The Jesuits used to say, “Give me a child until seven and I will show you the man.” I would answer, not if she was a girl. Of course, Christianity as a patriarchal hegemony never rated women. Plus, many cloistered brethren preferred young boys and still do so today. It amazes me that humanity still allows religious schools to educate our children. Quite apart from the legions of paedophile priests and brothers who have sexually abused school children, it strikes me as absurd that we perpetuate the myths and fictions inherent in religions. Education matters: Are we baking in regressive tendencies?
The Prevalence Of Religious Schools In Australia
Yes, we are. If you take impressionable kids and place them within institutions based on unscientific Bronze Age biblical texts what do you think is going to happen. They are going to be indoctrinated by rote learning and repetitious inculcation. Christianity perpetuates belief in invisible supernatural entities like Gods and angels. Christianity at its core is deeply troubling in its attitude toward the place of women in our societies. Many Christian faiths deny women as ministers and leading lights within their organisations. They are ultimately relegated to the role of second class citizens, which is at odds with the progressive social norms of today.
I have met many confused and angry teenagers and young adults who attended religious schools in this country.
“Approximately 30% of all schools in Australia are affiliated with a religion, or 94% of private schools.
Research from the Centre For Independent Studies compared this proportion of religious schools in Australia to countries such as Sweden (2% of schools are religious), the US (10% of all schools), and the Netherlands (60% of all schools).”
Constitutionally, Australia is committed to secularism. However, the way in which this translates to schools, and the inclusion or exclusion of religion in schools, is slippery.
Religion and religious instruction is taken up differently across states and territories. This is influenced by the state political party, and fluctuates across voting periods. This often results in rapid changes to policy, and volatility.”
“the majority of students were enrolled in government schools (64.5%), followed by Catholic schools (19.7%) and independent schools (15.9%).”
Educational Traditions & The Religious Element
Tradition is a powerful magic. Parents, often, want their kids to have the same educational experience as themselves. Similarly, circumcised fathers, often, want their sons to get the snip the same. Memory, is, of course, an unreliable record, as we all tend to rewrite history somewhat to gloss over the bad stuff and focus on the good bits. A religious schooling, also, by its very nature conditions belief systems in its participants. This is, after all, why religious schools set up shop in the first place. Schools, of all persuasions, are designed to promote shared values and to inculcate an acceptable morality. Producing good boys and girls who know their reading, writing, and arithmetic is what education is all about.
Education Policy Fight Damaged Progressive Australia
Australia had a big split in its centre left political party in the second half of the 20C. The Labor Party was electorally denuded over the fight around religious schools vs a universal state school system. The DLP was formed by Bob Santamaria and the Catholics who deserted the ALP over the education policy fight. This split made the decade’s long reign of Menzies and his lacklustre Liberal/National federal government possible. Education and private schools, and religious schools in particular, is a hot topic downunder. These days, private schools have become a mark of the two speed economy, with the haves sending their kids to private schools and the have nots largely sticking with government run schools. The LNP still see this divisive issue as a big vote winner for them and have ensured generous funding for private schools and their continued existence.
Some in Labor would love to fix the school system by increasing funding to state schools, as they lag behind the private schools in this regard.
Segregated Schooling In America
The United States has a largely segregated school system.
“The U.S. student body is more diverse than ever before. Nevertheless, public schools remain highly segregated along racial, ethnic and socioeconomic lines. That’s according to a report released Thursday by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO). More than a third of students (about 18.5 million of them) attended a predominantly same-race/ethnicity school during the 2020-21 school year, the report finds. And 14% of students attended schools where almost all of the student body was of a single race/ethnicity.
Segregation has historically been associated with the Jim Crow laws of the South. But the report finds that, in the 2020-21 school year, the highest percentage of schools serving a predominantly single-race/ethnicity student population – whether mostly white, mostly Hispanic or mostly Black etc. – were in the Northeast and the Midwest.”
Race remains a major social issue in America because of the segregation within their schools. If you separate kids through their formative years how on earth are they going to integrate. White schools are much better funded and have better teachers of course. Defunding African Americans has been a socially engineered outcome and is not the result of any accident. White parents have fought segregation efforts by the federal government over decades. It is sometimes difficult to grasp the level of entrenched racism in the United States. A cursory perusal of the political history of America, since the Civil War and the emancipation of slavery, reveals concerted efforts by political parties to deny African Americans parity. Whites have been repeatedly warned that any economic policies designed to help blacks would come out of their pockets.
These kinds of things have been associated with socialism and America’s great fear of communism. Thus, we have the centuries old disparity between black and white America.
“The median wealth gap in America—the difference between the middle Black household and the middle White household—is around $164,000. The average wealth gap? Around $840,000. Using that as the measure, the researchers found it would take $7.5 trillion to halve the wealth gap, and $15 trillion to eliminate it.
In 1989, Congressman John Conyers, Jr., of Michigan introduced a bill to study reparations for African-Americans for centuries of slavery, segregation, and racial injustice. He got just 24 cosponsors. Similar bills have been introduced in every Congress since then, but none has made it to a House vote.”
Time For Science Over Bad Faith In School’s Policy
Schooling cements belief systems and age old attitudes about things. Science has ruled the roost for centuries now but we still make room for the unscientific beliefs of religious adherents. It is like we take two steps forward and one back in terms of progressing beyond unhelpful tribal customs. Demonising LGBTQIA people and telling them that they are going to go to hell is no longer acceptable behaviour in Australia. However, we still allow schools that promulgate such beliefs directly and indirectly to exist. We even have religiously bigoted individuals demanding their rights to behave in prejudicial ways toward those that do not share their faith.
Tolerating the intolerant can only prolong such outdated socially detrimental behaviour. Not all traditions are founded on concepts of equality and fairness.
Anti-Woke & The Radical Right Wing Populists
Right wing groups are organising around populist causes like anti-woke feelings in the general community, particularly among older members. The anti-woke thing and why it has become a lightning rod for radical populism fascinates me. Why are those in the dominant cohort so sensitive about inclusivity and diversity? It seems to me that it is merely based on intransigence and downright selfishness. Older white folk who are so used to their sense of entitlement that the very idea of any change in the established order irritates them. I suspect that they are actually upset about being shafted economically by their own kind and taking their frustrations out on those on the fringes of society. Weak people like to punch down upon weaker folk.
Downward envy is very popular in Australia – I have said they should make it an Olympic sport here.
Authoritarianism & Fascism On The Rise
Authoritarianism and fascism are raising their ugly heads once again. The conservative mainstream media in Australia use divisive social media as click bait to rile up older Australians. Videos about juvenile delinquents stealing cars are posted disproportionately to give the impression that there is some sort of crime wave occurring. News Corp and Peter Dutton are inflammatory agents hell bent on sowing insecurity and alarmism. Ideological bullying is on the menu over the war in Gaza with its pro-Israeli ranting. China is another cause for beating the drums of war. The name of the game is fear mongering. These anxiety promoting stratagems are political and they hope to drive voters to the authoritarian side. Private wealth becomes more important, as people fear for themselves and their families. The community concern for the public good gets overshadowed by self-centred survivalist inclinations. The thing about authoritarian governments is that they are invariably crap at running the country. All that dictatorial BS is usually accompanied by corruption and nepotism. If you vote for candidates and parties on the basis of ideological and cultural values you end up getting screwed economically. Fascists are always funded by big business and big business is all about increasing profitability and decreasing opposition like union power.
Australia has had no growth in wages for decades thanks to the neoliberal policies of conservative governments. Voters are susceptible to narratives about the dangers of socialism and unions, when they have been shafted by business for years.
In Australia and the US there are huge amounts of concentrated corporate power over markets and little competition. Consumers have lost their bargaining power and corporations can price set. This is why we have price gouging driving inflation in our economies. Governments have done nothing about this, the ACCC has been missing in action, when their remit is to keep competition in markets. It is a mixture of neoliberal ‘hands off’ policies and corruption by omission. Governments have become all mouth and no action. They stand around and make speeches but do bugger all when push comes to shove. Letting the market have its head has put us where we are in the midst of a housing crisis with record unaffordable rents around the nation.
The neglect of social housing by successive governments is appalling. It is a dereliction of duty. People with kids are living in tents – what kind of Australia is this! These blowhard politicians should be held accountable. Of course, they never are.
Education matters: Are we baking in regressive tendencies? Progress is what we want, if the planet is to survive. Progressive ideas and governments are what will make this world a better place. There was no golden age back in the past – that is all BS. Things were very bad for lots of people in the past. The future is not a selective one for white skinned people. We are moving away from all that Nazi shit. If you are backing people like Trump and Dutton you are way off base. The Putin’s of this world are not going to win in the end. The Bronze Age was not a bucolic time. The Bible has no useful information pertaining to biology and medical science – it was written by parochial men who lived thousands of years ago. Their bigoted views are not going to help us meet the challenges of the future. Get real and take responsibility for your part in progressing us to a better and more inclusive tomorrow.
Robert Sudha Hamilton is the author of Money Matters: Navigating Credit, Debt, and Financial Freedom.
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