Put Cook back on curriculum, Canberra tells schools
Antimulticulture
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/07/06/wcook06.xml
By Mark Chipperfield in Sydney
July 6th, 2007
Two centuries after he dropped anchor in Botany Bay, Capt James Cook has
sailed into a political storm in Australia, the country he put on the
map.
Once honoured as an Australian hero, the 18th century English navigator
has been sidelined - even vilified - in recent decades in a nation
embarrassed by its bloody colonial past and the cruel treatment of its
indigenous population.
Captain James Cook: From hero to villain
But the Australian government vowed yesterday to reverse the tide of
political correctness that had swept Cook, who claimed Australia for the
British crown in 1770, and other European "colonisers" from the national
school curriculum.
Julie Bishop, the federal education minister, announced that there will
be a radical overhaul in the way history is taught in Australian
schools, which will see a return to the narrative form of history, free
of political interpretation.
"Every school child should know when and why Capt James Cook sailed
along the east coast of Australia, who was our first prime minister, why
we were involved in two world wars and how federation came about," she
said.
Miss Bishop accused politically correct educators of hijacking history,
presenting Australia's past through a filter of Marxist, feminist and
Green interpretations. "There is too much indoctrination and not enough
pivotal facts and dates," she said.
Her comments echoed the views of John Howard, the prime minister, who
recently called for a "root and branch" overhaul of the way history is
taught in Australian schools. He also wants to see pupils saluting the
Australian flag at morning assembly, a practice last seen in the 1960s.
[ed. Oh yes, the bad old days when work was plentiful, the economy booming,
crime was low and people had respect for the police and their parents...]
In some parts of Australia history is no longer taught as a separate
subject, but has been absorbed into a broader social studies programme.
In Western Australia, history is part of a programme called time,
continuity and change. In South Australia, it is part of the society and
environment studies unit.
Mr Howard believes that history should once again be a compulsory part
of the syllabus, for at least some of the time a child is at school.
Well-known for his love of British institutions - especially cricket,
the monarchy and the Westminster system of government - Mr Howard told a
radio audience that school children should have "some understanding" of
British and European history, the Enlightenment and the influence of
Christianity on Western civilisation.
[ed. Which means an end to the "year-zero" policy of schools of today...]
Although the education minister has commissioned two historians to map
out how history can return to the national curriculum, the Canberra
government faces stiff opposition from the Labour-controlled state
governments who run the schools.
The federal government, however, is likely to have the last word since
it funds the state school system.
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