Page 2563 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 2 July 2008
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or sexual nature, to allow parents to assess whether they want to involve their children in the education or activity in question. This is not an onerous requirement, and it does not prevent public schools from teaching anything that they currently teach. So long as parents consent, this requirement can be satisfied if schools plan ahead and give parents information on what they propose to teach. And of course if a parent does not consent, then this only goes to demonstrate that they do not want their child exposed to the particular education or activity in question.
In order to ensure that teachers are able to respond to students’ questions and to engage in anticipated topics of discussion, the bill also includes an exemption clause in section 29A (2). This exemption allows public schools to engage children in education of a political or sexual nature where the matter arises in connection with some other matter for which informed parental consent is not required or when the matter arises in response to a question from a student that has not been solicited by the school. Exemption also requires that the matter be one which the school could not reasonably have anticipated would arise and for which it is not practical to obtain informed parental consent. So this bill has real-world appreciation in terms of its parameters.
The exemption requires that the education or information given to students is capable of being understood and critically assessed by the student, given the student’s age, intelligence and maturity. This subsection will allow teachers to deal with students’ questions and other legitimate but unanticipated areas of discussion without subverting the intention of the bill.
The bill also allows parents and students to enforce these protections by bringing an action against a public school for breach of the statutory duty imposed by the bill. This action may be for an injunction or for damages, including exemplary damages where applicable. This enforcement mechanism gives direct control to parents and ensures that their wishes are respected.
Finally, the bill also adds a requirement for student reports to include information on matters requiring informed parental consent under section 29A. This gives parents follow-up information after the teaching semester has concluded, to see that the school has complied with the statutory duty.
I have said that we have a problem with political correctness in public schools which in some cases verges on indoctrination. For example, I have recently been shown some stickers given out to 8 and 9-year-old children at a recent environmental activity run by an ACT government primary school. One of the stickers advertises a sporting goods firm that takes a so-called fair trade approach to their business, an approach which is hostile to current international trade laws. The sticker says:
HAVE YOU GOT THE BALLS TO PLAY FAIR? Etiko fair trade. Join the Revolution.
This is going to 8 and 9-year-old children and it troubles me. It then directs them to a website which complains that international trade “can be used to increase corporate profits without benefit to the wider community” and that the current international trade practices are “a major cause of continuing world poverty”. This of course has
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