Are you handing over to State governments, via schools, the right to raise your children?
The social and political ‘creep and seep into schools’ has reached crisis point. What was once a subtle process that rarely raised alarm is now a fact – proudly celebrated by those doing and supporting the creeping and seeping. And with every celebration the fundamental rights of the family are being eroded even further.
First the Safe Schools program compromised the boundaries between home and school. Then, more recently students and teachers marched in solidarity, in demonstrations on the issues of global warming and energy. There should have been demonstrations to demand a balanced education about those very issues, by those who understand the facts.
Schools haven’t always functioned in this way. Neither have governments. Schools used to serve the people, via responsible government. They also sought counsel from those they served.
In June 1900, a Royal Commission Into Religious Instruction In State Schools was conducted in Victoria. The government of the day firmly believed that ‘teaching’ children about the extremely important subject of morality would be more powerful than merely ‘reading’ to them about morality.
The desired outcome was a balanced secular curriculum, which would also include teaching that reflected the religious views of Jewish and Christian communities.
Sample lessons were distributed to every citizen eligible to vote, to the free libraries and also to post offices for public inspection. The public voted, and religious instruction – comprising stories and hymns from the Old and New Testaments – was proudly taught in Victorian schools.
Victoria, one of the first colonies in the world to provide free, compulsory and secular education, understood what it meant to be of service to families. The State supported families to prosper and to be responsible contributors to their own lives, and to feel that they, their cultural background and their beliefs were respected in the growing community.
Today the social and political ‘creep and seep into schools’ has reached crisis point. And with every political campaign, the fundamental rights of the family are being eroded further.
Here’s the essential question again: Are you handing over to State governments, via schools, the right to raise your children?
And another equally important question: Are you willing to say ‘enough is enough’?
Copyright © Cheryl Lacey 2018
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Cheryl Lacey is an educationist and advocate of agitating change in Australian education to face global challenges facing Australia and Australians.
If you would like to learn more about the outcomes achieved by educational leaders and teams who have worked with me, contact me at cheryl@cheryllacey.com or visit www.cheryllacey.com
