By Phillip Scott
It’s been revealed today that the Victorian Government has again stuck its finger into the socially engineered education pie. On top of the controversial Safe Schools program, they are now introducing a Respectful Relationship program. According to the Australian, (14/10/16) the Andrews’ government is making this social engineering program a mandatory class in all schools across Victoria. Never mind about less important curriculum like literacy and numeracy!
I left school in 1998. At that time we had mandatory subjects and elective subjects. The mandatories were English, maths and religious studies, although you could elect to study theology and be exempt from the religious studies classes. Even back in the 90’s the rot had set in, but through good parenting and a private school I managed to escape the worst of it by the skin of my teeth. These days however, it seems that the mandatory subjects are more focussed on social engineering topics with some essential elements of an academic education being elective.
With so many activist groups lobbying the education department to have their cause taught in schools, I fear it won’t be long before learning to read, write and add up will come second place in the curriculum, to be replaced with subjects teaching a child how to be a professional victim. I suppose that would be good work if you could get it. As a case in point, three QUT students are looking at forking out $250,000 because they hurt someone’s feelings. Imagine if every person in Australia could make a quick $250k by being educated in the art of taking offence.
Our literacy and numeracy levels are dropping, with every new minority social engineering cause being forced into the curriculum adding to our educational demise. According to an OECD report, Australia is ranked 14 and 19 for literacy and numeracy respectively from a list of the top 20 performing countries. $10.7 billion (plus $400 million for “school development” and $347 million for “school maintenance”) has been allocated for students in NSW. According to NSW government data “a significant proportion of this funding is directed at equity initiatives…”. With so much time and resources dedicated to frivolous exercises in social justice subjects, these poor rankings amongst OECD countries hardly comes as a surprise. Rather than being taught “equity initiatives” younger children should be focusing on the fundamentals of literacy and numeracy. Later in their education, students should be taught analytical thinking and the challenging of ideas. Teaching primary school-aged males to act like females and vice versa is hardly likely to increase our literacy and numeracy rankings amongst the OECD countries.
The way things are heading, by the time my grandchildren (or god forbid my son) are at school, reading and writing won’t even matter. As long as you know the right way to play victim you can earn all the money you need. With all these ridiculous subjects being made mandatory, what will happen to basic literacy and numeracy? What would be the safest way to keep your kids from the sleazy paws of Daniel Andrews and his team of social engineering experts?
Our children need to be be educated, not engineered.
Photo by colros 