at the university they could not speak to me as I was a ‘third person’. I responded by protesting: ‘Hang on I have beem paying for her upkeep, I was one of the parents who raised her!’
I received a letter recently from a Canadian friend. This is what he said: “That is exactly the problem in Canada, liberalism and socialism has taken over the school system. Kids are being taught as early as Grade 1 to question their sexuality and being told that only what is taught in school is correct. That values taught at home are misleading the children and that they should report to their teachers any inflictions that are made by their family members. It is beginning to sound more everyday like nazism or communism.”
The assumed authority of schools went over the top in Australia and other western countries about 20 years ago. Teachers and their administrators had always been treated as loco parentis ie, entrusted with our children – but not as indoctrinators. In about 1980, Australia followed the American trend when teachers actually took the role of ‘parenting’. It began with sex education (without the added moral issues) and later, our community was inflicted with the ‘rights of the child’. (Some may recall a court case some years ago where a child was ‘divorced’ from his parents.) Then came the Labor socialist government’s ‘Youth Allowance’ which enabled chidren who were under 18 years to leave home and find other accommodation.
The question we can ask after two decades: ‘Are we more enlightened today – with rights now corrupted towards irresponsibility – and a doing-your-own-thing attitude?’ We have drifted into a sort of classroom anarchy in some schools where teachers and their adminstrators have their hands tied by the binding force of ‘rights’ abrogating responsibility – and students have in many schools descended to swearing at their teachers. Yes – swearing at their teachers.
I feel schools have often lost the plot. Many teachers lost the reason for being teachers – they forgot not to indoctrinate students with values – but to be professional educators. That is: acting as fascitators in the learning process – providing their students with the resources so they begin to think creatively in learning to solve problems in subjects such as mathematics (problem solving) to consider the canons of literature – not become de facto revolutionaries on behalf of ideologically driven teachers.
Warren James
