Ideologues ‘have captured’ school history curriculum in Australia, by Stephanie Balogh.
School curriculums have been “captured by ideologues’’ and history lessons are burdening students with a “strong sense of guilt’’ over the past treatment of indigenous Australians, experts argued yesterday amid the latest wave of “invasion day’’ politics.
Ken Wiltshire … said the problem with the curriculum was not its substance but the fact teachers could pick and choose what to present to children, leaving students with a “piecemeal” understanding of Australian history. …
Professor Wiltshire, from the University of Queensland’s Business School, said that, to strike the right balance between white and indigenous engagement, it was imperative for schools to teach students the entire story of Australia. “The whole of history should be compulsory,” he said. “If you’re not teaching the whole thing … you’re not going to get a complete picture of the interaction between white and indigenous culture.” …
Bella d’Abrera, from the Institute of Public Affairs, pointed to the Stolen Generations play performed at Sydney’s Forrestville primary school this month — where students dressed as nuns abusing indigenous children — as an “indication of how Australian children are being politicised in the classroom though the history curriculum’’.
“Rather than being taught critical thinking skills or a balanced version of historical events, they are being fed on a diet of identity politics,’’ Dr d’Abrera said.
hat-tip Stephen Neil
