An intensifying grab for our children by the Left

When an opponent declares, "I will not come over to your side," I calmly say, "Your child belongs to us already...What are you? You will pass on. Your descendants, however, now stand in the new camp. In a short time they will know nothing else but this new community." -- Adolf Hitler

Kevin Donnelly

Given the re-emergence of the Safe Schools program, a NSW prim­ary school putting on a Stolen Generations play where children dress as nuns and victimise Aboriginal children, and the Australian Education Union’s campaign to promote the LGBTI Wear it Purple Day, there’s no doubt that the cultural left now dominates our education system.

The overwhelming majority of parents send their children to school to learn the basics, to socialise with other students and to acquir­e the knowledge and skills to be good citizens and to be better prepared for further study or the workforce.

But the cultural left’s Australian Education Union and like-minded bureaucrats and academ­ics are using the education system and schools to radically reshape society by indoctrinating students with Marxist-inspired, politically correct ideologies.

The Safe Schools program indoctr­inates children with the belief­ that gender and sexuality are fluid and limitless, and Roz Ward — who helped design the program — argues, “it will only be through a revitalised class struggle and revolutionary change that we can hope for the liberation of LGBTI people”.

Like the Safe Schools program, those organising the Wear it Purple­ Day are committed to ­“ensuring diverse expressions of sex, sexuality and gender” and it should not surprise that the organisers actively support the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.

This Friday has been designated Wear it Purple Day and the NSW Teachers Federation is telling schools they should link “the key ideas of Wear It Purple Day to broader lessons on diversity and difference, to foster safe and supportive­ environments. The event embraces and celebrates sexuality, sex and gender diversity”.

Further evidence of the Australian Education Union’s politically correct ideology is its response to the same-sex marriage postal survey­. The president of the AEU, Correna Haythorpe, argues: “The AEU is strongly opposed to the federal government’s approach, which is more about satisfying the bigotry of sections of the Liberal Party, rather than the interests or will of the community.”

Like so many of the cultural-left elites dominating the public and political debate, the AEU and Ms Haythorpe believe that anyone who disagrees is a bigot and that the people, instead of expressing their views and opinions as is their democratic right, must be silenced­.

And it’s been happening for years. In 1983 Joan Kirner, the one-time Victorian education minister and premier, argued at a Fabian Society conference that education “has to be part of the socialist struggle for equality, participat­ion and social change rather than an instrument of the capitalist system”.

The AEU’s 2003 policy on gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people argues that: “Sexuality should be included in all curriculum relating to health and personal development. Homosex­ual­ity and bisexuality need to be normalised and materials need to be developed which will help to combat homophobia.”

As noted, the Australian Education Union has a long history of cultural-left political activism and promoting left-wing causes such as same-sex marriage, gender fluid­ity and a secular curriculum that undermines the value of Western culture by promoting diversit­y and difference — the new code for multiculturalism.

Since the late 70s and early 80s, the left-wing teacher union has ­argued that Australian society is riven with inequality and injustice and that the school curriculum must be used to promote its politic­ally correct views about global­ warming, the evils of capit­alism, that men are misogynist and sexist, and that there’s nothing beneficial about meritocracy and competition.

Such is the success of the AEU to take control of the school ­curriculum that a past president of the union argues that “we have succeeded in influencing curriculum development in schools, education departments and univer­sities. The conservatives have a lot to do to undo the progressive curriculum­”.

Examples of the cultural-left’s takeover of the curriculum include the fact that students are now taught that gender and sexuality are “social constructions” that promote “unequal power relationships” between boys and girls, and that those who believe in tradit­ional marriage are guilty of ­“hetero-normativity”.

While the AEU and like-minded academi­cs argue against schools teaching about Christianity, or having formal religious instruction­ classes, they are happy to pressure schools to worship the Gaia by including Al Gore’s DVDs in the curriculum.

There is an alternative to Marxist-inspired indoctrination, if polit­icians and education bureaucrats have the courage to act. Education should never be confused with indoctrination and the curriculum must be impartial and balanced.

The school curriculum should also teach students the importance of civility, humility and a commitment to being rational, honest and ethical in their behaviour and relationships with others.

Students must be taught the strengths and benefits of Western civilisation, as well as the flaws and weaknesses, and that to be fully and properly educated they need to be familiar with what the Victorian Blackburn report describes as “our best validated knowledge and artistic achievements”.

SOURCE






Preschools and libraries to be forced to vet all books and toys to ensure play spaces are 'gender equitable' and don't stereotype boys and girls

Darebin is run by Green Left fanatics who seem to disagree with just about all normal things

A guide book intended to quash gender stereotypes picked up by children in play areas has been produced by the Melbourne's Darebin City Council.

The Creating Gender Equity in the Early Years guide sets out to help children's services monitor gender equality across resources including books, toys and posters, The Australian reported.

The guide will encourage preschools, childcare centres and libraries to audit tools that may play a part in unbalanced gender roles following research violence against women is connected to gender inequality,  

'It is important to not only think about who is where and how often, but are they doing there?' the guide states.

'What are the storylines of their play telling you about what the children think are the normal roles for women and men?' 

Darebin Council's preventing violence against women officer Teneille Summers said research reflects the link between family violence and gender equality. 

'If girls are interested in playing with dolls, that's fine, as long as we're not preventing them from exploring other interests as well,' Ms Summers said.

She believes it is about creating opportunities for both sex in all areas of the play corners.

'I think early years educators are considering a lot of this ­already but they wouldn't necessarily think about it as preventing family violence. But that is what they are doing.'

SOURCE





Women only have to complete FOUR push-ups to pass Australian Army fitness test as part of effort to double the number of female troops

Reducing physical standards for our tropops has got to be disastrous.  Do we want a powder-puff army?

Women have to finish just four push-ups in order to pass the Australian Army fitness test, as part of an effort to double the number of female troops. The initial test consists of just four push-ups and 20 sit-ups, The Daily Telegraph reported.

If women pass the test they are sent off on a seven-week pre-conditioning course, where they prepare for the formal Army recruit course and more rigorous tests.

After the seven weeks of training they need to complete eight push-ups and 45 sit-ups in order to start proper training.

The fitness tests were created with increased female membership in mind, after it was revealed the Australian Army wanted to double its female intake.

As part of the push for more female recruits, women needed to promise two years while men needed to give at least six years' service once they signed up in the infantry or artillery.

Male army recruits were reportedly upset the expectations for men and women varied so greatly.

Less than one in eight women who try out for a combat position in the military successfully makes it, the publication reported.

When former combat engineer Rod McGarvie studied the percentage of females in defense forces across the world, he found almost none had more than 15 per cent. 'Once you try and artificially push beyond that level you start to negatively impact on your resources,' he told the publication.

SOURCE






ABC online ignores Muslim lawyer Haset Sali’s burka ban support

The story about a well-known Muslim’s support of senator Pauline Hanson’s plans for a burka ban was so counterintuitive to make it a hit on social media.

But more than 2000 shares on Facebook was not enough to see the story picked up by the ABC’s online news site.

On Friday, Haset Sali, a Muslim lawyer and businessman, was interviewed on ABC Sunshine Coast local radio in Queensland.

Mr Sali, described by ABC Sunshine Coast as a “prominent Australian Muslim”, told presenter Jon Coghill in an interview that he supported Senator Hanson’s push to ban the burka.

A former president of the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils and one of its founders, Mr Sali told the ABC that the Koran did not require women to cover their faces.

“I don’t often applaud Pauline Hanson — whether it’s a stunt or an initiative to highlight something that’s unnecessary baggage that has been dumped in with Islam — (but) it’s about time the myth of the burka being Islamic dress was blown out of the water,” he told the ABC.

“The sooner Muslim women get rid of this hideous garb the better.”

But that, as far as the ABC was concerned, was that. Although the corporation published online reaction to Senator Hanson’s speech from Muslim leaders and community members, it didn’t publish Mr Sali’s comments.

A Facebook post by ABC Radio Sunshine Coast about the interview went viral, however, with 1400 likes, 245 comments and 2000 shares, including a share to the Facebook page of Attorney-General George Brandis, who gave a strong speech in the Senate attacking Senator Hanson’s decision to wear a burka in the chamber.

Mr Sali said the ABC told him that the story did very well, but “didn’t make it online”. “Apparently it was not accepted for online publication,” he said. “I am not going to speculate as to why it didn’t go online as I wasn’t there when the decision was made.

“Nothing surprises me. Unfortunately there is an element of people in the media who don’t want to hear the good news about Islam. They just want to bury it.”

Mr Sali has appeared on ABC Sunshine Coast several times, including when he was board chairman of fruit company SPC, as well as his project to rewrite the Koran. And he is no stranger to the wider ABC: appearing on Radio National Breakfast, 7.30, The World Today and Lateline.

Last week, ABC chairman Justin Milne defended the organisation after an attack by Senator Hanson’s One Nation party that demanded the words “fair and balanced” be included in the ABC charter. Mr Milne responded that more than 85 per cent of Australians trusted the ABC above all other media businesses.

Presenter Coghill joined the ABC after a 20-year-career as a drummer with the rock group Powderfinger. He gained a degree in international relations and politics and served an internship under the guidance of news journalists Bruce Atkinson and Jo Skinner. The Australian was unable to contact him.

SOURCE





Antisemitic ABC shares map of the Middle East but fails to label Israel - as Jewish leader accuses broadcaster of doing 'the dirty work for Islamists'

No mystery that socialists once again dislike Jews.  Karl Marx didn't like Jews, even though he was one.  See his "Zur Judenfrage" essay

ABC News Australia have been called out for running a story with a map of the Middle East which didn't include Israel.

The image of the map aired on Thursday night and labeled all surrounding countries but excluded Israel.

Australian Jewish leader Avi Yemini spotted the oversight and believes the inconsideration was not accidental.

Mr Yemini believes the exclusion was to 'appeal to the Jew-hating crowd,' he told Daily Mail Australia.

In a post on Facebook the Israeli activist uploaded a photo of the map as it appeared on television screens.

'Last night ABC wiped Israel off their map. They're literally doing the Islamists dirty work for them,' he wrote to his near 80,000 followers.

In just over 24 hours the post gathered more than 800 reactions and was commented on by almost 100 people.

Mr Yemini told Daily Mail there is no place in Australian society 'to question or deny Israel's right to exist.'

The pro-Israel figure believes it was a deliberate act to suit the ABC's current viewers and a ploy to attract more.

'The time has come for the ABC to stop its constant attacks on one of our closest allies and the only real democracy in the Middle East, Israel.

'This is yet another great example of why we should defund the ABC immediately,' he said.

SOURCE

Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).    For a daily critique of Leftist activities,  see DISSECTING LEFTISM.  To keep up with attacks on free speech see Tongue Tied. Also, don't forget your daily roundup  of pro-environment but anti-Greenie  news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH .  Email me  here