This is the tale of two Australian schools, both of which entered a video competition to win a $10,000 cash prize from US singer Katy Perry, intended to boost their performing arts program.
The first, Clyde Fenton school, is situated in the remote town of Katherine in Northern Territory. Many of its students come from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds and are confronted at home with alcoholism, violence, drug abuse and domestic violence.
Due to a lack of funding, Clyde Fenton does not have an extra-curricular performing arts program, although arts do make up some of the regular school curriculum.
The second – and eventual winner of the competition – is an independent girls’ college situated in the affluent Melbourne suburb of Toorak. Loreto Mandeville Hall college has an extensive performing arts program, along with dedicated performing arts and music centres and a 160-seat theatrette.
The two schools were among 300 nationwide to submit video entries to Perry’s This Is How We Do Our School competition, run in conjunction with Telstra. Entrants were asked to create a video demonstrating what makes their school “special, unique and inspirational” with entries judged on their creativity and the $10,000 prize awarded to fund the winning school’s performing arts department.
As the Age reported, Perry visited Loreto Mandeville on Thursday. There she told her fans: “There are four girls that we should all thank because they made the most adorable, sweet, innocent, full-of-life, full-of-joy video – and I picked that one.”
Was any undue influence placed on Perry over her choice? Telstra’s general loyalty manager, Fady Taouk, tells Guardian Australia every school that entered was given the same opportunity: “Loreto Mandeville Hall Toorak and the two runner-up schools were personally selected by Katy Perry,” he says.
Which means Perry awarded this cash prize to a school flush with financial power, elite connections and all the advantages that being based in Melbourne’s most affluent suburb afford. In short, she gave it to the school that needed the money the least.
The situation seems to illustrate something so many struggling Australian schools know to be true: power begets power, poverty begets poverty.
Val Wardley is Clyde Fenton’s administrator and worked on the school’s video entry for nearly two weeks. She says their school is “wonderful” and talks enthusiastically about the children and staff. But that the school faces a mountain of challenges – the kind that make the neatly clipped lawns, ornate halls, and bonny school hats of Loreto Mandeville seem like another world.
Every teacher’s highest priority at Clyde Fenton is meeting the basic needs of each student: that they’re safe, fed and clothed, so they can get on with the task of education. “We have a breakfast program and a Centrepay program where parents elect to provide government money so their kids have money to get recess and lunch. Plus, we provide shoes and socks if needed, and a pool of hats, so it evens all the bumps out,” Wardley explains over the phone.
Had her school won Perry’s prize, the money would have rejuvenated the school’s arts program, including the purchase of musical instruments and hiring a teacher to begin a drama program. Wardley says this without a hint of bitterness or jealousy that the prize, which would have made a world of difference to her school’s students and teachers, was instead given to another so privileged.
Perry had every right to pick whichever video she pleased, and her support of performing arts in Australian schools is to be commended. But perhaps a more judicious competition would have allowed for those schools in need to be given special consideration, of which Clyde Fenton was hardly alone.
After all, in Australia rooting for the underdog is how we do.
