industry & reform
It is wrong to tell Australian children that the country of their citizenship is racist to its core .
Privileged position
IPA program director takes aim at anti-racism program .
By Wade Zaglas
A
NSW Department of Education program that teaches students in Years 3 – 12 how to combat racism has been slammed by the director of the Foundations of Western Civilisation Program at the Institute of Public Affairs ( IPA ).
Dr Bella d ’ Abrera has described the ‘ Racism , No Way !’ program as being more harmful than the controversial Safe Schools program , warning that children are being “ indoctrinated with lessons in unconscious bias , white privilege and institutional racism ”.
In an opinion piece originally published in The Daily Telegraph , d ’ Abrera accused the program of turning the classroom into a “ highly politicised environment in which children are being told Australia ’ s history , as well as its institutions , are racist , and that white people should feel guilty about being white ”.
The IPA director also said that the lessons , which have been aligned to different learning areas in the NSW curriculum , will engender children with feelings of shame and hatred towards Australia and has called on NSW ’ s education minister to do “ everything in her power to protect children from this dangerous and divisive ideology ”.
“ It is wrong to tell Australian children that the country of their citizenship is racist to its core . Instead , they need to know that our society is formed on universal institutions and values of Western Civilisation which have helped shape the historical development of our society ,” d ’ Abrera said .
“ These institutions have given us rights and freedoms which apply to all , not just to certain groups .
“ Respect for the individual , equality of men and women under the law , abolition of slavery and freedom of speech , liberal democracy and equal claim to rights as citizens apply to all Australians , no matter their race .
“ Australian children should be taught to appreciate the universality of these values and traditions , rather than be turned into mini social justice activists who will grow up hating both themselves and Australia .”
One of the lessons , which is designed for Year 9 and 10 , involves a board game called “ privilege for sale ”. Students are divided into small groups and are asked to imagine they are living in a world in which they have no privileges .
The teacher distributes different amounts of fake money to the small groups , ranging from $ 300 to $ 1400 . The small groups can then buy certain “ privileges ” for $ 100 . Afterwards , the groups discuss the privileges they bought and why with the rest of the class .
The lesson aims to not only provide students with “ an understanding of privilege and oppression ”, but also “ provide an opportunity for learners to empathise , connect and reflect on the experience of having / not having privilege ”.
“ For some people this is a new experience because they ’ ve never thought of privilege in this way , or in a list form like this ,” the lesson plan explains .
“ It can sometimes be a deeply triggering or frustrating activity because perhaps you don ’ t have access to a lot of these privileges and seeing all of the privileges in a list can be challenging .
“ For others it can be deeply moving / emotional because they ’ ve never thought of all the privilege that they do have before . This can bring up feelings of guilt or even feelings of shame for taking things for granted .” d ’ Abrera takes issue with this activity , arguing that it can imbue children with feelings that they are “ bad people ”. She also believes teachers should be more concerned with teaching literacy and numeracy .
“ The ‘ privilege for sale activity ’ is based on the idea of white privilege which is not only demonstrably false , but also extremely racist , because it tells white children that they are bad people because of the colour of their skin ,” d ’ Abrera told news . com . au .
“ Children need to be taught the basics of literacy and numeracy by their teachers , not turned into mini social justice activists who will grow up hating Australia because they believe it ’ s racist .” ■
14 | educationreview . com . au