I was born into a teaching family.
My father and his three siblings were all school principals. When they were young, the boys helped their parents operate the struggling family farm, prompting grandmother Annie to decree: "life on the land is too tough - all of my children will become teachers."
I undertook my first practice teaching experience under the supervision of my father, Jim Tierney. In the early 1970s, before he retired and handed the education baton onto me, he observed: "education progresses in fits and fads."
The current national curriculum draft proposals from the AustralianCurriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) are prime examples of the latest fad.
Unfortunately, the proposed changes seem to be firmly in the grip of the "woke warriors" who have already significantly influenced what is and is not taught in our universities.
If these draft proposals are fully implemented, this ideology will spread across the entire Australian school curriculum.
Recently, cartoonist Johannes Leak nailed the proposed school education changes with his "decluttering the curriculum" cartoon. This depicts a tractor scoop dumping into a skip: classic texts, Shakespeare's bust, the Parthenon, the Bible, the Statue of Liberty and the Mona Lisa. A particular target of the revised curriculum seems to be European heritage.
It reminds me of the John Cleese character Reg in the film The Life of Brian. In response to his question, "what have the Romans ever done for us," his followers tell him. Reg replies, "All right, but apart from education, public order, irrigation, roads, sanitation and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?"
Greg Paul, from Subiaco WA, provided a tongue-in-cheek update, "It makes sense to drop Investigating the Ancient Past, from the year seven curriculum. I mean, what did the Egyptians, Persians, Greeks and Romans ever contribute to the world?" Unfortunately, if the "woke" people have their way, future generations may never know.
In the proposed "decluttering" of the curriculum, humanities bear the brunt. There seems to be no room to retain the study of the cultural heritage of the majority of our population, including the study of classical civilisations and the canon of western literature.
The suggested increased emphasis on the history and perspectives of our First Nations people is welcome. Still, as our greatest historian, Professor Geoffrey Blainey, has said, "it should not come at the expense of the teaching of how Australia came to be a free, liberal democracy".
He is supported by The Institute of Public Affairs' Dr Bella D'Abrera, who notes: "the proposals overall would remove all references to Christianity, Ancient Greece and the freedoms given to us through the values and institutions of western civilisations".
When the proposed national curriculum changes were released this month, the media erupted in outrage with front-page headlines, editorials and opinion pieces universally condemning the plan. For example, national syllabus fails the key test, woke lessons are a cruel joke, a blueprint for a narrower more ideological education and how the west was airbrushed from history.
One highly experienced teacher, Terry Birchley, from Bundaberg in Queensland, wrote in despair, "After more than 50 years of railing against curriculum restructures, I am going to pass on this one. Forgive me, but my store of professional outrage is no longer adequate to the task".
Fortunately, ACARA does not have the final say.
This national curriculum body was established by the federal, state and territory governments, and their education ministers have to sign off on any proposed changes. It is not looking good for the proposed woke curriculum.
The federal Minister for Education, Alan Tudge, has provided this warning to ACARA: "we live in one of the most prosperous and egalitarian societies in the world, and children should develop an understanding of how this came about. If we diminish this understanding, we are less likely to protect and defend it".
Professor Kenneth Wiltshire from the University of Queensland goes further in his opposition to this push to crunch the humanities and calls for the sacking of ACARA. His criticism of the proposed school curriculum changes is scathing: "We will create a nation of cretins awash in a world where they have no understanding of the history of civilisation, human thought, philosophy, values or principles which have produced lessons to be acknowledged by all societies."
The proposed national curriculum changes are open for public comment.
You have until July 8 on the ACARA website to have your say and help prevent the onset of a new "dark age" in our schools.
