Once were grown-ups 28/9/2012
In a hard-hitting critique of the Gillard government’s draft history curriculum, John Howard pops up to remind us we were once governed by intelligent adults who aspired for every generation to leave school with more knowledge than their parents’ graduating classes.
The curriculum is repeatedly unbalanced in the choice of subjects that have an obvious political context.
For instance, in Year 9, students are given the option of learning about the “progressive ideas and movements” of the 19th century. The ideas that feature are socialism, imperialism, nationalism, egalitarianism, Darwinism, capitalism and Chartism. Not one mention of conservatism. Not one mention of liberalism, which is extraordinary given that the Western liberal tradition is pervasive in Australia and similar countries.
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